The Christian Handbook - Gods Image Bearers

We are in a series called the Christian Handbook. We're looking at the fundamentals

of the Christian faith. We're looking at what the Christian believes, why we

believe it, and how to apply those beliefs. Last week, we spent

some time looking in the Book of Genesis and looked at how God, the

supreme and eternal being who exists outside of space and time, created the entire

universe and everything in it from nothing. And what we actually saw it last

week is that God is the ultimate artist. When he fashioned the universe,

he left his own mark upon it in such a way that the heavens and

the earth declare his glory. After God made the creatures that filled the earth

and the sea and the sky, he created one creature to be uniquely made

in his own image, mankind. So we're gonna be looking at the creation

of man kind and the doctrine within that. Let's pray. First, Lord

God, as I teach from your word today, help me to speak clearly

with courage, with authority, and with love and all humility. Help us

all to learn something new from your word, to apply it every day,

and do it all with faith in You. We praise you, Thank you,

amen. My sermon today is called God's Image Bearers, because that's what

Genesis teaches us that we are that God created mankind in his own image,

and we are to mirror that. So we're gonna look at what that means

for the Christian and how to actually do it. So we're gonna pick up

where we left off last week in verse twenty six of Genesis one. If

you have your bibles all along. If you don't have a Bible, we

usually have some there. They will be there in a minute. First six,

then God said, let us make mankind in our image, in our

likeness. And as I touched on last week, let us make man in

our image and our likeness. This affirms that God is triune father, Son,

Holy Spirit, so that they may rule over the fish of the sea

and the birds of the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,

and over all the creatures that move along the ground. Real quick.

This is God creating man uniquely separate from the rest of creation, and also

giving them authority and stewarding them the job of managing and looking over God's creation.

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God.

He created them male and female. He created them. God blessed them

and said to them, be fruitful and increase in number. Fill the earth,

and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea, and the

birds in the sky, and over every living creature that moves along the ground.

Then God said, I give you every seed bearing plant on the face

of the whole earth, and every tree that has fruit with seed in it.

They will be yours for food. Doesn't mean that's not all we can

eat. If you want to eat just seed bearing fruits and plants, more

power to you. Later on in the Bible, after the Fall, we

see that an animal was actually killed to clothe Adam and Eve in their shame

and nakedness. And then later on we see that it is appropriate to eat

animals. I'm just saying that, So carnivores rejoice, Okay, they will

be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth, and

all the birds in the sky, and all the creatures that move along the

ground, everything that has the breath of life in it, of every green

plant for food. And it was so God saw all that he had made,

and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was

morning. The sixth day. Let's go back to verse twenty six. We're

going to talk about being made in God's image, both image and likeness.

As we see here they both speak of resemblance. The word for image in

Hebrew is sell them. Tell him. I'm pretty sure I'm saying they're right.

T. S. E. L. E. M. You can

check me on it later. Sell him. It means something that is carved

or cut out in our likeness makes much the same point, and John Calvin

define it as this man resembles him and that in him God's glory is contemplated

as in a mirror. So we are the icons or the superstars, if

you will, of God's creation, made with a unique capacity to mirror and

reflect the character of God. Being made in the image of God can be

understood in a sense in which we are like God, though not God or

Gods ourselves. I want to make that very clear. We are not gods

ourselves. There's a lot of bad teachings out there these days where they attribute

God like attributes or that we are. It's called many Gods theology, and

it's very very very bad. Stay away from that. While He is the

creator and we are the creatures, and God transcends us in being, power

and glory. There's still a sense in which we are like him. So

lets look at a few similarities. The verses our mind, heart, and

will. Human beings reflect God's attributes of knowledge, goodness, faithfulness, truthfulness,

and many more. The next is our morality. We are moral beings

just as He is, though not supreme. Also, any morality that we

possess does not come from millions of years of evolution or societal changes or advances.

Our morality comes directly from God. Our third similarity, and these are

just this is just a short list. There are more, so don't think

we're just limited to this list. Right, spiritual awareness among God's creatures,

mankind alone worships God with a spiritual awareness. And Solomon of Serve This and

Ecclesiastes, Solomon said He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has

also set eternity in the human heart. Eternity in the human heart. That's

a need for something greater. That's a need for God, a need for

eternity with him. Yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning

to end. So we are like God in that we desire Him, that

we need him, but we are not God's ourselves because we cannot fathom what

He has done from beginning to end. These gifted capabilities at the time of

mankind's creation make it possible for us to mirror God's holiness, which was our

original purpose. Now, the term mankind, when using scriptures like Genesis and

we just read means humankind, both male and female, are made in the

image of God. After God made mankind in his own image. Verse twenty

seven makes a very important addition. So God created mankind in his own image,

in the image of God. He created them male and female. He

created them. Go moms or all women. It's a mother's day, okay,

male and female? He created them. This statement grounds the fundamental equality

between men and women in God's eyes. It grounds them equally between men and

women who equally bear the image of God. While the Bible notes differences between

men and women and grants headship in the home and church to men, we

should never think that this arrangement results from inferiority on the part of women before

