Man’s maker was made man,
that He, Ruler of the stars,
might nurse at His mother’s breast;
that the Bread might hunger,
the Fountain thirst,
the Light sleep,
the Way be tired on its journey;
that the Truth might be accused of false witness,
the Teacher be beaten with whips,
the Foundation be suspended on wood;
that Strength might grow weak;
that the Healer might be wounded;
that Life might die.
- Augustine of Hippo (Sermons 191.1)
As I was thinking about the sorrow of the parents who lost their children yesterday, I was reminded that the perfect loving father suffered the death of his perfect innocent son upon the cross.
God knows our pains and sufferings to depth in which even we cannot fully comprehend.
For those who are suffering that belong to Christ:
‘And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever amen.’ 1 Peter 5:10-11
Reposted from jcwhitelight @ http://jcwhitelight.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/made-in-his-image/:
“Then God said, “Let Us make man in our Image, according to our likeness…”
~Genesis 1:26
“What is the purpose of life?” This has been one of the most sought after questions of humanity. Every person, deep down, longs to have a good explanation as to why he or she was created and what he or she was created for. Pondering the purpose of your existence may, at first, seem like a daunting task. After all, if so many ancient and modern philosophers have failed to give a clear and lasting answer to such, why should you (at least, that’s what you may think)? And yet, as the question burns ever-so deeply in your heart, your desire for an answer becomes more urgent. In order for a person to live as God designed him to live, he first needs to understand the purpose of his existence. In the realm of God’s myriad of creation, you and I exist. But for what? To take up space? To wonder exactly why we exist? Fail to answer this question, and the rest of your life will be filled with confusion, apathy, and shallowness.
The Sunday school answer may be that God created us for His glory. Yet still, what does that mean? For every part of creation was made for glory of God as well. Humans are not unique in this. Trees were created for the glory of God. Dolphins, tigers, and sea turtles were all made for the glory of God. Mountains, oceans, and canyons were all created for the glory of God. Stars, planets, and moons were created for the glory of God. In this regard, man is not unique. And yet, one is likely to drive himself to the point of insanity if one begins to wonder how it is that he is distinct from the rest of the creation around him if there seems to be no difference in the dignity of his existence and the existence or his pet dog. What was man created, then, to do? Or, more appropriately, what were you specifically created to do? What is the purpose of your existence? Why did the Creator bring you into this world?
It’s amazing how many of those philosophers would have been so more productive in their thinking had they simply bothered to read the first chapter Genesis. For the truth of what separates man in the purpose of his existence from the rest of the created universe is contained in but a few words from the Creator Himself: “Let Us make man in our image, according to our likeness.” The chief end of all of creation is to bring glory to the Creator. Yet, man is unique in how he was designed to accomplish this. Of all created things that exist in this dimension (not including the spiritual dimension in which angels exist), one was specifically designated to bear the image of the Creator Himself. All creation brings honor to God. Yet only one was purposefully designed to walk in the image of God. The uniqueness and dignity of man is by all means astounding.
It is when a human being takes hold of this realization and lives in a way that is in accordance to it that he achieves his highest and most enjoyable state. The purpose of life is not happiness as the world defines it. The goal of life is not freedom to do what one wants. The purpose of life is not to gain riches. Rather, one truly finds and fulfills one’s purpose of existence in actively bearing the image of the one who made Him. It is when he actively lives out the responsibility to mirror the holy character of the Holy One that any human can say that he is doing exactly what he was created to do. The tragic reality of today is that, while humans have been designed for the most dignified and honorable of purposes, humans are the only creatures to willfully rebel against this design. Every other part of creation has been faithful in doing its part. None have rebelled. Trees continue to grow leaves and bear fruit. The sun continues to rise in the east and set in the west. Stars continue to shine. Planets continue to revolve around the sun. Mountains continue to stand, and waves continue to crash. Dolphins continue to boisterously jump and swim. Tigers continue to roar. And yet, we as human beings are born rebels. We who have been given the greatest privilege of all creation have instead sought to live as we ought to live. We who have been given the honor of bearing the image of God have instead lived for ourselves, under our own rules, pursuing our own lusts. We, who have specifically been designed for dependence on God’s commands, have chosen autonomy. We, who have specifically been designed for obedience, have chosen to rebel. We, who have specifically been designed for fellowship with the living God, have chosen to live life apart from Him. We, who have been set apart from the most glorious of purposes, have chosen not to do our part.
