Topical
March 22nd, 2009
Who Am I?
A wise man once told me: there are two kinds of people in this world; the people who liked high school and the people who hated it, and generally the people who hated it did so because of the people who liked it. This statement resonated with my life because I hated high school. It is such an awkward time where you are growing up your not dependent but you are not ready to be independent. Your body starts to go through some strange changes. Your voice cracks and gets deeper, you start growing facial hair for most people at least unless you are a girl or me and your face is immune to hair growth. High school is just a really awkward time in most peoples lives. We start changing. We search for our identity for who we are and what we are going to do with our lives. High school is really the first time where you start thinking about the future, about what you will do in your life, and about responsibility. You remember those times? Most all of us did something embarrassing in our search for our identity. I had this dream of being a rock star of being the lead singer of a band. I started writing songs, paid for voice lessons and everything because part of me believed that this is who I was going to be. Of course none of this takes into consideration that when I sing it sounds like a squirrel in a trash compactor. One of the greatest mercies I offer you is waiting until after the songs are over to turn on my microphone. When all this was happening I was trying to find my identity. I was asking the question: who am I? See we do some crazy things when we are searching for our identity and trying to figure out who we really are. Some of us are still searching and some of us believe we have found our answer but who are we? Who you are defines how you live. I would like to take you on a little journey and see if we cannot find the answer to this question. In Psalm 8 we can see the struggle David has with this very question as he writes:
Ps 8:3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, Ps 8:4 what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? Ps 8:5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. Ps 8:6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: Ps 8:7 all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, Ps 8:8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. Ps 8:9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
What is man? What is so significant about man that an almighty God would care for him? Man is a unique creation. We are different. Scientists may note some similarities in genetic patterns between man and animal but there is still a great many distinctions. Animals exist to survive. Some may be beautiful creatures some of them sing beautiful songs but these are not acts of creativity they are a part of the life of this animal. Man is creative. There is something inside of us that takes great satisfaction from creating, from making something. Whether that is dinner or the Mona Lisa something about us desires to create. That is one of many differences. Animals are not capable of abstract thinking they do not have complex reasoning skills. Look at morality. If a bear attacks you in the woods that bear is it evil? No, it is not evil it is acting on its base instincts. Animals do what they do because they have been conditioned or it is in their nature. Man is different. If you look at most civilizations you will find a strange universal law. Even before the Judeo-Christian ethic was well know there was an understanding that certain things were right and wrong. Most societies have held that lying, stealing, or murder is wrong. Where did that come from? How is it that people of different cultures, generations, countries so often reach the same conclusions about the essential right and wrong actions of a person? There is this universal law that seems to exist, an innate understanding to some degree of right and wrong. This law seems to be a part of who we are. Animals dont have it, only man does.
So we see that man has characteristics that animals do not. Reason, creativity, complex thinking these are not an evolutionary traits. Evolution is merely generational adaptation to ones environment. Man does not need these skills in order to survive thus there is no reasonable basis for them to evolve. The characteristics we have are not evolved through time there is something about how we are made that separates us from the animals. Man is different. David is not asking what it means to be human, he is searching for the significance of his identity and he is asking; who am I? Just as we do today, David is trying to understand his own identity.
So what is man? What makes us different from the animals? Who are we? Where did these unique aspects come from? Why do we have them and the animals do not? If we are made of the same stuff as they are why are we so different? The answer to the unique characteristics of man is found in Genesis 1:26:
Ge 1:26 Then God said, Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. Ge 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Man is unique in all creation because man is imageo dei. We are created in the image of God. We bear His image, we are in His likeness. But what does that mean? What does it mean to be made in the image of God?
Image in the NT refers to something bearing the likeness of something else. In Matt 22 when the religious leaders are testing Jesus with a trick question about paying taxes Jesus asks them for a coin. He shows them the coin and then asks whose face, whose image they see on the coin. They respond with Caesars. This was the right answer the coin had an engraving that had the likeness of Caesars face. That engraving was the image of Caesar for it bore his likeness.
The word for image used in the OT does not appear to have physical implications as in we were made to look like God or that in some way Gods form is very much like ours. The image we are made in refers to the immaterial parts of man. Basically we bear the moral or spiritual image of God in our lives. When we were created we were made like Him. The universal law that exists in us comes from being made in the image of God. Man is different, unique in that we have the ability to have a relationship with God. When we serve God and obey Him we begin to reveal the image of our creator and God can be seen through our lives and actions.
