In His Image

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This evening we return to our study of the great doctrines of the Bible, and we begin to take a look at man. I have enjoyed more than six months of study in the nature of God. We have bathed ourselves with the truth about God. And now in a sense we plummet from the sublime to the sinful; we come from the nature of God to the nature of man. 

But in fact, as we begin to look at the nature of man, we will discover that he is made in the image of God. Many in our world speak of man as merely the end of an evolutionary chain. We talked about that when we talked about when we dealt with the issue of evolution. Bertrand Russell wrote, “Man is the outcome of accidental colocations of atoms.” How does it feel to be the “accidental colocation of atoms”? On the other hand, the Bible teaches that man is the unique personal creation of God. He is the crowning work of six extraordinary days of creation. When you examine the biblical record, man was the focus of creation. He is the last event of the last day. Man’s creation breaks the normal pattern in Genesis 1: when you come to man for the first time, God speaks among the members of the Trinity and He says, “Let us make man.” God gives man and man alone the responsibility to serve as Prime Minister over His creation. Only man’s creation receives a second longer look in Genesis chapter 2. Man is the only one of God’s creatures described as “made in God’s image.” Man has been granted a unique position. Turn to Psalm 8. I want to begin there tonight because the psalmist gives us this in powerful form. David writes in Psalm 8, verse 3: “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; what is man that You take thought of him.” In other words, “Who am I, God, that You would pay any attention to me?” “And the son of man that You care for him?” And then he returns to the reason, verse 5: 

Yet You have made [man] a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heaven and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas. O lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!

Here, David reminds himself as to why God has especially given care to man. It’s because man is special among all of God’s creation. He has been crowned, as it were, with the very glory and majesty of God because he is made in the image of God. Tonight, I want us to look at what the Bible teaches about man. 

In systematic theology, the study of man is called “anthropology” coming from the Greek word Anthropos which means “man,” “anthropology” or the “doctrine of man.” We are going to begin to look at that tonight. The unifying truth about man and his nature, is this one reality that he has been made in the image of God. What exactly does that mean? I want us to look at that phrase and sort of take it apart. Let’s turn back to Genesis chapter 1 and look to begin with at the meaning of the words that are found here. There are hints of this reality that man is made in the image of God even in pagan literature and thinking. In the teaching of Greek religion, all the myths have man as the product of the gods. Even in Acts, you remember in Acts 17 when Paul interacted with the Greeks there on Mars Hill, he quoted one of their poets. He said, “Some of your Athenian poets have written that man is the offspring of God.” We find the truth of that recorded in Genesis chapter 1, verse 26: We are now at the end of the sixth day or at some point,  not at the end, probably in the middle as we discovered, because man is still going to name the animals as we find in chapter 2. But at this point, “God said ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” As we noted when we went through this passage before, this is probably a reference to inter-trinitarian communication. As the Father, Son and Holy Spirit consider exactly what it is they are going to do. Of course, the decision had already been made. This is recorded by Moses to let us in on the eternal counsels of God. That this was a decision God had made. He uses two words “Let us make man in our image and according to our likeness.” 

Let us look at those two words: the first is “image.” The Hebrew word is first; the Latin word is second; and the Greek word is third, just to give you a hint. It means “a fashioned image.” You recognize that last word, the Greek word eikon. The word “likeness” means “similar in the abstract.” It has the idea of similarity, but it is not like a carved statue. Instead, it is similar but in an abstract sense. And so, put these two words together as one writer said, “God wants us to know that reflected in man is something concrete about God but not too concrete.” And so, these two words together give us an impression of how we are made.

Now, the Hebrew construction is reflected well in our New American Standard Bible and, that is, “Let us make man in our image according to our likeness.” Unfortunately, in both the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament and in the Vulgate, they inserted an “and” between these two phrases. So, it read, verse 26, “Let us make man in our image and according to our likeness.” That makes it sound like “image” and “likeness” are two different things. But in the Hebrew, there is no conjunction. They really are one unit making one point. Robert Raymond in his excellent systematic theology writes, “Today the terms are generally viewed as simply stating emphatically or intensively the fact that man uniquely reflects God. That is to say, man as created was the very image or the perfect likeness of God.” So, when you think of these two words don’t think of them as two different concepts. Instead, they are merely two words laid over each other to give us a whole picture of the reality that we are made in the image according to the likeness of God. We are the perfect likeness of God. Or I should say, Adam was as we will see in a moment.

