“Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.” That’s how the creation account in Genesis 1 describes God’s decision to create human beings. And then on the sixth day of creation week that is exactly what he did. Of course, Genesis 2 gives us more detail about the “process” that God went through to create Adam and Eve.
But let’s get back to that short phrase, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.” Unlike any other living creatures, humans are made in the image of God. What is that? We know from the rest of the Bible (we always let the Bible interpret itself) that the image of God means Adam and Eve were holy and righteous—they were without sin. What God wanted they wanted. What God said to do they gladly did. Their will was in perfect harmony with God’s will.
Not only does this quote from God tell us about who we are it also tells us something about God. We hear what might seem like the odd way that God talked to himself. What did he say? He said let “us” make mankind in “our” image and in “our” likeness. Obviously, we need the rest of the Bible to fill in more of the details about the fact that God is triune—that is three in one. I think we can also say that from this verse we learn that God wants to bring mankind into a unique relationship. We who are created in the image of God, and in the likeness of God, are invited into the family of God.
On this Trinity Sunday let’s take to heart a reminder of what our Triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) has done for us. Yes, God finished our salvation long ago. He planned it in eternity. Fulfilled it in time. And has delivered it to us through the Word and Sacraments. But we enjoy the blessings of that salvation today and forever. And as we reflect on the words of our Second Reading for today, we’ll see what it means to:
“ENJOY LIFE IN GOD’S FAMILY”
I. We are sanctified by the Spirit (vv. 12-13)
II. We are children of the Father (vv. 14-16)
III. We are siblings with the Son (v. 17)
Since the first word in this Scripture lesson is “therefore” you know what to do next, right? When you run into a “therefore” you ask what is that “there for?” If we back up just three verses, we can understand this section of the Bible much more clearly. Here is what the Apostle Paul wrote, “You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. In our Adult Bible class last Sunday, we finished a series on Peter’s two letters in the New Testament. We heard Peter declared that the Apostle Paul’s letters “contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.” Yes, these are things that are hard for us to understand. And these verses are full of them! But let’s not miss the point. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have saved us and now welcome us into the family of God. That’s a powerful point for us to take with us this Trinity Sunday. We are sanctified by the Spirit. We are children of the Father. We are siblings with the Son.
I.
Last Sunday, when we observed the Festival of Pentecost, we considered the person and work of God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has also been the focus of our recent midweek Bible classes. We’ll see later on in these verses that it is the Holy Spirit who brings us into God’s family. But in the first two verses of our Second Reading for today we hear about the new spiritual life we enjoy because of the Holy Spirit. We are sanctified by the Spirit. Listen again to this Word of God given to us through the Apostle Paul. “Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.” As members of God’s family through faith in Jesus we have been and are being sanctified—set apart as holy and set apart for service—by the Holy Spirit. And so, we are living and will continue to live a new life.
Before we continue looking at the Spirit’s work of sanctification let’s define that word. Sanctifcation is “being set apart for service” or “being set apart as a holy thing.” We might say that it means getting cleaned up and ready for use. When your laundry has been washed, dried, (maybe ironed) it’s ready for use. Another way that I can attempt to illustrate sanctification is to have you think of a cast iron frying pan. I love using them. To me, nothing works better for cooking than a properly seasoned cast iron skillet. But what do you have to do after each use to make sure it’s ready for service? That skillet needs to be cleaned up. I wash it with water and use a Scotch-Brite Non-Scratch scouring pad to remove any bits of food. Then I put it back on the stove and dry it. Usually, it helps to warm it up a little at that point. Then I take a little oil and cover the surface. Then I put it away in the drawer under our oven. It’s ready for use. In a similar way the Holy Spirit is always preparing us for use. He sanctifies us so that we can better serve God by serving those around us.
And how exactly does the Holy Spirit sanctify us and empower us to live a new life. The sanctifying work of the Spirit is done through the Word and Sacraments. God’s LAW crushes, convicts, and condemns us. God’s Gospel refreshes, restores, and renews us to live a new life.
But are we hindering the Holy Spirit’s work in us? Someone might ask, “How can we possibly put a damper on God the Holy Spirit’s work? The Bible tells us how we might do that. We can do that through our sinful actions. And we can do that by cutting ourselves off from God’s Word. Or as Martin Luther worded it in his Small Catechism when we “despise preaching and His Word.” Let’s listen to these warnings from God’s Word. Galatians 6:8 tells us that, “Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” Ephesians 4:30 warns us, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” We sadden the Holy Spirit when we sin and when neglect Gods’ Word. Paul stated the same truth in a much simpler way in 1 Thessalonians 5:19, “Do not quench the Spirit.” We might say, “Don’t but out the Spirit’s fire.” And the Holy Spirit’s fire is God’s Word. So our sanctified lives are not only guided by God’s Word they are fueled by the Holy Spirit through God’s Word. Ephesians 5:18–19 tells us, “Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord.” And Colossians 3:16 declares, “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.”
Perhaps it is important to note that our lives of sanctification are a process. For all the days of grace God gives we are under construction so to speak. Slowly and steadily, we are remade into the image of God. There will be setbacks and frustrations. At times our sinful nature will get the best of us. But for all our days we are being transformed by the Holy Spirit until the time comes for us to join our Savior in heaven.
