WHAT IS MANKIND?

Unchanging Faith ❧ Part 13

Selected Passages ❧ Pastor, Dr. John Denney

It happened over three thousand years ago on a warm starlit evening. A young shepherd boy stretched his tired legs out on a grassy knoll, cupped his hands behind his head, leaned back and thoughtfully gazed into the evening sky filled with stars that shimmered like sparkling diamonds.  Feelings of wonder and awe stirred deep in his heart.  Reflecting on that moment he later penned these now famous words: When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; what is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty!(Psalm 8:3-5).  

Today we know, of course, that shepherd boy is King David.  Those quiet moments of deep reflection left an indelible mark on his soul. He was looking at the same starlit sky we see today and shared the same familiar thoughts and feelings we have now.  What he sees causes him to ask a startling question: What is man that You take thought of him? Man is a little lower than God and he has crowned us with glory and honor.  We intuitively know what David is saying is true.  There is something remarkably different about man compared to all creation.  That difference, the Bible says, is we’re uniquely made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26).  No matter who you are, young or old, born or unborn, broken or whole, strong or weak, rich or poor, handicapped mentally or physically, seriously ill, no matter your status, your race, your past, your successes or failures – the one thing we all equally share alike is that all of us, without exception, are made in the image of God.  Would you say this with me: I am the visible expression of the invisible God who created the universe.  To be clear, you’re not God.  But you are made in His image. We are image bearers of the One whose splendor and majesty reaches beyond the heavens.  

Now, I get that not everyone agrees with this. It seems there is no shortage of those who believe man is not a little lower than God.  Instead, they believe man is a little higher than the apes. Man is nothing more than a higher animal. He may be more complex in brain structure than other animals, but that’s it.  Man is not qualitatively any different from animals (Morris, The Biblical Basis for Modern Science, p. 363). Someone humorously put it this way: Frog + Princess = Handsome prince (this is called “fairy tale”). Frog + 10 billion years = Handsome prince (this is called “science”).

This morning we’re going to look at five biblical statements that answer the question what is man? 1) We are created in God’s image, 2) We are created for God’s glory, 3) There are only two genders: male and female, 4) We are both material and immaterial, 5) Only Jesus Christ can restore God’s image in us.  

1. We are created in God’s image.  God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them (Genesis 1:27, NAS). The word for image simply means likeness or to represent.  The Bible says God is Spirit (John 4:24), so it cannot mean we share a physical likeness with Him.  But we do share certain invisible attributes or characteristics with God the rest of creation doesn’t.  For instance, the Bible says God is holy – completely pure of sin and evil.  How do you make holiness visible? We make holiness visible when we turn from sin and evil and love holiness.  The Bible says God is truth.  How do you make truth visible? We make truth visible when we chose to believe and follow biblical truth over lies and speak and the truth in love.  

Through our shared attributes we make visible the invisible attributes of God.  The same is true of love.  The Bible says God is love. How is love made visible? When we love others, our families, friends, other believers, and even enemies. The Bible says God is righteous.  He is the definition of what is right. We make righteousness visible when we stand up to injustice and work to restore what is right.  A good way to understand this is we are intended to be God’s mirrors of God’s holiness, truth, love and righteousness.  Our mind, body, and soul are to mirror God’s image in creation.  As true as this is, and as much as we may long to be God’s mirrors, in actuality, we broken mirrors at best.  Broken mirrors reflect damaged images. Only God can put all the pieces back together again and restore the perfect image He made us to be. 

Why is this so important?  Because knowing we’re made in the image of God reveals our value. If we evolved from primordial ooze – then our value is trivial, if not irrelevant.  We’re nothing more than an insignificant cog in this meaningless cosmic machine which grinds on to nothingness.  

British philosopher Bertrand Russell, viewed by many as a “high priest of humanism,” put it this way: The life of man is a long march through the night surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain, toward a goal that few can hope to reach and where not may tarry long.  One by one as they march our comrades vanish from our sight, seized by the silent orders of omnipotent death.  Brief and powerless is man’s life.  On him and all his race the slow sure doom falls pitiless and dark.  Blind to good and evil, reckless of destruction, omnipotent matter rolls on its relentless way.  For man condemned today to lose his dearest, tomorrow himself to pass through the gate of darkness, it remains only to cherish, ere yet the blow falls, the lofty thoughts that ennoble his little day.  This philosophy of despair is taking root in the hearts of many around the world today.   

