Genesis 1: Imago Dei

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0:00 And for the rest of us, we're looking at or thinking about a... Man, we've got a lot of feedback lately. We're looking at or thinking about this idea that God calls us to things. And last week I was thinking about that story where Jesus, after the resurrection and before the ascension,

0:33 gathers his 11 to him in the hill of Galilee and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore I tell you. And I had a moment of honesty that said, Look guys, if I were in charge, it's not the way I would have done it, right? So I've got all authority in heaven and on earth, and I've just made it through the grave and come out alive. I'm taking care of business from here on out.

1:04 I'll be here. And just for what it's worth, I think it would be very cool if Jesus had stayed. Resurrected Jesus, he pops in and out of space and time throughout that story in those 40 days when he's here before the ascension. Can you imagine if he's still popping into upper rooms of people who are around? Fantastic. You know, if we were able to make pilgrimages, maybe to go see him and he sits on some throne somewhere when he wants to have an audience

1:34 and help people make decisions and direct the places that they should go. And it would be fantastic if Jesus just handled things himself. All power in heaven and on earth has been assembled into him. But on the hill of Galilee, he doesn't do that, right? To our great kind of confusion and wonder, he sends out the 11 who then gather others and they walk around and tell the story. It takes them 300 years to decide on which books will be in the New Testament.

2:05 There's all this kind of debate and clarification about when things should happen. Mark and I were talking once about how long it took them to figure out when they wanted to baptize and still that's a debate, right? There's important things that the church, these people wandering around, born living and dying on this side of heaven, trying to figure out about what it means that Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth, and yet he does it. He leaves the work of the church to the people.

2:37 And we said last week that it's consistent with how God works through the whole story of Scripture. We looked at that one little story of Peter and how he walks on water and that there's something when Jesus calls that conveys what you need to do the job he's calling you to. But today I wanted to, we're going to spend several weeks now looking forward at specific callings people had to consider what callings we might have. Specific things God wanted to do in the world through people to consider what he might want to do in the world through us.

3:11 But before we do that I wanted to take one week and look at what might be the thing that gives Jesus the confidence standing on the hill of Galilee, that these guys won't completely blow it, right? And it starts at the very beginning of the story. So if you look at the very beginning, let's find it, go to the very beginning Genesis. I can never remember where things are in particular.

3:46 Oh, here it is. Genesis chapter 1 verse 27. We've talked about this a lot because I like talking about it. God makes the earth out of his own imagination with the force of his will not because he has to or he needs to but simply because he wants to. He doesn't tell us why, but we know that there is no need or a shortcoming in the God. So he must have created the world just because he wants to. And he creates all of the world out of his own imagination, right?

4:19 Just like the viscosity of water was God's idea, right? Like that it would stick together and cling and run down in the rivulets that you could suck it up through straws. Like that was a really good idea. It makes it movable and savable. You could put it in little bottles. Like the fact that then the water that has this viscosity is in a closed system. So the earth has all the water that it needs and the water cycle thing. That was God's idea. Very good idea, right?

4:49 The creation is full of amazing ideas, all gods, and then the cap of creation here in verse 26 of Genesis chapter 1. Then God said, let us make humanity, man, in our image after our likeness. 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 earth.

5:21 First off, God makes humanity last and he forms them in Genesis chapter 2 where we get a retelling of the creation story. He says he formed them out of the dust of the earth. And then though these things were his idea, look, he enumerates several of them there and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. God makes the whole place.

5:51 It's his out of his own imagination and with the force of his will he makes them. And then he creates humanity and he gives dominion to humanity. Again, I mean, I don't want to say that God is a dummy, but it feels like a dummy thing to do, right? God knows how the thing works. He knows why all the pieces are there and how they fit together.

6:25 And yet he gives them to humanity to oversee and take care of. And then the last piece here, so God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. And he blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, 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. God, this is like the famous right, Imago Day, the image of God in humanity.

7:00 He makes people in his image. God makes humanity in his image. I had one of my favorite professors at seminary was a Hebrew professor. I had that taught us the Torah and he spent some time talking about this idea of image because it's like a lot of people have tried to figure out what does it mean that we're made in the image of God.

