We're going to continue our sermon series. We're actually going to go
backwards now from last week. If you were here last week we looked at how God
created everything good and very good and what that meant and because it was
communion how God creates good and very good and how it kind of worked with our
communion service. This week we're going a little bit prior to that. We're going
to pick up from where we ended I guess sometime last month in our creation
account. So from the beginning to the end we have been looking at the account in
Genesis, Genesis chapter 1. We're still in Genesis chapter 1. We haven't gotten
out of it. The last time that we were here we looked at the days of creation
until the first part of day six. So the land animals, the creeping things, the
the bugs and the beasts and the dogs and the cats. Today we're going to pick up
from there and we're going to look at the second half of day six. Before we do
that though do we have the... all right before we do that though we want to talk
about Pablo Picasso. Pablo Picasso a famed 20th century artist. His paintings
go for untold dollar amounts. People like to get a hold of him. He's usually known
for more of his abstract depictions of things. I look at him and I just go well
that's kind of neat but it seems like even I can do that and I don't have a
whole lot of artistic talent. People who know what they're looking at tell me
that even in the abstract arts like like him and some of the other well-known
artists that there is still a talent and a depth and a layering to the abstract
that because again art is not my thing I'm not talented in that I can't quite
see it. Those with a discerning eye can. I did not know though until recently that
he also has a fairly lengthy collection of self portraits beginning with his
first one at the age of 15 there on the left and then his next one at the age of
18 there on the right. What what we're looking at is we're going to see a
progression of his self portraits how he viewed himself and how it translated
onto his medium as he aged because if we're going to consider perhaps what he
saw of himself how he portrayed it what kind of image does he have about himself.
There he is at the age of 20 and then at 24 can we already see a shift in his
depictions a little less like maybe a real image or capture of himself into
something slightly more abstract even just the difference between the two the
skin color is different the hair style is different the eyes look a little bit
more empty and blank. We can go on to the next one there at 35 and then at 56 a
leap in a couple of decades and can you see a very stark contrast. By the time
Picasso had gotten into his 50s he was really working a lot with his what he
has become most famous for his abstract art things that are just a little out of
where if you and I were to take a photo of it it would it would not look like
his drawings and they have nothing similar to his earliest ones in terms of
can you could you even tell that this was a Picasso if you just had that and
you didn't know that he drew it. At 83 and 85 he's actually getting closer to
the end of his life and and just me critiquing it maybe that's why we have
less hair on the top of the head a few more wrinkles in the brow maybe those
are his ribs showing through if he's losing a little bit of weight as he as
he ages. We can go to the next one there at 89 and then at 85 so maybe think of
those in other ways this is really starting to look more humanoid and less
human really kind of looks cold doesn't it little I mean awfully dark and you
have non-descript lines on that one on the right more shadow and I can think of
confusion or anxiety when I look at lines like that and then our next one oh
it does stop there okay
that's fine he's got one he's got actually several when he was 90 he passed
away shortly after those last ones we're done with this he passed away shortly
after his last couple of pictures and they are even less human than these his
image of himself as he aged as he really found his own in whatever drew him to a
more abstract style of art I believe affected his self-image and when you
look at the ones where he was drawing at 90 and when he's really saying I
believe his last one was titled something like self-portrait facing death
or something like that the face that you see is one of a man looking at the end
of his life there's less color to the skin there's there's less brightness in
the eyes there seems to be more questioning or
doubt he seems to be a little less upright in his posture a little bit more
hunched a little bit more down faced if you will and and maybe I'm reading too
much into it but you look at it and you go this is how his image shifted and
changed as he aged I wonder if we do that I wonder if when we're trying to
portray who we are to those around us one do we go through phases two how well
do we do it and three how often do we reserve ourselves because we don't
really want our real image put out there or our real selves put out there let me
phrase it that way we would rather have an image kind of in our likeness and we
reserve who we really are I believe we do that sometimes I think that's
appropriate I don't think you should should really bear everything certainly
not in the kind of social media age that we have everything is permanent online
and everyone sees that nothing is private if you haven't figured that out
even on the so-called private forums but when God was looking at the end of his
creation process in Genesis we introduced the idea early on that he
wasn't just arbitrarily putting land and arbitrarily putting water and air and
and creatures and beauty and form and all of that he wasn't doing that just
because he was in a good mood that week I believe that God knew what the crowning
act of his creation was going to be before he uttered those first words let
there be light I believe he knew that once all of that was done once it was
all shaped and pieced together that that the purpose of all of that was so that
his final creation at the end of the week would have a home would have land