There is further evidence, by the way, that these two words in fact mean the same thing. I won’t bore you with all the details in turning to them. Let me just give you the big picture. Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 9:6 use only the word “image” for the entire concept. Genesis 5:1 and James 3:9 use only the word “likeness” for the entire concept. Genesis 5:3 uses both words but changes the order and the prepositions. Just so you can see that these two words aren’t separate things, but they are one concept. In reality, the Hebrew can be translated this way: “In our very image.” A repetition is simply an intensive way of expressing the same reality. 

Now what are the views concerning this image? What does it mean that you and I have stamped upon us the image of God; that Adam perfectly reflected God; that he was according to His likeness and in His image? Well, there are various views of this. Let me just briefly give you an overview of the different views of what it means to be made in the image of God. The first we will call “The Pelagian View” and most Arminians believe this. When we get to salvation, we will talk more about Pelagianism and Arminianism. For now, just trust me. They believe that the image of God simply describes man’s personality, rational character and religious disposition. The fact that we interact with God; that we can think; that we have personality; that’s the sense in which we reflect the image of God and it stops there. And they would say at the fall, nothing changed; that continues. 

The Roman Catholic view would distinguish between the word “image” and “likeness.” They would say “image” is one thing and “likeness” is another. They are operating of course, off the Latin Vulgate which puts that conjunction between them making it sound like they are two different things. And they would say that the image of God is natural and that it was given to man at creation. It is the spirituality of the soul; that it’s the freedom of the will; that it’s the immortality of the body. They would say that the likeness of God is supernatural. And this was added soon after creation and it describes original righteousness and holiness. So originally when Adam was created, he was created in a state of innocence and then shortly thereafter God gave him His likeness and he became holy and had righteousness. They would say at the fall, man lost the likeness, that supernatural aspect, the original righteousness, but kept the image. That’s the Roman Catholic view of man made in the image of God. 

That brings us to the view that I hold and that I want to teach you that I believe that I can prove it to you from Scripture and it’s called the “reformed view” in the simple fact that it follows the Protestant reformers. They said and taught that the image of God is the same thing as the likeness of God even as I have already illustrated to you and can be defended biblically. But there are two aspects of the image of God and man or two components, if you will, of this one image of God that is stamped on you and on me. First, there are what they would call natural endowments. Natural endowments. This involves rationality: you and I can think; we can use logic; we can reason with each other. It involves emotion and it involves moral responsibility. All of these things in us reflect the character of God; they reflect something of the image of God. At the fall, these things were marred. You and I understand this. We are now liable to errors in logic and thinking—at least some of us are. We are now subject to mood swings and problems with our emotions: depression, anger, sinful responses. And when it comes to our moral choices, we often make mistakes and misjudgments. So, this aspect was marred at the fall. But man retains some of this. Every man retains obviously rationality, emotion and moral responsibility to some degree. It was marred at the fall. 

Now the second part of this image of God, not only natural endowments but spiritual endowments. And the only way to determine this is by determining what was restored through Christ. By looking at what was restored in man, what is renewed in man through regeneration, we can reconstruct what was a part of man originally—the spiritual endowments which man enjoyed. We call it simply “original righteousness.” You see, Adam—you may have heard the description that Adam was innocent—Adam wasn’t innocent. Adam was positively righteous. He was holy. He was not perfectly holy in the same sense God is. Picture, if you will, a child with all the dispositions of a person but still needing to mature. There’s a sense in which Adam was created in a state of spiritual immaturity but perfectly righteous. 

Now let me show you the passages whereby this is constructed. Turn to Ephesians chapter 4, verse 21. We have been in Ephesians 4 a lot and I have cited this passage for you over the last several Sundays but let me show you this in this context. Verse 20 says, 

You did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

Now what’s going on here is this: Paul is saying, “If you have been regenerated, if God has put within you a new principle, a new disposition of life, you have been changed. And now you need to start living in keeping with that.” And here is what God is going to accomplish in your life as a Christian. Notice the end of verse: you are now to put on the clothes that fit this new person that you are and this new person which you are has been created by God in “righteousness and holiness of the truth.” So, put the word “righteousness,” the words “righteousness and holiness” there under original righteousness. 

