As we saw last Friday, though God made us in His image and for His glory, humanity in general and each of us in particular have broken God’s image in us. We have intentionally supplanted Him from the center of our lives and have set up our own kingdoms in an aggravated rebellion against His glory and rightful authority. His wrath against His rebel creatures is therefore just and right.
Thus, it is the wonder of the ages that God has not utterly wiped us out. Indeed, rather than destroying us, He has made provision for our salvation. This salvation is so miraculous and comprehensive that an eternity in God’s presence will no exhaust our reasons to praise Him. Among the millions of evidences of God’s grace, consider just these three that demonstrate the wonders of redemption.
First, is it not astonishing that God gathered His righteous wrath upon our sin and placed it fully on His own Son?! What wondrous love is this, that He “did not spare His Son, but offered Him up for us all” (Romans 8:32)! Though Christ was utterly sinless, “yet it was the will of the Lord to crush Him” (Isaiah 53:10). Indeed, “He made Him to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Second, by pouring out upon Jesus His wrath against our sin, God affected for us a just forgiveness, meaning that when God forgives sin, He doesn’t simply overlook sin. The sin has actually been propitiated by the suffering and death of Christ. The penalty has been paid by Christ, and the punishment has been absorbed by Him so fully that there is no longer any sin-guilt between God and the redeemed. Therefore, in Christ “we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Ephesians 1:7).
Third, perhaps the most glorious aspect of salvation is this: after pouring out His wrath upon Christ, and pardoning our sin in a grand act of forgiveness, God then graciously chose to transform His former enemies into His own beloved children. Speaking of Christ, John wrote, “to all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). He reconciled us to Himself! He drew us into a relationship with Himself and injected into us Christ’s own resurrection life, thus making us new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17-18). No wonder Christ explained this to Nicodemus as being born again (John 3:3-16)! It is new life, eternal life, God’s own life; and it makes us eternally His own dear children, “heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17).
By His own choosing, and at His own expense, God has called the rebels not only into His forgiveness, but into His family. For those who say yes to His call, it will take us the rest of eternity to thank Him for this reconciling salvation. It’s time we got started.
Monday, May 25, 2009
THE BROKEN IMAGE OF GOD
Last Friday we took a second look at the biblical truth that humanity is made in the image of God. As Scripture declares, God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). This makes humanity entirely unlike the rest of creation: far from being highly-evolved animals, we are distinct and unique, the exclusive and personal product of God’s own creative genius.
As God’s image, our reason to exist is to reflect God’s nature and glory. In relationship to the rest of creation, this involves displaying and living out the truth about God. We are called to be stewards of creation under the authority of God, demonstrating His grace and holiness, His kindness and love to everything else that exists. In relationship to God Himself, being made in His image means that we reflect Who He is back to Him in worship, in love and in joyous obedience.
Thus, our very being should focus on Almighty God, as we seek to live into our purpose for being by glorifying Him and enjoying Him forever. Made in His image and for His glory, we are wondrously designed to find unfathomable joy simply by knowing Him and showing Him to the world around us.
However, we have refused this joy He offers us. Ever since Adam and Eve, we have shouted a firm and rebellious, “No!” to God’s generous offer to enjoy the promotion of His glory. We, each and all of us, have chosen rather to seek our own glory by making ourselves the center of the universe. Though we were made to mirror His glory, we’ve willfully broken His image in us.
Since Eden, the cry of the human spirit has echoed the lie of Satan, who, in his temptation of Eve, made the false promise, “ye shall be as gods” (Genesis 3:5). Following the devil’s prideful lead, humanity now boasts, “We are our own masters, accountable to none! We exist for ourselves, and no one may tell us otherwise!”
Seen in its true light, our sin is obviously no trivial matter. We have broken God’s image in us, and turned from Him Who made us. We have intentionally supplanted Him from the center of our lives, and sought to set up our own kingdoms in an aggravated mutiny against His glory and rightful authority.
His wrath against His rebel creatures is just and right. Thus, it is the wonder of the ages that God has not utterly wiped us out. However, rather than destroying us, He has made provision not only for the forgiveness of our sin, but also for the restoration of our relationship with Him as His image on earth. By virtue of His amazing grace, and at His own expense, He has chosen to reconcile the rebels to Himself, making His former enemies nor merely His chattel, but His own beloved children. The glory of this reconciliation is the most astonishing fact in the entire universe, and the elect will spend eternity praising Him for it.
Next week: The Glory of Reconciliation With God
As God’s image, our reason to exist is to reflect God’s nature and glory. In relationship to the rest of creation, this involves displaying and living out the truth about God. We are called to be stewards of creation under the authority of God, demonstrating His grace and holiness, His kindness and love to everything else that exists. In relationship to God Himself, being made in His image means that we reflect Who He is back to Him in worship, in love and in joyous obedience.