would have something to do would have a dominion etc. was all leading to this our
scripture reading today tells us exactly what happened after God called forth the
living creatures the other animals in nature apart from what our verses have
said because in Genesis 1 and 26 God said let us make man in our image after
our likeness so right out the gate just because someone asked very recently if
this was a comment on the Trinity it's not it's a comment on the plurality of
God again you don't have a full understanding of the Trinity until you
get to the New Testament you can't do it only and exclusively with the Old
Testament but it's certainly a plurality idea about God let us make man that's
mankind that's humanity in our image after our likeness this word for image
at Salem in the Hebrew is a meaning of something carved or cut out something
carved or cut out that would be like this like what Picasso had done if he
were to make a self-portrait using wood or a marble that would be Salem in the
Hebrew after our likeness makes much the same point in that God made man like
himself though not divine that was what that is one thing that is only reserved
for the Godhead exclusively God alone is holy the Bible tells us but we can learn
a little bit quite a bit actually about what it is to be made in the image of
God what does it mean when God says that what should we look for back then and
right now in humanity what is it to be made in the image of God bearing his
likeness defining us as like him though not divine John Calvin puts it this way
man remember resembles him and that in him that's man God's glory is
contemplated as in a mirror that was a very nice way of phrasing it so in other
words we're going to look at when we look side by side at each other and we
are contemplating mankind when we're contemplating one another what do we see
in how it relates to God one to be made in the image of God it does speak to
form note that I said form not body and there is a difference the Bible tells us
Jesus tells us in John chapter 4 and 24 that one God is spirit and we worship
him in spirit and truth God is spirit but in all of the theophany accounts that
the Bible records the appearances of God before prophets or his people God has a
form God is always described with a head with a chest with arms with something
like legs and I say something like legs because that's often the language it
seems that when the prophets in vision are beholding the majesty of the heavens
they're using the best human language that we have to describe the indescribable
divine something like legs something like arms a form but not a body always
depicted upright always depicted as as regal in appearance always as
brilliant always as as sure of himself and how he's shown so it's it's good to
know that there we can draw something from the image of God and how it relates
to our form but I believe it would be wise to stop just shy of saying that God
has a definite body because the Bible doesn't actually tell us as such
mankind we certainly have a body and a form and in our body and in our form it
speaks of dignity and a healthy human body has a dignified presence about it
when you are fit when you are walking and you're upright and your shoulders
are back and you are you you are not weighted down or burdened or have some
other reason to not walk like the way that that God created us it speaks of
dignity and ability that is beyond the rest of created nature our unique
structure with our appendages and our balances and our eyes and what we can
hear and sense it might not be quite what a dog smells or hears or quite how
fast a cheetah can run but there is a beauty and a dignity that takes mankind
even beyond the best that the animal world has to to be made in the image of
God includes our mind Augustine proposed the image of God resides in man's memory
understanding and will he was attempting to find in man's mind some sort of
commonality with the Trinity so the three persons of the Godhead and here's
the three elements of the mind the memory understanding and will I would
add that there is at least a fourth I don't know if it's a subset of the will
but our reason God has said come and let us reason together humans have
different than the rest of animals we have a memory in the short term and the
long term that definitely outpaces the best of the animal world the only thing
I don't quite understand is salmon getting back to there that must be
something really ingrained and they've met they don't know where they were
born but they make it back up those rivers our understanding our our ability
to know things goes way beyond the most intelligent animal way beyond and of
course only in humans do we find a will the ability to be able to choose to go
in this direction or to go in that direction reason it out and understand
why we can resist another person's will we can push our own will on someone else
and that's different than animals they just kind of have their instincts and so
on and then of course our reason the ability to think deep and high and broad
thoughts God did not say let us come and feel together as important as feelings
and emotions are and I actually think that's one other common thing that we
have in our image of God with him but God has placed our logic and our reason
as that higher order Christ in being called the Logos Logos is not just word
it is also our root for logic God is a logical rational reason reasonable
reason-bearing being and man has been created in like manner we could also
think of man's self-awareness and our personalities which are of a higher
order than animals I have two cats and a dog and they all have a personality they
are nothing as deep as the people I know I've kind of figured out what the cats
and the dogs are going to be like it didn't take long my wife after 20 plus
years of marriage still surprises me and I love that about her my parents after
all of the years that I've known them still surprise me sometime and I have
dear friends that that also will surprise me in their personality in how
