Created in the Image of God
Download MP3If you have a bible, I invite you to turn to Genesis chapter 1. Just as we were worshiping, I I felt strongly, impressed. I believe by the Holy Spirit. I need to just share a couple of things before we open up god's word together. And, it's this.
Joel Brooks:It actually it it goes back to what we looked at a few weeks ago when I mentioned about prayer, that God never teaches or Jesus never taught his disciples how to preach, only how to pray. And the and the extreme importance of that, that it was way more important to learn to talk to God than to talk about God. And now the reason I wanna bring this back up is I just want to encourage you to pray. And I feel like some of you, you heard that a few weeks ago and you thought, okay, but really nothing has been different. And as a result of that, you are carrying tremendous burdens that you do not need to carry.
Joel Brooks:Some of you are carrying burdens and you're going to other people for advice, other people to counsel, and you just keep going to other people looking for a savior. But only one person who has ever existed has said, come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And I want to encourage you to go to Jesus. Go to your father. Also, I believe that there's many here who are carrying burdens because they are trying to be the savior to other people.
Joel Brooks:And that you are just trying the best you can and you are burning yourself out as you are trying to help person after person after person. Hear me. Your goal is to teach that person to talk to God. Teach them to pray and not for you to try to be their savior, which is just another form of idolatry. And that is so freeing for us that our goal is the really the role of John the Baptist, which is to constantly point to Jesus and say, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
Joel Brooks:And I'm happy to lead you to him. And I just feel that there's some of you who are so burdened down and you're burning yourself out. Not only because you are not praying, but you're not leading others into prayer, and you're carrying their burdens on you as well. And so I just wanna release you of that and just plead with you that this week, seek the Lord in prayer. Ask, seek, knock.
Joel Brooks:Alright? I just feel strongly I needed to say that before we opened up God's word together. That's my charismatic roots just kinda coming out a little bit. The 9 o'clock service, I I mentioned some of this. And Edmund Perry was about to jump up into a dance in front of me.
Joel Brooks:He was so excited and kept saying, keep going. But we are gonna look at God's word together. We're gonna look at Genesis chapter 1, because I believe what we have here is very important for us to hear. Genesis chapter 1 verse 26. Then god said, let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
Joel Brooks:So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. And God blessed them and said bless 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 heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Chapter 2 verse 4.
Joel Brooks:These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, and the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. When no bush of the field was yet in the land, and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground. Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east there he put the man whom he had formed.
Joel Brooks:And out of the ground, the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the site and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden and there it divided and became 4 rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good.
Joel Brooks:Bedellium and ox stone are there. The name of the second river is Gahan. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the 3rd river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the 4th river is the Euphrates.
Joel Brooks:The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. This is the word of the lord. Yes, sir.
Joel Brooks:Pray with me. Father, our eyes have looked at so many things this week. So many things have demanded our attention, but we are here to say there is nothing more important than what is in front of us. Your word. And we ask that you would through your spirit breathe life into these words and that you would infuse them into our very being.
Joel Brooks:I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. So what we just looked at in Genesis chapter 1 and Genesis 2 shows us that mankind was the last of the things created and that man was seen to be the pinnacle of creation.
Joel Brooks:And it certainly seems like as we looked at last week, the entire universe and the earth itself has been uniquely designed and fine tuned for our very existence that we might flourish. Now we see the importance of mankind in Genesis 12 just by all the language that's used to describe how we were created. We're created differently than the rest of creation. You see up to this point, everything has been spoken into existence. God has said, let there be light and there was light instantly and he just speaks and instantly things come into being.
Joel Brooks:But with man it is different. God does not say, let there be. He says, let us make. Let us make. And then God slows down, and he lovingly makes man from the dust of the ground.
Joel Brooks:He does not speak us into existence. For us, the the picture is really this. God kinda rolls up his sleeves, and he gets his hands dirty. And he takes his time. This is a slow, deliberate, joyful act.
Joel Brooks:Whereas everything else was created in a moment, here he does not rush. Even the word that's used to describe our creation is different. He uses the word formed. We were formed from the dust. This is the word that's used to describe what a potter does to clay, slowly molding it and fashioning it.
Joel Brooks:It's an intimate term that describes our creation. The final distinction that we see here in in how we are created is that God breathes life into mankind. We see that God breathing the breath of life into Adam. Now this is way more than God just making something come alive because life or breath was given to the rest of the animals, but God did not breathe on them. This is unique to what he does to mankind.