7:31 And it's clear, pretty clear, right? Because we know throughout the story of scripture that God doesn't necessarily have a human form until of course he incarnates in the person of Jesus, but God is spirit, right? God the Father is not contained. So if we're made in the image of God, it's not in the sense that we are like God, like that we look like God, really. But he used this analogy, the professor that I had, remembering that this Torah is written in the ancient near east where they're developing these large empires, right?

8:07 Israel is conquered by the Assyrians and the Persians and the Babylonians and they are in the season, this extended era of large empires through the ancient near east. And it's not like they have planes or even cars, maybe some chariots to move things around, but when they move and conquer a place, they would displace the people and then leave. And most of the people living there in paying taxes might never see the king to whom they are subject, right?

8:42 And so they started this pattern often of building big statues of the king in the farthest corners of the empire. They would construct a statue of the king so that people would look at the statue and know to whom they belong. This is the image, this is the king, this is the one to whom we belong. And many kind of scholars or theologians would understand this image of God, not to be complete in that idea, but to start to give you a sense of what God might be thinking when he's sending out these image-bears into the garden where they have dominion.

9:30 That as they're walking their countenance and demeanor, the essence of their presence carries with it the nature, the character, the perspective of the God to whom the whole place belongs. So that God makes the earth and it is his and then he creates humanity, now his image-bears, who will walk around the garden and the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea will be reminded of the God as they see his image-bears in the world.

10:10 I mean, it's a cool idea, right? And you can see kind of the efficiency in it. Also the real kind of gift and I don't know, weight of it. I wonder if it felt like a weight brand new. You know, we could read through the story and it seems like God has this kind of very real and dynamic relationship with the first ones in the garden.

10:44 Somehow they had this sense that they would walk with the God in the cool of the day. And so it's like God would come down, build this relationship with humanity and then affected and changed and challenged and charged by that relationship with the God. They would go out and exercise dominion. Terry hit God's image out into the garden, right?

11:14 I imagine it would be very cool and like a degree of weight. I wonder if you have felt at all the weight of responsibility.

11:44 Like something that feels important, sacred, kind of thrilling and also a little terrifying, if you're honest. The job that's worth effort and energy, but also carries with it enough significance that failure would be painful or disruptive.

12:14 I don't know what the first ones felt like, but I imagine it's got to be something in there, right? Something in there where they get the thing, they get the charge up from the cool in the evening and then they've got to go figure out, right? Do they prune this tree or do they let it go? Do they try and settle a disagreement between animals? Are they eating each other then in the garden? That's the big question. I don't know, right?

12:46 And the responsibility of trying to figure out what does it mean that we are God's image bearers in the world so that when they have the famous moment, we don't know how long they were in the garden as perfect image bearers of God. It doesn't say, right? And if you're eating of the tree of life on a regular basis, what do days matter anyway?

13:17 If you're eating of the tree of life and you're walking with God in the cool of the evening and you're in the garden of Eden, what does one day matter? There's an infinite amount more to come. We don't know how long they were in the garden, but they were in a garden for a period of time carrying the image of God, ruling the earth and subduing it with this mix of exhilaration and weighty sense of responsibility. And that balance of those two things is what's happening when they come to the tree of knowledge of good and evil at one point, right?

13:58 And of course, the critical failure we've talked about it before, the fatal flaw of humanity kind of comes up to the surface at just the right time in just the right tip of the scales of the fear and the exhilaration of the calling of God. So that as they're feeling the weight of ruling and subduing, we carry dominion, we make decisions, we see the difference between right and wrong, and they get the whisper of the thought of the fear that maybe God doesn't have their best interests at heart.

14:39 That maybe though he told them to eat the fruit, he's really watching out for himself and not them. And so this fatal flaw, this inability to believe, to let God be God, to trust that God has their best interests at heart, they eat the fruit and immediately, right? The negative side of the weight of the calling bears down on them. I just wrote down a couple that I think of. Remember the story, right? They eat the fruit and then immediately several things happen.

15:14 Fear, guilt, sadness, maybe even hopelessness for the future. They run from God, they hide. They're afraid of him. They're guilty. They make clothes. They hide their vulnerability and their nakedness. They point the finger. They are pointing the finger at each other and at the snake, they're like aimless and they don't know what to do. They don't want to see God, but they can't avoid God. There's a hopelessness for the future.