Thus, our very being should focus on Almighty God, as we seek to live into our purpose for being by glorifying Him and enjoying Him forever. Made in His image and for His glory, we are wondrously designed to find unfathomable joy simply by knowing Him and showing Him to the world around us.
However, we have refused this joy He offers us. Ever since Adam and Eve, we have shouted a firm and rebellious, “No!” to God’s generous offer to enjoy the promotion of His glory. We, each and all of us, have chosen rather to seek our own glory by making ourselves the center of the universe. Though we were made to mirror His glory, we’ve willfully broken His image in us.
Since Eden, the cry of the human spirit has echoed the lie of Satan, who, in his temptation of Eve, made the false promise, “ye shall be as gods” (Genesis 3:5). Following the devil’s prideful lead, humanity now boasts, “We are our own masters, accountable to none! We exist for ourselves, and no one may tell us otherwise!”
Seen in its true light, our sin is obviously no trivial matter. We have broken God’s image in us, and turned from Him Who made us. We have intentionally supplanted Him from the center of our lives, and sought to set up our own kingdoms in an aggravated mutiny against His glory and rightful authority.
His wrath against His rebel creatures is just and right. Thus, it is the wonder of the ages that God has not utterly wiped us out. However, rather than destroying us, He has made provision not only for the forgiveness of our sin, but also for the restoration of our relationship with Him as His image on earth. By virtue of His amazing grace, and at His own expense, He has chosen to reconcile the rebels to Himself, making His former enemies nor merely His chattel, but His own beloved children. The glory of this reconciliation is the most astonishing fact in the entire universe, and the elect will spend eternity praising Him for it.
Next week: The Glory of Reconciliation With God
IN HIS IMAGE FOR HIS GLORY
Over 3,000 years ago, King David asked some questions about the nature of humanity. His inspired ponderings are very much on point in contemporary war of worldviews.
“When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him? For Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:3-5).
Through David (and through the rest of Holy Scripture), God revealed Himself to us as our creator, the source of our being and reason we exist.
As we saw last Friday, God made us with two primary purposes. First, as with the rest of creation, we exist for the glory of God. However, existing for the glory of God does not set humanity apart from the rest of creation, since glorifying God is the purpose for which all things exist.
Second – and this is what makes humanity utterly unique in the created universe!– we are created in God’s image. In the creation account, God declared, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). The following chapter in Genesis goes on to indicate that unlike the rest of creation, which was made by God’s speaking it into existence, humanity was created by God’s shaping and molding. His personal touch is upon us.
It is astonishing to consider what this means for us.
Made in God’s image, we possess a moral similarity to God. This means that we are created to make decisions based not on personal preferences and trained responses, as animals do, but based rather on considerations of moral right and wrong. We have the capacity to understand good and evil as objective categories that are beyond ourselves, not simply the projection of personal wants and wishes.
One implication of our moral similarity to God is that attempts to redefine morality as if it were something determined by culture really amount to redefining humanity. Think with me about this. To say, “Right and wrong is what I want it to be for me” is a rejection of one’s personal accountability to the God Who created us and gave us the capacity to know Him as the source of all moral truth. Moreover, this kind of moral relativism dehumanizes us, by asserting that we are just like other animals, who do what they want without reference to an objective moral standard.
This means that submitting our wills to God’s revealed moral truth is a primary way we achieve our reason for being. We were created to glorify God by learning to enjoy obedience to Him, as we reflect to Him our complete reliance upon His love and grace.
We are not self-existing: we exist from Him, by Him and for Him. Indeed, we are made in the image of God for the glory of God.
Next week: The Broken Image of God
“When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him? For Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:3-5).
Through David (and through the rest of Holy Scripture), God revealed Himself to us as our creator, the source of our being and reason we exist.
As we saw last Friday, God made us with two primary purposes. First, as with the rest of creation, we exist for the glory of God. However, existing for the glory of God does not set humanity apart from the rest of creation, since glorifying God is the purpose for which all things exist.
Second – and this is what makes humanity utterly unique in the created universe!– we are created in God’s image. In the creation account, God declared, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). The following chapter in Genesis goes on to indicate that unlike the rest of creation, which was made by God’s speaking it into existence, humanity was created by God’s shaping and molding. His personal touch is upon us.
It is astonishing to consider what this means for us.
Made in God’s image, we possess a moral similarity to God. This means that we are created to make decisions based not on personal preferences and trained responses, as animals do, but based rather on considerations of moral right and wrong. We have the capacity to understand good and evil as objective categories that are beyond ourselves, not simply the projection of personal wants and wishes.
