Get Ready to Take a Look in the Mirror

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Now let's jump in. We've been learning about the attributes of God, how he is holy, how he is immutable, unchangeable, all of these things to help us get to know God better. But how does that help when we're getting to know people? Get ready to take a look in the mirror coming up right now on the Clear V Today Show. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr.

Abadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis. Welcome to the Clearview Today Show. If you're listening for the very first time, we want to hear from you and your story: what God is doing in your life.

252-429-6069. If today's your first time ever, make sure you text the word today. That's T-O-D-A-Y. You know, Dr. Shaw, we've been talking about God, we've been getting to know Him.

And I think a lot of Christians would be great. They'd be very, very happy if it was just them and God and nobody else. Just live my Christian life in a vacuum. Most of life's problems are gone the moment you take out that third element, which is. People other people.

Right. I heard someone say one time when they were being asked, like, hey, would you ever? They were non-believers, but they were asked, Would you ever believe in God? Would you ever convert to Christianity? Like, oh, I have no problem with God.

It's the Christians. I can't stand it. Yeah. Yeah. That's the whole reason you hear that people don't want to come to church is because it's a bunch of hypocrites.

A lot of, like, in worship teams, a lot of times, what people are doing is they come up on the stage they want to serve because they think that's their time. With God. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm not leading people. This is just my special time alone with God.

But I'm also on a stage in front of a ton of people. Yeah. And it's a weird way of thinking. And it's not just Christians, it's just people in general. Who are people?

Well, people are made in the image of God, and they are the supreme object of God's creation. Not angels, right? Human beings are the supreme object of God's creation. Yes, he has made us a little lower than the angels, but then again, he has really crowned us with so much glory. All of us are made are marred by an attitude of disobedience towards God.

That's called sin. We often talk about original sin, that's where it all began, and we are all corrupted because of that. And sin is what separates people from God. And sin is also the source of all our problems, all our problems in life. Whether those problems are physical or physical.

emotional or relational Or Spiritual, they are all coming because of sin. That's right. Everything that we go through, every spare thought. I just did a paper in a psychology class a couple semesters ago about that, about how sin really does affect every single thing that we go through, every suffering is ultimately because of sin. There's no, like, even those thoughts that I feel like I can't control or how I perceive information, it's all because we live in a fallen world.

Absolutely. Yeah, it broke creation. Sin warped not only the not only us as individuals, but it warped the very world that we're living in. That's right. So just to see what the Bible has to say about cre about human beings, I want to kind of walk down and look at some of these significant points about human beings.

Not just human beings as in What the world says about people or individuals or the human psyche. Or even the scientists or the biologists tell us about human beings. No, what scripture, what God has said about. Who people are. And I think that's going to give us a much better understanding of why people do what they do.

So first things first, human beings were created For God's glory. They were created for God's glory. Uh there's several passages there. And I want to p st look at some of these because It will help us understand. Why God even brought us into this world.

Isaiah forty three, verse seven Everyone who is called by my name, whom I have created. for my glory. I have formed him, yes, I have made him Everyone who's called by my name.

Now, here it's more. The Believers But still, believers are also people. Yeah. What does that mean? Like, for someone who's listening to this, maybe they're unfamiliar with Christian nomenclature.

Or maybe they're just not a Christian. What does it mean that something is made for God's glory? Great, great question. demonstrate How awesome he is. That's glory, really.

You know, years ago, I saw this illustration or heard this illustration that really helped me. Appreciate glory. In a way that Looking at the etymology or some theological definitions could never do. This person said, Have you ever seen Michael Jordan dunk?

Okay, I know that's dating us here. Going back into the 90s, yeah. Yes, seeing Michael Jordan drunk back in the day and meet the iconic Pose of him. Air Jordan. Air Jordan in the air, hand raised, and what else?

His legs legs splayed like that.

Something else. One more thing. Tongue, right? Tongue hanging out. I mean, that was his iconic thing.

Uh-huh. I mean, at that moment, he is at his max. Or at least that's what it looks like to us.

Now, maybe he could do more than that. I don't know. But at that moment, he is at the utmost, the extent.

So when we talk about God's glory, I don't think God is at his extent, but At that moment, he is just radiant. He's just shining. He's just. Showing Just a glimpse of what he can do. That's God's glory.

