Gods Image Our Origin 1

Religion is the relation between man and His maker- the most important relationship into which man enters. Morality is but the outward manifestation of religion.making religion the most practical thing in life and the thought of God the greatest thought that can enter into human mind or heart. -Wm. Jennings Bryan

Life happens. There are good times, bad times, amazingly beautiful times, as well as fearfully ugly times; all of which have a part in shaping and making us into who we are (past) and who we will be (present). The future has not occurred yet, and is not guaranteed to occur. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:34 not to worry about tomorrow, it will worry about itself. Tomorrow has no power over us today; it does not affect who we are or who we will be. This allows us to focus on who God is and who we are in relationship to Him. When we are aware of God and know Him then whatever comes against us, will not be able to move us. God in all his amazingly creative ability uses all the circumstances in our life to do just that; make us steady, steadfast, immovable, unshakeable, and firm. Life is the process God uses to bring out his image that he placed in us so that we (him and us) can enjoy the fellowship of close (intimate) relationship. Life begins when God and man come together; thats why he made us. Then God said, let us make humans in our image, in our likeness. Let them rule the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the domestic animals all over the earth, and all the animals that crawl on the earth. So God created humans in his image. In the image of God he created them. He created them male and female. Genesis 1:26-27, Gods Word translation Humanity / Human Nature are all the characteristics that we share, in spite of the vast amounts of differences. These characteristics are what form the Image of God in each and every one of us (Genesis 1:27). The abilities to increase, grow, fill, master / overcome and rule are a part of that image our nature, as well as the ability to love, hate, cherish, reject, feel joy or sadness, even anger. Our abilities to think, reason, comprehend and communicate are also a part of the image we share with our Creator. God shares His nature with us. It is the nature He created in us that allows us to be in relationship with Him. Genesis is the book of beginnings (Talk Thru the Old Testament; Vol.1 of Talk thru the Bible, Bruce Wilkinson & Kenneth Boa, pg. 5). Genesis is a Greek term meaning origin, source, generation, or beginning. The Hebrew title is Bereshith, meaning, In the beginning. It is the beginning of the universe, the world, the plants, the animals, and of course, the beginning of us (humanity / human nature). Genesis 1:1, In the beginning is the reference point. It is what it is. Every story has a beginning and ending. If we are honest with ourselves we will agree that somewhere deep within each and every one of us there is a knowledge that the earth and everything in and around it has a starting point (a beginning) and a stopping point (an end). John 1:1-3 says In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was

Gods Image Our Origin 2 not anything made that was made. The Word is something spoken. It is a thought released orally. The Word is how God releases His Power and His Will. It is through His Word that God speaks to us today (oral/written). The beginning is the starting point for creation and mankind. It is something tangible for our finite minds to grasp. What is the starting point for the beginning? The beginning began with the Word. God had a thought. His Heart desired that thought to be expressed. He released that expression of his heart through His Word. He said it, it was. The heart from the biblical view is understood to be the core, the central part. Reading John 1:18, we find Jesus, from the beginning existing at the Fathers Heart; the core/central part of Him. Jesus Christ is the Fathers heart revealed in human flesh. Genesis is only the beginning of that revelation. God is the Almighty, All Powerful Author and Creator of this universe and everything we know. History is His Story. It is His Story of Grace, Love and Relationship. The story begins and ends with Him. Genesis provides us with the core that unifies all of our differences as human beings. The term used for humans / man / mankind is adam meaning be red referring to an individual of a kind or the kind (race) itself. It is connected with adamah which makes reference to the red soil from which mankind was formed, marking the earthliness of humanity. When man was created it was not by a word addressed (let there be) by God like the rest of creation; it was a word decreed by Him (let us make man in our image). Mankind was set distinctly apart from and above the rest of creation (Keil and Delitzsch commentary, e-sword). God made us in His image. God created. He qualified us, selected us, chose us to be a part of this amazing process we call life. He created us to be male and female equal partners with Him. We are a shade, an illusion, a mere resemblance; we are a representative figure of our Creator. We are his best work. When God created mankind, He was showing off His skills and how great He is. We are reflections of who He is. We are made in Gods Image, after his likeness. When God made that proclamation he was declaring that we are distinct and pre-eminent above the rest of creation. He was saying, Hey, pay attention, take note, this is the most important part of all. There was a deliberate purpose behind bringing us into being. No other part of creation was announced before it came to be (Albert Barnes Notes). We are made to reflect his image. We are made to resemble and represent our creator. If we were mirror images we would merely reflect Gods image back to himself; but He desires that we reflect His image to the world, thus the reflection we are is more like the purest form of gold - crystal clear, squeaky clean (Matthew 5:8). The pure heart, like the purest form of gold is so very thin and it is most fragile, but it is also the most clear more then the finest crystal. Gold becomes clear when it is put thru the hottest part of the fire, several times; as many times as it takes to get all the impurities out. Trials are our fire. They are the process through which God purifies our hearts, as many times as it takes. Gods image is what makes us special. We are not evolutionary accidents. There is nothing about any one of us that just happened. We are created complex creatures. We think, we feel, we perceive, we reason processes, we remember, we maintain physical bodily functions, and we make Choices (Essentials of Understanding Psychology, pg 5). We are specially created and purposefully produced to fulfill a preordained (determined ahead of time) role in Gods world. When God created us, He already knew why He was making us. Our peculiar qualities somehow reflect the nature of God, setting us apart and above all other created beings. Scofields commentary notes show that Genesis 1 and 2 are accounts of mankinds creation, not the evolution. The big gaping difference between the lowest man and the highest beast proves man

