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Man the Glory of God II
Do you ever wonder why you’re here, why God bothered to make you, make any of us? I’ve wondered that a lot.
In the first part of the bible we find the key to unlocking the mystery of the meaning of our lives.
We read in Genesis 1:26-28 two weeks ago that mankind was created in the image of God. This means that he was made to be like God in significant ways and to represent God upon the earth.
As God’s image bearers on earth mankind was meant indeed to be the glory and the radiance of God on earth.
Now that is a high purpose!
When we think of the idea of “glory,” we think of a kind of radiance coming out of something, that, as you see it, it takes your breath away. This may be a literal brightness – as in the glory of a stunning sunset. Or it may be the glory of beauty itself, as in the glory of a great mountain view. Or it may be the glory of a profound and transcendent event – as when enemies embrace as friends, or when a great man gives his life to save another. In any case there is a something that emanates out and causes us to stare, to wonder, to be in awe.
Such of course is the glory of God. And such is man, made to be the glory of God on earth.
I would suspect that if Adam and Eve, before their sin and fall, were to somehow walk into the room now, and stand before us, we would be speechless, in utter awe, and might be tempted to bow down, or perhaps, because we are sinful, shrink back. They would, I believe, shine with glory.
Mankind was meant to reflect Gods glory, that is, to shine forth outwardly from himself like a shining lamp a glory that is like the very glory of God, sort of like when the glory of God shone above the mercy seat of the temple, or when Moses face shone having been in the presence of God. Mankind was and is meant to be a visible real presence of the glory of God.
Oh, and that means you.
Mankind was meant to bring glory to God by a loving, kindly, benevolent ruling over God’s creation. See, the creation itself reflects and declares the glory of God in its beauty and complexity and vastness. Yet, even though the creation was proclaimed to be “good,” indeed, “very good,” I believe that it was created with the potential, given proper rule by man, of becoming even more very good, and declaring even more the glory of God. Man was to manage and rule over the earth so that God would be more greatly glorified in it and by it.
Yes, that means you, too.
Mankind, made in God’s image, and able to communicate with God, was also to be the mouth piece of praise and glory back to God, representing the whole creation in praise and adoration and love back to the Creator. Yes, all the animals, and even the inanimate objects in their own way give praise and glory to God, yet mankind, through his special ability to communicate with God, becomes the mouth piece of the created order, offering back praise to God, and thus glorifying Him.
And yes, that means you again.
Obviously in the fall of man into sin and rebellion much of this creational purpose for man was marred, or lost. Yet, fallen sinful man is still made in the image of God, and still represents God, which is why it is such an incredible offence to God to murder, or even to meanly or inappropriately curse, another human being.
So, in the fall into sin and misery God’s purpose for man and for creation is blurred and rejected. What is God to do?
There is much history between the fall of mankind into sin and the coming of Jesus, but this is advent season, so we fast forward to the New Testament..
Enter Jesus…..
Our word “advent” is from the Latin word for of the Greek word for “coming.” Advent means “coming” and refers to the coming of Jesus. We look ahead as Christians to the second advent, that is, the second coming of Jesus. But at Advent or Christmas season we look back to the first advent, the first coming of Jesus.
When we celebrate the first advent of Jesus we celebrate the incarnation, God becoming man, God entering into the realm of human life in a whole new and unexpected way in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus of Nazareth, yes, even baby Jesus in the manger, boy Jesus, and man Jesus, we understand as fully and really a human being, and yet also fully and really God.
Scripture tells us that Jesus of Nazareth is the exact image of God. He isn’t created in the image of God, he is the image of God. He is the perfect exact picture of what God is like. In this he communicates to us about who God is.
And his work of sacrifice tells us things about God not fully revealed yet in Genesis – about his mercy and grace. Yes, that these were present in the beginning. Love was at the core of why God created us - that we might share as creatures in the beauty and wonder and glory of His person. His gracious desire that we know the joy of sharing in His goodness was there all along. His loving and kindly care over his creation was always there.
But entering into the mess of a sinful and rebellious world, giving of His only begotten son to suffer and die for those in rebellion against him – that is a new story! And that is what we celebrate during the Christmas season.
So, Jesus of Nazareth, in his life and work, reveals more and deeper realities about God than perhaps would have been known had man not fallen into sin and rebellion. Jesus has as it were made known new things about the Father.
So, Jesus tells us what God is like. Indeed, he who has seen Jesus has seen the Father.
But, and this is so important, it is as a human being that Jesus tells us what God is like! In Jesus’ humanity he perfectly reflects the glory and character of God.
And so, Jesus tells us not just what God is like, but what mankind is meant to be like as the glory of God.
Jesus shows us as fallen creatures what it looks like to be created in the image of God.
Jesus as the Word made flesh, that is, as God in the form of a real totally-human human being, dwelling amongst us, reveals and shines forth and manifests and displays the glory of God, as we were indeed meant to all along.
The Scripture says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
It is through Jesus’ humanity that we see his glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
So, if we now want to know how it is we are to bear the image of God, it is by looking to Jesus, who not only shows us what God is like but also shows us what we are supposed to be like.
This is why so important to read and reread the gospels, to always have before us the human person of Jesus, and to see how he spoke, how he acted, how he dealt with others, how he loved, for he teaches us what it looks like to bear the image of God.
Jesus is the true image and we in becoming like him regain again that image that has been so hidden and marred.
It’s kind of like standards of weights and measures where we have specified and established just what say, a meter is, or a kilogram, or a liter, etc. and described how to calibrate our everyday meter sticks and kilograms against these standards.
For example, the kilogram technically was originally defined as the mass of one liter of pure water at standard atmospheric pressure at 4 degrees Celsius.
But this proved very hard to replicate. So, in 1889 the official definition was changed to be equal to a particular piece of metal carefully made according to he original definition.