How we live reflects who we are. We were created in the image of God but something has changed. Our identity was lost when Eve took a bite of the apple. The sin in the garden was a rejection not only of God but of the image we were created in. When we sinned we fell and lost some of that image. Our rejection of Him was to walk away from the purpose of our existence, the meaning of our lives, and the very essence of our creation. In seeing this clearly we see Gods mercy in keeping us away from the tree of life. For whoever eats of the tree of life lives forever. If we ate of the tree in our fallen condition then we would live forever as fallen people. We would be like this. Gods grace protected us from that because He had a plan to redeem us. To bring us back to His image. For when we rejected Him we lost a part of our identity. Dont you see? Who you are is not a job. It is not a nationality. It is not a gender. It is not a parent, family man, character trait, measure of intelligence, or anything like that. We spend so much time trying to find our place in the world trying to answer the question: who am I? All the while we are running from the answer. Our identity is not found by anything in this world. When we live for the things of this world we reject the truth of our own identity. In the ancient world images were means by which deities were made present and visible in the world of man. Man is the image of God being that man, when acting properly bears visible witness to God. How you live determines the image that you bear. When you live for the things the world lives for you look like the world. We are not to live like this. We are to live for something else.
One of my good friends from Ozark is a guy named Eric. I remember one day Eric told me this story. Eric was entering theater class and it was the last class of the day. He walked in, the regular teacher was not there so there was a substitute teacher. He was the first person in class and the sub walked in. When she saw him she began to stare. He was a little freaked out. The sub looked down at her roster and said you must be Eric Dwyer. There was no seating chart, he had never met or even seen this woman before and there was no way for her to tell who he was. He asked if she knew him and she said no, but you look just like your dad. This woman had grown up with his father and he looked so much like his dad she immediately recognized him. He was the image of his father. Just as Christian should be the image of our heavenly father. When we live out our faith as Christians this is what people will see in us. When they see how we live and how we treat others. When they see our love their response should be to say: you look just like your dad. Our lives should be reflections of our maker. We should follow the example of His Son and so find our true identity.
We are made in the image of God. Not the other way around. We are made in His image. We are not the creator. Sometimes we seem to forget that. Sometimes we want to forget that because we enjoy playing God in our own little world. We are not God. We are His imago Dei. It is time that we stopped trying to make God like us and started trying to make ourselves like God. It’s time that we returned to the essence of our creation for it is there we learn the true reality of our purpose. It is there we find our true identity and an actual answer to the question: who am I? Who are you? You are man, made in the image of God. Created to worship, glorify, and commune with Him.
We do not exist to just sit in churches and sing songs we are meant to worship God with all our lives. We do not exist to tell the world what God thinks about their sins we exist to show the world the love of God. We are not meant to be members of churches we are meant to be citizens of His Kingdom. We are meant to be imago dei existing in the image of God and reflections of His glory. It is not until we realize who we are that we can find our purpose and meaning for our lives. We are the children of God made in His image. The reality of life is that we bear the image of God and we exist to glorify Him.
Our lives are like a mirror. They will reflect something. If we live for this world our lives will reflect the image and nature of this world. If we live for God our lives will reflect His image but not only will it reflect it will radiate out of us. For when we live a life like Christ obeying the commands and following His example His image flows out of us like a stream of living water. When we focus ourselves on God when our hearts and minds are set on Him this happens as naturally as breathing. For too many years the church has made the Christian life all about lists. Do these things, dont do these things and you are good. Christianity is turned from a relationship into a ritual of rules. The church makes demands give us your money or youre a bad person. We use guilt trips like they are going out of style all to try to get people to live the right way but the approach is all wrong.
What we need is to focus ourselves on the one who gave us life and we will find ourselves naturally becoming more like Him. Our job is to worship and glorify God by behaving like He does. God is patient, so be patient. God is kind so be kind. God is merciful so be merciful. God is love, so love. Love you friends. Love your family. Love your neighbor. Love you enemy. Pray for those who frustrate you and cause you pain. Christianity is not about to do lists its all about becoming like our savior. All we need for that is to make Him the focus of our lives. When we focus our attention on the greatest most glorious thing in existence, God, we will find ourselves bearing His image and our lives will serve as a testimony to His greatness. When we make Christ the center of who we are our life is not about all the things we have to do or not do our lives are who we get to be. We get to glorify God with all that we do.
