148-Imago Dei: What Does it Mean to be Made in the Image of God Part 2

What does it mean to be made in the image of God?

Hi, Alex McFarland here. This is part two of a two-part series about Imago Dei. What does it mean to be made in God's image? And last week we talked about Genesis chapter 1, 26 and 27, about how God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over the livestock and over all the earth and every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. I love that language, how God describes his world that is just pregnant with life and the creatures he has made. But then Genesis 1, 27 concludes it says, so God created man in his own image.

In the image of God, he created him, male and female created he them. Well, there's so much in there that we need to talk about, and part of the reason that I felt led to do this series on what does it mean to be made in God's image is because I truly believe our culture is in a crisis of identity, really. For decades we've been in a crisis of truth. You know, what is the nature of truth? Is it subjectivism or objective? Subjectivism means that something is just my opinion.

Think of the letter S. I'm the subject. It's all about me. It's all about my opinion. But subjectivism leads to a pretty bleak view of life, really, because if all truth is merely opinion and there's no absolute objective, true truth, really there's no meaning in life. And in the Christian worldview, truth and reality, moral absolutes, objective righteousness, objective goodness, objective evil, objective beauty. Think about objectivity, the letter O, things that are outside of ourselves. We can reflect love and truth and goodness, but there is an objective, eternal, absolute source of goodness, truth, and beauty. And of course this is the nature of God and God himself.

God is righteousness. So we've been in a crisis of truth. We've lived since really the sixties in terms of relativism. Now, how does that relate to our personal lives? Well, with a crisis of truth, and Francis Schaeffer, Osginus, many people predicted this years ago, C.S.

Lewis predicted it, we've had a crisis of identity. If everything is merely happenstance, accident, everything is just merely opinion, and there's no good or bad, there's just stuff, well what does that mean for my worth and my value and personhood and dignity? Really, as the evolutionists predicted, and frankly as evolutionists celebrated at one time, man is nothing but a primate, an animal, just a brute beast with no intrinsic value or no intrinsic worth.

And that's why Osginus very famously in the seventies he called his book The Dust of Death, because if Earth is a speck of dust from a cosmic explosion billions of years ago, and we're just part of the dust and we're dying, then we're not alive even, we're dead. And deep in our soul I think we know that's not true. I think we know that life is valuable, the human instinct to survive is one of the strongest realities in the world, and we are stirred in our soul when we see a beautiful sunset, when we hear a lovely piece of music, when we stare into the smiling face of an innocent helpless baby, when we are at the bedside of a dying loved one. We know there is a soulish part of every human, ourselves included. Well that's why we need to talk about being made in God's image. Very often I've taught on 1 Thessalonians 523 that we are spirit, soul, and body. And I teach on this so frequently because I think it's important to know that we are a tripartite being, that means three parts. Spirit is that everlasting part of you, the breath of God. And soul or psyche, P-S-Y-C-H-E, from which we get psychology, psychosis, our mind, our intellect, our emotions, our will. There are things you know, things you have learned, there are things you think about. Isn't it amazing, have you ever thought about this? Where do thoughts come from?

Think about it. Right now, in your mind, the neurons that make up your brain, part of your nervous system, you have your body and the nerves fire sparks and the muscles move and you are ambulatory. But within your mind, and how this invisible, non-physical part of the human being completely works, only God, our Maker, knows. But your spirit interacts with your soul.

Your spirit is that regenerated or unregenerate part of you that you're made in God's image. And then your psyche, your mind, your intellect, your thinking things, the neurons are firing, the neural intersections are functioning, the synapses. And you're thinking things. Maybe you're thinking, what is my plan?

What does God have for me? Maybe you're thinking about responsibilities you have to take care of before this day is over. And in a way, do you know the Bible talks about the mind of Christ, which is not only God's plan for the universe and the created world and the human race, but God's word, the fact that God spoke into existence, the created world. You and I, we cannot speak things into existence like God can because we're not God.

However, in a way, part of the imago Deo being made in God's image, we can think thoughts. You can envision remodeling the house. And even before the job is done, you can picture in your mind how that might look. Maybe you can set a goal.

And by this time, six months from now, you want to have achieved this. Now, we interact with the malleable material God created. Humans cannot create matter. We interact with the existing matter God created. But we are inherently creative beings because God, our maker, is a creator. God is a creative being. And so part of being made in God's image is the fact that we can think thoughts. We can envision things. We can make plans.

