So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. – Genesis 1:27

 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!-2 Corinthians 5:17.

[G]od who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved.-Ephesians 2:4-5.

 “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Hebrews 8:12.

 God formed a man from dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.-Genesis 2:7.

 

Is Your Nature Revealing of God?

God created the moon and the sun
For mystery, beauty, and light.
He created flowers for whimsy;
Making each a unique delight.
He created the mountains and deserts.
And the water from which comes the rain.
The rain that falls to make flowers grow
And then returns to the water again.
He created the animals upon the earth
Some majestic, some fierce, some fun.
For 5 days He expressed through creation;
Created man on the sixth and was done.

God’s plan was to be known and worshiped.
For, only in His worship can life be found.
So, He created man as His image
Using only dust from the ground.
God was pleased with His new creation.
But knew he would need communion.
So, using man’s rib He formed woman
And then joined them in a Holy union.

He sent man forth to multiply,
The image in which he was made.
Anointing him to reveal God, Himself
In the nature that he displayed.
What a privilege it is to be called by God
To use our nature to reveal Him to all.
It’s an honor to be trusted with this;
It’s an honor to be chosen at all.
So when meeting strangers, we must be aware
We know nothing about their beliefs.
But we do know the way that we treat them
Forms the image of God they will keep.

Are you equal to this anointing?
Is your nature revealing of God?
When you model God to a stranger
Will they come away properly awed?
I pray that one day all of our natures
Will reflect only God and His glory.
So, we might be with Him in Heaven
At the end of His glorious story.
©Linda Troxell 4/2/2019

 

Is, As, What Difference Can it Possible Make?
 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even dividing soul and spirit…-Hebrews 4:12

 I’ve been studying Hermeneutics. Don’t feel bad if you don’t know what that means; I didn’t know what it meant either.  And I still can’t pronounce it. But according to Google, it is a branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation, especially of the Bible or literary texts. I don’t know why we can’t just call it the interpretation of the Bible.

As part of my study, I listened to a piece by Mark Young Ph.D., the President of Denver Seminary, in which he talked about a controversy among Bible scholars concerning whether the original language used in Genesis 1:27 was made in the image of God or as the image of God. So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. – Genesis 1:27. When I heard that I thought, “Why does it even matter?” But it turns out that it does have some bearing on the larger picture. To help you understand I have to first give a brief, (I promise) overview of some theology of God’s creation of the earth.

This theology says that the creation story indicates that God is beneficent or in plain language unselfish, generous, and kind. And as such, He acts to seek good for others. God also desires to be known and worshiped. This not out of a need of his own but because He knows there is life only in knowing and worshiping Him. He is the source of all life and exists in perfect satisfaction, love, and joy. God, being a God who acts to seek good for others, desires for man to have perfect satisfaction, love, and joy as well through knowing and worshiping Him. His act of creation, then, was an act of love for the good of man.

Because He wants to be known and worshiped, God revealed Himself through His creation. In creating the earth, God’s ultimate goal was to create a being as or in His image and after His likeness. Toward that goal, for the first 5 days, He created everything a man would need to live and thrive on the earth. Then on the 6^th day, He created the animals and then He created man in His image, some say as His image, revealing Himself, in an act of love, to give man life through knowing and worshiping Him.

 What, Exactly Does it Mean to Be Sovereign?
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. Romans 1:16

 But what is the difference between created in His image or as His image? The former, in His image, is known as the Substantive theory. It focuses on who or what man is. It holds that man, created in God’s image, indicates that there are some substantive differences between man and all other creatures that God made. For example, man’s dominion over “[e]very living thing that moves on the earth.” –Genesis 1:28. Moreover, they hold that the most important focus of God’s creation of man is who or what man is.

However, the other theory, the Functionalist theory, holds that the important focus of man’s creation is on what he was created to do. This camp argues that in writing Genesis, Moses would have used language in the way it was commonly used in the time period in which Genesis was written. In that period the world was ruled by kings or other sovereign rulers. Meaning, that they had absolute power over their individual territories. For the demarcation of their kingdoms, each ruler built a stone image of himself. This stone likeness served to inform anyone who entered the space just who had absolute control over that territory.

Using this fact, the theory says that Moses wrote that God created man as His image indicating that humanity was to be that which revealed and represented God as the sovereign ruler of the earth. They say this view is strengthened by the fact that man, created as God’s image, is substantially different than God’s other creations and was given authority over all other creatures, i.e. dominion.

The Functionalist theory is twofold. First, it says man was created to be God’s representative revealing Him on earth as the sovereign ruler overall. And it also says, that when man was told to go forth and multiply, God was telling him to go fill creation with knowledge of the image of God who rules over all creation. Having that unique privilege provides humanity with dignity not shared with any other creation. We have the privilege of revealing the One and only true God to the world through our humanity.