Joel Brooks:And so what we see here is not just life, we see a special type of life that is being breathed into us. I believe it's a spiritual life that's being imparted to us. You see up to this point, when God has made his material creation, he's made made these material beings and the animals, and he has given them life. And then he has made these spiritual beings and the angels, and he has given them life. And now he comes to mankind, and he infuses a man both a physical and a spiritual existence.
Joel Brooks:We are utterly unique among God's creation in that we were created both physical and spiritual. And, of course, what sets us apart more than anything else is this idea that we read here that God created us actually in his image. We are created in the image of God. This is one of those foundational truths that we have in scripture that really is gonna permeate every single page of the bible. To be human is to be created in God's image.
Joel Brooks:So what does that mean? What does it mean? If you grew up in church I I grew up in church and that means you've probably heard every different interpretation of what it means to be created in God's image. Perhaps you heard, you know, meant that you are a rational being, or that you have intelligence, or that you were created with the ability to make moral choices or that you were created to be a creator. After all, God is a creator, so we're in his image.
Joel Brooks:We're supposed to create. And you've probably heard all these different interpretations and likely they're all partially right. But the the truth is the reason there are so many different interpretations, the reason there's so many articles and books on what it is to be created in God's image is because God himself does not tell us. You actually do not read it here. What does he mean exactly when he says humans were created in his image?
Joel Brooks:However, we're not left in the entirely in the dark. God does give us some pretty good context clues as to what he means by this. For starters, we know this. To be created in God's image means that we were created enough like him to where we can relate to him. We were created enough like him that we can relate to him.
Joel Brooks:We know this because God does something with Adam that that he does not do with any other created thing, and that's that he talks to Adam. He speaks to Adam. In verse 16, he gives Adam instructions about the garden. He lets Adam know how Adam can obey him. Later, we read that Adam actually talks back to the Lord.
Joel Brooks:So it's not just a one way communication but Adam has the ability to talk back and so here from the start we at least know this about what it means to be created in God's image is that we were created to be in a relationship with him. That's what it means to be in his image. You were made to have a real relationship with God himself. You can actually know him. And what you're gonna see later on is, God would not just talk with Adam, but God would go on walks with Adam in the garden, in the cool of the evening.
Joel Brooks:And so what you see there is best described as a friendship. We are to have this intimate, loving relationship with God. And so that's the the first thing we learn just about what it means to be created in God's image is that we're enough like him to where we can know him, and we could communicate with him. But then we also learn something from the word image itself. To image something means to reflect something.
Joel Brooks:So we were created in a way that we can somehow reflect who God is. We were created with everything necessary we need to image or to reflect to the world who God is. So when the rest of creation would look at Adam, they would in some way be able to see God. And hear me. This actually remains intact even after the fall.
Joel Brooks:Even after Adam and Eve sinned, later we have mankind still described as being created in God's image and bearing that image. And so even after the sin, this this image might be tainted some. It might be dulled some but yet the image is still there. So even after the fall, we can still somehow relate to God and we can still still somehow project who God is. And so we know those things for certain about what it means to be created in God's image.
Joel Brooks:But what I want us to do is spend the rest of our time together is to look at 2 important implications of what it means to be created in God's image. I want us to look at the worth we derive from that, and then the dominion we're to exercise in that. So the worth we have from that and then then the dominion we exercise. If, if you need acrostics or you just need things that sound the same, perhaps you grew up Baptist and you're like me, you could say, dignity. We're gonna look at our dignity and dominion, or we're gonna look at our worth and our work.
Joel Brooks:I just like to say, you know, it's our value and our dominion. Let's look at value, or worth, or dignity. Because every human is created in God's image, every human has value. That means that no matter your color, no matter your race, no matter your age, no matter your mental capacity, no matter your social status, your physical condition, as an image bearer you have incredible worth. This also means that no matter the mistakes you have made, no matter the sins you have committed, no matter the heights from which you have fallen, you still bear God's image and are worthy of dignity and of honor.
Joel Brooks:In other words, understanding that we have been created in God's image is the foundation for our notion that every human being has rights and has value. That's not an idea that spring into existence through the declaration of independence. That idea came from the Bible. That every person has his innate rights and innate dignity. It is certainly something that has not been assumed for much of history.
Joel Brooks:I mean, your fellow human with dignity? Why exactly should you see them as having incredible value? Christians are ready with an answer. Christians are like, because they were created in God's image. But if you don't believe that humans were created in God's image, but that humans are they're the result of, you know, an accidental collision of different molecules, then you can't say humans are unique or that humans have an innate value.
Joel Brooks:You could say at least from a molecular level, they're no different than a rock or a tree. Just a little bit more complex. What is it that gives us our value? Everywhere else in nature, you know what we see? We see the strong eat the weak.
