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what we've discussed here with with the idea of God as creator there's a lot of threads in this and they can be ordered in a couple of different ways and I did order them in a couple of different ways but I'm going to try this way and follow the logic
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here hopefully it makes sense I want to read out of Genesis 2 first couple of verses
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here as well a Mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground and then the Lord God formed the man of the Dust of the ground and breathed into
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his nostrils to the Breath of Life and the Man became a living person the Lord God planted a garden toward the east in Eden and there he placed the man whom he had formed out of the ground God
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the Lord God caused every tree to grow that is pleasing in the sight and good for food and the tree of life was also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil
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we saw earlier when we were discussing the days of creation
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Beast what makes man this special occupier of a place in creation well a lot of different theologians have given us a lot of different theories a
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lot of different ideas among them are rationality metacognition the ability to think about thinking language perhaps it's abstract language after all we know the Dolphins
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talk to each other apparently um creativity is one of them after all we're talking about God as Creator creativity among them free will certainly we can get through that topic
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in one Sunday I'm sure love we all like love that separates us from the animals or immortality perhaps that the soul of man is different from the soul of the
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beasts although the writer of Ecclesiastes calls this slightly into question when he says in Ecclesiastes 3 I'll go to the same place all came from the dust and all returned to the dust
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who knows that the spirit of the sons of mankind ascends upward and the spirit of the animal descends downward to the Earth all of these different theories all of these things what separates man from the
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Beast there is a theory um that evolutionary science likes to promulgate that man is simply an advanced animal in a lot of respects and
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we've talked about the necessity of creation of the Genesis account of man being created separates him but it also separates him from the
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animals in this respect I mean this is one of those things that is always baffled me it's to the extent that I engage with these things which is they get all excited right the Dolphins
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apparently have names for each other and communicate with each other various other animals have sounds and things they make the bees communicate with a wiggle dance we don't communicate well some some people do I
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guess um you know we we can teach an elephant to paint a tree we can teach uh an ape to use blocks to ask for things the very rudiments of things that we consider
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developmental milestones for our infants for our one-year-olds for our very small children we are so much further beyond that that it there is no comparison and
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yet we want to I say we The evolutionary science Community wants to pick up these tiny little threads and say see see we're they're just like us they're we're just further along in our evolution
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we are so completely different and so in some respects these ideas of rationality and and intelligence and being able to think about thinking in the complexities of language yes they they do distinguish
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us they make a difference in US but there's another Point here which is
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all of these things are good and right and discussable but it's not actually what the passage is getting at here it's not actually the thing that is used here by the writer by Moses to to set up a part
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man there's a quote that I pulled out of one of Chuck's studies it says for Ambrose the soul was the image of God for athanasius rationality in the light of the logos Doctrine for Augustine
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under the influence of trinitarian Dogma the image is to be seen as the Triune faculties of the Soul Memoria intellectus amore intellectus amore for the reformers it was the state of
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original righteousness enjoyed by Adam before the fall the entire Excellence of human nature including everything in which the nature of man surpasses that of all other species of animals which
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since the fall is vitiated and almost destroyed nothing remains but a ruin confused mutilated and tainted with impurity all these different aspects all these different ideas it's part of why
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these books run on and on and on and there are so many of them but if we come back to the passage and we look at it carefully it says the Lord God said let us make Mankind in our
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image according to our likeness let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock over all the Earth over every crawling thing that crawls on the Earth
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so God created man in his own image in the image of God he created him male and female he created them God blessed them so there's a number of things here that
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we want to pick up but there's two things that stick out right away I think which is body and purpose
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this is where I went different directions with which one we go with first but first but I'm going to start us off with the body
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there is body there is purpose man's physicality can the body of physical man reflect the invisible God we read in Deuteronomy 4 Deuteronomy 4 as he's talking about the approach to
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the mountain where God was it says God came down he was on the mountain to deliver his word you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain the mountain burned with fire to the very heart of
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the heavens Darkness cloud and thick Gloom then the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire and you heard the sound of words but you saw no form only
