GOD MADE MAN IN HIS OWN IMAGE
Human life is set apart from the rest of creation by God for His purposes and not ours. Thus any abuse of humanity is an affront to God Himself.
[1] THEREFORE SLAVERY IS WRONG
We are all brothers and must ‘Love our neighbour' and remember God’s judgement is coming. The OT made slave trading a capital crime.
The World needs the Christian Conscience and the Church must show compassion.
The World needs the Gospel of Jesus Christ to free mankind from sinful selfishness so we will love God and those made in His image.
[2] THEREFORE RACISM IS WRONG Romans 10:12
One of the prevalent evidences of man’s inhumanity to man is racism. Racism is prejudice against people of other ‘races’ for that reason alone. Stereotypical rules are applied to demean individuals based on their cultural background, skin colour, appearance, or accent.
Evolutionists like Hitler treated the Jews, Gypsies and other groups as inferior, and therefore argued that they needed to be eliminated. Ethnic cleansing’ is the result of the hatred of one particular people group toward another. Marriages between different people groups often results in persecution.
Racism can be blatant, such as in the Ku Klux Klan or apartheid; but it can also be as simple as telling degrading anecdotes or having a cold attitude of indifference.
God’s Word, tells us we all need to treat every human being as our relative, and recognize that all of us are equal in value before our Creator God. What a difference it would make in this world if all adopted this biblical principle!
Romans 10:12 For there is no difference both of Jew and of Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call on Him.
Evolutionists say ‘races’ have become more ‘sophisticated’ than others, leading to the conclusion that certain ‘races’ are superior to others.
Christians say Adam and Eve, were created perfect, and had the genetic information enabling their offspring to have the many combinations of skin, hair, and eye colour existent in the world today.
We are told that all men are born equal: Romans 3:23 ‘For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God’, but the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has brought the possibility of redemption and salvation for all: John 3:16. ‘God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever [regardless of which tribe or ‘race’ they belong to] believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life’
In the light of God’s Word, there can be no justification for promoting or condoning racism.
[3] THEREFORE MURDER IS WRONG Genesis 9:6 James 3:9
Genesis 9:6-7 "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.
God declares that murderers should be put to death because they murdered someone made in God’s image.
Man’s life is such a priceless thing, that is his blood is so valuable because he is made in God’s image. Anyone that kills a person destroys God’s image and lays profane hands on that which is divine. Capital punishment is divinely ordained
The crime is so great that such a one actually forfeits his own right to life. There is a just retaliation about having life pay for life. For the proper safeguarding of the human race this basic ordinance is laid down.
These verses are not in the Bible as relics of a more barbarous age. Human life is too valuable to be wantonly destroyed. Thus, the harshest penalties are reserved for such destruction.
This power of life and of death is to be in the hands of formally constituted government and by law. In many societies blood revenge, has displaced fair justice, and frequently degenerated into the cruellest of feuds.
This verse is not in conflict with the 6th commandment, you shall not kill. That lays down principles of personal morality; this word, however, lays down principles of official conduct. This fact should affect the way we drive etc.
James 3:9 warns us against cursing men “made in God’s likeness.” When we curse and show disrespect for others, we are really showing disrespect for the God who made them and still highly values them.
[4] THEREFORE ABORTION IS WRONG
Another issue of our day is abortion. We recognize that every child is created in the image of God. This means that God is the creator and giver of life despite our advances in medical knowledge and despite parents who usurp God’s authority and “play God.” To be made by God and in His image means that every unborn child has dignity as a bearer of God’s image regardless of any genetic deformities. Today abortion is considered by many to be a ‘pregnancy choice’ rather than the destruction of another human being.
If it is true that we are all made in God’s image, how then can anyone dare to enter the womb and kill an unborn child? Abortion is wrong because it is an attack on God the Creator. Every unborn child deserves respect and protection. Historically, there is evidence that Christians since the late first or early second centuries already recognized the significant worth of the unborn, as can be found in early documents such as the Didache, a first-century manuscript that teaches: “you shall not slay the child by procuring abortion, nor, again, shall you destroy it after it is born.” At the time of the Reformation, this view of the unborn was again affirmed Calvin - ...the unborn, though enclosed in the womb of his mother, is already a human being, and it is an almost monstrous crime to rob it of life which it has not yet begun to enjoy. If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man's house is his most secure place of refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy the unborn in the womb before it has come to light. [Comm Pent]
Like transported slaves, unborn children are out of sight, out of mind, and quite defenceless, so their destruction happens silently, this ought not to be.
