Village Schools of the Bible

MAN, THE GLORY OF GOD!
by Monty Sholund

Of all the questions which people through the ages have asked, the ones which are most universal, most demanding, most intriguing are: "Where did I come from? Who made me? Why am I here?"

The existence of a divine-power is universally accepted. Modern anthropologists would use as a synonym the word 'religion' and some even question whether it is necessary to accept the idea of 'God' to have a religion. Nevertheless, even an atheistic anthropologist like Adamson Hoebel, for example, says, "Religion is rooted in the mind of man. On the subhuman level, there is no religion. Men alone possess it. Religious belief and behavior are a universal aspect of culture. No society of men has possessed a culture devoid of religion." And we ask, "What can explain this amazing fact?" Paul responds to this question by saying, "...what may be known about God is plain... because God has made it plain...for since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--His eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse" (Romans 1:19,20).

I'll consider this wonderful topic in four parts...

The Image Made...by God (Genesis 1:26-27)
The Image Marred...by sin (Romans 3:23; Genesis 3)
The Image re-Made...by Christ (Romans 8:29)
The Image Manifest...for all eternity (I John 3:2)

The Image Made by God

I want to say that, except for the results of sin, it would be very difficult to over-praise human beings. Consider the rich diversity of who we are. Think of the stretches of knowledge of what we know. Note the constantly startling things that we achieve. We are faced with this immense contrast: the incredible greatness of man, in contrast to the indescribable badness of man. So let's look at the beginnings of this incredible being, Man!

The Biblical description of human beginnings is both dramatic and brief. "God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule...over all the creatures that move along the ground.' So God created man in his own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over...every living creature.... God saw all that He had made and it was very good." (Genesis 1:26, 27, 28, 31).

If you read Chapter 1 of Genesis, you find the record of the creation of the earth. We read that God says, Let there be light (vs.3), an expanse between the waters (vs.6), dry land (vs.9), vegetation and fruit trees (vs.11), living creatures in sea and sky (vs.20-21) and living creatures on the earth (vs.24). Each of these acts of creation is preceded by a simple statement "Let there be..." and there was. But when you come to vs. 26, the whole tenor of the chapter changes. It is no longer, "Let there be...". Instead God says "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness..".

Furthermore, it is totally exciting to discover that man, is in fact, God's masterpiece. There is a unique word used only twice in the New Testament which signifies a 'masterpiece'. In Greek classical thought, an artist, sculptor, painter, during his life-time could produce only one 'poema', the Greek word for masterpiece, translated in Scripture as 'workmanship.' Many of us, for example, would say that Michaelangelo's marvelous ceramic painting on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel would be his masterpiece, even though He created many more marvelous artistic achievements. In any case, an artist's 'poema' represents his finest achievement.

So one is stunned to read, in Ephesians 2:10, "For we are God's workmanship (masterpiece), created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." In other words, when God said, "Let us make man in our image.." He poured into this creation infinitely wonderful qualities and characteristics, of which you and I are the inheritance.

As we read the Genesis passage, we sense excitement, a sense of planning and purpose in it all. God was reaching the climax of his creative power, producing someone in his own image who would be the recipient of his love. He was about to bring into being one who is, in all creation, God-like. Man was created in the image of God, so there could be an affinity, a unity between Creator and Created. Sin interrupted this great plan, ruining man, condemning him to separation from God, but he is still today, even after these millennia of sin, a being created in the image of God.

It was essential in creating man in His own image that God give man both the capacity to make moral choices and the ability to express and share his thoughts in the making of them. As Plato has said, "The greatest quality of a man is the ability to get an idea and express it." Man, exercising this ability, chose to disobey God and sin continues like a cancer in the very being of man. This Glory of God is now a dying sinner, sick unto death because of the poison of sin. But if you can remove both the presence and power of that sin you have the image of God again in all its fullness. That is why Christ came into the world, to restore us in the image of God. Hebrews 1:3, "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact image of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word."

