Week 6 - Image of God
This week in summary| Day 1 : All in the Family | Romans 4 |
| Day 2 : Real Fatherhood | Romans 5 |
| Day 3 : Image of God | Romans 6 |
| Day 4 : Prepare | Romans 7 |
| Day 5 : Planning | Romans 8 |
| Day 1 : All in the Family | Romans 4 |
| Day 2 : Real Fatherhood | Romans 5 |
| Day 3 : Image of God | Romans 6 |
| Day 4 : Prepare | Romans 7 |
| Day 5 : Planning | Romans 8 |
Jesus can be bit of an enigma. He is the walking, talking, interactive message from God. He is the Son of God. And Jesus is God. He is simultaneously all of the above. The mind spins with wonder at the possibilities and questions: How can God be his own son? Perhaps the answer to that comes from the flesh and bones that God wore as He stood before us.
From the very beginning God made human beings special. He made them in his image. He made them female and male. He filled them with His own Spirit by breathing into them. There was something special about being human: God himself was part of the human condition. Filled with His Spirit and bearing His image we are children of God. This familial relationship with humanity was always part of God's design. We have always been destined to be children of God.
Then disaster struck. We sold our birthright. As an entire species and each of us as individuals; we sold our spiritual heritage for a cheap substitute.
But God had a plan to bring us back into His family. God took on a human form. He showed us how to live. In human form, God lived according to His original design for humanity: He lived as a child of God. God's will for humans is to be his children. Jesus lived as a human according to God's will. Jesus had to be the son of God to show us how to be children again.
In many families the firstborn child is the model child that the younger children try to copy. So it is with Jesus. He is the "firstborn", the example for us to follow.
By his sacrifice Jesus returns to us the right to be children of God. By his life Jesus shows us how to live as children of God. By his resurrection Jesus gives us hope of an inheritance as princes and princesses of the King of the Universe.
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as children, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Romans 8:14-17
So we are Children of God. And God is our Father. There are all kinds of fathers among humanity and all kinds of different thoughts about what it means to be a father. What kind of Father is God?
Perhaps the best insight into fatherhood comes from Jesus as He describes his picture of fatherhood based on God.
Jesus tells the story of two lost sons and a prodigal Father. This story is often called the story of the prodigal son because one son squanders his inheritance in a foolish way. He demands his father's money as an early inheritance and he runs away from home. Judging by his actions he wished his father was dead. The son makes a fool of himself and squanders every penny. He picks himself up from the gutter and decided it would be better to be a servant in his father's home than to live in the trash on his own. His father had been eagerly watching for him hoping for his return, at which point He runs with all His strength and embraces the young man as His son. He throws a huge party that his lost son has returned!
But there were two sons and both were lost, in different ways. The older brother stayed at home and continued to work the fields. When his younger brother left home, the father abandoned the fields instead watching day and night for the return of his son. Father sets the priority of the family, but his older son didn't join him in the watch.
By his actions the older son abandoned his father to tend to his own inheritance. By his attitude it's obvious that he didn't appreciate his father. Though they shared the same roof, they were hardly family. In the end the father begs his "faithful" son to rejoin the family.
Even though one son spent his money foolishly, the Father is the one who spends recklessly and extravagantly on His children. This is the kind of Father we have in God. Every time Jesus tells a story involving a father, He's teaching us about God. In every story the father's generosity is overflowing.
What can Jesus' stories tell us about the kind of Father God is to us?
How can we be made in the image of God? We aren't even the same substance. God is spirit, we are flesh. We have as much in common with God as a manhole-cover has in common with the number 7.312. How can a bag of meat and bones be related to God?
If God made us immeasurably more than flesh and blood when he breathed his spirit into us, then the spiritual side of us can be a reflection of God. As a species we are either a product of the whims of nature taking their course in a random chance of meat and minerals accountable to no one with no greater purpose than to toil at our own cravings; or we are created in the image of God: designed with significance and purpose to be part of living community with our creator and all other forms of life he created.
If God put his spirit in human beings there are some serious implications:
#1 God gave us a gift. Just like all of God's gifts, it comes without merit. There was nothing physically remarkable about humans that we deserved to receive God's spirit.
Compared to other species on the planet, a human being is not the best of anything. We aren't the strongest, the tallest or most agile. We don't have the biggest brains, sharpest claws or thickest hides. We aren't the only species with opposable thumbs. We are actually pretty fragile.
We aren't even the most numerous species on earth. There are species whose populations grow and shrink in one year by the same number as all human beings on earth today. Our population is their variance.
God gave us a gift that we did not deserve.
#2 God gives gifts to be passed on. If God gives you strength it's to serve others. Perversion says use your strength to dominate others. God says use it to serve. Whatever your God-given gift is, use it to serve others.
The implication of God blessing humanity is that we are to bless all other life around us. Things that walk, crawl or just sit and absorb sunlight are all under our protection. One conclusion of God putting his spirit in us is that we have a mandate to lead the charge for ecological issues. We are stewards of this planet. As God treats us, so we should treat the other life forms. How we regard earth says a lot about how we estimate God regards us.
#3 Humanity is unique among all other living things on earth. When God put his spirit in the first human beings, they became something substantially different than all other living things on earth. We are more than flesh and bone. We are spiritual.
Or for another perspective: we are spirits just renting these bodies for a few short years. Don't get too attached to your flesh. Don't take your body so personally. It's not who you are. Your body is just something you have for a while.
#4 We are valuable to God. He favors us. I don't know why. Maybe it's because we are so fragile. Maybe it's our capacity as conduits of blessings. Maybe it's the way we can reflect his spirit and his character. I don't have a reason. Maybe you can find that in God's eyes. All I know is that he looks at us and sees value.
Identify 3 opportunities facing you right now that may advance your purpose and vision
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Identify 3 threats facing you right that hinder your purpose and vision
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| Strengths | Weaknesses | |
| Strengths - Opportunities | Weaknesses - Opportunities | |
|---|---|---|
Opportunities | Prayer: Plan: | Prayer: Plan: |
| Strengths - Threates | Weaknesses - Threats | |
Threats | Prayer: Plan: | Prayer: Plan: |