Then turn over to Colossians chapter 3. Keep your finger there in Ephesians. Turn to Colossians chapter 3. This is the parallel passage. Paul adds another nuance here. Colossians chapter 3, verse 10. In the same context, he writes, verse 10, you “have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.” In Christ, you and I are being restored to the image of God. That image was marred; that image was distorted; that image was destroyed in some way—still resident but barely visible. It was perverted in us. And in Christ, through the process of sanctification and regeneration, you and I are restored to the image of God. And here we are told in verse 10, that that image involves a “true knowledge.” The Greek word is a “full complete knowledge.” 

So, let’s see if we can define “original righteousness.” Putting these two passages together, we see that here’s what Adam had and what you and I can have in Christ and will have eventually in Christ perfectly. First, he had knowledge, that is, the true knowledge of God. The same word, by the way, that’s translated “knowledge” here in Colossians chapter 3, verse 10, is in Colossians 1, verse 6, verse 9, verses 27 to 28 and in all those cases it refers to this true knowledge of God. That is how we know that it is talking about a true knowledge of God. Adam was created with a true knowledge of God. And you and I in Christ are being recreated, having been recreated, and are now learning to have this true knowledge of God. 

Secondly, original righteousness in Adam consisted of righteousness itself—moral rightness toward others. Moral rightness toward others. The word “righteousness” simply means to “conform to a standard.” It means to treat others in conformity with the standards of God and so here it describes “moral rightness toward others.” And then finally, “holiness” describes “piety toward God.”

So, Adam was created in the image of God in the likeness of God and by that we mean that he some natural endowments, that is, he was able to think and reason. He had emotions; he had moral responsibility. He also had spiritual endowments namely original righteousness which consisted of a true knowledge of God, righteousness and holiness. At the fall, this spiritual endowment, this original righteousness, suffered a serious distortion. Man still retains some of it. For example, if you were to turn to Romans chapter 2, verse 14, you would discover that in every man’s heart there is written what? The substance of the law of God. He still has a sense of what God’s perfect righteousness is. He just doesn’t abide by it. He breaks it and what he knows is often distorted and perverted by his own mind. So that happened at the fall.

Louis Berkhof writes that, “The proper seat of the image of God is in the soul though some rays of its glory also shine in the body. The image of God consists especially in that original integrity of man’s nature lost by sin which reveals itself in true knowledge, righteousness and holiness.” John Calvin wrote that “The image of God extends to everything in which the nature of man surpasses that of animals.” That’s what we have here, both in his natural endowments and in his spiritual endowments. These are the areas in which Adam surpassed the animal creation. 

After the fall, Calvin writes, “This image was”—see if you can pick a word among these:— “deformed, vitiated, mutilated, maimed, disease-ridden, and disfigured.” That’s a picture of man. That’s a picture of the image of God. Still there but barely visible. 

Now, this image of God manifests itself in several ways. There are comprehensive lists of these in various places if you want to look. I like the one in Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology. I will just share that with you. Here’s how the image of God reflects itself in you and me. First of all, in its moral aspects. We are morally accountable, and we have an inner sense of right and wrong. In spiritual aspects, we are immaterial spirits just as God is. And we have a relation to God as persons who can praise and pray, etc. Just as the members of the Trinity can relate to themselves. The mental aspects of the image of God: we have an ability to reason and to think logically and abstractly and to learn. We have complex abstract language. We have an awareness of the distant future. We have creativity in various fields in art, music and literature, innovations and science and technology. All of those things are a reflection of the image of God. We have a greater degree and complexity of emotions. Animals certainly have some expression of emotion. They can be afraid and other emotions but ours are much greater and more complex just as we see God. Although His emotions are not like ours—there is something in God of which we are a reflection. Relationally we are like God in that we have a depth of interpersonal harmony that animals don’t have. Animals can relate to each other; they can enjoy being part of a pack, but they never sit down and talk about their deepest fears and their greatest desires. At least mine never have. And if yours do, I would leave the house immediately. The reason is this is a reflection of the Trinity. This is a reflection of God Himself. We talked before about how the members of the Trinity interact with each other: an eternal love relationship and we are made relationally like God. We are not made to be an island. We are made to relate to others just as God Himself relates to Himself within the members of the Trinity. And in marriage, we would really carefully reflect the Trinity in that there is equality but different roles, just as there is of God Himself.