they change a little or in how they have grown in their self-awareness we also
have a conscience and we are capable of moral decision-making God clearly is
both of those things man alone worships God among the creatures we alone worship
God with a spiritual awareness you can look at all the various animals and in
the various accounts nature responds to God but we don't ever read in the Bible
how nature seeks after God to worship him that's unique to humanity the wise
man in Ecclesiastes chapter 3 in verse 11 says that he has made everything a
beautiful in its time also he has put eternity in their hearts only mankind
has the ability to think in that way and that is a that is a high and lofty
description to think in eternal matters is to be made after the image of God
number three in verse 27 of Genesis 1 we see that God created man in his own
image in the image of God he created him male and female he created them male and
female both comprise the image of God in the original creation it was purely
equal in all regards when it comes to bearing the image of God that has not
changed when it comes to our morality when it comes to our value when it comes
to what we are charged with doing and what we how we worship who we worship
all of the rest of what we will talk about it's equal between the sexes along
the way where where men and and some women certainly got a little confused in
that and thought that only the male comprised the image of God and the
female had to only bear it because of him etc that's faulty thinking don't
think like that male and female he created them the differences between the
sexes do not detract from this image but uniquely and together they bear the
image it's good to know number four what we also see in this male and female is
that we are communal not merely individual as we read it through the
Bible we find the three members of the Godhead Father Son and Holy Spirit they
work in harmony aside from the time when Christ was dead in the grave those three
have not known separation from each other time in memoriam I don't understand
it but I have faith that God's Word is true and just like they have a community
with each other mankind was created for a knee or with a need for community we
are intended to be together isolation and hyper individualism does not bear out
well in in the population it doesn't that's why we have laws that restrict
how long a person even in prison can be in solitary confinement that's why when
when people are stranded alone on an island and we hear these stories usually
there's some account of them personifying something that they then
kind of talked to the the Tom Hanks movie castaway might bring that he had
his little little beach a little beach ball volleyball Wilson he personified a
volleyball but that maintained in his mind that relationship the community
that we all need you can see terrible results right now in what happens when
you forcefully interrupt that for any lengthy period of time with the
lockdowns from kovat and everyone being told to go home and being told to stay
apart from each other and being told that if you get near one another you
just are going to kill them all of that breaks down broke down that community
the community need and an image and and thing that's deeply rooted in us and that
has borne out in skyrocketing prescriptions for antidepressants
anti-anxieties ADHD drugs an explosion in in addictive behaviors and an
addiction to social media and the depression rates and the suicidal
thoughts and people being stunted in in vocabulary and language and social
interactions all of that all of that is still being felt and we really don't
know how long it's going to impact our society especially our little kids you
can't just take how God has created us forcefully smush it down and then think
everything is going to be okay which is why the Bible talks about in Ephesians
chapter 4 and then in Hebrews I'm going to turn to those really quick I forgot
to put a marker there Ephesians chapter 4 verses 15 and 16 rather speaking the
truth and love we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into
Christ this is speaking of the body of Christ from whom the whole body joined
and held together by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is
working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love the
body of Christ is intended to be held together knit together and grow up
together not apart from each other and then Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 25
let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works not
neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some but encourage one another
and all the more as you see the day drawing near from the beginning God
intended humanity to be a community creature and we need to continue
practicing that number five in verse 26 we see that God created man to be a vice
regent over the rest of creation let them have dominion over the fish of the
sea over the birds of the heavens over the livestock over all the earth and
over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth you see God has a dominion
what's his dominion saints everything all the universe and everything that it
contains but he here is created man in his image and then like himself he has
given man a dominion not a dominion apart from him but a dominion in God's
place a co-regent a vice regent over nature meaning that man exercises the
authority of another we exercise the authority in God's name over creation
we're supposed to keep animals in check and and be good stewards of the plants
and the streams and the fish and the birds all human beings are called to
represent God's kingship through the whole range of human life on earth God's
rule is not the rule of a despot but the loving nurture of a caring parent and
that's how we should rule over the rest of nature I'm not one for at the expense
of all things we preserve all the rest of nature I don't I'm not one for that
but I do believe God has called us to be this to be the stewards to be the
caretakers of the rest of this planet we should not unnecessarily waste we