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a voice well we also have Christ's incarnation we have Christ in his physical body
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we know we know and I don't want to spend all of this morning on the Incarnation but it isn't an important aspect of thinking about the image of God in the image of man
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that Christ came in a physical body that he was truly 100 man and 100 God and so there is this uh question that arises in some sense did Christ take on
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the form of man that God had already established or did God establish man's form with a view towards Christ's eventual incarnation eventual incarnation which when we think about eternity and
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we think about time and how God interacts with these things I think the answer is sort of both and that he was aware and he purposed these things ahead of time and that both of them are true
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simultaneously C.S Lewis gives an interesting reflection on this in one of his pieces of fiction it's a little bit long but I think it's worth hearing so I'm going to read it for you
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he was imagining a vision in effect in which a man was able to see to perceive Adam in his original created State he
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says it was a face which no man can say he does not know you might ask how it was possible to look upon it without idolatry not to mistake it for that of which it was a likeness for the resemblance was in its
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own fashion infinite so that almost you could Wonder at finding no Sorrows on his brow had no wounds in his hands and feet yet there was no danger of mistaking not
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one moment of confusion no least Sally of will towards forbidden reverence where likeness was greatest mistake was least possible perhaps this was always
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so a clever wax work can be made so that a man for a moment of a man so that it it for a moment it deceives us the great portrait Which is far more deeply like him does not
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plaster images of the Holy One May before now have drawn to themselves the Adoration they were meant to arouse for the reality the reality but here where his Living Image like him
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within and without was made by his own bare hands out of the depths of divine artistry his Masterpiece of self-portraiture coming forth from his Workshop to
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Delight all worlds walked and spoke it could never be taken for more than an image nay the very beauty of it lay in the certainty that it was a copy like
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and not the same a rhyme an Exquisite reverberation of untreated music prolonged in a created medium
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so that's his fictional thought for us it's his reflection of man in his incarnation in his physical form God gave man a body for several reasons
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um one of the reasons that we've already sort of discussed or thought about we he all of these things that we just talked about as as Theo philosophers like to dig into distinguishing man from Beast creativity
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language art music all of those things that we do and we make require a physical frame they require a physical body they require form and shape to engage with to create
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we also see anthropomorphisms in scripture we see anthropomorphisms of God we see him referring to himself or referred to by the prophets as bearing his arm as having things under his feet
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physical aspects of shape and form and yet we know he does not have a body as he tells us in several places in Scripture so how is it that we reconcile those two
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things God is a person is naturally thought of in terms of human personality and physicality God made man God established man
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he established his body in ways that would make his self-revelation more comprehensible that would allow him to use these terms give him his
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we reflect the image of God made us in that image so that as he reveals himself in his written word it is also comprehensible through the frame through the Mind through the soul the morality those things that he
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established in His image it is the Confluence of those things
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God also made man male and female we read that again out of Genesis 1 before we even get to the sort of detail view that we have in Genesis 2 where we read about that more fully we see here
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already in the beginning of this narrative as as man is established God says
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let us make Mankind in our image according to our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea the birds of the Earth some of you have probably heard various explanations of the use of plural my god
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there where he says let us some some have offered it as a royal we perhaps things of that nature I think there is an argument to be made
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that it is not a royal we but it is an interaction within the persons of the godhead that it is God speaking among his persons in an
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interactive a a it's the right word a a self -reflective but communicating with himself speaking
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among the persons as we see happening later on we have of course Jesus's prayers to the father we see interaction among the persons of the godhead there we also have John 1. speaking again of
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of creation when we think about the as we mentioned before looking for signposts looking for views back to the Cross where do we find Christ in in God's revelation I think this is one of
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those aspects where we can see John 1 gives us the logos who interacted with God at the very beginning through whom God created all
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things we also have in Proverbs 8. the poem here that he gives us in Proverbs 8 the Lord possessed me at the beginning of his way before his works of old from Everlasting I was established
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from the beginning from the earliest times of the earth when there were no depths I was brought forth when there were no springs abounding with water before the mountains were settled before the hills I was brought forth while he
