In The Image Of God

In the Image of God

TCF Sermon

January 22, 2006

Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

There’s no better place to start a message on this particular Sunday, than with this verse, which tells us very clearly that we are made in the image of God. That’s because on this passage of scripture hangs everything we should know and think about the issues of life.

Everything we hear about the great life and death-related issues of our day, flows in some significant way from how we see this passage of scripture. There are many other passages of scripture which deal with life issues. Let’s take a quick survey of these.

Acts 17:25 (NIV) And he (God) is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.

Psalm 139:13-16 (NIV) For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Isaiah 44:24 (NIV) "This is what the LORD says-- your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the LORD, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself,

Jeremiah 1:5 (NIV) "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

Job 10:8-12 (NIV) "Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me? 9Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again? 10Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese, 11clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews? 12You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit.

These passages of scripture only serve to enhance, and add to the strength of the key verse we read from Genesis. We are made by God, in the image of God.

This particular Sunday marks a day that will live in infamy among those who love life, and see life primarily through the lens of this particular passage of scripture. That’s because 33 years ago today, the Supreme Court of this one nation under God, the God we say we trust even on our currency, our money, the very same nation whose Declaration of Independence speaks of this passage of scripture when it declares,

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness

This great United States of America in which we live, declared it legal to destroy life in the womb, 33 years ago today, dooming, to date, close to 50 million unborn to their deaths.

Of course, we’re talking about the infamous Roe v Wade decision, which made abortion legal in the United States on Jan. 22, 1973. Since that day, the church has been awakened and mobilized, and despite the well-funded and highly-placed anti-life forces at work, despite the fact that in much of the rest of the world, there’s no longer even a significant debate about these issues, because it’s become, not just commonplace, but largely accepted. Here in America,

abortion and other life-related issues are still a battleground in our land.

Abortion and life issues are battleground issues in nearly every political race, and every branch of government. They’re battleground issues in the scientific and medical communities. They’re battleground issues in business, they’re battleground issues in education.

Across our culture, life issues are a battleground. It’s even reflected in our entertainment.

As much as Planned Parenthood, as much as the National Abortion Rights Action League, as much as big business abortion clinics, as much as many big biotechnology companies would like to see the debate on this issue go away, we Christians cannot let it go away.

Just as we mark Persecuted Church Sunday each year, but always note that this is not something to be contained in one Sunday a year, and then we forget about it, these life issues may be something we discuss from this pulpit in a significant way, just once a year or even less often, but should also be something about which we think, pray, work, and learn, all year round.