15:45 When there's a fine line in a calling where God has given you something and it works as long as there is deep dependence on God, they can shoulder the weight of the responsibility of being the image-bearers of God with dominion in the garden as long as they don't think that they are God, that all of the choices belong to them, that the weight of the responsibility is theirs alone to bear. When they instead see that they are called and gifted by God, supported by God, given everything that they need by God within the parameters of God, they can thrive in the garden.

16:26 They can be the image-bearers of God. They can rule the earth and subdue it, right? They can fill the place and multiply it. But when they decide that God is watching out for himself so they must watch out for themselves, that God cannot be trusted and His parameters are not in their best interest. They need to make their own parameters, their own decisions. This is when guilt, fear, hopelessness, the weight of the responsibility, crushes them.

16:58 They can't endure the calling on their own. They don't thrive. They wither. And so God in His great grace. Read it sometime this afternoon in the whole story. God in His great grace says, oh man, says to Himself in His triune, hey, lest they eat of the tree of life and live like this forever. Let's get them out of here.

17:28 Let's say live in this withered state forever. Let's preserve the hope of a future that was intended for them and get them out of the garden. Right? Okay. We're trying to figure out how Jesus on the hill of Galilee can with confidence dismiss the eleven, though He has all authority in heaven on earth. He sends out the eleven to keep working. And it looks like He's foolish if we stop at Galatians, I mean, at Genesis chapter two, but go forward a little bit to Genesis chapter six.

18:07 If you are following along. Genesis chapter six verse five. They're outside the garden. God makes some promises to them and says, keep going. But now you're outside of the garden and you will die. And you'll have to figure it out. Life will be harder. By Genesis chapter six, we're several generations removed from the garden. And in Genesis chapter six verse five, it says, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

18:43 And the Lord was sorry that He had made them on the earth and it grieved His heart so the Lord said, I'll blot them out. The thing to get to here is by the time right before the flood, the scriptures say every desire of man's heart was all evil all the time. That that sense evil is a choice against the way of God. That sense that the first two had at the tree of knowledge of good and evil, that God did not have their best interest at heart but was instead watching out for themselves. That God could not be trusted. That they needed to trust themselves. The scriptures are saying that by the time we get to the flood, all of humanity is watching out for themselves all the time.

19:20 The notion that there might be a God who would protect them and provide for them and care for them and love them and set them up and charge them with the future is completely gone. It's all evil all the time. And so He takes the one guy, Noah and his family, gives them a heads up, hey, build a boat. I'm going to flood and start over. So look at Genesis chapter 9 after they start over Genesis chapter 9 verse 1. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord. This is after they got off from the boat from the flood and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered to burnt off of the altar.

19:57 And then the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground. Oh, that's wait. Verse chapter 9 verse 1. And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear that you and the dread upon every piece. Oh, yeah, here it is. Verse 6. Whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed for God made man in his own image.

20:29 They get the same command to be fruitful and multiply him. But what I wanted you to see is that there's something about the image of God that though they're outside the garden, though they've passed through the flood, there's something about the image of God that endures. In all of humanity. It's not perfect, but God is encouraging. No, don't throw life away. Though you have seen me flood the whole earth, don't throw life away. All of man is made. All of humanity is made.

21:21 In the image of God. That almost explains Jesus on the hill of Galilee. Maybe you've seen that. Maybe you've thought about that. That there's a sense that everyone knows or has an internal understanding of the relationship that we have to the God. Right? I was listening to, I'm trying to remember where it was, listened to a lot of podcasts.

21:58 But there was one where they were talking about the idea of wilderness. And it's like an interesting term right now because of all the fires in California. A lot of these, not a lot, but more than we'd like of the ancient sequoias are burning down. You know, these trees are like 2,000 years old, right? I don't know if you've seen them. It's astounding. It feels like you're standing next to a blue whale. If a blue whale lived 10 times as long as he does.

22:33 You feel like you're in the presence of something significant and meaningful and alive even though it's just standing there. You can't believe it. And they're burning down. So they were talking about can we intervene in places of wilderness and replant the sequoias and what does wilderness mean? Have we really ever had a pristine wilderness? And this is what was interesting and what made me think of it. They were talking about how before Europeans came to North America, the indigenous peoples were here, right?