We can work on things. And when obstacles come along, we work around them. And we, if you want to see all that, I mean, my goodness, read the Old Testament, how God could have taken Israel into the Promised Land at Kadesh Barnea, but because of their disobedience, he still got them into the Promised Land.

But before that were 40 years of wandering and a divided nation in the civil war that came about in the aftermath of the death of Solomon, and then a few in enslavements in Egypt and Babylon. And yet, in spite of the obstacles, God's will is done. The Bible says every promise of God is yea and amen. Well, when we come back, we're going to talk more about what it means to be made in God's image, Romans 2, 14, and 15. God's law is written on every human heart.

So we'll continue this look at Imago Dei. You are made in the image of God after this break. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland a religion and culture expert. Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this. Christian author and speaker Alex McFarland is an advocate for Christian apologetics. Living in more than 2200 churches around the world, schools, and college campuses, Alex is driven by a desire to help people grow in relationship with God. He arms his audiences with the tools they need to defend their faith, while also empowering the unchurched to find out the truth for themselves. In the midst of a culture obsessed with relativism, Alex is a sound voice who speaks timeless truths of Christianity in a timely way. With 18 published books to his name, it's no surprise that CNN, Fox, the Wall Street Journal, and other media outlets have described Alex as a religion and culture expert. To learn more about Alex and to book him as a speaker at your next event, visit alexmcfarland.com or you can contact us directly by emailing booking at alexmcfarland.com. He's been called trusted, truthful and timely. Welcome back to the Alex McFarland show. Welcome back to the program.

Alex McFarland here. We're going to talk about the theological implications of being made in God's image. And humans inherently know that right and wrong exist because within us is the certain knowledge of a moral lawgiver. Now there is an intrinsic understanding that some actions are morally right and some actions are morally wrong. And in spite of all of the media and Hollywood and secular academia and convictionless elected officials on the left who want the public to believe that we are free to do whatever we want to do, deep down Romans 1 19 and 20 tell us that we know there is objective good and yes there is objective evil. And the inner voice that speaks to us we call our conscience. Now Romans 2 14 and 15 elaborates on this, stating that God's law is written on every human heart. And I've often said this, we don't always do what's right, but deep, deep down we know what's right. John Calvin, one of the great reformers, taught that we are born with, quote, a sense of divine judgment, sensus divinitus, because we're made in God's image. Deep down people know that they are answerable to God. And Calvin was right, the sense of divine judgment.

People know. I was just counseling with a man that is betraying his marriage vows. And I talked to him very frankly about how he needs to repent of some things he's doing and turn back to God and to his family.

And he said to me, he said, I know, but I want to do this. The human will, untethered from God the Holy Spirit is a very frightening thing. The wisest thing you can do as a human being is to follow the promptings of God's Holy Spirit. Listen, God's will, and God's call, and God's corrections are not burdensome. God is not trying to harm us or squelch our fun. Very often God is trying to protect us from ourselves. And Paul in Romans 2.15, he describes the sense of divine judgment as, quote, the work of the law written on our hearts. And some people, sadly, ignore their conscience so often that it becomes seared, defiled, and evil. 1 Timothy 4.2, Titus 1.15, and Hebrews 10.22 talk about this.

And so part of being a human being, part of being made in God's image is praise the Lord, you have this conscience that God is speaking to you. I've had several rental cars recently. For some reason, maybe you've noticed this, modern cars, you can't turn the radio off. Did you notice that?

Take notice. If you're in cars that are within about the last five years old, for some odd reason, the sound system is always on. Now you can turn it down, but every time you get in, the default position, the radio is on. I find that to be very aggravating. But maybe the electronics in cars are so complex, maybe making an off button for the radio is just impossible. If you, like myself, have noticed that you can't turn the radio off, email me and let me know. My email, you can email me directly.