Love for the Creator of our world, love for our neighbours, and the demands of stewardship require that we oppose it. It is easy to feel powerless. Yet God can use conscientious Christians, just as the demise of slavery happened by the spread of moral convictions'.
[5] THEREFORE SOME MEDICAL PRACTICES ARE WRONG
Bringing healing to our world is consistent with being stewards of creation.
However genetic engineering, fertility research and the use of embryonic stem cells for medical research raises difficult ethical questions for many Christians.
Human beings are to be respected and protected at all stages in their development from conception to natural death for the reason that we are created in God’s image. Research that requires the destruction of human embryos, however noble the purpose may be, is to treat the human person as merely a means to serve ends.
We condemn what the Nazis did with medical experiments, because science always has to be guided by ethics and by morality. They may have brought benefit to mankind but it did not make it right.
A living human embryo is a human life. It is a genetically distinct organism, separate but dependent upon the mother. John Leith wrote that, “No human life is ever the simple result of the forces of biology or history. Every human has its first source in God’s intention.”
The question to address is whether and when a human life is also a human person who is endowed with the full privileges and rights of personhood?
Is there a distinction between those entities that are “potential persons” and those that are “persons with potential”. Is there a partial-person who can be legitimately destroyed for use in research? Surely every living human embryo is a full member of the species Homo sapiens by virtue of its heritage and genetic constitution. Professor McCormick Professor of Princeton, “The being that is now you or I is the same being that was once an adolescent, and before that a toddler, and before that an infant, and before that a foetus, and before that an embryo. To have destroyed the being that is you or me at any of these stages would have been to destroy you or me.
[6] THEREFORE EUTHANASIA IS WRONG
Hippocrates, is often considered to be the father of medicine. Medical students in many Western countries are still required to take the ‘Hippocratic oath’. It is this - ‘I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly, I will not give a woman an abortive remedy.’
These words, penned approximately four centuries before Christ, still hold immense relevance today. Modern medicine has all but abandoned the principle of the sanctity of human life that Hippocrates enunciated, and which is also found in the Genesis account of man being made in God’s image.
Medical treatments are withdrawn from patients on the basis that they lack ‘quality of life’, rather than considering whether the treatment will help the person get better or preserve their life until the natural end.
The increasing acceptance of euthanasia is part of this shift in mentality towards the ‘culture of death.’ Life, instead of being a precious gift, becomes evaluated according to its ‘quality.’ A person whilst young, active and productive has a high ‘quality of life’, yet once this person becomes old, disabled or dependent, the quality is reduced, and his or her life may no longer be considered to be worth living or protecting. Without the possibility of recovery, disability or dependence on others become grounds for the termination of that person’s life.
The story of Job in the Bible tells how he refused to ‘curse God and die’ despite this counsel being given to him many times. This was because Job feared God and understood that only He has the authority to give and to take life.
Even if all joy is taken out of life, as was the case with Job, that still would not justify the taking of life. Even in the depths of suffering, God’s image remains, and life remains an intrinsic good, worthy of protection and support.
Christians should never accept the lie that euthanasia represents ‘a good death.’ Man, being made in the image of God, has intrinsic value and dignity from conception to natural death.
The decline of respect for life today is a symptom of the tragic shift away from a biblical worldview to one based on evolutionary humanism.
[7] THEREFORE COMMUNISM IS WRONG.
In a recent lecture on what the Christian faith says on globalization- Lord Griffiths stated - The key difference between Marxism and Christianity is in their two approaches to life and their views of the human person. A Marxist sees the human person as just an atom in a society, totally materialistic, culturally determined, the product of evolution. Whereas a Christian sees the individual as created in the image of God, needing freedom to express himself and develop himself, which therefore requires private property rights, the freedom of a market and so on, but obviously within the context of justice.
"What people lack is a Christian vision of the human person, created in the image of God, but nevertheless very wilful and fallen - whereas the Marxist thinks of the human person as somebody who can be perfected”.
This is the ultimate fallacy of such theories, when such people get power, what they do is abuse it, misuse it. Marxism is a religion for them. They will not accept the evidence because they deny the reality of sin; they still feel human beings can be made perfect.
When Israel going into the land of Canaan, you would expect that here above all places there would be an experiment in communal living. No. There are property rights which are jealously maintained and the basic command, you shall not steal.
The American Declaration of Independence contains these words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
He could have also noted - how many millions died at the hands of Stalin, Mao, Polpot, Hoxha and Mugabe to name a few.
