Sermon Tone Analysis

Imago Dei

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What does it mean that we are created in the Image of God??? Imago Dei - Image of God

If God is spirit then he does not have a human body… we have this term anthropomorphism which is a fancy way to say a way of describing God with anatomical or emotional terms so that humans can better understand Him.

Let me give you an example of that… in a lot of ways we see in scripture it says that when God is going to judge someone or something, that “his face is set against them” or how about this...

Why is it important for us to understand this?

I would submit to you that we as humans have a low view of the sanctity of Life because we have lost the importance of the meaning of life.

We have forgot that we were created in the Image of God and our chief end is to Glorify God.

We must remember that

Humanity is created in the Image of God

So, what does it mean that we were created in his image and likeness.

In order to have a good understanding of this we must first again remind ourselves that a people hearing this for the first time may have seen this as very different than we do.

In that world, Images - (meaning statues, sculptures and even paintings of people), were everywhere, and had a very specific purpose.

For instance an image or statue of a certain god would have been for the people to come and worship that god in that place.

And likewise images or statues of the King or Pharoah would be for the purpose of worshipping that king or Pharaoh as a divine ruler.

So an image of god was something that connected you to that god by means of worshipping him.

It identified what you worshipped.

Another big idea of bearing the image of a god would be for power to rule.

If a king had images of himself in his kingdom, they were to remind everyone that this king had power and authority to rule.

And finally the idea of bearing an image would be for the purpose of representation.

If a certain king wore the image of say the god of the sun, and his subject wore something with his image on it, then this meant that these people worshipped their king as a god who was a representation of the sun god.

Does that make sense?

Whoever’s image you bear, that is who you belong to!

So the radical nature of , was that these slaves were being told that they are the image bearers of the one true God who created and controlled everything!

That is a big deal!

but there is so much for us to see about the uniqueness of the Imago Dei that will inform everything that we do to this day.

Let’s dive in.

From last week we saw a big picture view of creation, and we understood how the original audience would’ve heard this.

We saw that God is the main character of all of scripture, and that God creates and controls everything.

​ ESV1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;

In we see God creates the universe, in that focus is narrowed to the earth.

Then in we see the focus narrowed again to one specific garden on this earth with one man and one woman in it.

What we learn about them is important, that was written to further explain what we just read in .

the point isn’t that God has hands and ears, but rather that he can reach us to save us and hear in our prayers...

We have such important detail about being created in the Image of God that we need to take a look at it and then see the implications for us who are now fallen in nature.

Lets look at it.

But remember the Bible says that God is Spirit

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SO we have the earth without man.

It is created and it is watering itself, yet no one is working the land.

This is a very different sounding creation than what we have now.

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2 important things to see here.

First notice what man was made from.

The dust of the ground!

Why?

In gen. 1 God spoke and it was… why didn’t he just say, “let there be man”… I would submit to you that we need to know that God created the most beautiful aspect of his creation from dirt… Think about it, we were made in his image and likeness, yet he did this from the dust of the ground.

He didn’t make us from sunshine, glacier water, mountain flowers, and diamonds… No, he made us from Dirt.

God creates Beauty from what is seen as useless.

That is how Big our God is!

Please also notice that he breathes his own breath into man nostrils.

Man in created but there is no life in him until God breathed into him.

This story is showing how the very life and essence of God in somehow held in the Human image bearer of God.

There is a transcendence and beauty to humanity that is not found equally in other parts of the creation.

All other creation came to be because God spoke it, but we image bearers of God were formed by him and given his breath.

There is a distinction being made here that is important for us not to lose.

As the story of us continues we see that it is God who plants the garden, and that he places man in that garden.

So we see God creating and controlling the circumstances in which he places his creation.

He did this pre-fall, and God still does this as he sovereignly controls all things and places us in time and history where he is pleased to place us.

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For this week we are not going to focus as much on these details until we get to the fall of man, but I would pause and point out that it is very interesting how this story is reading to people who are first hearing it.

There is a sense of intrigue that while everything is created in a general sense and then these two trees are named specifically.

In fact in verse 10-14 it goes on to tell of where this garden is and how beautifully resourced it is.

But again for today we are focusing on the image bearing creation, so we pick up in verse 15.

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So now that God has created man and placed him in the garden we see that God gives his image bearer a job.

Man is to work and keep the garden.

If you look at the original Hebrew here you find that the words for work it and keep it mean to cultivate the land and protect it.

The point here is that man is given work that will help him have purpose and identity.

Work that comes from God which makes man Vice Regent.

Vice regent means someone who acts in the name of another.

In we see that God gives instruction to man to be fruitful and multiply, have dominion and subdue the earth.

Now here we see that God places man in his creation and has him continue the work that God started by becoming a steward of this beautiful land.

This is a the second command we see given to man in the genesis account so far.

The first being given to man and woman in - be fruitful and multiply… Yet this one is very specific.

Eat from every tree except this one tree.

Please also notice that this command comes with a warning of a consequence for disobedience.

Again, we are not going to talk in depth of the fall today but I want to plant this thought here… It is interesting that God gave a consequence to man, as if he already knew what was going to happen and that he would have to show Grace to his creation.

God is showing that he is sovereign over the fall and controls even that too.

And while we have seen that all that God created was good, and even very good, we are about to see the first thing in all of scripture that is not good… Remember this before the Fall and there is something that scripture tells us in not good… Do you know what it is???

While we were made to bear the image of God, there seems to be something incomplete about man.

He needs a helper.

This is very interesting, because in the Hebrew this word for Helper means there is a need for one to assist, implying that there is a weakness that can only be made strong with Help from another.

This is the beginning of understanding God ordained roles between gender.

In fact the scripture is clear Man needs a helper because without that, It is not good!

So God goes to great lengths to find a helper for man.

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Why does God bring every creature to Adam for him to name?

God is allowing his image bearer to help him rule over this creation by naming everything.

This is a great honor indeed, yet there is an ulterior motive here… God is allowing Adam to see that nothing else in his creation is truly suitable for him as a counterpart who can help him in his weaknesses.

God doesn’t say, “It is not good for him to be alone, so lets give him woman”… NO NO NO.

God lets man see his need before providing that need.

God is still graciously interacting with his image bearers like this to this day.

God allows us to see our need before providing that need.

In the Gospel, we need to see our need for God, as sinners we see our need for a savior, before we can understand that he provided a way we see our need… then we hear the glorious news that our God graciously did for us what we could not do for ourselves!

I would submit to you that we are already starting to faintly see that Gospel story being played out in even our creation.

Please also keep in mind where we started… The concept of Image bearers for the Ancient Near Eastern people who were newly freed slaves.

They Knew images as to be worshipped and to represent a god and show which god owned which people.

In that society They had little value because of their slavery and women were seen as objects that they owned and ruled over.

And so gets more intense for them...