God. If you want to know more about that, I taught a sermon

about a month a couple months ago about submission and marriage and I go into

further detail there. Most significantly, we see that while God made other creatures

male and female, Genesis one makes this point only of mankind, indicating that

the image of God should be seen not merely individualistically. I had to retype

that like four times make sure it's felt that right, not merely individualistically,

but communally just as God. Just as God himself exists within loving community as

father, son and Holy Spirit in eternal and perfect love, mankind bears God's

image in relationships of community and love. If we move ahead to Genesis two,

starting in verse eighteen, it reads, the Lord God said, it

is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper

suitable for him. Now, the Lord God had formed out of the ground

all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them

to the man to see what he would name them. And whatever the man

called each living creature, that was his name. So the man gave names

to all the livestock, the birds in the sky, and all the wild

animals. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So from the beginning,

God knew that it was not good for man to be alone, and

one of his other creations that were already existing at the time. Was not

a good fit. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a

deep sleep, and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's

ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made

a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he

brought her to the man. The man said, this is now bone of

my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, for

she was taken out of man. That is why a man leaves his father

and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

So we see in the original creation, God recognized it was not good for

man to be alone. Man needed a helper, and the suitable helper was

a woman, and not just a woman a wife. Later on, go

back to the sorry I made you move ahead, driver, That was I

didn't mean the confuser there. I'm going off script here. Later on,

that is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his

wife and they become one flesh. We're talking about sex, people, all

right. It's union in marriage. Sex in marriage, man and woman are

united into one flesh now in our current societal state. This verse also brings

up a big talking point of transgenderism, and I would be remiss not to

speak about it, and I would ask you all to listen to what I

have to say and ponder what we've just read with humility and patience and also

trusting God's word. Transgender Transgenderism, which I would argue is a cultural trend

and an incredibly harmful one, is obviously massively complex, touching on things like

genetics, fashion, medicine, law, education, entertainment, athletics, religious

liberty. As Christians, we need to think through and speak to all these

things. We also need to be patiently, loving, counseling, and befriending

those who feel that their identity as male and female contradicts their assigned biological sex.

In Genesis five, verse one through two, it says, this is

the written account of Adam's family line. When God created mankind, he made

them in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and

bless them, and he named them mankind when they were created. No matter

your own excuse me, no matter our own feelings or confusion, we should

act in accordance with the biological reality of God's good design, and transgenderism fall

short of the glory of God and is not the way to walk in obedience

to Christ. The Bible knows no other gender categories besides male and female.

While men and women in scripture and still today may express their masculinity or femininity

in a wonderful diversity of ways, Scripture still operates with the binary categories of

men and women. You are one or the other. The Biblical understanding of

male and female is more than just an assumption written on the pages of Scripture.

We saw from Genesis one and two that the categories of male and female

are part of God's design for humanity, and God depicts the existence of a

man and a woman as essential to his creation plan. Kevin DeJong wrote,

far from being a mere cultural construct, God depicts the existence of a man

and a woman as essential to his creational plan. The two are neither identical

nor interchangeable. Dividing the human race into two genders, male and female,

one or the other, not both, and not one then the other,

is not the invention of victorian prudes or patriarchal oaths. It was God's idea.

Also, all human beings are created in the image of God and possess

dignity and significance, and we should treat them as such. In James three,

verse nine, with the tongue we praise our Lord and Father. I

already hear snickering, so I'm going to call it out. Be a fig,

Newton. This verse talks about you can't be salt and freshwater at the

same time. You'll get it. It's funny. With the tongue we praise

our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings who have been

made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing my

brothers and sisters. This should not be. Can both freshwater and saltwater flow

from the same spring, my brothers and sisters. Can a fig tree bear

olives or a grape vine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce freshwater?

What this is telling us? And like I said, here be a

fig. You can't be a fig and in olive. If you declare that

you are a Christian. Yes, we need to speak the truth, and

we need to speak it in love and in patience. Because every person alive

today, every person ever alive and dead. I'm off track. Any person

has significance and dignity. Don't laugh at me, wife, All right,

where was I? Yeah? Yeah, all person. As Christians, we

should treat all people with love, respect and appreciation as image bearers, while

directing them to the truth of scripture and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So

all that being said, how do we enact this doctrine? I say the

first step is this knowledge of God and knowledge of one's self. It's easy

to have a negative response when reading this because we're prone to focus on our

own sinfulness, but we need to remind ourselves of our original state of integrity.