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had not yet made the earth and the fields nor the first dust of the world when he established the heavens I was there when he inscribed a circle on the face of the deep
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when he made firm the skies above when the Springs of the deep became fixed when he set a boundary sorry set a c for its boundary so that the water would not transgress his command when he marked
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out the foundations of the earth then I was beside him as a master Workman and I was daily his Delight rejoicing always before him rejoicing in the world his Earth and having my delight in the sons
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of men of men in the context in Proverbs it is of course personification of wisdom but the wisdom of God here is given that personality that person those responsibilities and actions that we see
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John later ascribing to Christ and so when we read then in Genesis as God is speaking saying let us make I think it is that internal
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interaction that we are hearing of an interactive aspect of God in creation God made man as we see in Chapter 2 he designed him to both need and to be met with a help
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says the Lord God took man put him into the Garden of Eden I'm going to skip down Lord God said it is not good for man to be alone I will make a helper suitable for him and out of the ground
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God the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the sky and brought them to the man to see what he would call them whatever the man called the living creature that was its name the man gave names to all the livestock and to the birds of the sky and to every
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animal of the field but for Adam the man there was not found a helper suitable for him so the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man and he slept then he took one of his ribs and closed
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up the flesh at that place and the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which he had taken out of the man and brought her to the man then the man said this is bone of my bones and Flesh of My Flesh she shall be
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called woman called woman because she was taken out of man for this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and he shall be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh
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the man and his wife were both naked but they were not ashamed so we see here both in chapter one before we get to this aspect this idea
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of male and female they are presented as one idea when he says make man in our image male and female he created them as Moses is setting out this Paradigm this aspect of
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he is presenting for us an essential Unity of the two Sexes of man male and female created as one whole one idea one concept as it is established here so you
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have Unity with differentiation Unity with differentiation is essential for mankind as man's reflection of God we've just talked about
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God's interactivity in the godhead communicating with himself and yet we know that the persons of the godhead are all what all what truly God truly God they are all of that one Essence and yet
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there is differentiation there is the differentiation of Father Son and Holy Spirit
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a reflection of the image of God that he creates male and female equal United and yet differentiated this is a reflection of some of those
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aspects of the godhead looks a little bit trickier anytime we dive into First Corinthians potentially get ourselves
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into trouble into trouble but um but um Paul tells us this fairly well-known verse I would get Hazard I'm going to put verse 3 and verse 7 together
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I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man and that man is the head of a woman and God is the head of Christ for a man ought not to have his head covered since he is the image and glory of God but the
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woman is the glory of man Christ is fully and completely God and yet he is he has a head he has that
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covering if you like that Paul tells us here in in First Corinthians 11. additionally we we read and we will see hopefully in Ephesians
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Christ is made fully and completely whole when he is united with his bride the church the church we read in Ephesians 1 he put all things in subjection under his feet and gave
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him his head over all things to the church which is his body the fullness of him who fills all in all
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certainly don't mean this to be irreverent in the sense that God is Not Transcendent and that Christ is not able
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hold that aspect of his nature this sometimes makes people particularly theologians a little bit uncomfortable when we talk about this whole idea of the image of God
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and I think it very much goes hand in glove with
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it connected tethered tied himself to man in a way that he has not done for any other part of his creation
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no other part of God's creation Bears His Image all of it Bears his stamp we read in the last couple of weeks from Paul in various places talking about creation revealing those invisible
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attributes of God God is therein and his Maker's Mark is this distinct and distinguishable throughout his creation and yet
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and yet man is set apart man is distinct a much deeper aspect of his creation and in bringing Christ into his
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Incarnation to take man's body and soul and nature 100 man 100 God God has connected himself tied himself to man to
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humanity and yet we recognize we know that we exist now because of the fall in a time which there is now distinction between kinds
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of man of man there is man that is saved in man that is not saved man that is Redeemed by Christ's blood and man that is not
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and yet Christ as we read here in Ephesians and I think you can read other um in Paul we may not have time to read all of the references this morning