Joel Brooks:So why is it that we should not do any differently? Everywhere else in nature, we see that the powerful are the ones who take advantage of the strong. We see how it's right to be selfish and to exalt yourself and to put others down. Why is it that we should believe anything different? Because we were created in his image.
Joel Brooks:All people were. Even great thinkers like Aristotle, he did not think that all humans had equal value. Aristotle actually wrote that there were certain races that were inferior to other races. There were certain races that were born for the sole purpose of being slaves. And this was a thought that was shared by most in the world.
Joel Brooks:Throughout history, we have seen that some lives have been valued and other lives have been discarded and people have assigned people's value on a variety of things. It might maybe it's race, Maybe it's bloodline. Maybe it's a person's intelligence or strength or their wealth. But throughout history, people have ascribed different values to different people. And the hard truth is some people were seen as not having any value at all and were simply discarded.
Joel Brooks:Did he know that until the spread of Christianity, infanticide was widely, widely a common practice throughout the entire world. As a matter of fact, even if you were to look at, a civilized, you know, culture like ancient Rome, one out of every 5 children were left to die of exposure. And that went way up if you happen to be a girl. Children were just discarded. We actually have a letter from 1 BC that a Roman soldier wrote to his wife.
Joel Brooks:Let me read it to you. He says, I am still in Alexandria. I beg and plead with you to take care of our little child. As soon as we receive wages, I will send them to you. In the meantime, if you give birth, if it is a boy, let it live.
Joel Brooks:If it is a girl, expose it. I mean, what what haunts me about that letter is just how matter of fact it reads. This is a person talking about his own daughter. He's saying, just discard her like the trash. Layla Williamson, who is an anthropologist at the American Museum of Natural History, she recently stated that regardless of the cause, throughout history we see that infanticide has been a common practice.
Joel Brooks:Let me read to you this quote. She says, infanticide has been practiced on every continent and by people on every level of cultural complexity, from hunter gatherers to high civilizations, including our own ancestors. Rather than being an exception, then, it has be has been the rule. And it wasn't just the infants who were left to die. Anyone who became a burden on society or a burden to one's family was left to die.
Joel Brooks:The mentally ill or the physically handicapped. The elderly, or if you were just born the wrong sex. You could be left out to die from hunger and exposure legally. This has been the rule. As shocking as this is, this has been the rule that we have seen throughout human history.
Joel Brooks:It was Christianity. Christianity holding on to the belief that every human being was created in the image of God that ultimately changed this. It was Christians in the 4th century who passed the first legislation in Rome, making infanticide illegal. It was Christians who stayed behind when the plagues hit and took care of the sick and the dying. It was the Christians who took care of all of the poor because they saw even the poor had infinite value in God's eyes.
Joel Brooks:And Christians did all of this because they knew everybody was a image bearer of God. That's extremely important for us to understand this, as Americans in our modern culture here. Because we just kind of assume that yes, these are innate rights. These are things that everybody understands. Of course, we know that everybody's got rights.
Joel Brooks:Everybody has How we came to understand these things. The dignity of all human life is grounded in the fact that we are all created in God's image. And when that begins to go, everything goes. Once this is discarded, we remove the very legs from which the dignity of life stands, and we begin to vase base one's value on other things like their race or their intelligence or their wealth or just whether or not they agree with us. The enslavement of Africans or the Aborigine or the slaughter of the Native Americans were all justified because we said those people did not bear God's image.
Joel Brooks:So what does this mean for us? What does it mean for us? It means that we have to hold firm and fast to this truth that we were creating God's image. Because if not, you will assign another way. You will find another way to assign value to somebody.
Joel Brooks:And we are already seeing this in our culture, the way we berate one another. Why? Because they disagree with us. Your agreement with me is how I base my your value and your worth. We're already seeing the legs of the dignity and the value of every person being removed from them.
Joel Brooks:So this is what this should look like to us. This is what it should mean to us. For starters, it means that every person in this room is precious and valuable. Not because of anything you have done, but because of who you are. God made you in his image.
Joel Brooks:It's not because of your skin color, your nationality, or your wealth. It's because you can reflect God and know him. It's what it means to be human. It also means this, that you must give every person the dignity and the respect that they deserve as image bearers of God. It means that Christians are to be advocates of civil rights.
Joel Brooks:That we are to protect the the protect and value the elderly and the mentally ill and the unborn. And can I just say we're not just supposed to protect and value the unborn child? If someone who comes in here has had an abortion, we are to give them the dignity and the respect that they deserve as a child of God. And we're not just to, protect civil rights. We're also to give the honor and dignity to a bigot When they come in here, because they too, no matter how fallen they've gone, no matter how far the sins that they've committed, they too are created in God's image.
