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Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version of the
Lesson 4: A Tarnished Image
In any journey, it helps to know where you have come from
To discover the reasons why we were made in the image or likeness of God is of great importance to us. These reasons are rooted in the very nature and character of God and a desire in the very heart of God to share Himself with another “being” who could give, understand, and receive love. We were made and born of a fiery desire in the heart of God…. as one that would be in the very image and likeness of God Himself. This mystery was not spelled out clearly in the original creation account, but it can be found in the Word of God as you study and devote yourselves to the Scriptures on a daily basis.
In one regard, the greatest purpose for our life is to discover who God is
and to respond to that revelation in love and obedience. In another
regard, we have been saved from eternal destruction by our willingness to
repent (change our mind) and follow Jesus as our Lord. God’s purpose in
our life, however, is not primarily to save us from the destruction of
hell or from the consequences of our sin. Those are awesome side benefits…
for sure! Rather, you were saved from sin and hell for GOD Himself and for
His purposes. You were saved to be His possession. We are those who by our
voluntary “YES” have become chosen by Father God to be the very
inheritance that He will give to His Son Jesus. Becoming that inheritance
and becoming a person who is “possessed” by God is all part of your
purpose here on planet earth. The real and true meaning of your life is
found in the person of God–-your Creator—and His desire to have you
voluntarily be His “own” special treasure. By looking at the account of
man’s creation, man’s rebellion, and God’s redemptive plan, your identity
in God as a part of His family will become clear.
The Hebrew word for image means a shade,
resemblance, illusion, or a phantom. A phantom is a “perception of
something not really there”. We think of phantoms as being “ghost
images” that quickly vanish before our eyes. This describes how mankind,
in the original creation, gave a perception of God to the rest of
creation, even though it wasn’t really God. An illusion is
something you think you saw, but when you really look closer, your eyes
have played a trick on you. You can think of it in this way as well: when
the rest of creation (angels and the animal kingdom) looked at Adam and
Eve, they had to do a “double-take” because more than likely they were
thinking, “Hey, wasn’t that God that I just saw in the garden?” Then they
would just consider that it was Adam and Eve… not God Himself… but beings
who looked like God and reflected His glory.
Psalms 8:5 says that “man was created a little lower than…the angels”. The word angels is actually the Hebrew word “elohim” and is the same word that is translated in many cases as “God” all throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. Genesis 1:1 says that “In the beginning, Elohim (God) created the heavens and the earth.” One of the puzzling aspects of the nature of the God of the Bible is that He is absolutely unique and awesome and beyond human description! Elohim is actually the plural form of the word “god” and is translated in some cases as “gods”. That is why it is sometimes used to refer to angelic beings or idols. The Holy Spirit inspired the writers of Scriptures (such as Moses) to use this word because it revealed a unique aspect of God’s being. It basically means that God is singular (or one), but at the same time He is plural! The emphatic revelation of the Scriptures is that there is ONLY ONE God… but this God is so fascinating He somehow exhibits a plurality in His “oneness”. This makes your head hurt if you think about it for too long… so don’t try. It is why God, when speaking of creation, can say things like “Let Us make man in Our image…” and at the same time say “God saw everything He had made…” and be correct! Many cults have arisen because they believe the God of the Bible can not be explained by human reason and so they add “other” Scripture that somehow helps explain God in more human (but untrue) terms. In fact, some cults believe that God WAS a man first… and somehow became God later on. Steer clear of any belief that “adds” to the revelation of the Bible… it only leads to confusion and the eventual destruction of those who pursue those beliefs. The issue here is that God really did make man a “little lower” than Himself—a being that was “comparable” to Him and one that bore His very “image”. We were and are similar to God in many ways… and only a fool would go further than that to say that “we are God” or “we can become God”. Only a fool would go further and somehow blur the distinction between the Creator and us as His creation. He is the maker of the heavens and the earth and we were His appointed caretaker of the earth and made to be over His creation. You don’t have to worry about “heresy” by talking about the divine image of God in man… this is a Biblical truth. In fact, we were so much “like” God in our original creation that Adam and Eve appeared to be an illusion… a phantom… of God. We were meant to be partakers of the divine nature of God… we were meant to be reflectors of His glory. We were never meant to BE God or to BE divine or to BE the source of glory… get it? In fact, salvation is essentially when a person says to Jesus “I am going to stop being my own ‘god’ and I am going to let you be my Lord and Master…” When that decision is made, God can begin to restore and return His image and His glory in you. From what the entire Word of God tells us, nothing else in all of creation is ever referred to as being “in the image of God.” Animals, angelic beings, demons, plants, physical creation, and the universe itself all originated from God but evidently humans are the ONLY thing in all of creation (whether visible or invisible) that is described as being “in His image”. Surely the angels had to stare in amazement when God made man in His image: what KIND of creature was this? You can almost hear them saying, “It looks like God, but it isn’t Him! What kind of plans does God have for this creatures?” The answer to this question is going to frame the rest of your life on planet earth as a disciple of Jesus. You are here to learn what His purpose for man is, how that purpose was lost through sin and rebellion, how God restored it through history and through covenant (God’s promises to man), how Jesus came to the earth to restore the image of God in us, and how you can walk in the fullness of your creative purpose—which is to know, love, and enjoy God and be a partner in His Kingdom!