One implication of our moral similarity to God is that attempts to redefine morality as if it were something determined by culture really amount to redefining humanity. Think with me about this. To say, “Right and wrong is what I want it to be for me” is a rejection of one’s personal accountability to the God Who created us and gave us the capacity to know Him as the source of all moral truth. Moreover, this kind of moral relativism dehumanizes us, by asserting that we are just like other animals, who do what they want without reference to an objective moral standard.
This means that submitting our wills to God’s revealed moral truth is a primary way we achieve our reason for being. We were created to glorify God by learning to enjoy obedience to Him, as we reflect to Him our complete reliance upon His love and grace.
We are not self-existing: we exist from Him, by Him and for Him. Indeed, we are made in the image of God for the glory of God.
Next week: The Broken Image of God
DEFINING HUMANITY
Point: a New Jersey couple sued their doctor for allowing the “wrongful birth” of their Down Syndrome child. Sadly, they are not the only ones: over 300 such cases have been filed in recent years.
Point: in Louisiana, embryos conceived “in vitro” (i.e., by joining sperm and egg in a laboratory, rather than in the womb) are protected by law. However, as soon as an “in vitro” embryo is successfully implanted into a human uterus, it can be aborted legally until the moment of birth.
Point: a pregnant Indianapolis woman was charged with attempted murder because she shot herself in the abdomen trying to kill her unborn child. Ironically, she lived not far from an abortion “clinic” where she could have had the child killed legally.
These three points typify our society’s efforts to redefine humanity. Because we seem incapable of determining what a human being is, we are at a loss to state when real human life begins. “What is humanity?” we ask, but we just can’t seem to find the answer.
King David asked the same question over 3,000 years ago. Listen to his inspired ponderings about human existence and meaning.
“When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him? For Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:3-5).
The basis for understanding humanity is right there. Did you see it?
“Thou hast made him . . .” There’s the key: we are created. We are not independent beings. We owe our existence to our Creator.
Because we are not self-made, we are therefore not self-defining. Only He Who made us has the right to define our existence. He has, in fact, already done so in Holy Scripture. He has told us two basic truths about why we exist.
First, we are created for His glory. We hold this purpose in common with the rest of creation: “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1). God plainly declares His intention for those He formed and made, stating, “I have created [them] for My glory” (Isaiah 43:7). Therefore, the Apostle Paul exhorted believers to live up to their created purpose: “do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).
However, existing for the glory of God does not set humanity apart from the rest of creation, since glorifying God is the purpose for which all things exist. Our uniqueness is founded upon the fact that we are created in God’s image. In the creation account, God declared, “Let Us make man in Our image” (Genesis 1:26). Nothing else in the entire universe can claim this attribute. Only humanity has this distinction.
We are creations of God uniquely designed to reflect His image back to Him in worship and to the rest of creation in stewardship. Once we understand that, it changes everything about our lives, from conception to death. We’ll look at this in more detail next Friday.
Next week: In His Image for His Glory
Point: in Louisiana, embryos conceived “in vitro” (i.e., by joining sperm and egg in a laboratory, rather than in the womb) are protected by law. However, as soon as an “in vitro” embryo is successfully implanted into a human uterus, it can be aborted legally until the moment of birth.
Point: a pregnant Indianapolis woman was charged with attempted murder because she shot herself in the abdomen trying to kill her unborn child. Ironically, she lived not far from an abortion “clinic” where she could have had the child killed legally.
These three points typify our society’s efforts to redefine humanity. Because we seem incapable of determining what a human being is, we are at a loss to state when real human life begins. “What is humanity?” we ask, but we just can’t seem to find the answer.
King David asked the same question over 3,000 years ago. Listen to his inspired ponderings about human existence and meaning.
“When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him? For Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:3-5).
The basis for understanding humanity is right there. Did you see it?
“Thou hast made him . . .” There’s the key: we are created. We are not independent beings. We owe our existence to our Creator.
Because we are not self-made, we are therefore not self-defining. Only He Who made us has the right to define our existence. He has, in fact, already done so in Holy Scripture. He has told us two basic truths about why we exist.
First, we are created for His glory. We hold this purpose in common with the rest of creation: “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1). God plainly declares His intention for those He formed and made, stating, “I have created [them] for My glory” (Isaiah 43:7). Therefore, the Apostle Paul exhorted believers to live up to their created purpose: “do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).
However, existing for the glory of God does not set humanity apart from the rest of creation, since glorifying God is the purpose for which all things exist. Our uniqueness is founded upon the fact that we are created in God’s image. In the creation account, God declared, “Let Us make man in Our image” (Genesis 1:26). Nothing else in the entire universe can claim this attribute. Only humanity has this distinction.
We are creations of God uniquely designed to reflect His image back to Him in worship and to the rest of creation in stewardship. Once we understand that, it changes everything about our lives, from conception to death. We’ll look at this in more detail next Friday.
Next week: In His Image for His Glory
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