The only good news with this kind of outlook is to live with gusto for as long as you can because this is all there is!  George Burns argued that the way you make it to 100 or more is to be sure you make it to 99”; he suggests, “with a good positive attitude and a little bit of luck, there’s no reason you can’t make it to 100.  Once you’ve done that you’ve really got it made, because very few people die over a 100.  

The Bible says something radically different.  It says we have immeasurable value because we were made in the image of God.  You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty!  The thoughts of R.C. Sproul are helpful: Man’s dignity rests in God who assigns an inestimable worth to every person.  Man’s origin is not an accident, but a profoundly intelligent act by One who has eternal value; by One who stamps His own image on each person.  God creates men and moves heaven and earth to redeem when they fall.  Our origin is in creation and or destiny is for redemption.  Between these points every human heartbeat has value.  We are created in God’s image. 

2. We are created for God’s glory. Bring all who claim me as their God, for I have made them for my glory. It was I who created them (Isaiah 43:7). Why did God create us? Was it because He was running low on things to glorify Him? No.  He did not create us because He needed us for His glory.  Nor did He create us because He was lonely.  He created us for the purpose of knowing Him and bringing Him praise and glory (Eph. 1:11-12). Bringing God praise and glory has to do with being God’s mirror. The more we shine for God in His holiness, truth, love, and righteousness, the more we’re like Moses who radiated God’s glory after being in His presence.  The more we shine for God, the more we fulfill our purpose.  And the more we fulfill our purpose the more we are satisfied in life.  

Think of it this way.  Imagine trying to use a pencil as a hammer.  Two things would happen: you’d fail to drive the nail, and you’d ruin the pencil in the process. That’s what happens when we try to live outside the purpose God made us for; our lives become ineffective and pointless. John Piper’s well-known mantra comes to mind: God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. 

3. There are only two genders: male and female. Today, being a man or a woman has become a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, hidden inside an enigma. There’s a lot of unnecessary confusion.  The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man (Genesis 2:22-23, NAS). Notice, Eve was taken from Adam’s side.  God was beautifully illustrated Eve was to be beside Adam not behind him or ahead of him. He is not greater than her, nor is she greater than him. They’re equal in form (both share the same flesh) but different in function (Adam is not Eve, nor is Eve Adam). Husband and wife are meant to be male and female, complimentary partnership. Much like a right and left hand working together, though one is dominant). One author points out this may also explain why cuddling alongside her man is a favorite pastime of many a bride, as it is a sort of homecoming (Breshears, p 122). 

In an article: The Science of Male and Female What God Teaches Through Nature, Pastor Steve Wedgeworth reminds us: Nature teaches us that ‘man’ and ‘woman’ are real categories and not social constructs… human nature is irreducibly male and female.  Writing in 2001 for the Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Understanding the Biology of Sex and Gender Differences, Theresa Wiseman and Mary-Lou Perdue concluded, “Males and females have partially different genomes.” This led them to call for “research on sex at the cellular level.” That call was taken up by Paula Johnson in 2013, who said, “Every cell has a sex — and what that means is that men and women are different down to the cellular and molecular level. It means that we’re different across all of our organs, from our brains to our hearts, our lungs, our joints” (quoted in Nancy Pearcey’s Love Thy Body, 196). There are only and will always only be two genders male and female. 

4. We are both material and immaterial.  People are more than just physical, but we’re spiritual as well.  The question is did God make us as body, soul, and spirit, three in one (trichotomy)? Or, body and soul/spirit, two in one (dichotomy)? What is clear is God created man in both body and soul (material and immaterial) to be a living being. Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being(Genesis 2:7). For the sake of time and future discussion, let me say it is not unusual for the Bible to use the terms “spirit” and “soul” interchangeably. Both terms often share the same role. We see this in Jesus’ final hours.  Now My soul has become troubled (John 12:27). He became troubled in spirit(John 13:21).  Both terms are used without distinguishing one from the other. But what is important is God made us both material and immaterial in His image.  Both are important.    

5. Only Jesus Christ can restore God’s image in us. We are, each of us, broken mirrors of God’s image.  Only Jesus Christ can restore us when we turn to Him in faith and obedience.Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him (Colossians 3:10, NLT).  God’s process of fixing broken mirrors means getting to know Him.  It is a process of removing the lies that broke us in the first place and replacing them with God’s truth.  The more we expose the lies and exchange them with truth the more we become like Him.  But this process doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time – a lifetime.  Just as a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, repairing our broken mirrors begins with a single step of faith in trusting Christ.  Paul likens this step to removing the veil of unbelief. This veil can be removed only by believing in Christ …But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away… So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image (1 Corinthians 3:14,16,18, NLT).