There was (and is) something about human beings that was special…
something God had in mind for us that was extremely different from any
other thing He had created. You and I are not accidents and every one of
us shares a common bond in the fact that we were created with a capacity
to reflect the very glory of the One who made us. Just like the moon
reflects the light of the sun, we were made to reflect the glory of the
One who HAS ALL GLORY! In the creation of man, we were made to be bearers
of His image and reflectors of His glory. Many Bible teachers believe that
Adam and Eve were actually covered with the “glory” of God when they were
created. When Adam looked at Eve, he saw something of God in her and when
Eve looked at Adam, she saw something of God in him. It says they were
“naked and unashamed”. This could explain why they did not see each other
as “naked”, even though evidently they did not wear clothes initially. Humans have the power to create other humans, with the help of God. God forms the spirit of man (who we really are) but it is our parents who frame or fashion the human body that our spirit lives in. Our spirits, once created by God in partnership with human conception, are eternal. Our human bodies return to “dust” when we die (but they too will be resurrected one day). From what we know, no other creature has been given the power to create other “eternal” beings other than humans. What power we have been given! This is why satan works to pollute and corrupt mankind’s sexual ability and drive—because it is part of God’s image in us. We live forever as humans… and our earthly life is merely lived in the houses of the earthly bodies that are given to us by our parents. Our life on earth is spent determining where we will live the “rest of our life” when we die.
God is the ultimate sovereign of the universe and He is the one with ultimate dominion over everything in the universe: He is the Maker and Creator of all things, and ultimately the Owner! Yet we see that in the creation of man, God made a very important statement about “dominion.” We learn that our first human parents, from whom all the nations of mankind have descended, were given dominion over the entire earth. They were told to fill and subdue the earth. Of course, God intended and wanted for mankind to subdue the earth “under” His authority and for His pleasure. The earth was given to human beings for our rule and our dominion…. “under God”. That was the plan all along. One of the paradoxes of God’s sovereignty is that He is the rightful owner of all and the one with ultimate dominion over all. Yet, He has chosen to “give” the earth to the “children of men”. The earth “belongs” to the LORD, but He gave it to Adam and Eve (our parents) so that it would “belong” to them as well. This is what the story of our creation tells us. We have seen how mankind was made with a very special attribute: “in the image of God.” We were also made with a very special purpose: “fill and subdue the earth.” Our ability to govern and have dominion is also part of the image of God in us. The idea that we “represent” God on this planet is based on God’s original gift of the planet earth to our parents: Adam and Eve. To represent someone means to “present again” in their absence. Adam and Eve were to “present again” the nature and image of God on planet Earth, in His place. They were to rule, under the authority, direction, counsel, and will of God, over the entire Earth! Begin to formulate a picture of who you are to God: YOU are very special to God, and the OBJECT of God’s great affection, love, and purposes in the universe. It does not matter what social position you hold, how rich or poor you are, and what possessions you own. Even though the American culture has abandoned this truth and enshrined laws to this effect, human life is THE focus of the activity of God on planet earth and the sanctity of life (from its conception to its death) is absolutely important to God. What we know about the image of God in man, however, is that we have ALL fallen SHORT of the glory of God and His image in us has been corrupted and tainted. It is only through a relationship of following Jesus that this image can be restored, “from glory to glory.”