 How Does God Reveal His Glory?
Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.-1 Corinthians 10:31

 Now, I want to tell you a story I heard from Dr. Young in his lecture. He was sure to give credit for the story to an author he likes by the name of Mike Mason. Dr. Young made note of the fact that he had changed the story a bit from Mr. Mason’s original. Likewise, I want to note that here I have paraphrased, Dr. Young’s already changed version of Mike Mason’s story. This is a bit like the childhood game of telephone. Although I have been careful to keep the very serious point of the story told by Dr. Young intact; as I’m sure Dr. Young did from the original.

Okay, while keeping in mind that humanity was chosen to reveal God through our humanity and our nature, imagine you are on a Pacific Ocean beach, somewhere near Vancouver BC. It is so, so, very beautiful.  As you look west toward the sunset, you see the sky explode in oranges and reds and purples in combinations that humans could never replicate. Because of where you are, you also have the pleasure to turn to the east and see those same stunning colors reflected in the snow-capped mountains. You begin to feel the presence of God and you are lost in praising Him for the beauty he has bestowed upon you in this beautiful scene of nature. Suddenly, your praise is interrupted by an awful odor. You glance to your right and there on the sand is a man passed out drunk with vomit all over him.  Now, I ask you, where, in this scene, is God revealed? The sunset you say, the beautiful snow-capped mountains? Well again, I ask you, was the sun made in the image of God, was the snow or the mountains made in the image of God? No, only humanity is the image and likeness of God. Genesis chapter 9 says, despite our depravity, we are made as the image and likeness of God.

The corruption of man’s nature is, I’m sure, God’s greatest disappointment. It disappoints me too. Now, that’s not to say that my nature is not corrupted. It is.  We are all corrupt because we live in this fallen and corrupted world. The thing that is so heartbreaking about the corruption of our humanity, however, is that we, as the only creation made in the image and likeness of God, are the only ones who can represent and reveal the Sovereign God. But our corrupt nature keeps us for doing so.

Well, Whose Responsibility is it?
For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.-Romans 14:10

 We are very blessed that even in our depravity we, who believe in Jesus Christ as the image of God, even as we were dead in our sins, have been made new creations in Christ. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! – 2 Corinthians 5:17.  God made us alive with Christ and by grace saved us. [G]od who is rich in mercy, make us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved.-Ephesians 2:4-5.  As these new creations, we have been regenerated by Spirit and have regained our capacity to reveal God through our humanity. That is an unparalleled privilege. It too is an unparalleled responsibility.

That’s you and I. We are the ones who have been regenerated by Spirit. We are responsible to reveal God to all the world through our humanity.  I don’t know about you, but this new insight, gained from just the difference between two little words, makes me feel the weight of my responsibility as a Christian more than I ever have before. I have never so starkly understood the need for all Christians, you and I included, to live a Christ-centered life mirroring the love of God to all people. I have never felt, so physically, the responsibility to personally reveal God to everyone I meet. It humbles me, it shames me, and it scares me.

It shames me because I feel I’ve not done a good job so far. It scares me because I’m not sure I’m equal to the task. This new understanding of theology, which makes perfect sense to me, somehow makes the stakes seem so much higher. I don’t blame you if you are confused about why I feel this way. I’m confused too. What does this new knowledge really change? We have always been mandated to live a Christ-centered life, to reveal the love of Jesus to everyone.

This new view doesn’t substantively change anything about what is expected of us as Christians. But for me, somehow, it is different when I realize this is the only reason we were created. Or maybe it is just that the imaginary story opened up my eyes to how easily we pervert the image of God that we show to the world. And to think how sad or angry or both God must be to see how we are misrepresenting Him.

All of Life Comes From the Breath of God.
In His hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.-Job 12:10

 English can be a severely limited language because we have only one word for so many things that are multifaceted. Other languages, such as Greek and Hebrew, the original languages of the Bible, have an array of words for many; I think most things. I’ve learned recently that in Genesis chapter 2, verse 7 when it says that God breathed life into man, the original Hebrew word used for breath was used only when referring to God and man throughout the entire Bible. When speaking of the breath of all other creatures a different Hebrew word was used.  Then the Lord God formed a man from dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.–Genesis 2:7.

That same unique word is used to refer to the breath of God in many books of the Bible including Job and in Proverbs. Because of the way it is used in those books, some Bible scholars believe that it is likely that when God breathed life into man, it also gave life to his spirit. It is that living spirit they say that allows man to relate to God in a way that other created creatures cannot. Some also believe, because of the way the same unique word is used in Proverbs, that it is likely that with that breath man was also given a conscience giving us the capacity to make moral decisions congruent with our new spiritual natures.

Of course, other creatures were also given breath, but the Hebrew word for the breath given them was an entirely different word from the one used for the breath of God and man. And while that breath gave those creatures physical life, it did not give them spiritual life. Nor, did it give them a conscience. So, of course, these other creatures could not relate to God in a spiritual way, nor could they make moral decisions. This, then, spiritual life and a conscience, are the things that, ultimately, make man substantively different from other creatures.

