Sociology: The Divine Image, The Family & The Social Order Series

Today we’re talking about family. The official title of this message is “Sociology: The Divine Image, the family, and the social order.” But ultimately what we’re talking about is family. Society broken down to it’s simplest repeating structure is the family unit. Husband, wife, and children. We’re going to see how God has designed society to function, and how that beautiful sovereign plan is being undermined in our world today.

God made all things, at the beginning of time, and he said after each creative act: “This is good.” He made the universe, the galaxies, the various plant life, animals, creatures, and then he made humanity. But he made man different than any other creation.

Genesis 1:26-27: Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

So if we are to trust the Bible as the definitive word of God, then this short paragraph makes it abundantly clear that every single human life is sacred and precious. You’ve never met a mere person, but every single person walking around doing their thing is a being made in the image of God. All of them. All people have that spark. Which means every single person matters.

Even the ones we disagree with. Even the people who make us angry. Which is why we should treat each person with dignity and respect. Even and especially the homeless, the addicted, the abused, and even the abusers. They are all made in the image of God, and therefore, able to receive knowledge of salvation and new birth through Christ Jesus our Lord.

So God designed humanity, and society, and he made it to be good. But, something went wrong, right? The first humans succumbed to a temptation, choosing to disobey God and this act of rebellion led to dire consequences.

Genesis chapter 3 verses 17 to 19. God indicated the consequences of man’s rebellion, and self exaltation. “"Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it'; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. "Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.“

Cursed is the ground because of what was done. So today we live in a fallen world. Which for me, aches my heart a little bit everyday. I think about it as I live my life. What it means to live in a fallen world. It means people suffer. It means people do wrong. It means nations fight and war. To this very day, Russia struggles to take control of the Crimea. Syria is in the midst of civil war. In Iraq an armed insurgency is taking place. On and on the list goes. And people die. Recently my grandma died. My cousin Elizabeth died when she was five years old, drown in a pond. Someday I’ll die. This is a fallen world.

Man was made in the image of God. Theologians indicate that the fall caused a distortion of the image of God upon each man. We are still made in the image of God, with eternity stamped upon our souls, yet we struggle with sin. Our mindset and attitudes as we grow up are grounded in the ancient fall event: We tend to be selfish, instead of serving.

We tend to exalt ourselves, instead of others.

We tend to want to take control, instead of allowing God to be in control.

And each of us, each individual, made in the image of God, is accountable to God for how we live. Each person has certain responsibilities and certain inalienable rights.

In fact our society, our legal system was founded on that premise. Group rights were immaterial. There were no group rights or group identities. Our system was based on the premise that each individual person is made in the image of God, and endowed by their creator with inalienable rights. Government, society at large had no say in those rights, they were transcendent, beyond government’s authority. Government’s only job was to make sure none dare infringe on those rights.

Unfortunately when the Christian underpinnings of our culture and system of laws is swept away, as is happening today across our country, these rights tend to get swept away with them.