certainly shouldn't unnecessarily use up resources beyond our needs we should
keep things clean we should help the animals that need our help we should do
all of those things don't abuse in nature God has said that that's our
dominion and I believe he will hold us account to much of what we have done
number six the image of God includes communion with God spiritual creatures
we are intended to live in harmony with a spiritual God animals are unaware of
him in the same sense that we are they neither seek after him nor do they
worship him Paul speaking to the church in Rome says for what can be known about
God is plain to them that's people because God has shown it to them he
reveals himself to us because he wants to be known and he wants us to know him
and he wants us to reveal ourselves back to him that's prayer that's devotion
that's that's taking a nature walk and looking at the beautiful flowers and not
going oh what a fine accident that happened seeing God's fingerprints on
the rings of a tree and so on he wants to commune with us and he reveals
himself to us Jesus in the gospel of John in chapter 17 says this is eternal
life that they know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent
eternal life salvation is in knowing God and not just intellectually but
relationally you have to you have to become a little intimate with your
creator he knows your ins and outs why not go ahead and be honest with him why
not share with him what you are excited about and what you're sad about what
you're looking forward to or what you're anxious over all of that openness
strengthens the bond between you and him much like in a marriage if you and your
spouse regularly hold back from each other only sharing the the generic or
the superficial maybe you'll stay married for a long time but if anything
comes up that challenges that how easily do the cracks form you want to grow
closer to each other and you want to grow closer to God we also see that in
in the creation method itself in the blessing that God poured out on his
creation we see this communion because in Genesis 1 and verse 22 it says that
God just blessed the birds and the fish he blessed them and he said let them be
fruitful and multiply in verse 28 of chapter 1 God also does the same thing
after he creates man he blessed them but he says and God said to them be fruitful
and multiply have dominion over the fish and the sea etc so the other rest of
animals they the the animals are created and then God God declares over them a
blessing and then that ends the day when God makes man and woman he declares a
blessing on them but then he also holds a conversation with them he speaks to
them and he says this is what you are to do he doesn't do that with the rest of
nature that is much more personal that is much more of a communion with our
creator number seven the image of God includes righteousness and holiness if
he's in chapter 4 and 24 says that we are created after the likeness of God in
true righteousness and holiness at the beginning in the beginning God created
man perfect we were righteous like him we didn't have to try it came naturally
to be righteous it came naturally to want to do what God asked us to do it we
didn't have to fight against it we didn't have to plead for the help we
didn't stumble and fall and and go boy can I can can God help me tomorrow maybe
tomorrow will be a better day in the beginning we were created like God
righteous and desiring to be holy like him we were created after his likeness
true righteousness and holiness this signifies that in the beginning we had
a right standing with God and holiness before him if you look at the sanctuary
process the tabernacle process from the outer court and the curtains to the wash
basin and the and the firm in the altar and then into the holy place and then
into the most holy place and so on that is a progress of how does an unholy
human enter into the presence of a holy God we have to do that right now because
we are broken and we are sinful it was not so in the beginning we could just
walk with God and we were not blinded by his brightness we could be in his
presence and not worry or fear about our existence because we were not out of
harmony with his holiness we were created in his image in that way why are
we considering all of this why do we look at all of this and we can we can
keep on going we could there are many other facets to humanity that you could
say is created after the image of God you could think of our creativity our
imagination you could think of our vocabulary and our ability to
communicate you can think of so many things but why do we even bother looking
at this our midweek study during prayer meeting has been going through some of
the basic Christian practices so we started with looking at the practice of
prayer why it was important different types of prayer that communication that
we need between us and our Heavenly Father we just started looking at Bible
study and our introduction this past week brought to mind some of the reasons
you study the Bible and one really important reason is you study the Bible
because the Bible gives you the biggest answer or the answers to some of the
biggest questions that mankind has been asking for millennia such as who am I
why am I here where am I going what am I to do while I am here and going if we
answer the who am I and why am I here we are living creatures made by God to bear
his own image why we're here says so the stamp of God is seen in our moral and
our spiritual nature it is seen in our shared love within community and in our
dominion on God's behalf and it's especially seen in our calling to
communion with God in knowledge and righteousness that's why we are here we
aren't here because of an accident we aren't here because fate said so we
aren't here to just discover ourselves like so many people want to propose
today that's that self-seeking attitude of who am I and I need to just well I
just need to go on a journey to discover myself and it's a lot of it's a lot of