Gods Image Our Origin 3 did not "evolve". The "highest beast" has no way of being aware of God's Presence or responding to Him, relationally. Science and technology have not been able to "bridge" the gap between man and beast. His image in us makes the difference. We are the crown of his creation, complete and capable of fellowship with Him, with the gift of enjoyment and the ability to govern (Summarized Bible, e-sword). When we indulge ourselves and fill our body full of our own desires all the time, without any thought of anyone else, we put ourselves on the same level as the beasts and that Image of God we carry within gets seriously marred and twisted. It is God's Grace (His Undeserved, Divine Favor) that restores that twisted and marred Image of Him in us. The "Imago Dei", the Image of God, that's who we are on the most basic, foundational level. His Image is what makes us different from the monkey and every other beast. When we allow selfish pride to rule we are throwing away the amazing privilege of being in relationship with our Creator. We have the amazing privilege that no other part of creation has; to be in personal relationship with our Eternal Creator. We are made in the image of his nature. We can reason and apprehend concrete things, perceive them in our consciousness, and recognize abstract truth, whether it is metaphysical or moral. (Albert Barnes Notes) God breathed into us His intelligence, immortality (incorruptibility), and His activity. We recognize his image in our selves in the forms of knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. Our greatest mistake throughout human history is when the part is continually made out to be the whole. There have been attempts to make a difference between the terms image and likeness. The word used for image, selem refers to a carved image like a statue bearing a strong resemblance to the one it represents. The term for likeness is Demuth, meaning to fashion, or pattern, sketch an exact model. Neither of these implies that we are in any way divine, but they do show that we have been given some characteristics of God, being like Him but not the same as him. Many people both past and present have tried to define these terms in two extremely different ways. Most of the early church fathers such as Justin Martyr and Iranaenus have tried to say that image is mankinds physical form while likeness is the spiritual nature. Others like Clement of Alexandria and Origen understand image to be the mental and moral aspects of rationality and freedom and likeness to be those inner qualities we receive by development or moral conflict, the supernatural gifts we gain by Gods grace; saying that the image remained and the likeness was lost after the fall but restored by and in Christ. These ideas do not account for Hebrew parallelism and the narrative description of one act of creation. Exegetically speaking, the two terms were never meant to be separated. Martin Luther and those theologians who worked with him support the thought that the two terms image and likeness are synonymous and are merely combined to add intensity to the thought (Keil and Delitzsch commentary, esword). The question most difficult, yet most important to answer is how are we like God? What part of us bears his image? Gods image is obviously not limited to our bodily form. We are all too diverse. God does not have a physical body, never mind the fact that our body was formed from the dust of the ground, something too fragile to contain the Almighty, All Powerful Creator of the universe. The part of us that is most like God is spiritual in nature; it comes from Him directly. It is His Breath that He personally breathed into us is the image of Him (Genesis 2:7) that bears His Image the greatest. The breath of God became the soul of man; the soul of man therefore is nothing but the breath of God. The rest of the world exists through the word of God; man through His own peculiar breath. This breath is the seal and pledge of our relation to God, of

