The Kind of Inequality That Brings Glory to God

I totally would. But in all seriousness,
our text today comes from the very first book of the Bible,
the book of Genesis. And more than that, the very
first chapter of the Bible. Our text today is Genesis chapter
1, verses 26 through 31. We’ll read the text, we’ll ask
for the Lord’s blessing briefly, and then we’ll dig deep into
it. So if you’ll turn with me to
Genesis chapter 1, verses 26 through 31, we’ll begin at verse
26. It reads, then God said, let us make man in our image,
according to our likeness, so that they will have dominion
over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and
over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping
thing that creeps on the earth. And 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 God said
to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue
it. And have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the
birds of the sky, and over every living thing that creeps on the
earth. Then God said, Behold, I have given to you every plant
yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and
every tree which has the fruit of the tree yielding seed. It
shall be food for you. And to every beast of the earth,
and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps
on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant
for food. And it was so. And God saw all
that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was
evening, and there was morning, the sixth day. Let’s briefly
pray. Lord, it is your word that is firmly fixed in the heavens,
your word that is made more sure than the grandest of spiritual
experiences. Lord, your word is perfect. It
restores our soul. Lord, we ask today that you would
open our eyes that we might behold wonderful things from it, for
we know that the grass withers, the flower fades, but it stands
forever. We ask for your blessing. It’s in your name we pray these
things. Amen. Now, the date September 5th,
1933 might not have much notoriety in this room or even more so
or less so in our culture. But for the German Evangelical
Church, it was a landmark in a very dark day. It was the day
that that 40 million person group signed into a declaration what’s
been known as the Aryan Paragraph, a formal adoption of what’s known
as eugenics, essentially evolutionary racism. The statement reads,
anyone not of Aryan or Nordic descent or who is married to
a person of non-Aryan descent may not be appointed as minister
or official. Ministers or official who marry
non-Aryans are to be dismissed. The state law decides who is
to be reckoned non-Aryan. Ministers of non-Aryan or married
to non-Aryans are to be retired. The exceptions are the same as
those laid down in state law. This German evangelical church,
this 40 million person group, was the same one that had voted
in Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party into power. Richard Weikart,
a Cal State history professor, notes in his book, Darwinian
Racism, the following. Those wanting to distance Darwinism
from the Nazis need to stop ignoring the fact that the racial inegalitarianism
of the Nazis in the early to mid 20th century was not all
that distant from the racist attitudes and theories of many
leading Darwinian biologists, anthropologists, and physicians.
Darwin himself was a racist and exalted and the European extermination
of the other races, which he integrated into his theory of
human evolution. Many other scientists likewise
promoted racism on the basis of their understanding of evolutionary
theory. If the Nazi perspective was a
misinterpretation of Darwinism, it was a misinterpretation fostered
by the Darwinian biologists themselves, not by non-scientists or fringe
groups. But the question is, how did
things get so far? How did things get so bad for the German Evangelical
Church, a group that claimed to be Christians? How could they
endorse politicians and theories that led to the genocide of millions? The answer is in their rejection
of the authority of scripture a century earlier. The Dark Ages
for Germany reached a strong crescendo in the 1800s under
a movement in a form of biblical interpretation known as higher
criticism. of the Bible. To essentially explain what that
is, these people denied the supernatural from the get-go. And they would
look at scripture, see how wonderful it is, and how wonderfully compiled
it was, and not believing in the supernatural, would say,
oh well obviously this cannot be true, this cannot be the way
that traditions have said it was written. Because that would
have to be supernatural. So what they did is they invented
theories, and certain theories of their own making, of how they
thought the Bible was compiled. In so doing, they rejected the
authority of the Bible, that the truthfulness of the Genesis
account. And as a result, Genesis 1, which declares that man is
special, created in the image of God. It was only in this rejection
of the authority of scripture that this horrid Aryan ideology
and eugenics theory could be embraced. Another historian in
the German euthanasia movement finds the same correlation. He
says, by giving up the conception of the divine image of humans
under the influence of the Darwinian theory, human life became a piece
of property. which, in contrast to the idea
of a natural right to life, could be weighed against other pieces
of property. Now, us as we sit in this church
today, as 21st century Americans, we don’t necessarily have gas
chambers that have led to the genocide of millions, but we
have abortion clinics. Several other issues are majorly
impacted by the doctrine or a rejection of the doctrine of the Imago
Dei, which is Latin for the image of God, that man is specially
created in God’s image, ranging from the feminist movement, the
neo-Marxist critical theories, such as critical race theory,
the LGBTQIA plus movement. and evolution, slavery, and animal
rights. And it’s easy for us to view
these contemporary issues as mainly as political, social issues,
but it’s more than that. This is a different worldview.