narcissistic kind of thought in our world today the Bible tells us why you're
here you are here to bear God's image in bearing his image it includes all of the
rest of what we've already talked about there is nothing that could grant a
greater dignity along with humility before God together with a higher sense
of calling and privilege than to realize that we are creatures designed to know
and be known by God and to love and be loved by our maker it's the greatest
dignity that we could have forget the CEOs and the millionaires and the
billionaires forget how well you work out or what awards you might win or what
treasures you have laid up the greatest dignity that we have is to realize that
we are creatures designed to know and be known by God and to love and be loved by
our maker that's why we're here and it's such a joy it's such a joy but we have
to also ask
is everything good in mankind today is everything going the way that it once
did back in Eden are we still getting along in harmony with one another and
with our God is the image of God even still present today and if so to what
degree what about the image of God in mankind after the fall in the
introduction of sin it has been proposed early on as Christians were wrestling
with this it has been proposed no the image of God is not present because sin
has depraved us so much that it's just squashed the image of God right out of
us and we are rebuilding that back and well God is rebuilding that back but it
won't actually occur until we're in glory some say yes some say yes it
hasn't diminished even though we're not perfect even though it's not really
ideal the image of God is still there I would suggest to you that it is both no
and yes it is both and not either or this is a fine quote we must state both
that after his revolt mankind remains mankind we didn't become some other
creature or some other creation we are still mankind and also that mankind has
radically changed I think that's fair that he is but a grisly shadow of
himself mankind remains the image of God inviolable and responsible but has
become a contradictory image one might say a caricature a witness against
himself so no and yes we are still humanity we are still mankind there is
no record that suggests that humans are now a completely different type of
species or a different genus or a different whatever you can certainly
find a variety and a spectrum of sizes and shapes and colors and abilities and
so on it's all humanity wherever you fall along that line we're all still
part of the human race no matter the this is I find it odd to say no matter
the corner of the globe as you find yourself from or in and those you
interact with you look at them and they look at you we're all part of the same
human race and that hasn't changed we are still that but we have to be
truthful in recognizing that we are radically changed from creation from
even Noah's time or the patriarchs time or so on we don't still talk about the
Giants that walk the land and I look like a grasshopper in their sight we
don't really do that anymore we have changed you can think of it this way you
can think of it kind of like a tempered gold piece a piece of tempered glass or
a vehicle window that gets a nick and spiders out it shatters it's still there
it still has its form and its shape but it is not what it once was it's cracked
it's distorted you can see it but you can't see clearly through it and if you
push on it too hard you can just kind of break it apart into pieces or you can
think of if you did a self-portrait maybe in some watercolor and and then
you got caught in a rainstorm and some rain drops fell on your watercolor
painting it might mar the image that you had put on to the canvas even if you can
kind of tell that there was once a person's face there similar things the
image of God has been distorted by our depravity we have lost our close
communion with him we can think through the rest of this list and we can say you
know we are not quite as healthy as perhaps we once were we have our aches
and our pains more so we can see that even our bodies are different some are
born missing an appendage or needing surgeries right away or some have a
propensity for cancers they have a predisposition from birth for cancers
that wasn't in the original nature we know that some have different mental
abilities some are very limited and handicapped and some are exceptional
that's a change that's different we can think of male and female our
relationships with one another have have certainly taken turns I mean the the
whole men are from what is it women are from Venus and men are from Mars kind of
idea shows that no longer do we have that harmony with the equality that was
there in at creation we don't our community is not in harmony with one
another more people seem very content with a really individual aspect about
themselves and their interactions and can I serve me not how can we all be in
unity people fight people argue people attack people are vindictive people hurl
insults at one another or worse the image of God has certainly been tainted
as vice regents we have not always done well in being good stewards of our earth
it's just plain and simple sometimes we've had some very catastrophic
natural disasters of our own making the most recent one that comes to my mind
would be the train wreck in Ohio that that was not good and the cleanup was
not good and I believe some of the lies that were told to the people were not
good health will be affected for years they're saying because of that that's
not good stewardship if we're just honest with ourselves of course we've
had our communion with God interrupted we cannot walk in his presence anymore
we do not talk with him in the cool of the evening like Adam and Eve is
certainly enjoyed and we do not have an innate bent towards righteousness and
holiness we now have a born with nature bent opposed to it we are now much more
inclined to scream and shout curses at God or at best we just resist the Holy
Spirit's urging we make excuses when we sin when we put our selfish desires