[8] IF GOD HAS MADE ALL MEN IN HIS IMAGE THEN WHY IS MANKIND NOT RESPECTING THE IMAGE OF GOD IN ONE ANOTHER?
a) An image is a representation or reflection of something or someone. One of the reasons man creates mirrors is to reflect his own image. A mirror that reflects a distorted image is of little value. To be of value, a mirror must display an accurate representation.
b) Similarly, we were made to accurately reflect God — His holiness, righteousness, love, and truth. Being created in God's image is a great privilege but carries great responsibility. God created us to enjoy His fellowship and fulfil His will on earth.
c) But the image has been marred we reflect a distorted image. When sin entered into the human race this image remained in all people but was severely defaced. Morally, man was created in righteousness and perfect innocence, a reflection of God’s holiness. Our conscience or “moral compass” is a trace of that first state.
d) The evidence of the human race’s fall is confirmed by simply turning on the news. People are unloving, unholy, unfaithful and unrighteous.
e) The world has devised heartless political theories assuming mankind can be perfected, it has enslaved and exploited other vulnerable humans, we have despised and treated other humans as inferior simply because of their differences, in anger or recklessness we have taken the life of others, we have cut short life in the womb because it would be an inconvenience, we wanted to get rid of the elderly who have become a burden, we are trying to play God in the lab with human life. Oh what a mess, O what heartache and suffering we have brought on ourselves, what a wretched and wicked world this is!
f) We have left our true purpose and been turned over to our own sin. God has decreed that the wages of sin is death Romans 6:23. Faced with eternal separation from God following a “life” of futility and struggle, our prospects are bleak.
g) Is there a solution, praise God there is? He re-creates humanity through Christ. We know what the image of God is by looking at Jesus Christ. What was central in the life of Christ: was love for God and love for man.
h) How can we get back to our original state? The object of the work of redemption is to restore to mankind the lost image of God. God's image is renewed through salvation in Christ. Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. Romans 8:29. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son.
(i) It will begin with a renovation of the heart by the new birth Ephesians 4:24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
(ii) It will continue with the progressive restoration of this distorted image by the work of sanctification. Colossians 3:9 you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
(iii) It will be perfected in our state of glorification at the final resurrection 1 Corinthians 15: 49 just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.
What image are you reflecting?
Are you reborn, are you being made like Christ, and are you bound for a place where all will have perfect likeness to Christ? It will be paradise restored. What a prospect!
Human life is set apart from the rest of creation by God for His purposes and not ours. Thus any abuse of humanity is an affront to God Himself.
[1] THEREFORE SLAVERY IS WRONG
We are all brothers and must ‘Love our neighbour' and remember God’s judgement is coming. The OT made slave trading a capital crime.
The World needs the Christian Conscience and the Church must show compassion.
The World needs the Gospel of Jesus Christ to free mankind from sinful selfishness so we will love God and those made in His image.
[2] THEREFORE RACISM IS WRONG Romans 10:12
One of the prevalent evidences of man’s inhumanity to man is racism. Racism is prejudice against people of other ‘races’ for that reason alone. Stereotypical rules are applied to demean individuals based on their cultural background, skin colour, appearance, or accent.
Evolutionists like Hitler treated the Jews, Gypsies and other groups as inferior, and therefore argued that they needed to be eliminated. Ethnic cleansing’ is the result of the hatred of one particular people group toward another. Marriages between different people groups often results in persecution.
Racism can be blatant, such as in the Ku Klux Klan or apartheid; but it can also be as simple as telling degrading anecdotes or having a cold attitude of indifference.
God’s Word, tells us we all need to treat every human being as our relative, and recognize that all of us are equal in value before our Creator God. What a difference it would make in this world if all adopted this biblical principle!
Romans 10:12 For there is no difference both of Jew and of Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call on Him.
Evolutionists say ‘races’ have become more ‘sophisticated’ than others, leading to the conclusion that certain ‘races’ are superior to others.
Christians say Adam and Eve, were created perfect, and had the genetic information enabling their offspring to have the many combinations of skin, hair, and eye colour existent in the world today.
We are told that all men are born equal: Romans 3:23 ‘For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God’, but the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has brought the possibility of redemption and salvation for all: John 3:16. ‘God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever [regardless of which tribe or ‘race’ they belong to] believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life’
In the light of God’s Word, there can be no justification for promoting or condoning racism.
[3] THEREFORE MURDER IS WRONG Genesis 9:6 James 3:9
Genesis 9:6-7 "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.
God declares that murderers should be put to death because they murdered someone made in God’s image.