This is a different religion being imposed upon the public. And they aren’t the cause of
the problem, they’re merely the effect of it. They’re the effect of
a rejection of the authority of God’s Word, a rejection of
Genesis chapter 1. And more than that, Genesis chapter
1, verses 25 through 31, our text today, We have a present identity crisis.
Perhaps you know many people that are struggling to understand
who they are. Where’s purpose in life? What
purpose do I have? Who am I? And for the culture
now, this identity of self has been defined by how I feel rather
than the objective realities of what God has declared. Our
21st century postmodern culture has rejected the truth of God
and exchanged it for a lie. and has rejected the doctrine
that man especially created in the image of God. This text serves
as a helpful redirect for us this morning. A helpful redirect
in the world that we live in, whether it be work, whether it
be family members or friends. Worldviews are colliding, and
it can be discouraging, but God’s Word is such an encouragement.
Such an encouragement and a helpful change of mindset might help
us renew our minds to the biblical fact, the absolute truth that
man is specially created in the image of God. In this text that
we see specifically, there are three representations of God
revealed in his unique creation of man that should change our
worldviews this week. and how we view ourselves as
humanity. The first one that I’d like to point out is the
creation of man represents God’s likeness and image. We find this
in verses 26 and 27. We read in verse 26, Then God said, let us make man
in our image. Now notice how the text doesn’t
say, let me make man in my image. Notice how it’s plural here.
God’s saying, let us make man in our image. There’s some form
of mystery to the ancient Hebrew audience of why is this plural? Why is God saying that? And as
God would further reveal himself on the pages of scripture, what
we see is that God is both three in one sense and one in another.
That God is one in essence, three in persons, Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. This is evidence to the fact that God is Trinity. But we see that He says, let
us make man in our image. He also says, according to our likeness. In the context of Genesis chapter
1, what we’ve been seeing so far is that the living creatures
are created according to their own kind. That they’re created
to their own kind. In fact, that we see of the birds,
we see of the cattle. We see that they’re created according
or after their own kind, but it’s different here. How is it
different? What does God say? What does He say when He creates
man at the end of Genesis chapter 1? He says, not according to
their kind, but according to our, according to God’s likeness. Why is that? God elaborates further.
He says, so that they will have dominion over the fish of the
sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the cattle, and
over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps
on the earth. This is an extensive dominion.
This is one that we see the word every, we see over all. Man’s
dominion is to be exercised over all the other creation. Verse 27 continues and it says,
and God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he
created him male and female, he created them. Now it’s a helpful
biblical principle when we’re reading text of scripture. When
we see a word that’s repeated, oftentimes it means that the
text is trying to tell us something. That something special is happening
here. And here in this text, we have the word created repeated.
There’s something unique about this creation. And rather than
Moses just being a very flowery writer, rather than him wasting
ink. Moses is very intentional with
what he’s written here. He isn’t merely repeating himself
in this verse. No, he’s elaborating on his main
point. We see there the first clause
before the first comma. And God created man in his own
image. That’s the main point of this verse. But Moses follows
this up with two parenthetical statements, two statements that
will help better explain what he means by God creating man
in his own image. We continue reading, in the image
of God, he created him. In other words, humanity has
a resemblance of God. Obviously, God is spirit, not
necessarily looking like God as the mistake that the Mormons
make, creating God in our own image. But no, there’s something,
there has something to do, some sort of resemblance in this ruling
over creation that points back to God. When God will command
man to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, this sort
of represents a kiastic structure or sort of parallels God’s command
to fill the earth and subdue it. Creating man in his own image,
in the image of God, he created him. But we see another important
parenthetical statement that he makes. Male and female, he
created them. God here makes it abundantly
clear. There are two genders. As one author wrote, human sexuality
is binary. This parallels God’s command
later to be fruitful and multiply. How do we understand being fruitful
and multiply? Well, God’s helping us understand
by saying male and female, he created them. This is amazing
because it goes to show that God created both men and women
equally in his image. And it destroys partiality of
all kinds, whether it be chauvinism or a modern feminist movement,
which even in conviction, though, claims to create equality, in
practice doesn’t. In practice, it focuses and elevates
one gender above the other. It destroys other Marxist theories
on race, such as critical race theories, those DEIs we hear
about Disney getting in trouble for this week. This text tells
us that all men are created in God’s image, which includes all
ethnicities and by implication means all men have unique worth
in God’s eyes. And they should in ours as well.