Gifts Beget Responsibilities
[F]rom everyone who has been given much, much will be required, and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more-Luke 12:48

 Man is the only creation to whom God gave free will. And with free will comes the capacity to disobey God. The conscience and spiritual nature, given to us by God, tells us to obey God. But, of course, free will allows us to disregard our conscience and spiritual nature. Of all of God‘s creations, only man could have disrespected Him by breaking the only rule He was given.

Of course, we know that God, being omniscient, has always known the end from the beginning and everything in between. So, He knew that the world would be infected with sin. He knew mankind would be corrupted, and He knew that we would make poor representatives of His glory. Yet still, He thought we were worth it. Because God’s love is unconditional, even in our corruption He loved us. Yet, because of His Holiness, He cannot abide with sin.  To solve that little problem, as the greatest act of love there has ever been or ever will be, He condescended to come into this fallen world clothed in humanity to die and redeem our sins.

All of these unique blessings given to us by God come with a unique responsibility to God. Unfortunately, when our original mother and father first fell for the lies of the enemy, this world was infected with sin and us with a sinful nature. This, indeed, makes it difficult, if not impossible, to fulfill our great responsibility to God or to live the life we were created to live. But, because Jesus died to redeem our sin, we owe it to God to live our lives centered on Christ and to be as sinless as is possible.

And when we are not successful we have a responsibility to admit it immediately and turn to God in prayer asking to be forgiven. He will forgive us because, Jesus is our High Priest and we have the Person of the Holy Spirit to intercede on our behalf, allowing God to forgive us and see us as sinless. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Hebrews 8:12.

 I Believe, Help My Unbelief.
“[E]verything is possible for one who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”-Mark 9:21-24

 Perhaps it is that incredible act of love that makes it difficult for me not to feel fearful and shameful when I understand what is expected of me. Maybe this is why I feel fear when I think that as God’s child, it’s my job to reflect and reveal the nature of my heavenly Father to all that I meet. Maybe this is why I feel shame when I realize that through my own holiness and love, I am supposed to reflect His Holiness and love in order to give the world a glimpse of the glory of my heavenly Father.

I feel that I am not equal to the task. It’s a given that I can never be as holy as He; that’s why Jesus had to die. And really, who can ever reflect the love it took to perform the greatest act of love ever? Yes, I know that I can never be perfect as was Jesus. Yes, I understand that I am not expected to have perfect love as does God. I understand these things intellectually, but in my heart, I want so badly to do it perfectly for Him.

I’ve been told that my desire to reflect and reveal God perfectly is only a symptom of my pride. They tell me that the shame and fear I feel comes from my need to do and to be better than anyone else. I suppose I can see that point, and I can’t wholly deny it.

However, I think that the shame and the fear are more a result of my insufficient faith. It is a fear that I will not be acceptable to God if I am anything less than perfect.  Believe me, the fear and shame and the need for perfection didn’t start with God. But either way, it’s a sin. And like any other sin, I need to take to God and repent and ask for His forgiveness. And then I must do a better job of trusting the Father with my imperfection.

 

Let’s Pray,

Heavenly Father, we thank you that your love for us is unconditional so that even when you see how depraved we are, you do not turn your back on us. We praise you, Lord, for your faithfulness to us from the beginning of time. God, whether we are made in your image or as your image, we are so humbled that you chose us to reflect and represent your glory on earth. God, you knew that in our sin we would fall short of the task and still, you chose us. And when we did fall short, instead of giving up on us, in the greatest act of love of all time, you sent your Son to this fallen world to save us. God, you came clothed as a perfect man who lived a sinless life and died a humiliating death on the cross, thereby redeeming our sins forever. What a glorious demonstration of your love for us.  Lord, it is humbling to understand the great favor you have shown for us from the beginning. You chose us to be different from all of your other creations. You chose to give us a living spirit that allows us to be in a relationship with you. And you gave us, Lord, through our conscience, the ability to make righteous and moral decisions. And we have fallen short of that as well. But Lord, as a demonstration of our love for you, we will redouble our efforts to conquer our sin and to live as you lived you lived on earth. Thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness, for your love, and for your longsuffering nature. We pray this in the holy name of Jesus, Amen!

 

Points for Pondering and Prayer
or
Perhaps to Put Pen to Paper.

1. I’m pretty sure that I have quite often heard, in many different ways, that we are to be God’s representatives on earth and to reveal Him to the world. And I thought I understood what it meant. But until I heard that story I didn’t truly understand its meaning.  How about you?  Were you aware, really aware, that God had chosen us as His representative on earth to reflect and reveal His glory?  How do you feel when you think of that? Confident? Insecure? Confused? Or something else?

2. How did the final question of that story impact you? Did it humble you? Did it sadden you, or something else?

3. Have you, through your humanity, done a good, if not perfect, job of revealing God’s nature to the world?

4. Do you ever wonder why God created man knowing from the beginning that we would do a poor job of revealing His nature?

5. If so, what are some of the answers or possible answers you have come up with?