7/27/22

The coin bore the idolatrous image and the blasphemous title of Caesar, so Jesus said, as the King James Version memorably translates it, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” This was more than a clever soundbite designed to throw off the spies; it was a clarion call for the highest of God’s creation - us - to give ourselves back to the One who created us in his image.

What does all that mean? What does it mean to be created in the image of God?

As I wrote last week, it’s helpful to think of the image of God in two ways: the natural image and the moral image. The natural image of God is the functional ways we are like God: the abilities to Reason, Communicate, Create, and Rule. These are outward ways we express the image of God - the things we see and experience, the way we interact with the rest of God’s creation. The natural image is like a car; it won’t go, or it won’t go safely, unless there’s a driver giving it gas and pointing it in the right direction. That “driver” is the moral image of God.

How were we created in the moral image of God (notice I’m using past tense here)?

First, we were created to be Holy. “You shall be holy,” God commanded the Isrealites in Leviticus 19, “for I the Lord your God am holy.” In Ephesians 4:24, Paul urges the believers to “put on the new self, created to be like God in righteousness, and holiness.” This would take an entire book to unpack! The definition of “holy” is “being set apart and sacred, meant for a higher purpose.” In Leviticus 19 and 20, the Lord gives commands about how they are to conduct themselves in relationships, in society, in business dealings, in diet, in personal matters; and all these are followed by the words, “I am the Lord your God.” A holy people is a people who recognize that God is not another god among many but is THE God, and his people are set apart both for him and from any other loyalties. A holy person recognizes that he or she belongs solely to God.

Second, we were created to be Righteous. This aspect of the moral image of God flows naturally out of being holy. If our essential nature is holy like God, then the things we do will be right. So, in one sense, righteous simply means to be “right,” to do those things that are just, showing no partiality toward anyone. Specifically, in the Old Testament a “righteous” person was someone who kept the covenant, obeying the commandments of God.

Third, we were created to be Loving. In I John 4:8, John writes, “Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.” John goes on to say that we know love because God has shown us what love looks like. We didn’t love God first, but God loved us and sent Jesus to be the atoning sacrifice for us. The love (in Greek, agape) that God shows us is an unselfish love that seeks the best for the other person, whether they deserve it or even want it. It’s the love that blesses indiscriminately, sending his rain on the fields of the righteous and the fields of the unrighteous and causing his sun to shine on the good and on the evil.

Fourth, we were created to be Wise. This aspect of the image of God enables us to choose wisely between right and wrong. I can know a lot of stuff; I can argue a good case - these are part of the “natural” image of God. But there has to be wisdom to guide my use of that knowledge in a direction that honors God.

That’s how we were created to begin with. The moral image and the natural image worked together in beings who were created in the image and the likeness of God. Unfortunately, that didn’t last! Rather than listen to and obey God, humanity chose and continues to choose to listen to the tempter. The result? Some will say the moral image of God was destroyed . . . others will say that the moral image remains, but is tarnished; however, that image is still capable of redemption. Whether destroyed or tarnished, we can all agree humanity is no longer holy, righteous, loving and wise; instead it is unholy, unrighteous, unloving, and unwise. Without the moral image of God guiding our lives, we become conformed to the image on the coin and not the image of our Creator. Our communication becomes abusive; our creativity becomes perverse and destructive; our reasoning becomes evil; and our ability to rule becomes controlling, exploitative and enslaving. We end up, as Genesis 6:5 describes us, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.”

Rather than a vehicle for God, the natural image of God becomes a vehicle for evil, and what makes sin so serious is that we are using God-given gifts and powers to do things that are offensive to God.

However tarnished we may be, God never gives up on us. Paul writes in Ephesians 4:22-24, “You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

More next week as we look at God’s plan to restore the tarnished image of God!

Blessings,
Pastor Terry