There is a vault in Paris which holds an actual cylinder of platinum and iridium alloy which is about 4 cm tall and 4cm in diameter. It sits there under very controlled conditions and has been there since the 1880’s. This is the official legal standard for the kilogram.
Now, very carefully and under highly controlled conditions and every so often a perfect copy is made of this standard meter. Then copies, less perfect, are made of this copy, and distributed across the world.
So think of the image of God like this. God is like the official metal kilogram in the vault which we can’t see or access. Jesus is like the perfect copy of that kilogram, from which copies are made. So we are to be very close copies of the perfect copy, even though we have a ways to go yet.
To bear the image of God now, we look to Jesus, the perfect copy, and seek to become like him, and in becoming like him we become like the real thing, like God himself, and become what God meant us to be as his image bearers.
The world is not the same now as it was on the sixth day of creation. There is now sin, and sorrow, and darkness, and pain, and brokenness, and hurt, and sadness. To be God’s image bearers now has a different look than before, not totally different, but different, because it means that we are to look like, and show forth, God who has in his only begotten Son given of himself sacrificially to his world.
The glory and wonder and splendor of God is not now just seen in his creation power, in His vastness, in his glorious righteousness, but also in His self giving commitment and mercy extended to his rebellious and undeserving image bearers.
And so, the glory of God in Jesus is most keenly revealed not in displays of visible power, but in his willingness to suffer and die for us, and likewise for us, in our willingness to renounce ourselves and give ourselves in love to others.
In his last evening with the disciples, after Judas left the room to go and give up Jesus to the Jewish leaders, anticipating his suffering and death, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him.”
Jesus is of course speaking of the cross, of the suffering and death through which he will bring life to others. In this self giving suffering and love is the glory of God revealed. In this death, we see Jesus, God enfleshed as a real human being, reflecting the glory of God to the world, the glory of God’s mercy and grace and love.
And so, Jesus’ ministry of death for us fills out the meaning for this time in history of what it means to be image bearers of God, to be the glory of God on the earth, to shine forth God’s glory as lamp in a dark place.
See, our purpose as God’s image bearers is to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, who is the perfect representation of God. This is now the primary goal of our lives – to be like Jesus, and through being like Him to be like God.
In Colossians we are told that we are not to lie to one another, because if we are in Christ we have put off the old self, the fallen and ungodlike self, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. As we look to Christ, and become like Christ, and put on the new self modeled after him, we become more and more the image of God.
In Ephesians Paul puts it this way…We are no longer to walk as the gentiles walk -- sensual, greedy, impure, callous of heart. No, we didn’t learn Christ that way. When the gospel of Christ was preached to us we were told that we had to change, to repent of this way of life, to get rid of it, put it off, and to be changed, renewed in the spirit of our minds, to put on a new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
In other words, when we were taught about Christ, we were taught that we had to turn away from the old way of life and embrace the new where we were being made into the image of God.
In 2 Corinthians Paul puts it this way. Now that we are made new in Christ, we have access to God by the Spirit. As we behold the glory of the Lord we are being transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to another. Bit by bit, by fellowship with God through Christ and by the Spirit, we see His glory, and become like Him. In short, we become like that which we worship.
But let’s pull this down to day to day reality. We are as people in a fallen world caught up in its struggles and sorrows. Things happen to us, whether persecution, or physical suffering, or life stress, or whatever. This is life in a fallen world.
But in reference to the sufferings and challenges of this life in a fallen world, that all this stuff which makes up our lives works together for good for us. But what is this good? God is orchestrating all things in our lives to work towards this good, so what is this good? How is this good to be understood?
Well, this good is that we would be conformed to the image of his Son, and this is so that His Son might have a bunch of brothers and sisters!
And so this good is that we would be conformed to the image of His son. Once again, full circle, we’re back to Genesis 1, that we created to bear the image of God in the world, which now means bearing the image of Jesus the Son of God.
All of life is a training process, a molding process, whereby, through dealing with and experiencing and responding to its many good and bad aspects, we are trained in Christ likeness.
Every trial of life and every bit of suffering God now uses to grow us into the image of Jesus.
Through a difficult relationship we learn patience and perseverance.
Through the loss of a loved one we learn to understand the suffering of Christ for us.
Through a tedious job we learn to give thanks in all circumstances.
Through a sense of disappointment in another person we learn to love the unlovely, as Jesus loved us.
Through marriage, we learn to love another person warts and all, as Christ loves us..
Through loving our children, we learn something of how God loves his son and thereby how He loves us also.
Through those times of anger and frustration when someone has sinned against us, we learn to forgive others as Jesus forgave us.
Now how we learn these things in all such cases makes for maybe another ten sermons. What I want you to see is that God is absolutely committed to transforming us into the image of His son, and into his image and uses every part of life to achieve that. Every part of you life is filled with this huge and fantastic purpose.
There is not a corner of your life hidden from God’s intention to make you into the image of his son. There is no exemption card. If you’re a Christian, this is God’s agenda for you.
But it can be hard, and we have to keep our eyes on the horizon.
For, to top it all off, when Jesus returns, and we are fully glorified in him, we will participate in the glory of God in a way that is now inexpressible. When Jesus comes back and we see him, we will become like him. We will receive our new bodies and finally once again fully and totally fulfill our calling to bear the image of God in the world.
We will shine!
We will be radiant!
We will be glorious!
In the radiance of our glorified bodies we will even physically look like the glory of God looks when he shows forth His glory in the world.
Yes, we will be glorious!
That is our destiny, if we embrace His purpose for us to become like Jesus, to follow him, to walk in his ways, and this once again be the image bearers he made us to be in the first place.
So, go from here, and be the image of Christ to each other and unto the world.
Amen. |
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