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the church his body his body the fullness of him who fills all in all there is some measure some aspect Paul is telling us in which we are completing
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filling up filling up filling in filling in an aspect of Christ's
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frame his existence his purpose does that make sense there's a lot of furrowed brows out here and I can't tell if it's because we're all tired or if people are not following or objecting
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and you know that he was created from the Dust as were the animals but in Genesis in chapter 2
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breathe and demand and that's a really important thing so God does and we we read there that God forms him of the dust and breathes
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into him a living soul the problem with that is we do actually read in some other places similar wording used for the breath that is in the animals particularly in the Psalms
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and in Proverbs in other places it's one of those things when you read a bit when you read at it and you look at it it is one of the questions that theologians engage with engage with some of them connect it back to
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um you know we'll read in the law we'll read in in Leviticus and in Deuteronomy some things about blood and we're even told um at one place that the the life is in the blood
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the blood there's a lot of parallels drawn in those parts of those realities of both animal and man that it is more than Simply Life that
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distinguishes man um which in some cases I want to wrap this thought up first before we go on to that because I think that brings us to our our second point so I appreciate that
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but the reason I bring this up in part that that we Believers we redeemed are the fullness of him who fills all in
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all that we have this with respect to Christ and there's a there is a sense in which I'm preaching to the choir here because you're all here this morning but it
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should be a motivating factor to all believers to engage with the body of Christ because we are not created as separate members we are not created as individual
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aspects little images of God Paul is tying this back to the body the whole the whole body of Christ which is building up which at some point
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you can sort of hand wave and say oh well it's the Church Catholic the larger frame the the grander scheme okay but if you're not part of one of the individual manifestations of the body are you actually contributing are you actually a
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member are you actually or have you cut yourself off are you a pinky toe wiggling on down the road on your own so engaging tying together I think Paul is very much pushing us back into this
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aspect of you know we we have a a privilege and a responsibility to one another it takes us back to my my sort of first lesson that I put up here which is you know when we're talking about God
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as Creator and we're talking about um you know we picked up the title from GK beale's book The Temple and the church's Mission well what is the mission of the
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in all of the various ways that that manifests and hopefully you don't need me to renumerate them all for you but you understand that there is there is an aspect for some of evangelism for some simply of ministering within the
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established body of church for some it's within your household specifically your children or your family members all of us have contact all of us have ways to do this and this is one of those things
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you go back to Christ's Incarnation I've erased it but what is his thing his purpose his mission that he is accomplishing when he's here on the earth in addition to his shedding of his
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blood to make that way that possibility that man can even be reconciled in the first place he is making disciples he is crafting those who would go on to establish generation after generation of
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faith as a body but that brings us to point two I think as I have 15 minutes left
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which is body and we talked about this with a lot of other aspects of creation
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when we looked at the days one of the things that distinguishes the days is not so much the concern but the physical material matter material matter even though that's what we get all wound up about now because of science but it
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is that God made all of those things to do something do something he established everything for a purpose for his purpose and it is no less true
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of man yeah okay I've missed my other quote here I'm going to go back to Genesis
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somewhere in here I'm going to find Genesis 2 again so it says the Lord God planted a garden toward the east in Eden and there he
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placed the man whom he had formed we talked about this last week when we talked about Eden and Eden as a temple whether or not it qualifies and one of the things that is argued about is
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whether or not man is performing the function of a priest in where we are told that God placed man in that Garden to tend and to keep it but one of the things we read at the
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beginning of Genesis 2 is that he forms this and there was yet no man there to care for it as he's establishing this garden and then he makes man he establishes man he shapes him and he
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places them in it to tend and to keep it that God has given man to work 210 to keep to establish this it
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comes back I think to Bob's point that he has given man a reason a purpose
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in Genesis 1 after he makes him it says God bless them and God said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth and subdue it rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves
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on the Earth be fruitful and multiply that one's pretty straightforward
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it occurred to me as I was working on my notes for this one of the things that's often promulgated in evolutionary theology such as it is evolutionary biology and
