The Imago Deo...

The Image of God changes everything:

It shapes how we see the world and each other. It calls us to honour the Image of God in everyone.

Therefore

·       Christians work to alleviate poverty, starvation and disease because even the poorest of the poor are created by God in the Image of God.

·       Christians work to rescue abducted children, street children, abused children, because there is no such thing as a disposable human being that has been created by God and in the Image of God.

·       Christians fight abortion because babies should not be terminated and thrown away.

·       Christians uphold the dignity of the elderly and the disabled because all humans are fearfully and wonderfully made and are therefore dear to God.

·       Christians work on the behalf of immigrants because they are created by God and in the Image of God. We should therefore welcome them even as we would welcome Christ.

·       Christians work for Religious Liberty because the freedom to follow one’s conscience is part of what it means to be created by God and in the Image of God.

·       Christians work for the flourishing of marriage because it has been created by God for man and woman created in the image of God. It is to be the essential building block of a flourishing society.

·       Christians work for racial unity and reconciliation because all humans share something much deeper than skin colour or physical differences.

There has NEVER been a human being who was not created by God in the Image of God and this is what animates everything we do. This is the Common Thread that holds it all together.

God’s Image compels God’s children to love all people. The world is broken and we long for the Day when Christ will make all things new.

But meanwhile, we strive for dignity, for justice, liberty, human flourishing, because every human being bears the image of God and therefore matters to God and so should matter to us.

The Story we as followers of Jesus are living in is God's Bigger Story of:

Creation (Glory Bestowed)>

Fall (Glory tainted) >

Redemption (Glory Restored) >

Consummation (Glory consummated/perfected)?

What story are you living in? 'The Creation Mandate' which was the original task for our being created in the Image and Likeness of the Triune God.

THE BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW: TRANSFORMING STORY #4

The Creation Mandate

The eightfold rhythm in Genesis 1 of ‘Let there be and it was and God saw that it was good' dramatically changes in v26 in order to grab our attention:

Just as the Eight creational ‘Let there Be's’ represent creational law for animals, vegetable and minerals>

The Creation Mandate is Fourfold and represents creational law for Human society and culture.

1. Be Fruitful

2. Multiply and fill the earth

3. Subdue

4. Have Dominion

The creational distinctions between Male and Female as the Image and Likeness of the Triune God is foundational to the development of human civilization to ‘be fruitful and multiply, subdue the earth and have dominion.

God’s creational ordinances extend to the Structures of society, to the world of the family, church, education, art, business, commerce, government

·       In short, in every field of human affairs there is a right and wrong way of doing things according to God's creational structural norms.

God's creational norms are not outside God’s plan for the Cosmos, but were built in from the beginning.

Creation is not static, God decreed Creation to unfold. Therefore the unfolding of culture and society are integral to creation and its development. The word 'Culture' from the Latin is 'cultus which means 'worship'. Therefore the development of human culture reflects what it means to be human as Genesis 1v26-28 reveals.

Any human culture will reveal therefore what it worships in terms of how it is oriented-As Romans 1v25 points out:

Because of the Fall of man, human nature is oriented either toward worship of the one true Creator God or worship of the creature/creation.

·       Romans 1v25 shows that therefore there is NOTHING neutral in all of created life.

·       What do you think modern Western culture worships today?

There is nothing in human life that does not belong to the created order. Everything is creational. There are many creational Structures but only 2 Directions-

This means that Human beings are either oriented TOWARD God through His Grace as shown in the Redemption of Jesus Christ in His Death and Resurrection.

Or they are oriented AWAY from God if they have not yet been reconciled to God through Christ's sacrificial atonement.

The ‘Let Us’ in Genesis 1v26-28 reveals that God is a relational, social, communal, Being. It means that God is a community of Three Persons in mutual love and harmony. The One does not lord it over the Many meaning the Father does not lord it over the Son, nor does the Son lord it over the Holy Spirit. There is Unity in Diversity within the Trinity.

As one theologian said ‘Because of the Trinity we are called to put on display a new way of being human’

Why?

Because God IS a relationship, and that is why relationships are intrinsic and central to all of human life, individually and nationally. It means that the Trinity is the foundation for our true humanity, for authentic community and even a whole culture.

Genesis 1v26-28 also answers the fundamental question ‘Who am I? This means that Human beings are made in the Image and Likeness of God and the implications of this for all people is something that must be put at the forefront of all missional endeavour.

The creation of mankind is in a class all by itself then, because the expression ‘Let Us make’ is not used of anything else in all of creation.

In Genesis 1 God is like a glorious artist as He paints the big picture of creation. In Genesis chapter 2, we look with a magnifying glass at one particular aspect of that big picture.

Everything now focuses on this one particular aspect, the highest part of God’s creation as the Creator of the Universe creates Male and Female in His own Image and likeness.

He does this not by speaking them into existence, but moulding them with His own hands first from the Dust of the ground and then gives them Dominion over all the earth.

In the Story so far then, human beings begin as Dust and are then given Dominion because we have been made to reflect the Glory of God. In our Story we have gone From Dust to Dominion

Relationship is therefore fundamental to how we are to reflect who God is, but so is the word 'Rule' for God said to them 'Subdue and Have Dominion'.

Through the Fall, human beings did not rule well, for they Dominated creational life rather than nurture and develop it.

And this is related to the third Question that every Worldview has to be able to answer. 'What is wrong with the world'?