23:04 And they weren't just not touching everything. They were cultivating the crops that they needed. They were pruning the trees and managing the forests. They were culling the herds. Like so this idea that we've ever had a pristine wilderness in North America might be a little bit of an invention, right? And when you read the stories, there's a deep reverence for something divine in the indigenous peoples that were here, right?

23:34 They have a sense. They know that there is more at work in the earth than just the things of their hands. Right? Or some inter-workings of chemicals and they have a sense of the divine in all humanity. From creation through exile, enduring through the flood is yet the image of God in all humanity.

24:06 And yet, God doesn't trust all humanity on the hill of Galilee. Do you remember how he got there at the hill of Galilee? He told the women to tell the dudes, hey, he told them the Marys to tell his 11, hey, go meet me on the hill of Galilee. They were in Jerusalem, so they've got to go there.

24:37 And as they walked through Jerusalem, they might have remembered the walk in, the triumphal entry, the Palm Sunday, right? And as they walked through the neighborhoods and towns, they might have walked past Jericho and remember where he healed blind Bartimaeus. And then they might walk past the section where they remember where he called Lazarus out of the tomb. And then as they get to the Sea of Galilee, they might remember where he fed the 5,000 and walked on the hill, where he sat on the hill and delivered the Sermon on the Mount.

25:07 He asked a specific 11 and he sent them to go through a place where they would recall the time they had spent with him. And what he had taught them and what he had shown them. And then he brings them up on the hill of Galilee and gives the specific the story. And says, hey guys, I'm authority in heaven on earth has been given to me. Therefore I send you. But don't do anything yet. Go back to Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit. There's something else. It's the image of God plus. Look at...

25:42 This is the last place we'll go, but let's decide where we should go. Let's look at 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 16. In 1 Corinthians where I was trying to decide, in 1 Corinthians Paul writes to the church in Corinth and said, look, from the Adam, from the first ones,

26:23 you inherited an image tied to dust. We carry the image passed down from one generation to another, right? But look, we are a long ways away from the garden. And the image we inherited from Adam and Eve is not nothing.

26:54 But when Jesus is entrusting the reign of God on earth to a group of people, he levels it up. He starts something new. Paul in the letter to 1 Corinthians says, you inherited from Adam, you inherited an image of dust. But from Christ you inherited an image imperishable. You could tell it like, messed with the Christians in Corinth because he brings it up again in his second letter.

27:32 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 16, he says, from now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone, has passed away, and behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

28:12 What Christ did on the cross was accomplish a second creation, a new Adam that can again walk with God in the cool of the evening, that can again carry his image meaningfully out into the world, that when buoyed by his spirit, the new creation in you has the capability to carry the gospel, to image God out to the world, to remind humanity of the God to whom it all belongs.

28:48 You have lots of callings, we talked about it last week. Lots of, some of them, huge and others of them small. I have a calling to, it's my responsibility to make sure the grass doesn't get too high, right? It's also my responsibility to love my wife, to parent my kids, to pastor a group of, we all have callings, right? But at a base level, Paul reminds us of the work of Christ, what gives him confidence on the Hill of Galilee and with you, is that in you is something new, something imperishable.

29:32 In you, you have this old Adam which carries the fatal flaw, which cannot, does not, will not, frustrates and can't trust God. And then you have this other thing in you that is willing to let God be God. Who can trust that God has a future, has value, significance, purpose, direction for life.

30:08 This part of you, endures forever. And Paul says we'll win in the end. Christ on the Hill of Galilee knows that he can trust the 11 because he's done something that's never been done before and will never be undone. He's awoken a new creation in each of the 11 so that when he empowers it with the Spirit, they'll carry the gospel of now and forever. And the same is true for you. God made you on purpose not by accident.

30:40 And in your baptism, he started something new in you that is present now and endures forever. It's a new creation in you that can let God be God, carry the image, fulfill the calling. Let me pray that we might remember that for a bit today. Hey Lord, thank you for the work of the cross and the sacrifice of the sun.

31:14 Teach us humility to let you be God instead of us. And to gratefully receive the grace of the callings that you've put on our lives and trust you to lead us in the way to fulfill them. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.