When Moses recorded the creation events, he wrote in Hebrew that “God breathed into Adam the breath of lives”. In other words, there was life on multiple levels (physical, spiritual, emotional, intellectual). God told Adam that if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, “in dying you shall die”. In other words, they would die, continue to die, and then eventually die! Not only was there life on multiple levels, but disobedience would cause death on multiple levels as well. This is exactly the connotation of the Hebrew words. You will learn many fascinating aspects about our creation as we progress: how God is triune (three in one) and how He also created us as triune beings (three in one), how the temptation of satan is related to our makeup as a spirit who lives in a body and has a soul, and how Jesus faced the same temptation and was victorious. Consider for now that the issue about the tree of knowledge of good and evil was centered around love and trust.
The ultimate question of our generation is going to be
this: “Will you voluntarily love God?” Voluntary love is WHAT the entire
created order is ALL about. The existence of mankind centers on our
ability to either give or refuse voluntary love for God. Your eternal
destiny is linked to whether or not you voluntarily love God. Heaven is
defined by those who want to be there … those who want to love and obey
God. It is not defined by those who are perfect, do everything right, or
had more good works than bad works. Heaven is all about love and the
obedience that comes from love. This is what the Garden of Eden
represented: God’s presence, unveiled, in fellowship with mankind and the
choice to trust God’s wisdom or not.
Human history has been defined by man living outside of the Garden that God originally created for us: the place where we lived in intimacy and knowledge of God. The image of God within us was marred and disfigured when our parents (Adam and Eve) sinned and disobeyed God. In other words, when we look at the world today and we look at human beings (ourselves), we cannot see what God originally created nor what God originally intended. Likewise, man’s dominion over the earth was actually forfeited to another spiritual being that was created by God as well: satan. This angelic being was responsible for helping deceive the first humans and helping them decide to disobey God. In fact, this angelic being is the spirit that works behind the scenes to cause mankind to rebel against God and to reject God’s rulership over us.
Adam and Eve became “sons of disobedience” when they disobeyed God and ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Ever since then, people have been living in a cycle of death that continues on to this day. As humans have continued on since this rebellion against God, our children have been borne according to our image. Adam’s first son, Seth, was “begot” or born in the image of Adam. Notice that it does not say that Seth was born “in the likeness of God” like Adam was. That is the essential problem of humanity: we have reproduced children after our own image and our own likeness. Unfortunately, that image and likeness that Adam and Eve had was corrupted and tarnished because of sin and disobedience and so the image of all human beings as a result was affected. It is not that we are no longer in the “image of God”, but rather the image of God in mankind has been tarnished because of our sinfulness, selfishness, and rebellion against God. Humanity casts a very DULL and FADED image of God now because our first parents sinned. Just look at the world and human history. ¨ What has human history been characterized by? War, disease, death, selfishness, hatred, murder, rape, abuse, deception, false religions, molestation, greed, sexual perversion, drunkenness, hatred, wickedness, envy, covetousness, and so on and so on… ¨ What else has it been characterized by, though? How about intellectual achievement, scientific breakthrough, artistic expression, cultural advancement, and human excellence, just to name a few. Do you notice how our history is marked by both good AND evil? The fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is marked by BOTH: trying to be good while at the same time manifesting evil. This is the human experience. You may not be a murderer or a thief or a child molester, but you are nonetheless guilty of disobeying God and His commandments. We are under a similar death penalty that Adam and Eve was. Death is best defined as separation from God… and the wages of sin is death. What we need is to eat and partake of the Tree of Life. However, the way to that tree was blocked, lest Adam and Eve ate of that tree and were forever separated from God in their sinful condition. The Book of Genesis never indicates whether Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of Life before they ate of the forbidden tree… but from all indications, it appears that they did not. There was no prohibition against the Tree of Life! You can begin to trust the LORD even right now… that He is
good, that He has your best interest in mind, and that you can obey Him
without fear of “missing out” on something better. The tree of knowledge
of good and evil represents the intellectual, rationale, and logical
choices that we are confronted with everyday in how to run our lives. The
tree of life, however, represents God’s way of running our lives: our
voluntary agreement with His will and our trust that He loves us and will