We also see here that gender is given by God. It’s not assigned
as we hear in the contemporary language. It’s not a social construct.
It’s not fluid, but it’s an objective reality. It’s not determined
by feeling how I feel, but by the impassable God whose creation
is an outworking of his eternal decree. This destroys the ideology
of the LGBTQIA plus alphabet mafia. And any embrace of this
worldview, as Kevin Zuber notes, is not only an attack on the
objective biological realities that we see, the obvious truth
that there is male and female, but it’s an attack on God. It’s
an attack on God and his creative sovereignty. We also get the
implication from this text that because man is created uniquely
in the image of God, the consequence given in Genesis for murder is
the death penalty. Genesis 9, 6 reads, whoever sheds
man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed. Why is that? For
in the image of God, he created man. Human lives have priceless
value compared to the rest of creation in God’s eyes. So why
wouldn’t it in ours as well? Since God is the creator of both
men and women in this text, we see that the whole act of creation,
that whole process is an outworking of his work. We read even from
conception in the womb, Psalm 139, 13. For you formed my inward
parts, you wove me in my mother’s womb. Verse 16 of the same chapter,
your eyes have seen my unshaped substance. And in your book,
all of them were written, the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was not one of them. God also knows who we
were before we were even conceived in Jeremiah, as he did of Jeremiah
the prophet, revealed in chapter 1, as God spoke to him, saying,
Before I formed you in the innermost parts, I knew you. And before
you came out from the womb, I set you apart. God’s work of creation
is all the way from conception to cradle. The whole of it, God
is at work creating his image bearers. Any attack on this process
is an assault on God’s image, not to even mention murder. And
I mentioned genocide earlier, that of the Third Reich. And
we might not have gotten to this level yet, but we’ve headed towards
infanticide spreading at a rapid rate. It’s an encouragement to
look at church history, though, because this is nothing new under
the sun. Sinners are sinners since the fall. And even at the
beginning of church history, if you were to look at the Didache,
the teaching of the apostles, sort of a traditional book that
was spread around the church, a helpful teaching and a wisdom,
it forbids abortion. And that was created in the first
or second century AD. This is nothing new. The Christian
church has upheld the doctrine of the Imago Dei against the
worldviews of the world historically. But when we look at this, he
doesn’t just say in verse 26, let us make man in our image.
He also uses another word, in our likeness. Now, if you were
to look in church history for that one, it would be a host
of different answers that you would get. You could get people
from Irenaeus to Clement, Origen, Gregory of Nazianzus versus Augustine
and what all these guys thought. They were using philosophy, human
philosophy, to try and understand what this means. But it’s important
for us to understand the context of when this is being written.
Who is this being written to? It’s being written to the Hebrews.
Hebrews that are coming out of Egypt, they’re used to the backdrop
of the Egyptian culture. And knowing that this is the
first book of the Bible, that they have at least written right
here, they don’t have any other context of what the image of
God perhaps might mean. So, why did they use this language?
And a helpful historian notes that in Egyptian thinking, the
image, the king was an image of God, because he is the son
of God. The stress isn’t necessarily
on his physical appearance, For an Egyptian pharaoh could be
a representative of a female goddess. But there was something
about the reign and rule, a sonship, that reflects the character traits
of the Egyptian deity, false god. Commonly associated, he
says, is the notion of conquest and power. To summarize, it meant
two things, rulership and sonship. When he says, let us make man
in our image, it has to do with royal rule. Humans are given
a royal status as the crown of creation, which produces their
rule as the effect. To subdue what kings do. Very
kingly language here. I liked what Dr. Abner Chow said.
It was a very concise statement. He said, the image of God is
the similarities between us and God that allow man to rule. But
there is a difference between image and likeness. Likeness
is more of the resemblance of a son would have of a father.
Not the same, not the same, but similarities for sure. We see
that in Genesis chapter 5, created in the likeness of God. Luke
3, 38 as well. Our job with that understanding
is that we represent God as man. Sure, marred with the fall, but
our job is to look to him and grow more and more like him.
