Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:26-27
One of our fondest family memories from when our kids were young is a trip we took to Whiteshell Provincial Park near Winnipeg, Manitoba. We had actually made the trip north from Marshall, Minnesota so Debb could get Lasik surgery. Finances not only dictated our decision to have this procedure done in Canada, but also dictated our decision to bypass a hotel and stay in a cabin on a lake outside of Winnipeg. An added bonus was that it gave the kids some beach time. As Debb and I sat further up on shore, we noticed the kids were playing at dunking each other in the lake. We couldn’t figure out what they were doing so we asked and they answered, “We’re baptizing each other.” So, I guess that’s the answer to the question of what pastor’s kids do for fun. They hold mini baptismal services at the lake. We are imaging creatures. Every parent knows this. Whether it’s a child “imaging” a parent in a “pretend” kitchen or putting on a tool belt so they can be little “workers,” kids naturally reflect or image their parents. As they grow older, kids begin to increasingly image their peers in the clothes they wear or music they listen to. But it isn’t just kids…adults image one another in similar ways in clothing, cars, even the way we speak. We are imaging creatures. To image others is actually part of our DNA, part of what it means to be human, as those created in the image of God. It’s right there in Genesis 1, “in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” The problem is that by Genesis 3, instead of imaging their Creator, Adam and Eve had already chosen to image, instead, created things…the serpent. Here we see the birthplace of idolatry, as described in Romans 1:23, we “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.” It was their decision to image a reptile and, maybe more significantly, their own selfish desires, that got them removed from the Garden and from constant fellowship with their God. Yet, our purpose as image bearers was never lost, even if it was marred by sin. God continued to call us back to our creation purpose of imaging our Creator, as we see in Enoch who “walked with God,” and Noah who reflected God’s righteousness and “walked with God,” or Moses to whom God revealed both His person and His will on Sinai. But what were the people doing down below? They were fashioning a golden calf, imaging other creatures instead of the God who had redeemed them. In spite of the fact that God’s people became stiff-necked, like the calf they worshiped, and unable to see or hear, like the idols they carved, God did not give up on His people, but sent His one and only Son, the very image and glory of the Father. Yet the Son was made in the likeness of sinful man (Rom. 8:3) so that He might redeem us and enable us to, once again, fulfill the purpose for which we were made—to be image bearers of our God. This is no easy task, even for the redeemed of God, for we live in a world of competing images. G.K. Beale, in his book We Become What We Worship, has done an excellent job of exposing the struggle we face as those called to be image bearers of God. He asks the question, "What do you and I reflect? One presupposition of this book is that God has made humans to reflect him, but if they do not commit themselves to him, they will not reflect him but something else in creation. At the core of our beings, we are imaging creatures. It is not possible to be neutral on this issue: we either reflect the Creator or something in creation." So, we ask the question again, “Who or what do you and I reflect?” Like Dylan said, “your gonna have to serve somebody.” So, who do we serve? What do we image? Another significant question we might consider is this: “How do we affect who or what we image?” Assuming, as those who are redeemed by Jesus, that we desire to increasingly image and reflect Him in our lives, how does this happen? Jesus actually provides us with a model. How did Jesus make disciples? He walked with them. Like Enoch and Moses walked with God, the disciples walked with Jesus. Is this not the same invitation that Jesus gave to us all? “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). Here is where imaging begins, in the presence of our God. Our world is constantly seeking to remake us in its image…in the media we absorb, the people we spend time with, the things to which we devote our time, energy and money. If we would increasingly image our Savior, we must walk with Him, spend time with His people, and devote ourselves to the things that matter to Him. We become what we worship. May we choose wisely who, or what, we image in this world.
1 Comment
Darryl Staszewski
1/31/2022 02:42:39 pm
Thank you.
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Dan GannonDan has ministered at Renton Bible Church, with his wife Debbie, since 2003. Archives
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