At the time of creation. Human nature was good, as we saw

at the end of at the end of Creation's sixth day. Sixth day of

creation, God called it very good. Our current fallen condition, which Pastor

Greig's gonna talk about more next week, and I'm not going to say anything

else because I don't want to take away from his time. Our fallen condition

is not the way we are supposed to be. John Calvin closely tied the

knowledge of God with the knowledge of one's self. He wrote, nearly all

the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound. Wisdom

consists of two parts, the knowledge of God and of oneself and of ourselves.

In Psalm one nine thirteen through sixteen, where you created my inmost being,

you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I

am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full

well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the

secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written

in your book before one of them came to be. So it is good

to recognize where we come from. It's good to recognize that we are image

bearers, but to do it in humility. Here's why this is important.

By considering ourselves, we marvel at God's amazing creation and grasp our fundamental identity,

which is that we are image bearers of God, more like Him than

any other created being. Our fundamental identity is not that of sinfulness, that

of a but that of a divine image bearer. That's our fundamental identity.

Are we sinners? Yes? Do we need a savior? I don't have

a number big enough for it. Yes, But our fundamental identity is that

we are image bearers of God. One point on this, we cannot know.

One giant point on this, we cannot know God without first being aware

of ourselves, and we cannot accurately know ourselves without first knowing God. Give

you a second to write that giant point down, You got that, cardie?

Okay. Self knowledge leads us to knowledge of God, which in turn

gives us a higher and fuller understanding of ourselves. Our sense of creatureliness should

drive our thinking back to the Creator. We cannot contemplate God or anything else

outside of ourselves until we are first aware of ourselves. Yet we cannot grasp

the meaning of self until we fully understand ourselves in relationship to God. So

let's look at why our relationship, why our relationship to God is so vital

to mankind. And first, here's what a life looks like without relationship to

God. A meaningless origin with a meaningless destiny, which equals a meaningless life.

Without relationship to God, we have a meaningless origin, a meaningless destiny,

equally a meaningless life. To have a meaningless life would mean to have

a life of insignificance. It's like having no value or worth. The very

meaning of our lives is at stake. Our dignity is on the line.

If human beings are considered alone apart from relationship to God, then they remain

alone and insignificant. If we are not creatures, made by, for and

related to God, then we are merely cosmic accidents. Our origin is insignificant

and our destiny equally insignificant. Our C. Sprowl wrote, if we emerge

from the slime by accident and finally disintegrate into a void or abyss of nothingness,

then we live our lives between two poles of absolute nothingness. We are

peeled zeros strict naked of dignity and worth. To assign dignity to a human

being temporarily between those two poles of meaninglessness origin and meaningless destiny is to indulge

ourselves in pure, unvarnished sentiment, and we tease ourselves with self delusion.

This is why it's so important for the creature us to have knowledge of ourselves

and knowledge of God. Without that knowledge, meaningless origin destiny in a meaningless

life. Alternatively, this is what life looks like in relationship to God.

According to original creation. We have a purposive origin, a purposive destiny,

equally a meaningful life. Our origin, our destiny, and our purpose are

tied to God. The only ultimate meaning we can have must be seen through

a theological lens and understood with scripture. The question we must ask was first

asked by the Psalmist. This is Psalm eight, verses three through five.

He wrote, when I look at the heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars which you have set in place? What is

man that you are mindful of him? And the son of Man that you

care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly

beings and crowned him with glory and honor. So, with all that being

said, what is Nope? I missed something? My apologies. Here we

go through his creation of humanity in his image. God designed people to reflect

and represent Him. This prompts us to understand our identity and purpose in this

world as image bearers. So how do we mirror God as image bearers?