Man’s life is such a priceless thing, that is his blood is so valuable because he is made in God’s image. Anyone that kills a person destroys God’s image and lays profane hands on that which is divine. Capital punishment is divinely ordained
The crime is so great that such a one actually forfeits his own right to life. There is a just retaliation about having life pay for life. For the proper safeguarding of the human race this basic ordinance is laid down.
These verses are not in the Bible as relics of a more barbarous age. Human life is too valuable to be wantonly destroyed. Thus, the harshest penalties are reserved for such destruction.
This power of life and of death is to be in the hands of formally constituted government and by law. In many societies blood revenge, has displaced fair justice, and frequently degenerated into the cruellest of feuds.
This verse is not in conflict with the 6th commandment, you shall not kill. That lays down principles of personal morality; this word, however, lays down principles of official conduct. This fact should affect the way we drive etc.
James 3:9 warns us against cursing men “made in God’s likeness.” When we curse and show disrespect for others, we are really showing disrespect for the God who made them and still highly values them.
[4] THEREFORE ABORTION IS WRONG
Another issue of our day is abortion. We recognize that every child is created in the image of God. This means that God is the creator and giver of life despite our advances in medical knowledge and despite parents who usurp God’s authority and “play God.” To be made by God and in His image means that every unborn child has dignity as a bearer of God’s image regardless of any genetic deformities. Today abortion is considered by many to be a ‘pregnancy choice’ rather than the destruction of another human being.
If it is true that we are all made in God’s image, how then can anyone dare to enter the womb and kill an unborn child? Abortion is wrong because it is an attack on God the Creator. Every unborn child deserves respect and protection. Historically, there is evidence that Christians since the late first or early second centuries already recognized the significant worth of the unborn, as can be found in early documents such as the Didache, a first-century manuscript that teaches: “you shall not slay the child by procuring abortion, nor, again, shall you destroy it after it is born.” At the time of the Reformation, this view of the unborn was again affirmed Calvin - ...the unborn, though enclosed in the womb of his mother, is already a human being, and it is an almost monstrous crime to rob it of life which it has not yet begun to enjoy. If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man's house is his most secure place of refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy the unborn in the womb before it has come to light. [Comm Pent]
Like transported slaves, unborn children are out of sight, out of mind, and quite defenceless, so their destruction happens silently, this ought not to be.
Love for the Creator of our world, love for our neighbours, and the demands of stewardship require that we oppose it. It is easy to feel powerless. Yet God can use conscientious Christians, just as the demise of slavery happened by the spread of moral convictions'.
[5] THEREFORE SOME MEDICAL PRACTICES ARE WRONG
Bringing healing to our world is consistent with being stewards of creation.
However genetic engineering, fertility research and the use of embryonic stem cells for medical research raises difficult ethical questions for many Christians.
Human beings are to be respected and protected at all stages in their development from conception to natural death for the reason that we are created in God’s image. Research that requires the destruction of human embryos, however noble the purpose may be, is to treat the human person as merely a means to serve ends.
We condemn what the Nazis did with medical experiments, because science always has to be guided by ethics and by morality. They may have brought benefit to mankind but it did not make it right.
A living human embryo is a human life. It is a genetically distinct organism, separate but dependent upon the mother. John Leith wrote that, “No human life is ever the simple result of the forces of biology or history. Every human has its first source in God’s intention.”
The question to address is whether and when a human life is also a human person who is endowed with the full privileges and rights of personhood?
Is there a distinction between those entities that are “potential persons” and those that are “persons with potential”. Is there a partial-person who can be legitimately destroyed for use in research? Surely every living human embryo is a full member of the species Homo sapiens by virtue of its heritage and genetic constitution. Professor McCormick Professor of Princeton, “The being that is now you or I is the same being that was once an adolescent, and before that a toddler, and before that an infant, and before that a foetus, and before that an embryo. To have destroyed the being that is you or me at any of these stages would have been to destroy you or me.
[6] THEREFORE EUTHANASIA IS WRONG
Hippocrates, is often considered to be the father of medicine. Medical students in many Western countries are still required to take the ‘Hippocratic oath’. It is this - ‘I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly, I will not give a woman an abortive remedy.’
These words, penned approximately four centuries before Christ, still hold immense relevance today. Modern medicine has all but abandoned the principle of the sanctity of human life that Hippocrates enunciated, and which is also found in the Genesis account of man being made in God’s image.
Medical treatments are withdrawn from patients on the basis that they lack ‘quality of life’, rather than considering whether the treatment will help the person get better or preserve their life until the natural end.
