Who were we - Who are we - Who are we becoming - Part IV

We start with Genesis 1, 26 and 27. Then God said, let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. Let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. Now I have quite another question for you. Does it take both male and female together to reflect this made in the image of God? Or is each male and each female, each one, created in the image of God? Does it take both in order to make the whole?

Pardon? Hopefully not. Hopefully not what? Hopefully not both. Together. Yeah. Any thoughts on that? The word for man and food both came out of my mouth. Pardon? The word for man and food both came out of my mouth. Yeah. And I think there are some ways to test that. I'm thinking it's individual burn. Yes. Because there are other places later than Genesis where he says, I will be your husband, I will, you know, complete you. I don't think you're stuck as a half out there. Yeah. Yeah, I have heard it said that it takes both male and female, and the reality is that male and female are each created in the image of God. and it doesn't take the two halves in order to to make made in the image of God complete.

One way to put that is in Genesis 9.6 where it talks about essentially instituting capital punishment. Why? Because man is made in the image of God.

Respect that image. That's true even of an unbeliever and it's true of both a male and a female, right? So there's not some special, you know, we only punish if it's a male, but not if it's a female, right? No, that's not the intent. So it is both the male and the female in whole are created in the image of God. Yes. Well, we'll get to that. That's a very good question. Okay. All right.

Here, looking at the beginning of the second paragraph, when the earth was not yet a week old, the three persons of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, communicated with one another using the pronouns us and our. God created mankind, male and female, in which both male and female human beings were made in the image of God. As we see from the chart, image and likeness appear to be used as synonyms throughout God's Word, apparently using the words interchangeably.

So you notice image and likeness together is used there in Genesis 1.26 and then it seems to alternate between those two regarding being made in God's image. The nuance of difference in the two words would be that image relates to the representation and appearance. This is the answer to Doug's question here. Image relates to representation and appearance, whereas likeness relates to corresponding to the original pattern. So similar, and I would say overlapping definitions, but slight shades of difference in that way.

The use of both words together regarding the creation of mankind is only found in Genesis 1.26, but the two words are found together in two other passages and their use also seems to be intended as synonyms.

Genesis 5.3, when Adam had lived 130 years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness according to his image. and named himself. I see that as a Hebrew poetry pattern where image and likeness are intended to rhyme, to be used as synonyms.

Deuteronomy 4.16, and of course this is in the giving of the law, so that you do not act corruptly and make a graven image for yourself in the form of any figure the likeness of male or female. Holly? He became father of a son in his own likeness according to his own image.

Is that kind of where the sin of nature started? Yeah, now I think one of the things you look at, being made in the image of God had a particular meaning and it was not physical, right? It wasn't talking about made in God's image because God's got hands. When you look at Adam, How was Adam made in God's image and yet he would have a son in his own image? The sin pattern is continued on but also the physical features now are included in Adam's passing on this image and likeness. Physical features and deep, not just superficial, sin nature, every other aspect of man. Every other aspect of man. Spiritual, psychological, physical. We will be addressing those questions directly. Very good question. And we'll be answering that directly here.

So what are we to conclude regarding the creation of mankind and the image and likeness of God and the impact of the fall of mankind into sin? Here are some starting principles. The first bullet in the bottom of page one is this. What is similar in character to God in mankind is the image and likeness of God. And we're going to identify what that means. So we'll get specific.

Second bullet, the image and likeness of God refers to the original state of creation as it's originally stated. Secondly, after the fall, Genesis 3, the image and likeness of God remains. That's apparent from the rest of the passages, right? From Genesis 5, 1 on.

The image and likeness of God remains but is marred. remains but is marred. There's something corrupted, but the original image and likeness is still recognizably there. And then fourthly, that image and likeness, though marred, remains, so respect the remaining image. That respecting the remaining image message continues on into the New Testament. Isn't that interesting? Respect the remaining image. Okay, let's look at page two. As to the specific aspects of the image of God, scripture provides for us these insights. First bullet, it is a personal image and likeness.

God is a personal being, not as is taught in some aspects of Buddhism and in Hinduism, God is impersonal. Ultimately, in those parts of Buddhism that teach about God, and not all do, and in Hinduism, God is in the ultimate impersonal. God is not, in the Eastern view, a personal being. He is an impersonal being. whereas what scripture makes clear, it is a personal image and likeness. God is a personal being and even in the original, let us make man in our image. This is communication, this is personal, right? This is a personal God who is making a personal being, human being. Second one, it is a spiritual image and likeness.