above the will of God we blame others for it you caused me to do this I don't
want to do what God has asked I don't even care that's where we naturally go
we need the promise of a new creation we remain at creatures designed to know God
and to respond to him in faith and praise that is true that's why we're not
totally depraved we can still respond to him so the promptings of his grace by
faith but now fallen man though we do still bear God's image we respond to
divine and knowledge by cursings and rebellion but is there hope is there
hope for the hot mess we find ourselves in is there hope for the depraved image
that we certainly are is there a time when it will no longer be the cracked
glass but rather clean and clear and put back together whole as it should be
Jesus shows that the answer is yes not because he just really said it but
because Jesus Christ is real and he was here and he walked among us and he showed
that harmony with with heaven and a human again in Jesus we know that the
answer is yes because in Jesus we know that we can have victory over the
depravity in Jesus we see the only way to forgiveness from sin that taints and
Mars and tears up and soils in Jesus we see the example of what we should have
been and if we model ourselves more and more after him that it does something in
us it is it is true that the more you practice something the easier it becomes
until it's much more of just a habit or your first thought or you don't even
think you just kind of do the thing that you're wanting to do exercise is a fine
example it's awful the first 30 days if you're out of shape it's awful you
creak you ache you don't want to get up lifting a can of soup after you've
worked out the day before it's tough your body reminds you that you haven't
moved that way or lifted that much and who knows how long and you want to give
it up but you get past that 30-day hurdle and then the 60-day hurdle and all of a
sudden it kind of happens this way you find that you miss it when you don't
have it you find that you don't get winded as easily when you walk the
stairs it's it's more natural to choose water instead of a coca-cola because you
know that you feel better with the one and the taste is good and the coca-cola
is just too sweet I can't drink coke anymore I haven't I don't really like it
I'm not there yet but I can tell you from personal experience if you drink a
lot of water you like it and the sodas are a lot less appealing it is that way
in your spiritual walk also it's not easy or comfortable to first open up the
Word of God and see high and lofty and holy things it's not always easy it's
not easy to get into the habit of reading something like this which is a
fine piece of literature with deep understanding not the surface simple
minded dribble that you get in most news outlets today this will challenge you
this will really get at you asking those really piercing kinds of questions the
Word of God is like a two-edged sword is it not but it's not easy when you first
do it prayer sometimes feels off or uncomfortable or awkward or well I could
be doing something else or am I praying long enough then your thoughts into your
mind stick with it because God is working in you his will both to love and
know and to do of his good pleasure and much like exercise 30 days 60 days 120
days if you are consistent with it it becomes a part of your life and that
image that we so long to have perfected starts to shine and you really do start
to again regain some of what sin has chipped away and clouded up Ephesians
chapter 4 verses 22 and 24 talks about putting off the old man concerning your
former conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts
and be renewed in the spirit of your mind that you put on the new man which
was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness you get rid
of the depraved and you put on Christ's robe of righteousness that new man and
he will recreate you again after his image 2nd Corinthians 318 but we all
with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being
transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as by the Spirit of
the Lord behold him and he will change you from glory to glory in Jesus Christ
our final quote who is both the Son of God and the image of God we are restored
to our humanity as true images of our Creator and more than images in Jesus we
are more than just an image of God in Jesus we are adopted into the heavenly
family and we are then the sons and daughters in God's family that's more
than just bearing an image we now have a title and a belonging and a relationship
and community and everything else you are now a son and a daughter of God in
Christ by the bond of that new covenant the covenant that we have in Jesus
Christ what a wonderful promise what a blessed assurance we are created in God's
image and it contains so many of those things and we haven't lost all of it but
the only way to regain it all back is to find it in Christ the Bible tells us
that he was the one who was the active person in creation he created us he
started humanity on our journey on earth he is also the one who redeems us and
recreates us back into that same image he is the beginning and the end for
humanity and I say praise God for being created in his image let's pray heavenly
father we thank you for the awesome privilege of being made in your likeness
or we praise you that after we messed up as a people and as we continue to mess
up today that you do not just shun us completely from your sight but rather
you humbled yourself becoming one of us living the life that we should have
dying the death that we rightly deserve but also conquering the grave for us so
that we might have a claim to Christ righteousness that we might have a claim
to eternity in you that we might have a claim to being called your sons and your
daughters not because we've earned it but because you so freely give it to us
in Christ's name or I pray that we would all claim it hold on to it and carry it
with us until we see Jesus coming to take us home Lord may that be our reality
today we pray in your name amen