Often I have heard when it says in Genesis, “God made man in His own image”, it was referring to the Trinity. Man has a physical body, (God’s would be personified in Jesus), he has a soul, which is his personality, (God shows His numerous time throughout the Bible), and he has a spirit (The Person of the Holy Spirit). While I agree with this, I think it also goes a little deeper than that.
In the Liberty Bible Commentary it states:
The image and the likeness are to be taken as synonymous terms (Feinberg, “The Image of God,” Bibliotheca Sacra 129 (1972 p. 237). They are interchangeable in 5:3. It is not a reference to God’s physical appearance, for God is non-corporeal. Jacob prefers the Lordship idea, while Eichdrodt believes it refers to the Personhood or Self-conscience being concept. Ryrie almost combines both, indicating that man was created in a natural and moral likeness to God. When he sinned, he lost the moral likeness, which was his sinless ness. But at the same time, he still retains the natural likeness of intellect, emotions, and will (cf. Gen 9:6; Jas 3:9). The moral likeness is presently being formed in every believer who allows God’s Spirit to conform him to the image of God’s Son by His Spirit.
When my dog wakes up every day, he doesn’t know he exists, he just exists. When he sees a reflection of himself, he doesn’t know what he’s looking at. God has made us like Himself in the fact that we know who we are. We can reason and think things out for ourselves. Animals have to rely on basic animal instincts, but we see things differently; and we’re the only ones on the earth that do, because we’re the only ones made in the image of Almighty God. We are a self-conscience being; we know we exist and can somewhat wrap our brains around that.
God also made us in His moral likeness. Satan knew exactly what he was doing when he tempted Eve. To paraphrase he said, “God knows that when you eat this fruit, you’ll be like Him, knowing the difference between good and evil”. He wasn’t lying when he said that. As soon as Eve took a bite, she knew the difference between good and evil, because she had just disobeyed God. When God created us in His image, He gave us His moral likeness; and had Adam and Eve never sinned, they could have had fellowship with God forever, but when they did sin, that moral likeness was broken, thus the separation between God and man.
Amazing how in God’s plan we were separated from Him because of the moral likeness, but we still retained the self-consciousness. He let us keep our understanding, so that when He sent His Son to die for us, we would still be able to understand and realize that we needed the repair of the moral likeness. In essence, the last part of John 3:16 could read, “and whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, (be eternally separated from God), but will get his moral likeness back”
And that’s what Jesus does for us. When He makes intercession for us, He is repairing the separation in our spirit and God’s that has been caused by us losing our moral likeness.
Showing posts with label God's Image. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God's Image. Show all posts
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Jesus in Genesis
Find three ways that Jesus Christ is pictured in the book of Genesis and discuss how each one relates to Jesus either in His person (deity) or in His work. Be specific. Use sources.
1. A lot of people seem to think that Jesus Christ makes His first world appearance in the New Testament, but we actually get our first mention of Him in Gen 1:26. “And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after our likeness”
There are a couple of things to see here. First, we see a mention of the Trinity. When God says “Let Us make man in Our image”, He’s obviously speaking of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In addition, Jesus is God incarnate, so when He states “in Our image”, He’s not just speaking of body, soul, spirit; He’s also speaking of what man would look like, predetermined by what Jesus would look like when He came to earth.
In John 1:3 we read, “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made”, so we definitely see Jesus present here; not only in creation of man, but the creation of everything.
2. Unfortunately, as a testament to man’s depraved heart, we only have to make it to Gen 3:15 before we see a very clear picture of Jesus once again. “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel”. Here is God’s provision to heal the rift between God and man and bring redemption through Jesus. He’s clearly speaking here of providing a savior for man; and that while Satan would be able to wound Christ’s physical body on the cross, (bruise His heel), Christ would ultimately win the battle and defeat Satan, Hell, and Death and deliver a crushing blow (bruise your head); so here we’re clearly seeing His work as Savior, redeeming mankind to the father.