Human beings are by their original creation, spiritual beings. What are the two kinds of spiritual beings, created spiritual beings in the universe that we know of? We have angels and humans. So far as we know, those are the two kinds of spiritual beings that God has created, okay?

So the second point is it's a spiritual image and likeness. Third, it is a moral image and likeness. Now, what happened to that aspect, that moral image and likeness? It was marred. Now what's interesting, the book of Romans brings out that even the person who does not accept God's definition of morality will oftentimes come up with their own. they'll get ticked off because what happened wasn't right.

Well, who said? They will have some definition of what is right and wrong and what ought to be and what ought not to be. As a more modern philosopher put it, you can't determine the ought from the is. There is a built-in sense in human beings of something ought to be a certain way though it is not currently that way. It is because of that inborn sense of something is right or wrong. What's interesting is, I don't know if you ever had this conversation, I almost, I think it's sort of serious recreational, that sit down and talk with an atheist about morality. Oh yes, and meaning of life. Oh yeah, that's a fun one. Okay.

It is an interpersonal image and likeness. Let us make man in our image, see? An interpersonal image and likeness designed for relationship. Designed for relationship. Not just spiritually, and not just psychologically, but even physically designed for relationship. The next, it is an authority image and likeness.

God himself spoke and created with authority. Let there be light. And there was what? Light, right? God had authority to command things into existence. He put Adam in a place of authority in the garden that he created. to rule over these creatures, right? It's an authority image and likeness. All the things that are wrong with the world today are corruptions of these things, right? What do we have? Abuse of authority, right? People not taking on the authority that they ought to. The corruption of each of these items is what's wrong with the world today. Let's look at the last one.

It's a creative image and likeness. To a certain extent, you know, animals largely by instinct will create things and frankly fascinating things. But human beings are ones who can bring something into form, not into existence, but into a form that was previously only available from imagination. We can make things that don't exist in nature. This room here is an example of that. You wouldn't expect to come in, just walk out in the forest and all of a sudden there's this building and it's got lights and it's got a floor and pews that are the same length and a few racks. You wouldn't step up to that and say, well, that just happened. Human beings, in a great many ways, have a creative image and likeness.

So these six bullets identify ways in which we are made in the image of God, though we could go down each one of them and look and see the ways that they're marred. Still present, but marred. Another point to observe is that while mankind was made in the image of God in these aspects, these six that we've identified here, mankind even before the fall could only express those aspects of God in a limited degree, whereas God is infinite in his qualities.

God had authority from the outset to command and it stood throughout the entire universe, whatever it was. Let there be light all over the place. And God was not limited in it. Adam, however, was placed in the garden to rule over the animals, but not over the entire universe, right?

Though the nature of these aspects of the image of God remained after the Fall, each one of them was corrupted or diminished in some way. It is likewise very important that we recognize the ways in which God, as He made mankind in His own image, even at the time when mankind was innocent, was quite different from mankind. In the first set of bullets on page two, how are we similar to God in character, now we point out some distinct differences.

God is not a physical being, except as Jesus Christ was born later as a human, but remained deity. God was not a physical being, and when mankind was created, no person of the Godhead held any human form. Only with the birth of Christ did a person of the Godhead take on a physical human form, adding humanity, now notice that, adding humanity to his deity without changing his character as deity. God does not change. So his humanity is added Jesus Christ, fully God, fully man, unchanged in his basic character. The next bullet, God is eternally righteous by his very character, but man was initially created innocent, but with the capacity to choose sin.

See the distinction there? It's a really big one. There's a huge difference between righteous and innocent. Absolutely, and people will often times miss that one. It's a very important point. If I, for example, have a container that has nothing in it, and I fill it with some substance, say water. The one container has something definite in it. The other does not. Adam in his innocence was not fundamentally righteous. But Jesus Christ was and is and remains fundamentally righteous. So it's a good thing we're in Him, right? The next one.

Mankind was created in the context of a time-based universe, but God is not subject to time, which is basic to this creation. God is unchanging and unchangeable, whereas each person within mankind is changing and changeable. Yes? I think I asked this question in another class, but I don't remember the answer. So, Jesus had no sin nature? No sin nature. Even though he's 100% man, there is no sin nature. No sin nature and that is the distinction because historically he was not in Adam. We, having been born in Adam, historically have that background.

He did not. He was presented with the temptation externally, right? From a human standpoint, those temptations were real. Example, is he hungry? Yeah, he really feels hunger. Is he willing to sin in order to satisfy the hunger? There's the distinction. See that? So he can be tempted in the sense that in his human capacity, he really was hungry. But he would not sin in order to satisfy the hunger.