And even in the physical aspect while God has no body, we can speak of it this way: the image of God provides a suitable, immortal instrument to express our human nature—our bodies. Our bodies have eyes so that we can see, just as we are told God sees. Our bodies have hands to move and to operate just as we are told God acts. While God has no body our bodies become an expression, if you will, of the character of God even as we use them and act. So that’s how God’s image expresses itself in us. We will talk in just a few minutes about the practical application of this. But I want you to get the big picture. You are made in the image of God and that is what it means. 

Now that brings us to another aspect of man, and keep your seatbelts on tonight because we are going to look at a number of things. I hope to get us to the fall by next week. So, let’s talk about the nature of man. There are three views of the make-up of man, that is his constituent parts. And you are familiar with two of them. Monism is simply the body and soul are the same substance. You don’t need to pay much attention there; it is not a widely accepted view. But the two we are most commonly familiar with is trichotomy and dichotomy. Let’s talk about those briefly because this is not simply an ethereal discussion that doesn’t mean anything. There are a very practical ramifications of which of these you embrace. 

Let’s start with trichotomy. Trichotomy says that man consists of three parts. He is composed of body, soul and spirit. The body is a material part of man; the soul is the animal life of man; and the spirit is the God-related rational immortal element of man. The body relates to self; the soul relates to the world; and the spirit relates to God. This is what trichotomists teach. They would say that unbelievers have living souls and bodies but no living spirit. Their spirit is dead and at regeneration God awakens their spirit who brings life where there was death before. The spirit, trichotomists would teach, is to be developed and the soul and the body deprecated—depreciated. Three primary passages trichotomists use—let’s turn to them: 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 44. Paul, of course, here is talking about the resurrection. The resurrection of the body, verse 42: “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body.” So, he is talking here about the resurrection and what kind of body we will have. Verse 44, he says, “it is sown a natural body.” The picture, of course, is a seed sown into the earth and he is describing the body, of course, buried under the earth. “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” They would argue that there are three parts of man, and you can see the components of two in this verse. The problem, however, is that this verse isn’t teaching that there are three parts in man. It does not mean here that the spirit is superior to the soul. That is how they would argue. This must mean that the spirit is superior to the soul. The word that is translated “natural” is “soulish” the soulish body. They would say therefore that the spiritual body, the spirit, is superior to the soul. You can’t make this verse say that. This verse simply means that our soulish body, that is, the body that we have on this earth fits life in this world and our spiritual body will fit life in heaven. That is all this verse is saying. Paul is not arguing here for the make-up of man. He is in a stream of verses arguing for a body sewn in one way and raised in another. 

The second reference they use is 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 23, Paul’s benediction at the end of his Thessalonian epistle he writes, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete.” They say, “There you go. That is clearly man in three parts.” “Without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” I want you to notice that he uses the expression “entirely and complete.” Both of those words are intensives; they are meant to say that the process of sanctification will be utterly complete—he is not necessarily breaking down man’s nature. There are other passages, we will see them in a moment, where he has a different list. So why would we choose this list? And yet, that’s what is often done. But he is not teaching here the makeup of man, he is simply saying, “Your entire person will be sanctified and will be preserved complete without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

The third is Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12: “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Now notice this verse carefully. It does not say that the word divides between soul and spirit. It says, “piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit.” Notice he uses the same expression just a moment later: “judging the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” “Intentions” of course, are just another kind of “thought.” There is no separating “between” in that expression. So, no more than “thoughts and intents” are distinct are “soul and spirit” distinct. All this verse, again, is teaching is that the word of God exposes our hearts. These are the three great pillars of the trichotomist’s position.

But let me show you as we move to the dichotomist position that the overwhelming testimony of Scripture is that man is, in fact, two parts. Man is composed of two distinct parts: body and soul. Now, let me give you a number of arguments and this is not an exhaustive list, but it will give you a little idea of the weight of evidence for this position. In Genesis chapter 2, and you have a commentary on it, let’s turn to Genesis chapter 2, verse 7. We are told the “lord God formed man of dust from the ground.” There’s the material part of man. “And [He] breathed into his nostril the breath of life; and man became a living being.” There is the immaterial part of man. There is no hint here of a third part; there is simply these two components of man. Now keep your finger there and turn over to Ecclesiastes chapter 12. Here’s a commentary on that passage. Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verse 7. Here’s that great poem about getting old. And he concludes it this way, verse 7: “then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.” There are the two components of man. You and I are composed of a material part and an immaterial part. 