I thank God for Jesus Christ, who has paid the price for my sins and – through the power of His resurrection – has now restored me to a right relationship with God. All that means is that He has restored me from my previous disobedience and has now set me in a trajectory in which I am slowly but surely learning how to live for the dignified purpose for which I was made. More and more, I’m learning that the lusts of the world are not what I was created to enjoy. More and more, I’m realizing that living life without God truly is striving after wind. More and more, I’m taking hold of the purpose for my existence – to live as an image bearer of the Holy One. The more and more I pursue this endeavor, the more and more joy and freedom my soul finds.
Brother, quit living for small things. While you are deserving of so much less than what you have, realize that you were designed for so much more than what your flesh desire to live for. Renounce those empty philosophies and are nothing more than convoluted and twisted explanations as to why you exist. Remember what the Almighty and all-wise Creator designed you for: Let Us make man in our image, according to our likeness.
If you haven’t read my first, very long post, please do so before you read this. Credit for this post goes to ravi zacharias.
Matthew 22:15-21
Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him [Jesus] in his words. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius.
And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription [image] is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.”
Whose likeness and image are you?
This is my first blog post in years so please bear with me as I try to be coherent. I believe that this subject is much more vast than I can understand or try to explain and yet it has such importance that it should bear weight in our every day lives. I daresay that a proper knowledge, understanding, meditation and application upon such a topic should be life transforming.
This post is a summation of many of the things that I have been thinking about in the past few months. I’ve been learning and understanding the depth of what it means that God is for God - God is ultimately about his glory. It is my sincere belief that this truth needs to be taught explicitly, regularly, and consistently within the church.
God is for God
“God’s holiness is his perfect and pure devotion to the pleasure he has in himself and his glory. His holiness is his love of himself. God’s holiness is…mainly and summarily in his infinite regard or love to himself, he being the greatest and most excellent Being.” - J.Edwards
The gospel is not just about us, but it is truly and supremely about the glory of God. - it is about restoring the image of God to all things. Which brings me to my meditation of the significance of being made in the image of God.
The Intended Image
We as human being have the tremendous blessing of being made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Why is this significant? God loves his image because he is “the greatest and most excellent Being” and there is no one or nothing greater. God created us out of pure joy and pleasure from himself.
Not only did God create us to image himself, but he made us to spread that image. “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 earth.” Genesis 1:28 God created man as his representative over the earth so that man could spread the image of God while displaying the glory of God.
Clearly, that is not the condition of man any longer but chapter one in the book of romans paints the true picture: “[they] exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animal and creeping things.” (they being us) Our greatest sin is that we have exchanged the glory of the immortal God for infinitely lesser images. How audacious are we in our cosmic treason! God himself says that the penalty of our heinous sin is death and his wrath.
As sinners, we no longer image and reflect the glorious God as we were made. But God in his perfect wisdom planned out a salvation that would restore this image and he alone would receive all the glory due him.
The Perfect Image
Though we as created beings reflect and image God to a very very small degree, there is one who perfectly reflects and images God to himself - his son, Jesus (Colossians 1:15, John 14:9). For all eternity past, the Son has been the Father’s object of all divine affection and perfect delight. While on earth, God explicitly expressed his pleasure in Jesus (Mark 1:11, 9:7). Jesus stepped into time and took the form of his creation - yet was without sin and obeyed the Father perfectly in all things to the point of death (Hebrews 4:15, Philippians 2:8, John 6:38, 8:29).
The image that we marred, mocked and belittled, was properly reflected perfectly in the life of the Jesus. God determined that the restoration of his image in all of creation would be by the substitutionary death of his one and only son.
“But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we have sheep have gone astray; we have turned - every one - to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all…Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief.” Isaiah 53:5-6, 10a
The Restored Image
The object of all divine pleasure and affection for all eternity past would become the object of God’s full, ferocious, and furious wrath. Why? For God’s glory. To restore God’s image in man and in creation. - we, as saved sinners, can once more enjoy the pleasure of God upon us by our image/God reflecting relationship through the blood of Jesus.
I cannot think of a better passage to summarize some of my thoughts than colossians 1:15-23:
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the death, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith , stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.”
God is about his glory, God is about his image. God is for God.
“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” Romans 11:36