It's alex at alexmcfarlane.com. They're changing cars. That's another subject for another day. But here's my point. A radio that won't turn off is aggravating. But praise God, the voice of the Holy Spirit that is constant throughout our life, that is a blessing. Because what God is trying to do, as my friend the late Chuck Colson would say, God is trying to save our soul and protect our life. And you don't want to, as one made in the image of God, that voice of God, that vox deo that is calling you to do the right and avoid the wrong. Walk righteously. Repent of sin. That is one of the most valuable precious things in our life, because all that God is trying to do is to bless us and give us favor and protection and His love and His goodness. And we've talked many times about the verses throughout God's Word that talk about the blessing and the good things God has for the one who is wise enough and willing enough to let God have His way. Now, gender in Imago Dei.

Genesis 1, 26, 27. Gender is binary. Let me say it again. There is no such thing as transgenderism. Now, of course, a male can masquerade as a female and vice versa, but male and female created them. Every human being is either XX or XY chromosome. So what does the LGBTQ trans plus plus mean for our view of Imago Dei?

Let me say this. I believe the evolutionary worldview that we evolved, life is not inherently objectively meaningful. And then the moral relativism that came about in the aftermath of Charles Darwin.

You know, if God is not the Creator, God is not the foundation of moral truth. And then the family began to fall apart. There was no-fault divorce. Then there was sex outside of marriage. And then, by the late 70s, homosexuality was being brought into the mainstream and seeking political protection.

And this caused us, listen, this caused us to deviate from our national worldview as a Judeo-Christian moral law republic. Because here's the thing we've said it many times. If someone wants, if consenting adults want to engage in sexual deviancy, they can do that. It's not right, but they can do that. But what we can't do, or at least we shouldn't do, and yet we have done, is to allow this worldview.

Because here's the thing. The Judeo-Christian moral foundation, which is the epistemic foundation stone of the Western world and 249 years of a constitutional America. America works because of our moral foundation.

Well, an immoral, relativistic, gender-fluid, no-truth-exists, we-each-make-it-up-for-ourselves, chaos world that undermines the foundation and the preservation of the U.S. Constitution. Gay marriage is unconstitutional. Now, can homosexual couples live together and be domestic partners?

Sure. But that is incompatible with a Judeo-Christian moral foundation, which is what our nation is based on. And so not only has LGBTQ ideology undermined our very government, our culture, and harmed the lives of innumerable human beings, let me say this. Where we are now, and we'll have to pick this up after the break, is the denial of moral truth, the denial of the nature of humanity. Now let's open up the door for the idea of transhumanity, transhumanism. And believe it or not, in those empty vacuums called American Secular University classrooms, now it's being hotly debated and fiercely opposed that there is an objective category called human beings. What is a human?

Whatever I define it to be, we have tried to become our own God. Stay tuned. We'll talk about this further after the break.

Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland a religion and culture expert. Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this. To The appropriate measure of God's wrath that you and I deserved was put onto Jesus. You don't have to die and suffer for your sins because He was the substitute who died for you. So if you call out to Christ, He will save you.

He will forgive you. I urge you to do that today because Jesus Christ has a plan for your life, and it begins with you putting your faith in Him. Thank you for listening. Thank you for your support.

Learn more about this at AlexMcFarland.com. Welcome back to the program. We're talking about what it means to be made in the image of God, and we'll resume that in just a second. I want to encourage everybody, if you would, go to AlexMcFarland.com and download our free prayer guide. We're encouraging people to really make this year a year with an emphasis on prayer. Prayer is the nerve that moves the muscle of God.

We often say that. And so we've got a free prayer guide to help you pray for God's move in America, to help you pray for the evangelization of those you care about that maybe don't know the Lord right now. So for own personal revival and awakening in your own heart, this prayer guide, we believe, will help you. And then also, while you're there, while you're at AlexMcFarland.com, go to the calendar and look at all the Lord is allowing us to do. We have got a speaker series in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, one of America's premier resort destinations. We're bringing in Dinesh D'Souza, probably the greatest living political science Christian speaker alive today, and Dinesh D'Souza will be there May 4th. And then we're bringing in Dr. Gary Chapman of the Five Love Languages in June. And then we're bringing in Charlie Kirk, a very famous influencer and a friend and colleague in August.

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And so there's a lot going on. We have one objective, number one, to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. But to see the gospel spread, lives changed. And you know, we are on radio and television seven days a week throughout the western hemisphere, millions of people hearing the gospel. We're shipping out thousands and thousands of pieces of literature every year to people that make a decision for Christ.