We see that Jesus Christ is the image of God because He is a man without sin. Jesus Christ is the perfect God-Man, who became sin for me that I might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21) or be restored to the fullness of the image of God. God sees in Jesus Christ who I essentially am. He sees Christ in His perfect humanity and we rejoice to read in Ephesians 1:7, "in Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding."

That is why God loves lost men. He loves them for that which He sees in them of His lost and fallen image. God can never lose anything but Himself, directly. He loves everything else for His own sake (Philippians 2:13). He loves lost men, not because He is careless or indifferent to their moral fall, but because He, in the Trinity, once stood and said, "Let us make man in our image..." and like calls out to like. He loves us, not because of how impressive or important or great we think we are, but because He sees Himself in us, through Christ, and finds pleasure as He causes us to desire His will and do it (Philippians 2:13).

Why did the Lord Jesus become man? Because by humbling Himself, He was made in human likeness, was found in the appearance as a man....and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:7-8). And in doing so, it became possible for "every tongue to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father"(2:10). And as I confess Christ as Lord, a man can stand boldly and openly before the people he knows, lives and works with, as a man with 'head uncovered', "since he is the image and glory of God (I Corinthians 11:7)."

So to reject God's immeasurable gift, His Son, the Lord Jesus, is the height of folly, for it dismisses forever the only way one can return to the fullness of what you could be in Christ. If anyone reading this feels despondent, even desperate, feels hollow, empty, hopeless, remember you are doomed to this despair until you come back to the One who created you in His image, who loves you and always will.

The Image Marred by Sin

In contrast to the privilege of being 'the image and glory of God', we see around us a terrible picture. Violence, vice, hatred and hopelessness in a world where the devil is roaming with ever-increasing cunning. One need not attempt to describe the moral decay and social disintegration rampant throughout the world, the daily paper is an appropriate reference point.

I know that we are often deeply involved in the prevalence of sin in the world and are so often disappointed by man in general, and men in particular. We speak of the depravity of man, the degeneracy of man, we are engulfed in our newspapers by a horrific flood of stories depicting the evil acts which man has committed. We are often left shaking our heads by the things we read: violent crimes, unspeakable torturing of people, incidents of the most gross depravity and we are astonished by how evil mankind can be.

There is a stream of theology which seems to focus only on the depravity of man, and this seems so reasonable. The Scriptures themselves are forthright about this description of man's evil. The following verses are all quoted in Romans 3:9-18: "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one"(Psalm 14:1-2; 53:1-3; Eccles.7:20). "Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit"(Psalm 5:9). "The poison of vipers is on their lips"(Psalm 140:3). "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness"(Psalm 10:7); "Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know"(Isaiah 59:7,8); "There is no fear of God in their eyes"(Psalm 36:1).

We ask: Is this the kind of man God created in His image? Does this sound like the best that God could do?

How important it is to remember, as Paul reminded Timothy, "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst."(I Timothy 1:15.) God at times allows us to go on our own way, to reveal within us a need that we had previously refused to acknowledge. How good is God. He loves and allows us to love Him or reject Him in return. God loves each of us, in spite of our burden of sin, or whatever weight may be lying on our consciences. He loves us because we belong to Him, purchased at infinite cost (I Cor.6:20).

Recently I read a story which I had never heard before, a true story which illustrates the love and goodness of God, who looks on us in our brokenness, our hurting condition, our fragmented, flawed state and he puts his hand on us and says, "You are mine, right now, just the way you are. You belong to me. And I am filled with joy for who you are."

It is a story of a service at a rescue mission in a midwestern city a few years ago. It was a service for the children of poorer people, and the children themselves were putting on the program. One little boy was asked to give a recitation. He was only about 5 or 6 years old, but he had a deformity, a terrible misshapen back, a humpback. As he walked across the stage to share what he had so earnestly learned, it was evident that he was very nervous, shy and afraid. He was very much aware of his condition. In fact, it was the first time he had ever been asked to do something like this and it was a great struggle for him.

Two older fellows had come into the back of the room, intending to ridicule the service. One of them called out to this boy, as he walked across the stage, "Hey, kid, where are you going with that ugly pack on your back?"

The little boy looked up, stunned, and was so completely demoralized that he began to cry. He stood up there and sobbed.