Matthew chapter 10, verse 28. In the words of our Lord, let’s turn there as well. We won’t look at all of these references but there are a couple I want you to see. Matthew chapter 10, verse 28: Jesus says, “do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Here Jesus says, “There is a material part of you that can be killed.” He calls it the “body.” And there is an immaterial part of you that no man can touch only God can touch and that is your soul. 

The same thing in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 1 to 10 as you read through that passage, I won’t have you turn there. But in that passage, Paul constantly talks about being absent from the body and being present with the Lord. There is no reference to three parts of man. There is simply his body and him. The real him. We see, our bodies are simply tents in which we live; they are an integral part of what it means to be a man. He said there in 2 Corinthians 5, “I don’t want to be separate from my body. I don’t really look forward to that. I am looking forward to my heavenly body. Being eventually clothed. I don’t want to be naked,” he says. We were made to be two-part beings: a material part, a body; and an immaterial part, a soul or spirit. Philippians chapter 1, we went through that in detail when we studied the book of Philippians. Again, Paul talks about this battle between him and his body—his wanting to be absent from his body. He speaks of these two parts. But let’s move on—again, I am just giving you a survey of the arguments.

In the Scripture, if you were to trace it, the words “spirit” and “soul” are interchangeable. For example, we are referred to as body and soul in several New Testament passages. We are referred to as body and spirit in several passages throughout Scripture. In addition, God commands us to love Him with all our souls. Now if the soul can’t relate to God as trichotomy would teach, then this makes no sense. We are to love Him with our entire being. In fact, in Deuteronomy, if you were to look at the original command to love God in Deuteronomy 6:5, and then you were to look at it in the other three or four places that it occurs, the five places in all, you would find five different terms with which we are to love God. So, these are meant to give the idea of inclusiveness. Not to give some sort of a careful definition of the nature of man. 

They would teach that the spirit, of course, just relates to God. It is only alive in Christ. That’s the new us and it can’t sin. But if you were to turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 7, verse 1, you would find that we are to put off the sins of the spirit as well as the flesh. Both spirit and soul is used animals in Scripture. We are told that there are fleshly lusts that war against the soul in 1 Peter 2:11. If the trichotomist position is right, it ought to be the soul or the body warring against the spirit. You get the idea. We are even told that God is described as having a soul in these references. Death is sometimes the giving up of the soul and sometimes it’s the “giving up of the spirit” in various contexts in Scripture. And both soul and spirit is used of those believers who have died. You get the point. Scripture uses these terms interchangeably. It is not that we are three parts, it is that we are two parts: body and that immaterial part of us Scripture sometimes calls spirit and sometimes calls soul. 

Now what are the ramifications of this? Why am I taking the time to do this? There are a couple of very important ramifications. First of all, the body is or the material part of us is not inherently evil. God made us to be both soul and body. The body is only evil because it has not been redeemed. But that day will come. Some people in Christianity have been influenced by a form of Greek philosophy, Platonism which teaches that the material, the body, is inherently evil. Not at all! God made Adam perfectly with a body. Someday you will have a perfect body—a body that is untainted by sin in any way. 

But the issue is really important because there are some potentially serious dangers that come with trichotomist position. One of them is in the issue of sanctification. You see, think about it for a moment, if you are a trichotomist and you think in terms of man being these three parts and man having this spirit having been regenerated, then it teaches that the spirit is regenerate, but the soul is what? Unregenerate. And that, they say, is the source of the struggle to live righteously. Often the trichotomist position supports what I would call the two-natures theory, that is, that you as a Christian consists of two natures: a new nature and an old nature, and they are constantly at war with each other and it’s all a matter of which you feed as to which wins. When we get to the nature of man in regeneration, we will learn that you are a new creation in Jesus Christ, that you are a new creature, that you are a new man in Christ, a new woman in Christ. What you retain, the Bible calls “the flesh.” It is your unredeemed humanness. It finds its beachhead in the body because your body has not yet been redeemed, but it also taints the immaterial part of us as well. So, those who hold the trichotomist position can use that position to justify, frankly, not living like a believer because I have this unregenerate soul.