Gods Image Our Origin 4 our godlike dignity; whereas the breath breathed into the animals is nothing but the common breath, the life-wind of nature, which is moving everywhere, and only appears in the animal fixed and bound into a certain independence and individuality, so that the animal soul is nothing but a nature-soul individualized into certain, though still material spirituality (Ziegler). Gods Image in us is found in our spiritual personality (our determination and passion). It is not limited to the unity of self-consciousness and self-determination. Personality is merely the basis and form of Gods Image within us, not the essence (Keil and Delitzsch commentary, e-sword). We were given the gift of immortality. Gods life, his way of living (being) was made accessible to us. God wanted our moral development to not just "be there" and taken for granted, but rather to be achieved through an inward trial, which would then make our action a choice. This is why Peter tells us not to be surprised when we find ourselves in fiery trials and James says to count it all joy when we find ourselves in diverse temptations. The process of purification is providing us with the power to choose immortality (Gods life) over mortality (our life). When we go through a process for something we appreciate it a lot more; the harder we work, the more we appreciate the result we receive from that hard work. The process of the trials helps to appreciate the gift of immortality (Gods life) for the true treasure it is. The image of God is primarily about our relationship to our Creator. Ruling over the creation is simply an effect of our relationship with Him. The simplest way to understand Gods Image is to understand that it is referring to the part that allows us to be free, self conscious, rational and moral. It is the part that enables us to distinguish right from wrong, choose right or wrong and move closer into relationship with Him (or further away from Him). The greatest image of God we bear is the power to choose. We choose between immortality (Gods Life, Way of Living and Being) and Mortality (our life, our way of living, our way of being). We still have that potential for Gods life inside of us. In the fall, Gods Image in us was never lost, but it was seriously defaced, which caused us to be incapable of being good and being who we were meant to be. This is why Jesus is such good news! Jesus Christ resurrects and restores the ability to be free, self conscious, rational and ethical once again! One reason so many people get turned off from Christianity is that so many "Christians" have refused to choose any other source outside of the Bible, for such a long period of time. But what about choosing to use those other sources WITH the Bible? If all knowledge ultimately comes from God, and if we truly believe He gave us the ability to think, reason and process that knowledge and the thoughts that the knowledge stirs, then it is certainly okay to look into other sources and see if there isnt something that makes a more clear picture, helping us to better understand God, each other, the life God intended us to live. One of those other sources is the science of Psychology. It is about discovering, describing, predicting, and explaining our behavior and mental processes, as well as how to change and improve them so we can enjoy the world we live in (Feldman, Understanding the Essentials of Psychology); the world that God provided for us. So much of Life is intertwined and overlapping, to think that it can be divided and neatly separated into little boxes is not biblical or realistic. Something is going to get torn and lost in that process of division. The hope of restoration of those parts can be found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Take a look at Matthew chapters 5-6 and see how intertwined and connected Life is. Chapter five begins with Jesus listing different groups that people tend to fall into; these are commonly known as the "Beatitudes". He then moves into who we are as God's People (the salt/light of the world), continuing on to tell us how to relate to each other. He spends a lot of

Gods Image Our Origin 5 time there in the area of relationship, wrapping it up with our relationship to God, our Creator. It is all intertwined. When one of the areas is "out of whack" and not functioning properly then the whole thing is messed up and does not function properly. How we see ourselves affects how we see and relate to each other. How we relate to each other affects how we see and relate to God, our Creator and Heavenly Father. If we don't know who we are (individually or collectively) then we cannot rightly relate to or help anyone we encounter. In fact, we will probably do more damage to the person, then help. If we don't know how to rightly relate or reach out to others who are right in front of us every day, then we cannot expect to be able to rightly relate and reach out to God, who isnt so tangible to us. We will not be able to have a relationship with Him. That is what this life is ultimately about, our relationship with Him. We are made for this Purpose: 1. To Love God as He is. 2. To Serve God with the best of our talents/gifts (wherever, whatever, however). 3. To Enjoy His Incredibly Amazing Presence as a part of our every day life, where ever we are, whatever we are doing, however He has gifted us to express that pleasure of Him. It doesn't matter if our parents "planned" to have us or if we were "unplanned surprises for them. God planned each and every one of us to be where we are, in the moment we are in, for this time, for this purpose of here and now (today). When we understand this purpose more clearly, then who we are and what we are to do and Who God is will be clearer (Erickson, Christian Theology, pg 496-97). The Conclusion the Summarized Bible draws says it best: "An all-wise, all-powerful, loving God formed all things perfect in the beginning. He made man, the crown of His creation, perfect and capable of fellowship with Himself and able to enjoy and govern Eden." God made the decision to create male/female (human beings) in his image (Genesis 1:26-27), and acted on that decision when he formed them from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7). We can rest in this basic, simple knowledge that we are here for a purpose. We can rest, even if we dont know that purpose is, because God, Who is Sovereign and on the Throne is in complete control and knows that purpose and will be completed in and through his son Jesus Christ.

God is our Source. We are made in His Image.

When we look to identify ourselves in others all we're going to find is our own reflection and we're probably NOT going to like what we see. Think about it: why do we look in mirrors? So we can fix the flaws. When we focus on God, and dig into the depths of Gods Word we are so captivated, so busy being in awe of who He is and how amazingly beautiful He is that before we know it, we find ourselves forever changed never the same, flawlessly transformed into His Image that He breathed into us from the beginning.

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