take care of us best. The tree of life speaks of another tree… on which
the Son of God was crucified. This is the tree that we come to NOW for
life: it represents us wanting God to come and rule our lives instead of
us ruling our lives. It represents forgiveness for our sins, life eternal
with God, and fellowship with God now. It also represents the highest cost
God was willing to pay to restore us to fellowship with Himself. God had
to become a man Himself and bear the punishment for our sins in order for
the “way” to the Tree of Life to be once again made available to man. He
had to deal with the “sin” problem. The tree of life speaks of how we each
need to cling and trust to God instead of trusting in our wisdom and our
own understanding. The writer of Proverbs tells us to trust in the LORD
with ALL of our heart: this includes our intellect, emotions, and free
will. We show that we trust God by obeying His will (revealed to us in the
Bible) and turning from our own way. We partake of the tree of life when
we allow Jesus to be Lord over our day to day decisions: how we spend our
time, how we spend our money, and how we spend our talents. Paul encourages followers of Jesus to “work out” what God
has “worked in” them through salvation. We do this primarily by coming to
the Word of Life (the Bible) and asking for revelation of the “Tree of
Life”—who is Jesus, the crucified One. If you are not doing so already,
find time during each day to come to the Lord using the Scriptures. Use
the Word as a conversation piece with the Lord. Ask the Holy Spirit to
illuminate it’s meaning to you. Ask for faith to believe the promises that
are given. Give thanks for all the things that God promises you. Commit
yourself to to the Lord to obey His commands and ask for God to empower
you to do so (ask for grace). Paul uses the words “fear and trembling” to
describe how we should approach the Lord in this way. He wanted to make
clear that we should not take lightly the grace of God or what great a
salvation we have received! This kind of “fear” is a good kind of fear: it
is the very awe of God Himself. It is to be fascinated, awed, stunned, and
amazed by God to a degree that our hearts respond “in trembling”. This is
the connotation, because the very Creator of the universe is WORKING in
you for His good pleasure. He is working to restore His image in you. He
is working to rebuild, revamp, renovate, and renew you so that you begin
to reflect the image of His Son Jesus. Questions1. We need the grace of God and His offer of redemption because all of us have _______________ and fall short of the _________________ of God? (Romans 3:23). 2. We were created to be an ________________________ for Jesus, the Son of God, and His own special ____________________. (Psalms 2:8, Titus 2:14, 1 Peter 2:9) 3. Being a disciple means that we will be ___________ the one we follow (Matthew 10:24-25). 4. We are commanded to follow Jesus and obey His commands because we are transformed into the ________ of the one we behold and follow. (2 Corinthians 3:17-18) 5. True or False. We can see perfectly the image and glory of God in other people today (Romans 3:23). 6. True of False. The reason the world is in the state it is today is because God gave mankind the rulership over the earth originally. (Genesis 1:26-28) 7. There only two trees specifically named in the garden of Eden were the tree of _____________________ and the tree of _____________________________. 8. How did satan convince Eve to eat of the
forbidden tree (Genesis 3:1-5)? 9. When man chose to obey satan instead of obeying God, whom did they forfeit the dominion of the earth over to? _____________________ (John 12:31, John 14:30, John 16:11, 2 Corinthians 4:4, Ephesians 2:2) 10. What was the first question God asked when
Adam and Eve sinned? (Genesis 3:9) 11. Who took the initiative to make things right when Adam and Eve disobeyed? (Genesis 3:21) ________________________ 12. What were the two responses of Adam and Eve
when they disobeyed God? (Genesis 3:7-8) 13. What did God promise He would do to the serpent (the devil) for his role in causing Adam and Eve to sin? (Genesis 3:15) _________________________________________________________ 14. The prohibition against eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil stemmed primarily from ____________________ love, which is love based on a choice to trust God versus trusting our own wisdom. |
and
where you are going. In your journey of faith and your walk with God, you
should realize that you have been created with great purposes in mind and
with a very high calling. You are so important to God and so part of His
plan that He paid an ultimate price to redeem you: He came Himself as a
man and took the penalty of your sins upon Himself! The “good news” of
the Gospel is that we can be free from our sin and can belong to God now.
God’s ultimate purpose in our life is a very good question to consider.
The answer to that question is as complex and diverse as the Person of God
Himself! Human beings have a very special place and role in the
universe. According to the Bible, we were made in the image and
likeness of God. Humans were not evolved from lower primates and God
did not use evolution over billions of years of genetic mistakes to create
the various kinds of animals we see on planet earth today. You are not a
cosmic accident that occurred by random mutations over billions of years.
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