We see that the idea that all human beings are created equal
comes from this doctrine that man is created in the image of
God. We’re not like the animals. Animals do not think about God,
morality or higher things. Our family, we have a couple,
two little shelter pets, little dogs. They’re really cute. They’re
really loyal when you’re petting them or hanging out with them
until the fridge drawer opens. And they hear, they can smell
the meat or the cheese, or they hear the bag of their treats
opening. Then, they couldn’t care less if I was dead. They’re
carnal, instinctual beings. Humanity’s different. We’ve been
created different. The application of this is that
we as believers are called to live out our lives representing
God’s nature and His communicable attributes the best that we can,
like love, justice, grace, truthfulness, among others. We’re supposed
to look to God, look at Him and His Word, and try to conform
our lives to communicate to all of creation that we are the image
of God. We’re also called to love one
another, recognize that each other has been created in the
image of God, even our enemies. That’s why Jesus said to love
our enemies. because God views all men created in his image. This also serves as a comfort
to us all. If God so closed the lilies, which are not created
in his image. Better than Solomon, the richest
man ever to live. How much more will he care about
our worries as image bearers, as the ones who are supposed
to represent his glory in our role of creation. So what do
we see first? We see in this text, first of
all, that the creation of man represents God’s likeness. But secondly, we see as well,
beginning at verse 28, the creation of man also represents God’s
sovereignty. His sovereignty, we read in verses
28 through 30, we read, God blessed them and God said to them, be
fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have
dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the
sky and over every living thing that creeps on the earth. Then
God said, behold, I have given to you every plant yielding seed
that is on the surface of all the earth. And every tree which
has the fruit of the tree yielding seed, it shall be food for you.
And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the sky,
and to everything that creeps on the earth which has life,
I have given every green plant for food. And it was so. What
we see here unfolding in the text is man is being commanded
to do what he’s been created to do. To subdue the earth. An evidence of unity and diversity
reflecting God’s own image, showing His rule. Notice how abundant
the language is here about God’s provision as well. His provision
is abundant. He says that He’s setting man
over the birds of the sky over every living thing. And He says
to man, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on
the surface of all the earth and every tree which has the
fruit of the tree yielding seed. This is abundant and this goes
to show God’s character, His benevolence to all of creation.
To both man and beast, I think of Psalm 36, 6. Oh, Yahweh, you
saved both man and beast, right? He’s gracious to all his creation.
But what we see here is that in man’s subduing of creation,
of his dominion, shows that creation is for man as man is for God.
It is in man’s dominion over creation that he displays God’s
grandeur in creating himself different than the other creatures.
We demonstrate this rule in God’s sovereignty. Anytime, however,
we assign rule to creation, we diminish the glory to God. When
we view ourselves as just another organism, we diminish God’s glory. I was at a restaurant this week,
one of my favorites, and I looked over at the table and there were
those brown napkins. You guys maybe have seen them. They have
green letters written on them. And it says, saving the environment
one napkin at a time. This, other than just being incredibly
illogical that one napkin would save the entire environment,
carries two major unbiblical presuppositions, unbiblical assumptions
that makes me frustrated every time I see that. It’s not just
that it’s a social issue. It’s not just that it’s a political
one. It’s that it’s a different worldview, a different religion. It carries the assumption that
one, we as humans determine the fate of the world, not the sovereign
God who created all of it and sustains it by the word of His
power. And secondly, it says that we are, it assumes that
we are on equals with nature, thus having no right to exercise
dominion. Just another moving part. This
thinking is not from the Bible. It’s not from God. It’s the thinking
of Marx. That since man is in power, he is the oppressor and
nature is oppressed. And therefore should be given
greater treatment than the present hegemonic or controlling group,
humanity. It’s not to say that we aren’t
called to be wise with creation. We certainly are stewards. God
owns everything. The earth is the Lord’s and all it contains.
The world and all who dwell in it. Psalm 24, 1. But it does
show God has given us a unique rule that reflects His glory.
As we go about subduing the earth, using the creation for His glory,
that He is glorified because it shows that He is in control.