Joel Brooks:Let me tell you, if you give the dignity respect to to all those types of people, the world is gonna look at you and wonder because no one is doing that. I look at you, and I give you dignity and respect and value, not because of anything you've done, but because of who you are. God created you in his image. And so everything that we say, everything that we post, everything that we tweet, needs to reflect this. Christians should be the most respectful and kind people on earth because we are grounded in this doctrine.
Joel Brooks:Alright. Let's look at dominion or work, whatever the other word was that had. Dominion. The second implication of being created in God's image is that we have been given dominion. You actually see a pattern in Genesis 1 where in verse 26 you're gonna read, let us create man in our own image and then right after that it says, and let them have dominion.
Joel Brooks:And then verse 27 it says, that God created us in his own image and then in verse 28 it says that he gives us dominion. So dominion is linked to us being created in God's image. Now this would not evolve in a foreign concept to the Israelites who were hearing this. They readily understood that, a king or a God bearing an image was a way that a king reflected dominionship. Ancient kings and emperors would often erect statues of their image, And they would place them in every city in which they ruled.
Joel Brooks:And that way everybody in that city would be able to look at that image, that statue that was in the king's likeness and they would know that we are being ruled by that king. God picks up on this term here. But, instead of sending statues to the earth, he sends humans to represent him. Humans to let the world know that they're they're being ruled and governed by him. We are his ambassadors.
Joel Brooks:We are his representatives. That tell all the world point to God as the one who is their creator. God is the one who rules. And now it is through us, it's through mankind that God is gonna exercise his dominion and take care of this world. So what does this dominion look like for us?
Joel Brooks:Well, God shows us in chapter 2, because right after God creates Adam and gives Adam dominion over everything, He doesn't build Adam a palace. And he doesn't then hand him a scepter and then say, alright. Now start bossing everybody around. Instead of a palace, he gets a garden. You know, instead of a scepter, he gets a shovel.
Joel Brooks:And he doesn't rule people. He's God's steward. That's what he is. He's put in a garden. He's told to work it and to keep it and to take care of the world that he has been placed in.
Joel Brooks:So the rulership that we have been given is one of stewardship. This is God's world, and we have been placed here to take care of it for him. Lauren and I, we, anytime we go out of town, we usually try to find somebody to house sit for us because we have a really old house and a really old dog. And, they both need watching over. And so, when we do that, we we find the house sitter and we sit down with this person and we go over everything with them and, usually we say something like this.
Joel Brooks:Our house is for you to enjoy. I hope you do. Have people over, it's fine for you to have parties, everything's at your disposal. You know, here's the Wi Fi password, help yourself to whatever is in the fridge. The only thing I've hidden is the bourbon.
Joel Brooks:Like, you can't Yeah. That's off limits. It's kinda like the forbidden fruit. Alright? I freely give you all things.
Joel Brooks:Just don't touch that. Alright? And so so so we give those things to them, and then we go away. And every time we've come back, everything's been great. But imagine this.
Joel Brooks:Imagine if Lauren and I had come back and the house was a disaster. Furniture had been broken. There's broken plates and cups on the floor. All the plants have died. Her poor dog, Daisy, is nearly starving.
Joel Brooks:We'd look at all that and be like, what in the world? I would immediately sit down with that house sitter and I'd say, what? What have you done? And if that person said, what do you mean? You told me to make myself at home.
Joel Brooks:Yeah. I mean, I was just having fun. I had people overhead. I mean, it was a great time. I'd say, yes, but it's my house.
Joel Brooks:It's my house. Yes. You were free to enjoy everything, but you were to take care of it. You were to take care of my house and the plants and the animals that were in it. Yes.
Joel Brooks:I wanted you to enjoy it. I wanted you to exercise dominion over it if you if you will, but you were to care for it. This is what our dominion is to look like in this world. Yes. We are to enjoy it, but we have been placed here as ambassadors or stewards to take care of it.
Joel Brooks:And the way that we love and care for this world needs to reflect who God is. We learned 2 important things. Really, just two words here that are given to us to really help us understand what this notion of dominion should look like. In the past, anytime I've preached on this, I've really focused on what gardening looks like. Looks like.
Joel Brooks:I'm not gonna do that this time. Go back. Listen to old sermons a couple years ago. Here, I want us to look at just 2 words, and we find them in verse 15. The lord god took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
Joel Brooks:And I wanna look at those words work and keep. Now these are words that can certainly be used in an agricultural sense. You could even translate if you wanted to that word work as cultivate. The word keep as to take care of. And any of you have a garden?