One of the illustrations that we use when we say God does not change I think there's an interesting passage in the Gospel of John where Jesus is talking to the leaders of the Jews and he says, Before Abraham was born, I am. Not I was, but I am. Before Abraham was born, I dwell in the eternal present.

All times to God are now. So an illustration that we use for this is, if this is all time, this one end here, here's back in the garden, here's the end of the present heavens and earth, and so here's the cross, and the tomb, and the empty tomb, there in the middle, God sees it all happening at one time, and is therefore, you know, prophecy, you know, we say, ooh, boy, that's great, you know, tell the future. What future? It's right now. And so God's ability to tell the future is because God's not stuck in the time tunnel we are.

But in addition to that, there's something else, and this is extremely valuable. God looks at us here, and is He time challenged to take you, who doesn't believe in Christ, doesn't even exist from a physical standpoint, 2,000 years later, is he time-challenged to identify you with Christ and His death? No. It's not a problem at all.

Because to him it's all right now. This is kind of spiritual mechanics. God's not struggling with it. He's not scratching his head wondering, wow, I wonder how I'm going to pull this off. Because He can identify you with Christ's death, Christ's burial, His resurrection, His ascension and seeding with no problem. It's all right now. It is all in front of Him. When Christ will come again, from our perspective, He's already seeing it.

And at the very last couple of chapters of Revelation, where He's saying, here's the new heaven and the new earth, And from our standpoint, we're saying, wow, that's really out there. This is at least 1,700 years into the future. And God's saying, it's not really out there. I'm seeing it right now while I'm telling you about it. So from God's standpoint, He has no difficulty whatsoever accomplishing things, prophesying, telling you what's going to happen. He sees it all now. Before Abraham was born, I am. God doesn't change and the reason is He's not stuck in the time tunnel like we are. We change because we're going down this time tunnel and we're impacted by things that happen and don't happen as we travel down this time tunnel.

He's not dealing with that at all. Yeah, we're looking linear. We look back on the past and we sit there and try to sort out the past and we're looking at what the possibilities are for the future and we have everything from hope to fear looking into the future. He's not dealing with any of that.

He sees it all as right now. And we're wringing our hands, pacing the floor, wondering what's going to happen. And he says, what's the worry? He knows it all. Yes? I hadn't really thought about it before, but I think we sort of share that long-term being with him in that he planned this before the beginning of time, each one of us.

Yeah. and we're eternal beings. What is interesting is we will last forever. We are eternal beings, we are eternal beings because God's an eternal being and our eternity in the past and the present and the future relates to his eternality, right? That's because God foreknew us. God does things now in relation to eternity that hasn't taken place yet. How can He do that? He dwells in the eternal present. We have that sense because of our relationship with Him. That sense that extends beyond just our little present lifetime.

The fourth bullet there, God is infinite in his character, which we said before, but mankind is finite, even in respect to which he expresses the image of God. There is no way in which we express the image of God infinitely. God, however, does and can. The way that the book of Ephesians repeatedly puts it, the riches of his grace, the riches of his love and his mercy. the wealth, the great love with which He loved us. We are finite, limited beings. He is not. So we have this question in the middle of page 2. Where do we go from here?

While some have taught that salvation by faith in Christ offers to make us Adam again, taking us back to the Garden, a closer examination of scripture shows that God does not restore things on this earth to the Garden of Eden, but to the conditions of the Millennial Kingdom on this present earth. Some similarity? Yes. Identical?

No. The Millennial Kingdom in the direction towards which God is managing all of His present creation when all things will be summed up in Christ. God is managing all things. That's what the message of Ephesians 1, 9, and 10 is. God is administering all things, managing all things to be summed up in Christ. Everything in this present heavens and earth is going to be summed up in Him.

Everything will be in reference to Him. And so you wonder, oh no, what's going to happen in the world? What on earth are we coming to? That's where we're coming to. Everything is being managed in a direction that everything will ultimately be summed up in Christ. That's where it's headed. It will not get there smoothly. But it will get there certainly.

So, don't lay awake at night thinking about politics. Third bullet. This present heaven and earth will be ended and a new heaven and earth will be created. There will come a time when this present heavens and earth that we have come to know will be ended.

It will simply be gone. I'm glad for the building that we have here, that we can meet. I'm glad I can race home and get my other flash drive and get here. All those things, that's all fine. But there will be a time when it will come to an end. It will completely be gone. And only what continues on and is newly created will exist. Carol? This is something that I wonder about from time to time. So you can just lay at your rest forever. The State of Israel. They're always supposed to have it. It's never supposed to be gone. They're supposed to occupy it. How does that transition work?