Last time I checked, no other creature was in control here
on earth, other than humanity, in terms of subduing the earth. Obviously not in an ultimate
sense. The act of ruling though, perhaps you could say, well,
what if a person isn’t ruling necessarily? Are they still the
image of God? And there’s an element of mystery here, but
it goes to show that this is an inherent image. It’s one that
comes to the person themselves. No matter how marred it might
be, they still are created in the image of God. One man said,
the ruling is not the essence of the divine image. The ruling
isn’t it itself, isn’t the image itself. It’s rather the result
of being created in the divine image. It’s the effect. not the
whole. Back in ancient context, when
a king would conquer a land and he wanted to show, really, who’s
boss, what he would do is he would go and he would set up
a statue in that land he had conquered, an image or a boulder
with an inscription upon it. And that boulder, when everyone
would look to it, would represent, it would cue in their mind the
thought that this one is in charge, that we’re under the dominion,
under the rule of this conqueror. And it’s similar here. It’s very
similar here. We see that God’s sovereignty
is reflected in the progress that we have seen in His creation,
specifically of man, created in His image. So be encouraged
this week with this as well. We read in Psalm 115.3 that our
God’s in the heavens, He does whatever He pleases. Ephesians
chapter 1 verse 11, that God works all things according to
the counsel of His will. His purposes will not be thwarted.
In Isaiah, God says that He will do all His good pleasure. If
there is a motif that’s throughout the whole of Scripture, it’s
the three words, the Lord reigns. God is God. And we can rest in
that if we are right with Him, if we are believers, if we have
trusted in Christ for salvation. So, we’ve seen the first two
points of this text, that the creation of man uniquely represents
God’s likeness, His image, His sovereignty as well. But finally,
we also see that the creation of man highlights God’s skill,
his perfection. We read it in verse 31. It reads,
and God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening, and there
was morning, the sixth day. A three-word summary of that
sentence is God did well. He did well in what he created.
God is the one who defines his creation. Peaking with man, being
created in his image is very good. The Lord doesn’t say here
that He messed up the gender of His creation, that the one
that’s signed at birth isn’t the one, the proper gender for
each of His creation created in His image, valuable in His
sight, fearfully and wonderfully made. It doesn’t either say that
God sort of had a few test models with some primates, hoping that
He would create His image well. And then eventually he stumbled
upon one of the options that he liked and stuck with it. No,
it shows that God was intentional. But don’t you see, this is more
than just political semantics. These are different worldviews
being pushed. These are different religions.
This is an assault on God’s glory as the text reveals him. I think
of, we’ve been going through Colossians and Pastor Ron, you
preached on the verse that says, see to it that no one takes you
captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to
the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles
of the world and not according to Christ. We need to make sure
that we’re conforming our worldview to that of how God has revealed
himself first, rather than man trying to mindlessly in the dark,
seek out who he is. And as a result, 2 Corinthians
10, 5, we must tear down speculations and every lofty thing raised
against the knowledge of God and take captive every thought
to the obedience of Christ. Every thought, every news article
that we read, every movie that we see, every conversation that
we have, we need to be thinking in our minds, okay, how does
this square out with how God has revealed himself? Let God
be true, though every man be a liar. We need to storm the ideological
beaches for God’s glory with His Word. In gentleness and in
meekness, but for His glory. We also read at the end of this
verse, the sixth day. In Hebrew, literally translated,
day six. Simple. Case in point. How would
they have understood that? Well, they would have understood
that through millions and millions of years. No, of course not.
It’s very clear that this is one 24-hour period of time. I was trying to think of illustrations
for this one as well, but just thinking about the Christian
walk, any rejection that God’s work is perfect, inevitably results
in sin. We find justifications for sin. We be like Eve or Adam and view
God as overbearing. And when we remove this worldview,
we easily can fall captive to sin. But we also can study the
history. of humanity, of God’s working
through them, albeit sometimes marred image, a marred image
post-fall. But see the advancements in science
and in history, the amazing things that God has done through His
image, showing His dominion and His sovereignty. Where do we
go from here? How do we as Christians today
also recognize this in light of the Gospel? I think a two-letter
preposition is in order. Verse 26, going back again, jumping
back up. We read, God said, let us make
man in our image. Notice God didn’t say let us
make man as our image, or as the image, but in, in the likeness
of our image. The Bible later reveals who the
image of God is. In Ezekiel chapter 1, he saw
the image of God and he described the image of God as the appearance
of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. The same one that
Daniel saw in Daniel chapter 7. This image who the Apostle
Paul in Acts chapter 17 said was not a graven one, was not
one who was carved out of wood, one who was carved out of stone.