Another danger, however, that comes with trichotomy is mysticism. I was greatly influenced by this as a young Christian. Because think for a moment, if your spirit is separate from the rational part of you, that means my relationship to God happens outside of my rational mind. So, my Christian life is all about encountering God outside or beyond my mind. It’s all about experience; it’s all about feeling; it’s about this experience of God. The teaching of Watchmen Nee and other deeper lifers, perhaps you have heard that terminology, is essentially mysticism built on the faulty foundation of the trichotomist position. You and I are two-part beings: material, a body; and immaterial, a soul or a spirit whichever you would like and those are used interchangeably. And when God saves us, he makes us a new person retaining the flesh, which finds its beachhead in our unredeemed body. Make sure you think correctly about who you are in Christ. And we will talk more about that when we get to regeneration. 

Now, let’s move on. Briefly, let’s talk about the origin of the soul. This may be something you’ve never thought about before. But the fact that each of us is composed of two parts raises a challenging question. Where does your soul come from? Where does the immaterial part of you come from? Where does the immaterial part of your children come from? You say, “That’s easy. They obviously came from me. I mean, look at them.” There is essentially universal agreement that our bodies come into existence as God uses the process of natural generation through the union of a man and a woman. Universal agreement on that. But what about our souls? Where do they come from? Well, there are three views. The first is preexistence. This is not a view that’s widely held in evangelicalism. It essentially teaches that God created all the souls of every person who would ever live at one time in the past. And then when it is their time to be conceived, He unites their soul with their developing body in the womb. It is almost universally rejected today because there is absolutely no biblical support for it.

The other two views, however, are much more common. The first is traducianism. It says that both the body and the soul of every person born after Adam and Eve are formed through the process of natural generation. And they use several texts to support that. A third view is creationism, that is, that God immediately, that is, without the use of a mediator creates the soul of every human being and then unites that soul to his body either at conception, at birth, or somewhere between. This view says that God creates the soul sinless and then He united it to the body, and once it become united to the body, it becomes tainted with original sin and depravity. And they use several texts to support that. 

Now the last two views are the only possible ones for us to believe. Let me tell you that there are serious problems with both: the Bible doesn’t give us a clear answer. So don’t be dogmatic; we don’t know. But I just want you to be aware of the discussion and the argument. 

Now, that brings us to the practical application tonight. I want us to come back to God’s image. I have given you sort of an overview of the nature of man, where he comes from, what he is like—made in the image of God and what that describes. I want us to talk about why it matters. Why does it matter that you are made in the image of God? First of all, it means that we must take all men infinitely seriously. We must take all men infinitely seriously. There is in every person a profound sense of dignity and significance because without exception, everyone, every human being, was made in the image of God. One writer puts it this way: 

We are not to consider that men merit of themselves but to look upon the image of God and all man which we owe all honor and love. Therefore, whatever man you meet who needs your aid, you have no reason to refuse to help him. Say he’s contemptible and worthless, but the Lord shows him to be one to whom He has deigned to give the beauty of His image. Say that he does not deserve even your least effort for his sake; but the image of God, which recommends him to you, is worthy of your giving yourself and all your possessions. 

You see, you and I must take every human being seriously. They are made in the image of God. Let me ask you very pointedly. Is there a person or are there people groups you struggle to respect and to take seriously? A different race? The homeless? People who commit certain sins like homosexuality? Terrorists? Listen, we don’t have to accept their sin, but we must take all men seriously because all men without exception are made in and retain some of the image of God.

Secondly, it means that all mankind is equal in value before God. Turn to Leviticus. This is constantly laid out in the Old Testament law. Turn to Leviticus chapter 19, verse 33: “When a stranger [or a sojourner. When a foreigner] resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the lord your God.” Throughout the law, God stresses that the foreigner, the alien, the one unlike the Jewish people if they come and accept the God of Israel, they are to be treated as equal in value before Him. And, of course, in the New Testament that familiar passage in Galatians chapter 3, verse 28, where we are told that in Christ “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” You see, our differences with others are small compared to what all of us share and that is the imago dei the image of God. Every human being whether they are like you or not; whether you understand them or not; they are made in God’s image. 

