Made To Be God's Image

MADE TO BE GOD’S IMAGE

Gen 1:26-27; Exodus 20:4

I. MAN IS UNIQUE

1. Not because he is created

2. Because he alone was created in God’s Image

3. Of all the created order, only man is said to be created in God’s Image

4. He is the “crown” of creation

5. All of creation moves toward the creation of man (Gen 1:1-2:4a)

6. Ps 8 speaks of the place of man in the context of creation (vv 3-7)

7. If you read Ps 8 along with Genesis 1, you will notice the similarity of the two. Ps 8 is a commentary or reflection on Gen 1 – creation, man, dominion

8. Psalm 8 says that man is created “a little lower than God” (Elohim – same word used in Gen 1)

9. Not lower than angels – or polar bears or snail dartars

10. Man is the peak, the crown, the ultimate

11. Man is given the place of dominion over all created order

12.Only man is created in the image of God and only man is commissioned as God’s steward or overseer over the earth

II. WHAT IS THE IMAGE OF GOD?

1. The idea of image suggests man’s likeness to God

2. There are many different views of what exactly the image is

a. Some take the image to refer specifically to dominion

b. Others say that the image refers to the fact that man is a relational being

c. Others look to certain characteristics that man and God share such as –

•Personhood

•Reason (homo sapiens)

•Freedom

•Moral Consciousness (standard of right and wrong)

•Spirtuality (man is in essence a spiritual being)

3. All human beings are created to be like God

4. All humans bear the Image of God

III. THE IMAGE IS BROKEN

1. This is what the story of the fall of man is about

2. “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23)

3. The glory referred to here is NOT the GLORY OF GOD – it is the glory God intended for man

4. When man sinned and rebelled against God, the image of God was marred, broken, cracked

5. Man was no longer what God intended him to be

6. The consequences of sin was far more than the loss of Eden; it was the loss of the Image

7. Because the image is broken man cannot fulfill God’s plan and purpose for him

IV. THE IMAGE MUST BE RESTORED

1. The image can only be restored through Jesus Christ

2. Rom. 8:29

3. 2 Cor 3:18

4. 2 Cor 4:3-4

5. Col 1:12-15

6. Col 3:9-10

7. The image is renewed as we give ourselves to Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit shapes us gradually into the image

V. NO GRAVEN IMAGE

1. Exodus 20:4

2. God commands that there is to be no graven image representing Him (no idols)

3. Representations were common place in every nation surrounding Israel – pictures of gods appeared everywhere

4. But no photo of the God of Israel

5. There is a reason for this –

6. God created man to be the image

7. Man is the image – man reflects, reveals, shows forth the glory of God – when the image is restored

8. Matt. 5:16

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.