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There's a give button. And for your investment and partnership with us, we truly, truly thank you. And our vow, our commitment to you and to the Lord, is that we will proclaim God's Word and do our utmost to evangelize the lost and equip the saved. Well, one of the messages that we believe the world needs to hear right now is the truth about what it means to be a human being. And we talk about being made in God's image, male and female.

And you know, it's so beautiful. Many have noted that to fully express the attributes of God, it took two genders. There's the strength of masculinity, but there's the love of a mother and the capacity to give birth that women have. And there are so many things, and that's why scholars of gender who are Christian and believe the Bible, the term is complementarianism. Men and women are equal in worth and value and dignity and personhood, equal but yet different, unique in physiology.

Do we have to say it? Men's and women's bodies are different. But they're equally fearfully and wonderfully made, but we are complementary. That's why a Christian marriage is such a beautiful thing. And you know, I know this fortunately for having been mayor to Angie for 36 years. You know, in the early years of a marriage, you're learning to live together and getting to know each other, and now three and a half decades in, you know, I cannot imagine what I would be had Angie, a Christian woman, not been there in my life.

Hopefully by God's grace, some of what's good about the Lord's work in my life has touched her life. Men and women are complementary. But the image of God has implication for race, social justice. We hear so much about social justice, but in recent years, cries for social justice have come out of a worldview that denies objective morality. But our nation, and really the Western world, birthed human rights when we realized that truth and moral boundaries are laid down by God, not the idea of man but the revelation of God.

For example, the illegality of murder is really an acknowledgment of imago Dei. When Cain murdered his brother Abel in Genesis 4, 1-16, you know, he retorted to God's questioning by saying, Am I my brother's keeper? And the word is, yes, we are our brother's keeper.

We are accountable to each other. The Greeks had what was called the law of general beneficence, that we had an obligation to do good, not harm, to our neighbor. And God told Cain in response to that very smart remark, Your brother's blood cries out to me from the earth. That's Genesis 4.10. And we talked about this before, the Hebrew word for blood is dmei, a plural meaning bloods.

And the accurate rendering would be your brother's bloods cry out to me from the ground. Ancient rabbis understood this to mean that Cain was guilty not only of Abel's blood, but also of killing the blood of his descendants. And one scholar noted this, quote, from this perspective, most killers are mass murderers, since they bear responsibility not only for the victim, but also for his or her unborn descendants, whose lives they have destroyed, end of quote.

And that's from the Harper Collins Encyclopedia of Jewish Literacy. We get from the Jews this idea of Imago Dei being made in God's image, and within the life of a person are potentially the lives of other people by virtue of family and procreation. Life is a sacred thing. That's why our marriage covenant vows are sacred.

And finally, as we're almost out of time, Imago Dei influences human relationships. That's why Ephesians 4.24 says that we are to put on the new man, in other words the Christ-conformed life and mindset, the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. And Ephesians 4, the whole chapter is a great chapter, it talks about in Ephesians 4.30 not grieving the Holy Spirit of God, but Ephesians 4.3-6 talks about being made in God's image and how we treat others. It says, quote, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, one Spirit, even as you are called and one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all.

So what do we take away from all of this? Your life matters. Almighty God ordained you to be here. You're created in His image. There is no such thing as a man trapped in the wrong body or a woman trapped in a man's body.

No. You are male, you are female. And you will find not only truth about your gender, truth about your humanity and worth, truth about your identity as a unique individual, you will find the oasis, the sanctuary, the foundation rock of truth on which you can build your life and eternity when you acknowledge that God made you, Christ died for you.

He is as close by as a prayer to be your Lord, your forgiver and the friend that sticks closer than a brother. Give your life to Christ and trust what God, our Maker, says about what it means to be a human. We are not an evolutionary accident. We were not put here just to be consumers, eat, drink, be merry, then we die.

No, we were made by God and created to know Him, and the heart is fulfilled when we do. And fortunately, this day, no matter who you are, by calling out to Jesus, you can. Alex McFarland Ministries are made possible through the prayers and financial support of partners like you. For over 20 years, this ministry has been bringing individuals into a personal relationship with Christ and has been equipping people to stand strong for truth. Learn more and donate securely online at alexmcfarland.com. You may also reach us by calling 1-877-YES-GOD1. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you again on the next edition of The Alex McFarland Show.