The increasing acceptance of euthanasia is part of this shift in mentality towards the ‘culture of death.’ Life, instead of being a precious gift, becomes evaluated according to its ‘quality.’ A person whilst young, active and productive has a high ‘quality of life’, yet once this person becomes old, disabled or dependent, the quality is reduced, and his or her life may no longer be considered to be worth living or protecting. Without the possibility of recovery, disability or dependence on others become grounds for the termination of that person’s life.
The story of Job in the Bible tells how he refused to ‘curse God and die’ despite this counsel being given to him many times. This was because Job feared God and understood that only He has the authority to give and to take life.
Even if all joy is taken out of life, as was the case with Job, that still would not justify the taking of life. Even in the depths of suffering, God’s image remains, and life remains an intrinsic good, worthy of protection and support.
Christians should never accept the lie that euthanasia represents ‘a good death.’ Man, being made in the image of God, has intrinsic value and dignity from conception to natural death.
The decline of respect for life today is a symptom of the tragic shift away from a biblical worldview to one based on evolutionary humanism.
[7] THEREFORE COMMUNISM IS WRONG.
In a recent lecture on what the Christian faith says on globalization- Lord Griffiths stated - The key difference between Marxism and Christianity is in their two approaches to life and their views of the human person. A Marxist sees the human person as just an atom in a society, totally materialistic, culturally determined, the product of evolution. Whereas a Christian sees the individual as created in the image of God, needing freedom to express himself and develop himself, which therefore requires private property rights, the freedom of a market and so on, but obviously within the context of justice.
"What people lack is a Christian vision of the human person, created in the image of God, but nevertheless very wilful and fallen - whereas the Marxist thinks of the human person as somebody who can be perfected”.
This is the ultimate fallacy of such theories, when such people get power, what they do is abuse it, misuse it. Marxism is a religion for them. They will not accept the evidence because they deny the reality of sin; they still feel human beings can be made perfect.
When Israel going into the land of Canaan, you would expect that here above all places there would be an experiment in communal living. No. There are property rights which are jealously maintained and the basic command, you shall not steal.
The American Declaration of Independence contains these words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
He could have also noted - how many millions died at the hands of Stalin, Mao, Polpot, Hoxha and Mugabe to name a few.
[8] IF GOD HAS MADE ALL MEN IN HIS IMAGE THEN WHY IS MANKIND NOT RESPECTING THE IMAGE OF GOD IN ONE ANOTHER?
a) An image is a representation or reflection of something or someone. One of the reasons man creates mirrors is to reflect his own image. A mirror that reflects a distorted image is of little value. To be of value, a mirror must display an accurate representation.
b) Similarly, we were made to accurately reflect God — His holiness, righteousness, love, and truth. Being created in God's image is a great privilege but carries great responsibility. God created us to enjoy His fellowship and fulfil His will on earth.
c) But the image has been marred we reflect a distorted image. When sin entered into the human race this image remained in all people but was severely defaced. Morally, man was created in righteousness and perfect innocence, a reflection of God’s holiness. Our conscience or “moral compass” is a trace of that first state.
d) The evidence of the human race’s fall is confirmed by simply turning on the news. People are unloving, unholy, unfaithful and unrighteous.
e) The world has devised heartless political theories assuming mankind can be perfected, it has enslaved and exploited other vulnerable humans, we have despised and treated other humans as inferior simply because of their differences, in anger or recklessness we have taken the life of others, we have cut short life in the womb because it would be an inconvenience, we wanted to get rid of the elderly who have become a burden, we are trying to play God in the lab with human life. Oh what a mess, O what heartache and suffering we have brought on ourselves, what a wretched and wicked world this is!
f) We have left our true purpose and been turned over to our own sin. God has decreed that the wages of sin is death Romans 6:23. Faced with eternal separation from God following a “life” of futility and struggle, our prospects are bleak.
g) Is there a solution, praise God there is? He re-creates humanity through Christ. We know what the image of God is by looking at Jesus Christ. What was central in the life of Christ: was love for God and love for man.
h) How can we get back to our original state? The object of the work of redemption is to restore to mankind the lost image of God. God's image is renewed through salvation in Christ. Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. Romans 8:29. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son.
(i) It will begin with a renovation of the heart by the new birth Ephesians 4:24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
(ii) It will continue with the progressive restoration of this distorted image by the work of sanctification. Colossians 3:9 you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
(iii) It will be perfected in our state of glorification at the final resurrection 1 Corinthians 15: 49 just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.
What image are you reflecting?
Are you reborn, are you being made like Christ, and are you bound for a place where all will have perfect likeness to Christ? It will be paradise restored. What a prospect!
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