This process of sanctification reminds me of a story a hear about a pastor who tried to move the piano at church. You know how people hate change. But a pastor thought it would be okay move the piano from the right side of the altar area to left side. From the pulpit side over to the baptismal side. On the following Sunday he was fired for the disruption caused by the new placement of the piano. Five years later he returned to the same church to visit with the new minister who stepped in when he was fired. They walked into the sanctuary and there was the piano on the left side of the altar area. The once fired preacher shook his head and asked “How did you get the piano moved over there? This congregation fired me for moving it.” The reply from the other minister was plain. “I came in every day for several months and moved the piano one inch to the left each day.” And so, it is with the Holy Spirit’s sanctification of us. A little at a time he moves us away from sin and closer and closer to obeying God. Through the Word and the Sacraments, the Holy Spirit will continue to move along our lives of sanctification.
II.
Our life in the family of God is blessed in another big way. We are children of the Father. Before we look more closely at what that means for us, I want to tell you how revolutionary this thought would have been to the Jews when Jesus spoke about God as his father. Think about this. God is only referred to as “Father” fourteen times in the Old Testament’s thirty-nine books, and even then, rather impersonally. In those fourteen occurrences of Father, the term was always used with reference to the Nation of Israel, not to individuals. In the entire Old Testament, you will not find one individual speaking of God as Father. Now you know how shocking it was to the Jews who heard Jesus say in the New Testament that we begin prayer with a personal relationship to God who is our “FATHER” in Heaven (Luke 11). And yet he is our Father and we are his children.
Our reading continues this thought. “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” There’s much to unpack in these verses.
First let’s focus on the truth that we are children of God. How can we say that? Some have said, “Well, of course, we’re God’s children. We’re all God’s children.” But that’s not truth. We were not always God’s children. Nor are all people God’s children. Yes, I realize that this will upset some people. But the Bible tells us that we are God’s children only through faith in Jesus. God reaches out to us in love and declares us his children! John 1:12–13 states this truth so well. “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” In his first letter John would also write, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”
Our reading from Romans tells us that being children of God takes away our fears. We don’t have to earn our Father’s love. His love is unchanging. The fact that we are children of the Heavenly Father brings blessings that we can’t possibly count. James 1:17 tells us, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” Every day our Father fills our lives with abundant blessings for body and soul.
With those truths in mind now let’s go back and focus on the key blessing described in our reading for today from Romans 8. We have the privilege of coming to God with our prayers. So then why do we so often neglect this great blessing? Perhaps we don’t see our need for God. Maybe we don’t think prayer really works. Have we ever felt like God isn’t our dear father but an angry judge. And yet today, once again, our Father in heaven invites us to pray and promises to hear us.
Speaking of prayer, I am reminded of a story about three pastors who were talking about prayer in general and the appropriate and effective positions for prayer. As they were talking, an electrician was working on one of the outlets in the building. The repair man was just quietly listen to the three pastors. One minister shared that he felt the key to a good prayer was in the hands. He always held his hands together and pointed them upward as a form of symbolic worship. The second pastor suggested that the secret to powerful prayer was praying on your knees. The third pastor suggested that they both had it wrong—the only good position for prayer was to pray while stretched out flat on the ground with your face down. By this time the electrician couldn’t stay out of the conversation any longer. He interjected, “I found that the most powerful prayer I ever made was while I was dangling upside down by my heels from a power pole, suspended forty feet above the ground.” I suppose that’s just a reality for our prayer life. They become more urgent as our situation becomes more urgent! And perhaps that tells us something about what God allows into our lives. Yes, our loving Father will permit trouble, and sorrow, and pain to come our way. But all those things are meant to draw us to him in sincere prayers. As one author worded it, “God ... does not lavish his children with a jolly discipleship so that they may swim in spiritual ecstasy between conversion and death. God is a giver, but he does not give happiness. He gives redemption, meaning, security, love, victory, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And happiness is our response to his gifts.”
III.
In addition to the power and privilege of prayer that we have with our Father in heaven this reading also reminds us that we are siblings with God the Son. Jesus is our brother as the Bible says. Once again, this means many things for us but here the Apostle Paul focuses on our inheritance. “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” Once again, we have a truth in this verse that means many things for us. Because Jesus is our brother we share in all that God the Father has given to him. His perfect life is ours. His punishment for our sins belongs to us. We are justified in God’s eyes—declared not guilty. And how did this happen? The letter to the Hebrews 2:10 tells us, “Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.”
In this verse the Apostle Paul points us to two realities connected to being siblings with God’s Son. We share in his sufferings. We share in his glory. Sharing in Jesus’ sufferings doesn’t sound great, does it? But the Bible reminds us that when we are persecuted or ridiculed for our faith in Jesus it’s proof that we belong to him. And on the opposite side of that coin we are given everything that belongs to Christ in heaven now and forever in his eternal Kingdom.
Perhaps we could connect this to our Memorial Day observance tomorrow. We honor those who gave their lives for our country. We benefit from the price they paid. We enjoy the blessings of freedom and security. In a similar way we benefit from all that Christ has done. We share in his victory and all that it gives us.
We can also point to our baptism into the Name of the Triune God as his seal on us. Through the person and work of our brother, Jesus, we belong to God. We have been brought into the family of God and so we will inherit all that belongs to Christ.
Although creation has fallen into sin and all of its ugly consequences. God’s original intent for us still stands. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.” Today we give thanks that we are blessed to be able to enjoy life in God’s family. We are sanctified by the Holy Spirit. We are children of God the Father. We are siblings with God the Son. Brothers and sisters in the faith, let’s live as the children now as we wait for our final and fullest welcome into God’s forever family. Amen.