Thirdly, it means that human beings are of greater significance and value to God than the rest of creation. This, of course, is contrary to the evolutionists who argue that man is just another animal on the same par. I mentioned to you several weeks ago, PETA’s founder Ingrid Newkirk who said that “there is no rational basis for saying that a human being has special rights. A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy.” That is what evolutionary theory teaches. That is the practical outcome of the evolutionary mindset and yet the fact that we are made in the image of God means that human beings have a much greater significance and value to God. Turn to Genesis chapter 9, verse 1, as Noah comes off of the ark, “God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given. Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you.’” That’s how I like my meat: still mooing. “I give all you, as I gave the green plant.” God says, “Listen, it’s for you. You alone, Noah, are made in my image and you have a greater value than the rest of creation.”

Fourthly, the fact that we are made in God’s image means that all sinful hatred and violence against a person is an attack on the person of God Himself. First of all, murder—stay here in Genesis chapter 9, verse 6: “Whoever sheds man’s blood,”—God tells Noah—"by man his blood shall be shed.” Here is the institution of the death penalty. Capital punishment. Ultimately, Romans 13 tells us to be executed by the government who bears the sword for God as a minister of His justice. Why? Why capital punishment? Why man to be put to death? It doesn’t have to make sense to you. But God gives us a reason: he says, because in the image of God He made man. I think I have mentioned to you before when I was seminary, I had a professor who surprised us all one day when we were talking about this concept. He reached into his wallet, and he pulled out a picture of his wife and he held it up. He said, “Now you understand that this is a picture of my wife. This is not my wife. You all get that point. You understand that this is not my wife. This is a picture of my wife. But what would you think of me if you came into my office one day and you discovered me with a pair of scissors and a hammer, and an icepick and I was defacing this picture? You would think there is something seriously wrong with my relationship with my wife. You would see it as an attack on my wife even though it isn’t in fact her.” And he made this point, and it is exactly true. When a man takes up violence against another person, a person made in God’s image, that is a picture, if you will, however marred, however distorted, however perverted of God. And when a man reaches that kind of violence on God’s picture, if you will, it is an attack on the character and nature of God Himself. And God says, “Therefore by man shall his blood be shed.”

It is also true when it comes to how we use our mouths. Turn to James chapter 3, verse 9. He is talking, of course, here about the tongue, and he says in verse 9: “With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men.” He says you can’t do that; you can’t use your tongue to curse men. Why? Because they “have been made in the likeness of God.” When we attack others with our tongue; when we use our tongue to inflict pain on another person, there’s a very real sense in which we are attacking the very image of God. God takes it very seriously. 

Finally, the last application of God’s image that I want to mention to you tonight is that we were created to reflect God’s image in order to bring Him glory. We are to do it, first of all, by our lives. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 2. Here Peter tells us in 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 9 that we as the church have been given the same responsibility as Israel. Israel was chosen to be God’s witness nation to the world. She failed and so now the church has been given this responsibility, verse 9: “You are chosen race, A royal priesthood,”—we are all priests, representing the peoples of the world—"a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession”—watch this, here’s the reason—“so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” We are to reflect God’s glory to the world. “For you once were not a people, but now you are the people of god; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” Verse 11, “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers,”—watch this—“they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.” You and I are made in the image of God and as that image has been restored in us who know Him, we are to so live as to bring God glory from those who see and observe how we act and how we live. The reflection, if you will, has been restored to some degree. 

We are also to reflect His image and to bring Him glory in our worship. Turn to John chapter 4. I have been thinking a lot about this this week. John chapter 4. I mentioned it this morning. Jesus says to the woman, the Samaritan woman there at the well. He says, “An hour is coming”—verse 23—“and now is when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.” And then He makes this very interesting comment: “for such people, the Father seeks to be His worshipers.” The Father seeks worshipers. You and I are made to bring to God glory. We are made in His image, and we are made to turn and give Him glory both with our lives and with our worship and our praise. Verse 24, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” Even our worship is a reflection of the character and glory of God. Don’t take any person lightly because you and everyone you see has been made in the image of God. Let’s pray together.

Father, what is man that You are mindful of him or the son of man that you should care for him? Lord, we are amazed that You made us a little lower than Yourself. You have crowned us with glory and with honor. You have made us in Your very image according to Your likeness. Father, thank you. We praise You. We ask You that You would help us to conduct ourselves in a way that reflects well on Your image. We pray it in Jesus’ name. Amen.