Is God the only one who rules? No, actually what happens is we find in the new heavens and new earth, and I'm only going to address this briefly because we went through it in our revelation study at the end of 2009. What happens is that in the new heavens and new earth, heaven comes down on the earth And Israel is essentially at the gates.

It is the means of access of the Gentile nations into the presence of the Lord. So Israel still remains, as God intended and will be the case in the millennium, Israel still remains the access point. The New Heavens and New Earth will have a new geography. Right now, Israel has on one side of it the Mediterranean, the seas, right? It says no seas in the New Heavens and New Earth.

So there will still be an Israel. It will still be an identifiable Israel. There will still be a geography. There will still be a specific place for Israel. The Earth will not look like it currently does. And of course some details will remain to be seen, but at least that much is given to us. Even the tribes are identifiable still, as the tribes.

So if God isn't going to take us back to the Garden of Eden, back into being Adam again, then what is God doing with us? What direction is He taking us? Alright, so now I go to page 3. Romans 8, 28 and 29, and we know that God causes all things to work together for good, and we'll be looking in more detail at this passage, to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren. People are sometimes locked in almost a dread of predestination. You mean the moves that I make are all pre-programmed by God? God's determining every breath, every pin drop, every hair that falls. I have a lot of them that have. Every hair that falls, everything that happens, does God just determine it all and I really have no choice? Choice is an illusion. And God's just making the whole world operate as some predestined machine that just has to work its way out exactly as God has determined.

Or, we've got a different message here. Do we in fact have some decisions to make? Do we in fact have the latitude to make choices along the way, and in the end, our conformity to the image of a son will happen. Isn't that interesting? God has given us choice, not as a guise, not as a, well, it just appears that way, but actually to be able to decide things. But in the end, the way God works it out, we will be conformed to the image of a son.

That's the predestination, is where we're headed, not every breath you take and every move you make. See the difference there? Which is quite a difference. God is still sovereign in the things that God says, this will happen. We're not going to thwart it. We're not going to, you know, come out to the end and God said, well, I tried, but you know, you kind of messed it up. And so it didn't come off.

Sorry. Yeah. You think of Philippians 1.6. I hope I'm not too shocking. I think that verse actually does not have to do with that. And the reason is, I believe that that verse actually has to do with financial work. Yeah, and when we went through Philippians 1-6, about eight years ago, and when we went through 2 Corinthians, we actually came to that point.

However, the point you're trying to make is made very well in 1 Corinthians 1, verses 4-9, that ultimately God is the one who will pull it off. He is the one who is trustworthy and faithful. and he will pull it off, his sovereign will will not be thwarted. It does not mean that we are without choices, that we are without latitude to make decisions, but what it does mean is that when God determines and predestines something to be so, it will end up that way, even while we make our choices along the way. That's good to know, because if it was our conforming, it was up to us. Yeah, well here's the neat thing. It doesn't say that the decisions we make and the things we do don't matter. That's not the point.

The point is that in the end, God's sovereign will is going to win out. and that we can trust Him, as Joanna was making the point, we can trust Him to pull it off in the end. He in the end is the one who will make it happen. And all of our choices along the way, which are not just make-believe, pretend, it's not just an appearance of making choices, our choices are genuine. But in the end, God is even going to work through those and all the circumstances to conform us to the image of His Son. Yes.

Oh, 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 4 through 9. 2 Corinthians 3.18, I have it in the expanded and explained, which you could also get from the handout. But it reads like this, but all of us who are in Christ with a face that is not veiled by the law, having died in relationship to the law and living by God's amazing grace, are right now continuing to behold, as we read and hear the written word of God, seeing as one who looks into a mirror, the glory, the radiant essence of who Christ is, the glory that comes from Christ himself. And we are, in fact, in the very process of being changed and transformed into the same spiritual character, growing from one level of Christ's glory to the next. And every part of this beholding and transforming is from the God-given ministries of the Holy Spirit.

It's one of the reasons we're meeting here this morning. We don't meet here because God's got a little, you know, black book where He says, yep, Holly was here. Okay, yeah, and Alan and Debbie were here. Okay, good deal, you know. And it just warms the cockles of God's heart when we come on this particular piece of real estate. Somehow He just loves it when we do that. No, that's not the way it works.