A man got up out of the audience and came up to the platform. He knelt down by the lad and put his arm around him. He said to the audience, "It must take a very cruel and callous person to say something like that to a little boy like this. He is suffering from something that is not his fault at all. He does have this deformity and despite it he was trying for the first time to venture out and say something in public. And now this remark has cut him deeply. But I want you to know that this little boy belongs to me, I am his Dad, and I am proud of him." And he led the boy off the platform.

That is what God is saying to us. That is what He is really saying! He sees our hurt, shares our heartache and our longings, heals our brokenness and says, "You're mine!"

The Image Re-Made by Christ in Reborn Men

What a marvelous promise in Romans 8:28,29, "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For thoseGod foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brothers."

What does this really mean? It means simply that when Christ died on the cross, He became sin for me, and the nails nailed Him there to die in my place. I can never hope to understand fully what that meant for Him, but I can certainly know what it has accomplished for me. I can begin to enjoy who I truly am, a being created in the image of God. I can live a new life, well-pleasing to Him, full of joy and fulfillment for myself.

Is it a life of freedom? Oh, absolutely, but it's not the freedom falsely so-called that lets me do whatever I wish to do. That is not freedom. Here is a violin string, and some would say it's free, as it dangles in the wind. But it's not truly free until it's bound to the violin--and then the artist can begin to fulfill the purpose for its creation. As the poet has so perfectly put it,

Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free.
Cause me to render up my sword, and I shall conqu'ror be.
I sink in life's alarms when by myself I stand!
Imprison me within Thine arms, and strong shall be my hand.
My power is faint and low 'til I have learned to serve,
It wants the needed fire to glow, it wants the breeze to nerve;
It cannot drive the world until itself be driv'n;
Its flag can only be unfurled when Thou shalt breathe from heaven.
My will is not my own 'til Thou has made it Thine;
If it would reach a monarch's throne, it must its crown resign.
It only stands unbent amid the clashing strife,
When on Thy bosom it has leaned, and found in Thee its life.

It's only when I am joyously pressing on to fulfill the purpose for which Christ has taken hold of me that I can begin to discover the wonder of who I am. It is only when the Steinway is in the hands of a Rachmaninoff that it can begin to know what a marvelous instrument it is. And we can "offer ourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; can offer the parts of our bodies to Him as instruments of righteousness" (Romans 6:13). This is pure freedom, this is pure joy, this is the pure privilege of being co-workers, partners with the God of the Universe (1 Corinthians 3:9)

The Image Manifest for All Eternity

I love that forward look expressed by the beloved Apostle John in I John 3:2, "Dear friend, now we are children of God and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Every man who has this expectation in Him, purifies himself even as He is pure." In other words John reveled in who he was and who he would always be, like the Lord Jesus. And although we may wonder what it means to be created in the image of God, it is easier to know what it is to have been created in the image of Christ, the God-Man. Therefore, it should be my primary passion, my most urgent desire to know Christ in every detail of His life and in every need of mine. And as He is the Living Word, so do I express my love for Him, my desire to know Him, to be like Him when I diligently seek for Him in His Written Word.

To say I am created in the image of God, without desiring eagerly to know the nature of the One in whose image I have been created is to live an absurdity. To possess the written Word of God, my only way of knowing the living Word of God, and to ignore or neglect studying it is an insult to the God who gave us the book and for whose preservation multitudes in history have died.

Paul reminds the Colossians that "you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator." The new self is being renewed, it is growing, flourishing, bearing fruit as it grows in the knowledge of God, whose image it reflects. And this knowledge is the result of diligent study of God's Word, of seeking to know Him in his fullness.

But the old self is constantly under the control of the god of this age who "has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord....who has made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:4-6).

So we go into the world to let the whole world know what God is like, as He is reflected in the way we live and talk and have our being. What a huge, indescribable privilege to so live that God can receive Glory. This is all of sheer Grace and we marvel with David, when he cries, "What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than God (margin) and crowned him with glory and honor." Hallelujah, my friend, let's go out and be who we are!

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