Joel Brooks:My wife and I, we have a garden. We talk about working in the garden and keeping up the garden. We we use those words to describe that, but that is not how these words are most commonly used throughout the bible. Certainly not in the old testament here. These words are used throughout scripture to describe priestly service.
Joel Brooks:These words are most commonly used to describe what the Levites do in service of the tabernacle. They were the ones who worked and kept the tabernacle. Do not miss the importance of this. Yes. Adam and Eve, they were put in a garden to physically work, but their work was to be a spiritual act of worship.
Joel Brooks:All work is to be done to the glory of God. This means you do not have to go into ministry to do God's work because all work is God's work. Or what we see here in particular, I would say all work is priestly work. All of our work we need to see is a priestly act. Let me ask you.
Joel Brooks:What is the role of a priest? A priest is is the mediator. And that's what a priest is. It's what we see all throughout scripture. A priest is the one who stands in between God and his creation and stands as this mediator.
Joel Brooks:It it teaches the creation who God is and then it pleads on behalf of the creation to God. A priest stands in the gap between the 2. And that means that the way that we work and the way that we live needs to be seen as this standing in the gap in which we are teaching people about God, and then we are pleading to God on other people's behalf. That's what it means to be created in God's image. We are to know God so very well that then, in a very priestly way, we can demonstrate and reflect and communicate that to the world we live in.
Joel Brooks:Now, I realize as I say this, this actually might be deflating to some of you, because you're thinking of your work. You're like, okay. I hear you say all work could be done to the glory of God. All work is worship. All work should be priestly.
Joel Brooks:Have you seen what I do? And some of you are you're you're going back to your cubicle right now, and you're like, 80% of what I do is email. Can I just tell you this? For 1, no matter what your education is or your degree is, 80% of your job will always be email. Alright?
Joel Brooks:It's just what we do. So really, you know, those, college students here trying to decide your major, it doesn't matter. We're all pretty much doing the exact same thing. But but some of us were were just thinking through our profession and we're wondering, I I just don't see how this can be a priestly act of service. I mean, I can look at maybe a nurse or a a teacher or maybe a priest, you know, and I could see like, okay, that that's obvious.
Joel Brooks:I can see how that's a priestly act. First off, I want you to know that just because you see a person doing a profession that seems to be God's work, like maybe being a priest or a pastor, I know people are in that profession for the most selfish, ungodly reasons. We could take even the most noble task, and we can turn them inwards and make them an act of pride and selfishness. At the same time, everything we do, everything we do can be done as worship. There is no such thing as the secular and the holy when it comes to worship.
Joel Brooks:And so, what I would encourage you to do is this. If you're struggling with your profession, your job, and what you're doing, and how it relates to priestly service, first is pray that God would show you the redemptive parts of your job. How your job can be redemptive. You might be surprised at the things that God shows you. 2nd is this.
Joel Brooks:Know that no matter what you do, you can do this. You can treat those around you with the dignity and the the gospel. That you will reflect who God is by showing them that kindness, and you'll show him his grace and his character. Alright. So what about when we fail at this?
Joel Brooks:What about when we fail to act as priests in our jobs to work and to serve? Well, we all have to be honest and acknowledge that, at times, we all have been horrible image bearers of God, and we've done a horrible job of reflecting who he is. And I just wanna encourage all of us that when you fail, let that failure drive you to Jesus. Jesus who is our mediator. Jesus who is our priest.
Joel Brooks:And as we just read in Colossians 1 to start the service, Jesus who is the image of the invisible god. Jesus had to come as the image because we have all failed at being a image. All of us have failed. Anybody who looks at us can't fully see who God is. So then Jesus comes as the image and now we look at Jesus, we know exactly who God is.
Joel Brooks:Matter of fact, Hebrews 1 says that Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. And so we look to Jesus both to understand what it means to be human and also what it understands or so we can understand who God is. When you fail, when you fail in your role as a priest in this world, go to the priest. The one who has never failed in his role as mediator and who lives to intercede on your behalf. And one of the things that scripture teaches us is that the more and the more we go to him, the more and more we look at his face, the more and more we begin to reflect who he is.
Joel Brooks:So I would just close by saying, look to Jesus. Look, look to Jesus. Pray with me. Our Lord Jesus, we we thank you that you have not failed us in your role of mediator, that you have been a priest on our behalf, and you have bridged the gap between God and man through your own body that you sacrificed for us on the cross. May we ever look to you.
Joel Brooks:We thank you that our value has nothing to do with what we have done. Our value is in who you say we are. And we are created in your image, and we give you thanks and praise. We pray this in your strong name, Jesus. Amen.