Adding to this, in just a few more verses we see another picture of Christ’s redemptive work; Gen 3:21 “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them”. Where man, after disobeying God by eating of the tree, (representing religion), had tried to clothe himself, God stepped in and made clothes for them out of animal skins, once again a picture of Christ;
Hebrews 9:22 (New International Version)
22In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
3. And probably one of the clearest pictures of Christ is when Abraham met Melchizedek. 1This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, Hebrews 7:1 (New International Version)
When Abraham met with Melchizedek in the Valley of Shaveh, Melchizedek brought out bread and wine. The ate together; Melchizedek is mentioned as king and priest to the God Most High; and Abraham gave him a tenth or a tithe of his possessions. Melchizedek is a perfect picture of Jesus Christ in the book of Genesis; and some even believe that he was a Christophany, or a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ Himself. He was a picture of how Jesus would fulfill the offices of profit, priest and king. He had bread and wine with Abram just as he did with His disciples before going to the cross. We know He was a profit. And the fact that Abraham tithed to Him shows that He was more than just some man he met in a valley.
Gen 14:19 “And he (Melchizedek) blessed him (Abraham), and said, Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, Possessor of heaven and Earth: (Melchizedek blessing Abraham means that the standing of Melchizedek was greater than that of Abraham. The reason? Melchizedek was a type of Christ [Heb 7:4,7]
The Expositor’s Bible
1. A lot of people seem to think that Jesus Christ makes His first world appearance in the New Testament, but we actually get our first mention of Him in Gen 1:26. “And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after our likeness”
There are a couple of things to see here. First, we see a mention of the Trinity. When God says “Let Us make man in Our image”, He’s obviously speaking of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In addition, Jesus is God incarnate, so when He states “in Our image”, He’s not just speaking of body, soul, spirit; He’s also speaking of what man would look like, predetermined by what Jesus would look like when He came to earth.
In John 1:3 we read, “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made”, so we definitely see Jesus present here; not only in creation of man, but the creation of everything.
2. Unfortunately, as a testament to man’s depraved heart, we only have to make it to Gen 3:15 before we see a very clear picture of Jesus once again. “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel”. Here is God’s provision to heal the rift between God and man and bring redemption through Jesus. He’s clearly speaking here of providing a savior for man; and that while Satan would be able to wound Christ’s physical body on the cross, (bruise His heel), Christ would ultimately win the battle and defeat Satan, Hell, and Death and deliver a crushing blow (bruise your head); so here we’re clearly seeing His work as Savior, redeeming mankind to the father.
Adding to this, in just a few more verses we see another picture of Christ’s redemptive work; Gen 3:21 “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them”. Where man, after disobeying God by eating of the tree, (representing religion), had tried to clothe himself, God stepped in and made clothes for them out of animal skins, once again a picture of Christ;
Hebrews 9:22 (New International Version)
22In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
3. And probably one of the clearest pictures of Christ is when Abraham met Melchizedek. 1This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, Hebrews 7:1 (New International Version)
When Abraham met with Melchizedek in the Valley of Shaveh, Melchizedek brought out bread and wine. The ate together; Melchizedek is mentioned as king and priest to the God Most High; and Abraham gave him a tenth or a tithe of his possessions. Melchizedek is a perfect picture of Jesus Christ in the book of Genesis; and some even believe that he was a Christophany, or a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ Himself. He was a picture of how Jesus would fulfill the offices of profit, priest and king. He had bread and wine with Abram just as he did with His disciples before going to the cross. We know He was a profit. And the fact that Abraham tithed to Him shows that He was more than just some man he met in a valley.
Gen 14:19 “And he (Melchizedek) blessed him (Abraham), and said, Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, Possessor of heaven and Earth: (Melchizedek blessing Abraham means that the standing of Melchizedek was greater than that of Abraham. The reason? Melchizedek was a type of Christ [Heb 7:4,7]
The Expositor’s Bible
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