NewLife Fellowship, March 19, 2000

Introduction: Our Statement of Beliefs says, "Humanity was made mortal, male and female, in the image of God, and endowed with mental and spiritual faculties." In other words, God made humanity male and female "in the image of God." But humans sinned, became alienated, and now we need to be reconciled to God.

Today, I want to look at three questions:

1) What is the image of God?

2) How was it affected by the ungodly choice that humans made?

3) As we are reconciled to God through Christ, how is humanity changed? The Bible says we are a new creation, a new person. In what way are we different, and how does that relate to the original plan, that we were made in the image of God?

Biblical evidence: Let's begin by looking at some biblical evidence. We should start in the beginning, in Genesis, chapter 1. This chapter gives us an important overview of why God created human beings. We are familiar with Genesis 1, verse 26 — I'll read it from the New International Version —

Then God said, ``Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.'' ²⁷ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

So we are told here that God created humans in two sexes: male and female, and that both male and female are in God's image. And God blessed them and told them to multiply and to fill the earth and rule over the earth. And the next thing we read is that they sinned. They were make like God, but they did something that was not like God. They did something that was selfish, foolish, and sinful.

And God kicked them out of the Garden, but God did not give up on his plan. He did not kill them and start all over with somebody else. Instead, God planned to redeem humanity from its sin, to rescue them. The original plan remained: He wanted to make humans in his own image, so that we are like him.

As we read further, in Genesis 9, we learn that humans are still in the image of God even after they sinned. In Genesis 9, verse 6, God tells Noah that murderers are to be put to death because humans are made in the image of God: ``Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.'' So this image of God continues to be important in the way that God looks at human beings. He is saying, Don't murder, because I still have an important investment in each and every human being.

Now, what is this image? Is it referring to our height, or the color of our skin, or the location of hair on our bodies? Is it referring to our kidneys and lungs, or to the shape of muscles in our arms? No; we get into trouble if we try to understand the image of God in terms of physical shape. No matter what kind of shape a person is in, no matter how big or small, that person is in the image of God. It does not depend on outward appearance.

Well then, I'll give one more wrong idea before I end with what I believe is the right understanding. Some people have looked at Genesis 1:26-28 and concluded that the image of God is to be found in the fact that we have dominion over the earth and all the animals. Well, it is true that Genesis 1 puts these ideas into the same context, and it is true that dominion or rulership is a god-like quality. But power itself is neither good nor bad; dominion itself is neither good nor bad. A bad ruler is not closer to God than a baby in a poor family is. One has dominion, the other has none, but both are equally in the image of God.

New Testament: The apostle Paul tells us that Jesus Christ is the image of God — not just in the same way that everybody else is, but in a special way, in a perfect way. 2 Corinthians 4:4 — "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."

Colossians 1:15 — "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation." Jesus is the image of God not in the way he looks, but in some other way. Jesus told Philip, If you have seen me you have seen the Father (John 14:9), but he wasn't talking about the color of his hair or the color of his eyes or length of his beard.

He wasn't talking about looks at all, for two reasons. First, God is invisible. He doesn't have looks. Second, God's shape and appearance is a minor, external matter. What really matters about God is not the way he looks, but the way he behaves. He is worthy of worship not just because he has power, but because he is infinitely good. His power is always used in the right way because he has the right motive, the right character.

Jesus looked pretty much like the average Jew, but yet he revealed God in a way that the average Jew did not. What was the difference? It was in behavior, in the way he acted, in what he did, in what he thought. That is what is important about God, and that is the way in which Jesus Christ is the image of God — in the inside.

We learn even more about it, when we are told that we Christians are being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ — 2 Corinthians 3:18 — "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."

Paul is not talking about our looks, or our shape or size. Rather, he is talking about our character, our attitudes and our behavior. Jesus Christ is shaping us on the inside, not the outside. It is the inside that counts the most; it is the inside that is being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ; it is the inside that is being conformed to the image of God.