How do we understand our identity and purpose in this world? We follow Jesus,

That's how we mirror God. In Colossians Chapter one, verse fifteen Paul

wrote, the Sun is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over

all creation. For in him all things were created, things in heaven and

on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers, or rulers or

authorities, all things have been created through him and for him. He is

before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is

the head of the body of the Church. He is the beginning and the

firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him and through

him, to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on the earth or

things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your own minds because of

your evil behavior. But now He has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through

death, to present you wholly in His sight, without blemish and free from

accusation. If you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do

not move from the hope held out in the Gospel. This is the gospel

that you heard, and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven and

of which I, Paul, have become a servant. By looking to and

relying on Jesus, we mirror God's image. In John fourteen Veres five through

eleven, the disciple Thomas said to Jesus, Lord, we don't know where

you are going, so how can we know the way? Jesus answered,

I am the Way and the truth and the life. No one comes to

the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know

my Father as well. From now on. You do know him and have

seen him. Philip said, Lord, show us the Father, and that

will be enough for us. Jesus answered, don't you know me, Philip,

even after I've been among you such a long time. Anyone who has

seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the

Father. Don't you believe that I am in the Father and that the Father

is in me. The words I say to you, I do not speak

on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father living in me who

is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the

Father and the Father is in me, or at least believe on the evidence

of the works themselves. So we saw on Collossians. By looking to and

relying on Jesus, we mirror God's image, and what we see in these

verses in John is that by looking to Jesus, we look to our creator.

Greg R. Allison, in writing about Jesus, said, Jesus is

the perfect image of God. So we can know both who God is and

what God's design is for us by knowing Jesus's character, relationships, and activities

from scripture. So what does that tell us? We need to read our

Bibles as often as we can, and when you feel like you've read it

enough, read some more, right, Cartie, Yeah, I get the

band to come up. I'm going to go through four more verses before I

close. And what these verses focus on is looking to Jesus, looking to

Jesus to know how to be image bearers. These verses, I want to

say first, these verses are for everyone, but they're a directive to the

Christian. So before I read these, I just want to say that we're

going to have a time for prayer during our closing song. If you have

not made Jesus Lord of your life, and you feel the Holy Spirit is

bringing you into the fold, into the family, don't hesitate. Please come

receive prayer from myself one of the other elders. I mentioned earlier that the

world is in a fallen state. We are not the way God created us

to be. We need a savior. The Bible teaches us that if we

confess with our mouth and believe in our hearts that Jesus is Lord, we

will be saved. He is faithful and just to forgive us our transgressions.

Jesus paid the sin debt for each and every person. It's available to each

and every person. His atonement is sufficient for all who believe in him.

I'll just say that. So let's read these verses for the children of God.

But who all who? But to all who did receive him, who

believed in his name. He gave the right to become children of God,

to all who believe in him. We are children of God. Not only

are we created by him. Not only are we made in his image,

we are adopted into His family when we believe in his name. The next

verse and first Corinthians. And just as we have been born the image of

the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.

Earthly man being Adam, the heavenly man being Jesus, or the second Adam,

when we are born again, we are given that heavenly image and second

Corinthians. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the

Lord is there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate

the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image, with ever increasing glory

which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. First John three,

verse two. This is when the transformation is complete. Dear friends, Now

we are children of God, and what and what we will be has not

yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall

be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who

have this hope in him purify themselves just as He is pure. When humanity

fell, something terrible happened. The image of God Us was severely tarnished.

Our ability to mirror his holiness was greatly affected, so that now the mirror

is fogged. The fall, however, did not destroy our humanity. Though

our ability to reflect God's holiness was lost in the fall, we are still

human. We still have a mind, a heart, and a will.

We still bear the mark of our creator upon ourselves. The restoration of the

fullness of the image of God in human beings is accomplished by Christ. I'm

going to close with Hebrews Chapter one, verse three. The sun is the

radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things

by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat

down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. If there's anything I

want you guys to ponder on after service is over, I think it'd be

this verse. When I asked a question about how how do we be and

live as image bearers of God? We look to Jesus. He's the exact

representation of his being. Jesus is the image of what we were when we

were first created. When God created mankind, that was the pure complete image.

Would you please stand at your feet. We're going to move on to

a time of response. As I mentioned earlier, we have We're going to

be I'm going to be available and other elders who are available on the sides

of the room for prayer. We have conduct cards available if you want to

instead write upper out that gets sent to the elders, the other church leaders,

and to the community groups so we can pray for you throughout the week.

If your prayer is private, then you can write private on the card.

If you can't prepared to give today, we have an offering box,

the white painted box outside the doors there. Right now We're going to sing

one last song and I'm going to pray to close. Lord Jesus, I

thank you for being the ultimate and perfect representation of God's creation. Help us

to always look to you, to your actions, your words, your character

as written in your scripture, for for how to live a life that honors

you, that brings glory to you. Help us to love others, Lord,

to love others in the world that are seeking an identity, that are

trying to figure out who they are. Help us in our communications with those

people in our lives to not be afraid to speak with them, but to

share your gospel with them, to show them that, as image bearers of

God, our identity is found in You and you alone. Ask all these

things in your name, Amen,