He’s the uncreated one. The Apostle Paul identifies Jesus
Christ as the image of God. In 2 Corinthians, and as we have
read in Colossians chapter 1, he is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn, the preeminent one of all creation. By him all
things were created, both visible and invisible, in heaven and
on earth. And he is before all things,
and in him all things hold together. This is the image of God. This
is who we’ve been created like, to resemble. As Dr. Chao notes again, he says that
God creating man in His own image proves that it was always His
plan for humanity to reflect the Lord Jesus Christ. Because
we are created in the image of God. That’s not to say that the
image as I had mentioned earlier has not been marred. Ever since
sin entered the world in the Garden of Eden, the image has
been marred. We have not represented God well.
We have fallen short of His law. Naturally, we are born into sin.
We are sinners. We’re naturally at odds with
God, making ourselves His enemies. Romans 3.23, saying that all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That’s every
single one of us in this room. There’s at one point, or even
presently might be a moment, where every single one of us
identify with that. But that’s why Christ came. Christ
came as the perfect image of God, the second person of the
Trinity, born of a virgin, assuming human flesh, living a perfect
life that you and I could never live, that perfect requirement
that God has for all humanity to fulfill his law. And instead
of sinners, and dying a death on the cross for sinners like
you and like me, so that all who would trust in him might
find eternal life. So if you are an unbeliever in
the room, know this, you are at odds with God, but he has
been so gracious and so benevolent in providing his son. to bring
about salvation. And that his death wasn’t the
end, Christ rose three days later, proving his claims, that he was
who he said he was, and presently reigns right now as King of Kings
and Lord of Lords. If you continue to reject Jesus
Christ as Lord, consider the benevolence of God in your own
life. Consider Him creating you in His own image. Consider the
great blessings from the small things like a great meal to the
great things of family and friends that He has given. All of His
judgment that He has restrained back to bring you to this present
moment. If you have not done so, repent
and believe in Him. And for those of us who are believers,
look to Christ. Find encouragement in Him as
the perfect image of God, the exact representation of His nature.
And attack on the Imago Dei is an attack on the work and by
implication, the character of God. We read in the Bible, how
blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Well, it also can
be said, how cursed is the nation whose God is Marx, whose God
is Freud, whose God is Darwin, rather than God. There are only
two ways that we can view man here today. One is an accident. As another animal, with an identity
defined by the whims of feeling, and subjective feeling and culture.
Or two, we can view man as intentionally created, as I said, fearfully
and wonderfully made to represent the likeness of God for his glory. There is no in-between. These
are different worldviews. Driving down the road today,
I saw a church that had on its sign, perhaps you saw it too,
that they’re celebrating Pride Sunday. And it’s important to note that
that is absolutely contrary to how God has defined His image
bearers. That’s a completely and fundamentally
different worldview, a different apostate religion. These two
worldviews are incompatible with each other. So choose today whom
you will serve. If this is something you’re struggling with, with
worldviews-wise, is man an accident? Or is he uniquely created in
the image of God, greater than the rest of creation? To represent
God’s glory, His dominion, His sovereignty, to show the world
who God is, to leave them without excuse, which worldview will
you serve? The worldview of the world, or
the worldview of God? Now, it’s also worth noting that
it’s a scandal to the world to believe that we’re unique, that
we’re better than the rest of creation, when it’s not about
us. It isn’t about us. No, it’s about the glory of God.
God is calling on us in this present moment to believe this
truth because His glory is at stake. Who knows what further
atrocities will come with the rejection, culturally widespread,
of the doctrine of the Imago Dei, that man is uniquely created
in the image of God. I imagine many of you who’ve
been here for multiple decades can look back at yourself decades
ago, wondering what the future would be like. If you were to
bring yourself to that version of yourself and tell them what’s
being taught in schools, what’s being produced through the media,
what’s being pushed through movies and entertainment, how would
you feel? We don’t know the way of the
future, but we do know that our King reigns. We must be reminded
that humanity is not equal with other creation. It is the crown
of creation, bearing testimony to the dominion of God as he
reigns forever. And until the perfect image of
God comes and establishes his earthly kingdom in Israel, we
are to pray for his imminent return. But until then, we are
called to look to Christ, to look to God as revealed in his
word, as he has revealed himself, to further conform our lives,
to be conformed to the image of God by living out the Imago
Dei. Let’s pray.