When we want to understand what the image of God is, we need to look at the inside, at the heart, at the way our decisions are made. This is what makes us good or bad; this is what makes us more or less like God. The image of God is our moral capability — not that we are perfectly moral, but that we have the capability of making moral decisions, decisions about what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil, what is helpful and what is selfish. We have that potential, and that is the part of our lives that God is changing the most. He is shaping our attitudes, the way we make decisions, the way we feel about one another, and the way that we choose to treat one another.

Our decision-making ability is actually who we are as a person. That is what makes each of us who we are, and that is the area of our lives that went bad in the Garden of Eden. Jesus Christ redeemed this aspect of our lives, and he is in the process of sanctifying, of changing, of transforming it for his own purposes. He is shaping us into his image, so that we fulfill the purpose for which he made us.

So what? Well, that's nice, but what's it got to do with day-to-day Christian life? Is there anything here that we can apply in our lives? Does it have any practical relevance?

Well, yes.

First, it affirms the value of every human being. Everyone, Christian or not, is made in the image of God and is for that reason important and worthy of honor and respect. Psalm 8 says that God has crowned humans with glory and honor. He takes an interest in each person. As John 3:16 reminds us, God loved the entire world so much that he sent his Son to rescue the entire world.

This affects our day-to-day attitudes toward other people, and toward ourselves. We are crowned with glory and honor, and we are important, because God says that each person is important. He's got a plan for us, that we will be glorious and great — and because that is his plan for us, it is already true. Every person has a God-given dignity and value and glory. We need to treat other people as God's property, as valued by him, and we need to see ourselves as people whom God values highly.

Second, it emphasizes the importance of the inner person, the heart, the attitude, the way we make decisions about life, the way that we decide what is right and what is wrong. This doesn't mean that the outer person is irrelevant, it doesn't mean that our bodies and flesh don't matter, or that it doesn't matter how we take care of the physical needs of other people or the way that we take care of our own bodies. Those things are important, but there is a special importance in our conscience, in our sense of right and wrong.

The book of Hebrews talks about how our conscience needs to be trained in discerning good from evil. This is the person that is being transformed by the sanctifying work of Jesus Christ. That is the area in which our Christian growth occurs. That is the way that we are being transformed to be more like Jesus Christ, the way in which he is living in us. This is the image of God being formed in us, being restored in us through the re-creating work of the Holy Spirit. By looking at this phrase "image of God," we help focus our thoughts on what God is doing in our lives. When we wake up each morning, we not only know that God is interested in us, we also have a focus for what aspect of our lives God is especially interested in. Our thoughts and decisions are important.

Third, what we learn about the image of God is a microcosm of who we are and where we are going. It tells us that we were created with great potential, but we messed up really bad. Our point of uniqueness over the animals, was in our ability to choose good and evil, and we made the wrong choice. Thanks to God's grace, the potential is still there for every person, but it has been terribly misused, and humans often live like animals, and we do not have the ability to rescue ourselves from this self-chosen evil.

This is the bad news. We know that there is a right and a wrong, but we do not have it within ourselves to always choose what is right.

This leads us to the good news, to Jesus Christ, the God who became human, to rescue humanity from our dead-end detour. Whatever Adam and Eve messed up, Jesus Christ fixed, and our salvation is to be found in him. He is the second Adam, the example of what a human being ought to be — not in his shape, of course, but in his character, in his attitudes, in his choices in life.

So, our study points us to Jesus Christ as a concrete example of what life is for, of what God wants life to be. This is the reason for which he made us — to choose what is good. We were made and called and sanctified for this purpose, of choosing and doing the good. That doesn't mean that we are saved by doing good, but it means that this is what we are saved for, what we are supposed to be doing after coming to faith in Christ. This is where real life is to be found — it is found in Jesus Christ, in seeing the example he set, and in inviting him to live within us, to change us, to transform us, to be more and more like his image, until he is formed in us. This gives us a day-to-day focus for where we need to go, and how it is we are to get there.

Humanity is the problem, Jesus is the answer.