Tuesday, July 21, 2009

The Image Of Our Maker

Lately I’ve been thinking about air-conditioning, Diet Coke, and artificial flowers. The power went out the night before last and the air conditioning wasn’t operating. As I lay in bed I wondered how long it would take for me to get used to the absence of air conditioning. I remember the first window air conditioner my family enjoyed when I was a boy. And we all had to get used to it. Diet Coke is something for which I never thought I would develop a taste. But upon discovering that I had Type 2 diabetes I found that I developed an almost instant desire for its taste. I can only attribute that change of desires to the grace of God. These days when I run out of my Diet Coke supply, I often pout around the kitchen, wondering what I have on hand that will quench my thirst. I wondered out loud the other day as I saw someone building an artificial flower arrangement, “What in the world is wrong with what God made?” There was a time when people lived without air conditioning, dependent upon the evaporation of perspiration to keep our bodies cool as God originally designed. And no matter how much I like Diet Coke, when I am rummaging around the kitchen and looking for a substitute I seem to be oblivious to the truth that we humans have not improved on the satisfying attributes of water. Some flavored drinks actually seem to make us thirstier. And no matter how much artificial flowers look like the real thing, they give out no sweet aroma, although I’ve heard you can get some floral scents to help them seem more real. We often go to great lengths to keep from admitting that God really knows what He is doing. Man’s attempts to improve on God’s creation are futile.
So what in the world is wrong with what God made, especially that creature which the Bible says was made in the image and likeness of God? Everything is wrong. All of Creation is damaged and marred by the presence and power of sin, especially man. That which was meant to live is destined for death in its natural state. Without the intervention of Someone outside of Creation then humanity is bound for destruction and is broken beyond human ability to restore. That is the bad news. But the good news is that although the image of God the Maker stamped upon humanity is certainly flawed, it is still intact. The humanist would say that man is basically good, and will not acknowledge that there is indeed a Maker to whom man will give an account. But we who know God can know a different philosophy or worldview. The Biblical worldview lays it out in Genesis 3 and beyond. Anyone who reads and hears the word of God can come away with a different revelation. God reveals to us in the Biblical narrative that there is one great story called redemption. Our Creator has done something and is doing something about restoring our brokenness. Our Creator became our Redeemer and Restorer.
Paul wrote to the Christian community at Colossae where a crossroads of culture existed and an arena of ideas, competing with Christian doctrine, were intermingling and compromising the gospel. The challenge for the Colossians was how to be godly around ungodly cultural influences. Two views of heresy were confronted and defended against. One was Gnosticism and another was legalism. Gnosticism promoted a “secret knowledge” above and beyond the gospel message. Spiritual gurus said that it wasn’t enough to know the message of Christ. People needed a deeper revelation. Angel worship, astrology, and age-old new age pagan thought was rampant. Legalism was a swing of the pendulum in the other direction. The legalist limited their engagement of the culture lest they be infected with secular ideas. They attempted to derail Christianity by imposing Jewish control over the Christian message. They rejected the gospel because men needed to earn righteousness by their own efforts by keeping the law in their opinion. These Colossian Christ followers were caught in the middle of this cultural war of ideas wondering which worldview was worthy to base their lives upon. Their dilemma was the same as it is for the church today. We have to wrestle with and discern the timely relevance of the timeless truth of the word of the living God. Although we are not Colossians, we can learn the principles that the divinely inspired Apostle Paul wrote about. Let’s hear the word of the Lord through the proclamation of the truth about the Cosmic Christ. God reveals Himself in Christ.
This truth is relevant to our culture because the work of Christ is God’s redemptive plan.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-- all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. (Colossians 1:15-20)

God has revealed Himself through Christ in Creation, Redemption, and Restoration.

I. THE IMAGE OF OUR MAKER IS REVEALED IN HIS CREATION.

“Let Us make man in our image…” God gives Himself a directive in Genesis 1:26. Here is the beginning of the “God-made man.” It is humorous to hear someone described as a self-made man or self-made woman. Human beings may be described as movers and shakers, but they cannot be their own makers. God has made us in His image. This is what sets mankind apart from all other creatures. We live in a culture today which will grant extraordinary protection to the tiniest species of insect or rodent and kill unborn human life in the womb. How did we get to this point in this land that we love? The same way humans who think too highly of themselves often do. We deny the power of God because we do not think of Jesus as God. He is the image of the invisible God. This is only one of the passages that speak of the presence of the Second Person of the Trinity, God the Son, as the Agent of Creation. This passage does not teach that Christ is a created being. It teaches that Jesus was the representative of perfect humanity and its Creator as well. He was the preeminent man, the first place man in all of creation. Prefall man was created good. Postfall man can become good again once he has been redeemed. For this to happen, God had to personally intervene and pay the price of man’s redemption. There had to be a postfall man superior to the prefall man. This man was the man Christ Jesus. Christ is the central figure in the revelation of Creation. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away and new things have come. Christ is still creating.