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philosophy is that the purpose of All Creatures is to reproduce to reproduce that all of evolution is driven by The Urge of creatures to reproduce which is one of the things that we read
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God telling the animals over and over again your purpose is to fill the Earth go reproduce go reproduce all right so we've got that one evolutionary biology found something
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mostly correct so that answers that however man is to exert dominion over creation he says to them rule multiply
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fill the Earth subdue it and rule over the fish the sea the birds all the living things that move upon the Earth man is intended to tend and keep as a
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there is a lot of debate currently about man's ability to do these things especially as we read about all of the terrible things and there are legitimately terrible things that we have done to the Earth I was uh just recently listening to
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something about a a farmer in Japan who started this started this concept called do nothing farming in which he says well what I'm going to do is I'm going to follow the seasons
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the patterns that we see produced in nature so instead of going out into my rice field and tilling it all up and digging all this down and seeding individually drilling down and planting
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the rice seeds I'm just going to throw them on the ground at the time that they would naturally have fallen on the ground according to the cycle in the seasons and in the spring I'm going to grow ground cover
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and chop it down at the correct time when it would have died back and allow that to be the green Mulch and it turns out that his garden his farm is considerably more productive than his neighbors who are using traditional
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farming methods of fertilizer and Drilling and all of these things and he had some comment here which I didn't even bother to write down because it was so Blasphemous in which he says man has nothing and contributes nothing
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we know nothing at all we ought to just follow the patterns of nature um that is not the point here that is not what we were given in Genesis man is intended to rule over it and what does
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this tell us about God I mean to me this goes back to the whole aspect of deism the idea that God sort of wound the the world up and he he tightened all the screws and bolts and
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he set it in motion and off it goes well no we're told time and again and my plan is for us later in the study to look at some of these aspects but you I'm sure can think of references of
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God's sustained and continued rule over his creation that he maintains these things he orders them we have we read out of Proverbs we read in job we can
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read in the Psalms all of these ways that God maintains and
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he is keeping his hand on the tiller of his creation his creation he has made things that function according to their order according to their pattern as we read in in those six days he gave them functions and told them to fulfill them and yet he has not left
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them to their own devices and making Man In His Image one of the things that he's doing is he's telling man just as I maintain the creation you too rule over
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in a sense as a regent represent me on this Earth on this globe on this sphere of influence and maintain my creation
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we talked when we talked about light of the idea of light being that sort of bridge between space and time that light gives us the passage of time we see God establishing in those six days of
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creation light before he establishes the vessels that are given dominion over it I think in a similar way man is given as a link of being uniting that aspect
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which is animal with that which is spiritual the Frailty of the Dust of the ground with the breath as Bob pointed out for us the breath of the Almighty the consciousness of man the the
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intelligence and the capacity that he has given us makes man the only candidate who is physically and morally capable of governance over the Earth
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and it is because we are made in that after the fall man maintains both
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his image and his mandate the image of God is Not destroyed in man but it is obscured it is
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stricken by the Fall by the taint of sin ILY the Mandate given maintains but is also altered
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irrevocably by the Fall we read in Genesis 9. heading in my Bible is the Covenant blessing of the rainbow
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but we're told in verse 1 as God is pronouncing to Noah and to his sons God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth
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the fear and dread of you will fall on every living creature on the Earth every bird of the air every creature that crawls on the ground and all the fish of the sea they are delivered into your
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hand everything that lives and moves will be food for you just as I gave you the green plants I now give you all things but you must not eat meat with its lifeblood still in it
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in peace that's that's a good word for it in peace is now ruled over in Strife in enmity in Mastery and control as opposed to what was in some respects collaborative before
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collaborative before and so we have a maintenance of both image and fall mandate
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Tim a question from what you're you're bringing out that's unregenerate man sin against God just in his destruction of God's creation failure to
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as God upholds his laws under General man fails to uphold the creation of evil
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yes to support it yes and that's actually where I was headed as we close this morning so I appreciate that which is we talk about this sometimes and you'll hear it especially out of very um Unitarian bent
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Unitarian bent theologies which is well well all man Bears the image of God yes all man Bears the Fallen image of God but we are New Creation we are now