We're gathering here together in substantial part because God is going to use our beholding Him through His Word to transform us also into the image of Christ. He uses two parallel processes to make us into the image of Christ, conforming and transforming, and we're going to see how those are different. They both, by the way, relate to the Word of God, but they're not identical. We also have this important insight, which also uses the word image. 1 Corinthians 15, 45-49, and this is in a poetic form here.

So also it is written, the first man Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy. The second man is from heaven. As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy. And as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthly, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.

This isn't Adam again at all. This is starting in one place and ending up in an entirely different place. Is Jesus Christ in His seated, exalted state right now, is he in the Garden of Eden? No. So if we have that history that places us there in the heavenlies, if that's where citizenship is, if that's where we're blessed, then why on earth would I want to be put back in the Garden of Eden? God's doing something quite different, radically different, even ends up with a different place.

So what's the difference between being made in God's image with the possibility of being Adam again and being conformed and transformed into Christ's image? Well, there are several important differences. God's original creation of mankind in His image was when God had no person of the Godhead in the form of a human being. But our being conformed and transformed into Christ's image will ultimately include each one of us having a new creation body like Christ's.

Taking on the new body will not be a process, but will be a change that will take place in a moment. That is a future that the first Adam did not have. That will be a body unlike the one the first Adam had. The first Adam had a body, and as soon as he sinned, what did he do with the body? He hid it. He hid it. Christ resurrects with a new body, and what does he do? He shows it. Thomas, come take a look here. Look at this. Touch it. He shows it. Our being made in the image of Christ as a process is to make us daily more in accordance with the history we already share with Christ in our eternal position. We are being changed toward the position that we already have.

Death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding. This history could not have taken place without Christ, who was and is and will be full deity, first having taken on the form of a man, and is now a glorified man. That is a past impacting our eternal future that the first Adam did not have.

Our future is to catch up with our history in Christ. Get that? Our future is to catch up with our history in Christ. See that distinction? Adam had a history. Christ has a history. Our future is not based on that Adam and his history, our future is catching up with the history that we have in Christ.

While we will one day have a body like Christ and are being conformed and transformed in the image of Christ, we will not simply be made perfectly identical with Christ. What will be different? Though we will be like Him as to the kind of being and body and are being made and will be like Him in character, we will not be deity. He will remain deity and uniquely the Son of God. We will also maintain our individual identity on into eternity, and He will maintain an individual relationship and fellowship with each one of us. We'll be like Him. but we won't be him.

Revelation 2.7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone and a new name written on the stone, which no one knows but he who receives it. Those pronouns are individual. In all of eternity, with all the things that are created, God has in mind a personal and individual relationship with you that will not be constrained or limited by his relationship with others.

See that? It's not like God says, you know, I really do love you, but man, I'm busy. You know, I mean, there's a lot of people to go see. That's not the way it is. God's ability to focus attention on you and to take note of you and your heart and your soul are not in the least diminished. Why? Because God is a God of infinite capacity. And that's why with all the millions of Christians that have been and all the thousands of years and the centuries that pass, He still cares greatly about you personally.

And he's not too busy. And he's not overwhelmed. And he's not running, looking down at his watch, saying, man, I'm busy. Quick, you've got two seconds. He's not doing that. He's got the capacity and the ability to focus on you personally and individually forever. That's very important. Because otherwise we kind of tend to get this sort of mass Christianity and think that, well, God's really busy. He's got to cause a hurricane over here and an earthquake over there and this person over here has to have a heart attack. And for Him to take the time with me, well, that's a little inconceivable. No. No. He, in fact, has all the time in the world for you. Yes.

Are we just being transformed and conformed when we're walking by the Spirit? Or does God use our... Does God show us transformed and conformed even when we're... We're going to go over that in more detail, and so I don't want to try to... because we're going to take weeks and weeks and weeks going over that question. So I don't want to try to take that. The reality is God has a part, we have a part. our ultimate conformity and transformation are assured. But as time goes on, while we walk this planet, God has a definite process in mind in which we have a part and in which our decisions make a difference.

So that's the quick answer we'll get into more detail on. Alright, we've run out of time. I invite you to read the rest of the bullets there and I encourage you to do so and we'll start in on our new topic. It'll begin to answer Katie's question there. Let's pray.

Lord, we do thank you for The insight you provided, thank you for the marvelous, wonderful future that we have. Not just for a while, not just for a long time. Not something we'll say, well, that's cool, but what's next? But something that will have us gasping in awe and amazement for eternity. Thank you for that awesome and amazing future that you have for us. All at your expense. Thank you in Jesus name. Amen.