II. THE IMAGE OF OUR MAKER IS REVEALED IN HIS INCARNATION.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John 1:1-5)

The time of the writing of the Colossian letter was probably no more than 30 years or so from the death of Jesus. The Gospel of John was written probably 50 to 60 years after the crucifixion. Where did they get their information about Christ as the Creating Word of God? From Moses, in the beginning, in Genesis 1. The mystery of the incarnation is a stumbling block to Jews, Moslems, Unitarians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and many other world religions that balk at acknowledging that the Creator became a man. For to do that, this Man would have to be God. Exactly. And once this truth is appropriated, it gives us understanding of the precious value of the price of redemption. To believe that God became a person is necessary to understand what infinite value of Being was nailed to the cross.
At Christmastime we sing about the baby Jesus who is memorialized in the tune What Child is This? We often do not think much more about this mystery throughout the year. He did not remain an infant but grew up and is remembered in the disciples’ awestruck question in the midst of a storm at sea, What manner of man is this that even the wind and the sea obey Him? I think that I do not marvel and meditate upon this doctrine as much as I should. The foundational understanding of the gospel rests upon this truth. God Himself was manifested in the man Christ Jesus. Because He was both man and God, He could be the only sufficient price to rescue humanity from the curse of sin in that He became the curse Himself. Cursed is He, the Bible proclaims, who hangs on a tree…

III. THE IMAGE OF OUR MAKER IS REVEALED IN HIS CRUCIFIXION.

For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross;

Once upon a tree, upon an old rugged, Roman cross, God died to save us from God. If we ask the unbeliever, the person who does not claim the name Christian, Are you saved?, it may elicit the response, Saved from what? I suggest to you that the average Christian, the Christ-follower, will say yes to the question when asked, Are you saved? And if you follow up with the question, Saved from what? you probably would not hear very many people say: I am saved from the wrath of God. The blood of the cross does not mean that the cross was bleeding. The blood of Christ is not primarily the body fluid we know that flows through the arteries and veins of human beings. When spoken of in the Bible the Blood of Jesus, the Blood of Christ is referring to His death. And only the Holy Death of God can satisfy the justice requirement of the Holy Wrath of God against all unrighteousness. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood, or the death, of Jesus. The death of Christ was no accident or unfortunate series of events that led up to an untimely circumstance. It was a death sentence to the power of death itself. The image of God is revealed at the cross.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. (Romans 5:8-9)

Today we who hear these words can be saved from the wrath of God if we respond rightly to His call to repent and believe the gospel. Surrender your life to the God of life today. Without the incarnation of God as a man, the crucifixion has no value in offering a perfect substitute for us. Without the suffering death of a crucified God, we can never know the power of a resurrected One. Thanks be to God that He has made peace through the blood of His cross. And the story continues.

IV. THE IMAGE OF OUR MAKER IS REVEALED IN HIS RESURRECTION.

So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.” But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, Peace be with you.” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed." (John 20:19-29)


Three times in this passage Jesus says to His disciples, “Peace be with you.” Significant that He said this to people who were at their emotional lowest station in life. This peace that the Word of God speaks to His disciples comes at a time when their lives were full of fearful turmoil and confusing chaos. It doesn’t get much worse than the backside of the cross. Some here today may be in a serious time of spiritual disarray. But take heart when you see Christ revealed to you as Lord of the Resurrection. God Himself is breathing the very breath of God into men who were as good as dead. Lifeless and hopeless is the man or woman without the Indwelling Spirit of God. Have you received the Holy Spirit? Just as God formed Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed into him the breath of life, the resurrected Christ is a preview of what life is going to be like for those who have been created to live forever with God. We will once again wear an untarnished image of God. How are we wearing it now? Do others see the life of Christ in you? Do they see you following Him through all of life’s joys and sorrows?

V. THE IMAGE OF OUR MAKER IS REVEALED IN HIS CHRIST-FOLLOWERS.

It seems to me that if God wants His people to follow Him, we must be guided in that journey. And God has seen fit to give us this Holy Spirit to help us determine the direction for our lives in conjunction with and not apart from the Word of God. God’s Spirit will not lead us into a place that the Word of God says we shouldn’t be. That may be spirit-led. But it is of a different spirit. Our problem is that sometimes God leads us into the hard and dark places of life. We panic and think this is not of God when the Biblical record often demonstrates the contrary. Following Christ is not the easy road where many are traveling. It is the narrow way that is often lonely. It is here that many Christ-followers reject the path of hardship and opt out. The Christ-follower needs to examine the life of the One we are following. Consider the following excerpts from the book Knowing God by J.I. Packer.

“By every human standard of reckoning, the cross was a waste – the waste of a young life, a prophet’s influence, a leader’s potential. We know the secret of its meaning and achievement only from God’s own statements. Similarly the Christian’s guided life may appear as a waste…Sooner or later, God’s guidance, which brings us out of darkness into light, will also bring us out of light into darkness. It is part of the way of the cross….Guidance, like all God’s blessings under the covenant of grace, is a sovereign act. Not merely does God will to guide us in the sense of showing us His way, that we may tread it; He wills also to guide us in the more fundamental sense of ensuring that, whatever happens, whatever mistakes we may make, we shall come safely home. Slippings and strayings there will be, no doubt, but the everlasting arms are beneath us; we shall be caught, rescued, restored. This is God’s promise; this is how good He is.” (240-242)

Our “so what” of today’s message is:

When we do not conduct ourselves as “God-made” men before God, failing to “image” Him to a godless world, perhaps it is because we find ourselves being “self-made men” trying to do spiritual things while trying to relate to a “man-made” god.

He is the image of the invisible God. Seeing Christ as He is changes us in our culture.
Are you “imaging” God in the world today?

Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, (Colossians 2:6)

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