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distinguished in this if you look ahead to the new creation the the new Heavens the new Earth we
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read certain things there I think there will still be work there will still be tending there will still be keeping there will still be that delighting in service before the Lord because it is given to man from the very first it is
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one of his functions but it will be without toil um we read in Romans I'm going to pull this up real quick
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I didn't have time to put it on my slide I apologize I apologize Romans 8. Romans 8. and I promise at some point I'm going to stop skipping ahead in Romans the Chuck can preach through it
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probably not probably not Romans 8 19 he says the creation weights an eager expectation for the revelation of the sons of God
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for the creation was subjected to futility not by its own will but because of the one who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to Decay and brought
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into the Glorious freedom of the children of God we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the Pains of childbirth until the present time not only that but we ourselves who have the
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first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as Sons the Redemption of our bodies there is an aspect of uh
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restoration of the image of God in in our remaking in our spirits to be alive to God alive to Christ
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there is a a restoration of the image of God in our correct exercise of our Dominion our authority over the Earth or at least there ought
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to be and there is another aspect in our physicality frankly I think all of it is there we read um a week or two ago again out of Paul
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where he says you know the man who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body all the other sins are things that are external projected outward but in this you sin against yourself do you not know that your body
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is a temple to the Holy Spirit again we're in dwelt we have that that aspect that responsibility and so there is a sense in which yes very much so the the unbeliever and you don't even have to
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think of the most heinous examples those who are specifically intentionally mutilating themselves or or derelicting their Duty or all of those things there are so many ways in which it it is
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it is done and it is happening so there is a there is a distinction between redeemed and unredeemed in terms of how we bear the image of God now now that Christ has come now that his blood has
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been shed now that we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit you have these two distinct elements um and and it goes back again to the mission of the church frankly
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to make disciples one of those aspects is to is to help one another to restore to put the image back into the way it ought to be and to function as a body
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both in dominion over the Earth and in um maintaining the order the the household of faith I know I'm going to sound like a presbyterian saying you know decently in an order I'm going to get myself on the on the wrong treadmill
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here but all of that I think is part of it I've it I've been watching this um guy I enjoy on YouTube who who takes old rusty metal objects and restores them and he puts
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them back to full functionality and some of these he'll be working on him and he'll come and there'll be a a screw that is just mangled and some of them like the ends of the thread are missing
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and you think oh you go buy another screw he pulls it out he'll weld on extra material and in some cases by hand he will file threads back onto this so that all the original pieces are
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established ordered back to their original function and puts this thing back together so it works it's amazing it's so much fun to watch and I I was working through this that's all I could think of time and time again was
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part of the mission of the church is for us to do that not only for ourselves but I think when you come back to that phrase of the iron sharpening iron we are meant to build one another up to put the pieces
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back together to file down where it needs to be filed down to fill in where it needs filling in to sand to polish to put it back as much as we can knowing as we've just read from Paul that we do
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eagerly wait the resurrection but again it goes back to and I don't have time to do it all this morning because we're out of time but you all can think of those the philosophies that have pitted Spirit
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against body and yet Paul tells us time and time again both things are being renewed both things are eagerly awaiting the resurrection we will have glorified bodies it is not matter versus Spirit it
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is all together in that glorious bearing of the image of God so again body purpose there are other things we could go through here but we're gonna have to close this morning let's pray
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our heavenly father we do thank you that you have given us this that you have placed in us your image and we ask that you would allow us to glorify you in the way that we bear it that the indwelling of your Holy Spirit
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would Empower us would move us to better exemplify those things that you intended man to be that we would be faithful even in the
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midst of our toil to redeem this Fallen World this creation around us and our fellow believers For Your Glory for your honor for your
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benefit that you may be truly honored as God by the labors of these that you have made new
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that you are renewing that you are building up we ask that you would bless us this morning as we eagerly gather together around the preaching of your word as we anticipate communing together
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and as we look forward to the addition of another of another to the number through baptism this morning we ask that you would bless all of these things according to your will and your