I mean, that's what Moses was told. If you stand in this cleft of the rock, my glory will pass before you. It's that moment of that. Yeah. you know, just that glimpse of that brightness.

And an acute awareness of God's Presence and power and majesty And holiness, all of that just in that moment. But it could not sustain it for long because. Moses would burn up. Yeah. So God had to himself cover him, which is a very interesting thing that God was passing and yet God was also covering Moses.

It's kind of telling, I think, about how damaging sin is in that human beings are created to display God's glory, but human beings to us are so commonplace. Like when I see a lot of people. I usually get annoyed if there's a crowd, you know what I'm saying? Or there's people in my life who annoy me, or there's something to where I'm not looking at other human beings and thinking about God. You know, this series, this series of episodes, is meant to drill into the foundation of what we believe, the foundation of Christianity.

So, when you understand the purpose behind human beings, it's not just another person, another person. No, human beings are created for God's glory. It changes the way that we treat one another. Yeah. It changes the way that we, the value that we assign to other people, because this is God's creation that was made for his glory, not just some throwaway nameless personality.

Yeah, right. We are to not only demonstrate God's glory, but we are to glorify him with our lives, with our words without thoughts. Everything should be bringing God glory.

So, Acts chapter 12, verse 21, it says.

So on a said day Herod, Okay, arrayed in royal apparel. sat on his throne and gave an oration to them.

So picture this. Herod, not the Herod that you find in Jesus' time. This is different. another one of the descendants. He sits on his throne all decked out.

What color robe? I don't know, but it's a royal robe, maybe purple, maybe something else. And he gave an oration. I mean, he spoke such powerful words. I mean, he Probably had help from all the Greek and Latin orators of the time who advised him on this.

powerful Speech. And he gives it. In such an amazing, dynamic way, he delivers that speech so that the people kept shouting the voice of a God and not of a man, the voice of a God and not of a man. Can you picture that? I mean, he moves them.

Like, if you ever seen. Hitler speaking to the crowds of people in Nazi Germany. And with every statement that he makes, the crowd just erupts. And I don't know how much had a sound effects and how that was a real crowd erupting. Who knows?

But because it all was propaganda, but you can feel them being moved, and then, oh, they throw the Nazi salutes and all that stuff. It's just. That just gives you a glimpse of how this must have been. Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, Can you picture that? Because he did not give glory to God.

I mean, this should be A strict warning to every pastor or preacher or anyone who stands in front of people To speak to them about God. This can happen to you. It definitely seems like one of those moments in Acts, just like the Ananias and Sapphira, where it's like, I'm sure people have done this many times before, and I'm sure people are going to do it many times after. But this is an event, like you said, that it's meant to set an example. This is what God.

is expecting. Always, but now, especially going forward. To show us the seriousness. He did not give glory to God. Right.

The seriousness of giving God glory, of understanding that we as created beings are meant to point to our Creator, not take the glory and praise for ourselves. I mean, that was the first infraction against God, right? Was taking glory that was meant for God and directing it to Satan, directing it to himself. And then Herod, it says he was eaten by worms and died. I mean, oh my God.

I mean, that was a quick thing that happened. Yeah. You know, so. Human beings were created for God's glory.

So, not only do we demonstrate by our very existence how glorious God is. But we're also to give God glory in how we live and how we speak and how we think. You know, we just we just did, you did a sermon just a week ago on that Paul's opening up in Ephesians about how you know he begins that letter with praise and with worship. And, you know, why do we as human beings worship? Why can't we just be grateful?

Why do we have to outwardly express how grateful or how grateful we are and how why we worship him? And, you know, maybe we'll link to that sermon because I think anybody listening to this can really benefit from hearing it. But, Dr. Shah, do you want to give us just a quick answer to that? Why do we need to worship?

Oh, absolutely. I mean, in every service. Doesn't matter where you are. Whether you are in ancient times. like with the people of Israel or with the Jewish people Or the early church, the ecclesia.

Or Down the centuries, whether you are in Europe or you are in North Africa or you are in Asia Minor. Or you are somewhere else in the known world, or right down to our times. where you have services of all kinds.

South Americans have their own way of Latin Americans have their own way of worshiping. people in India, the Christians have their own way of worshipping. people in Europe In America, there are differences between an African American church worshiping versus just a regular church worshiping. There's all kinds of differences. But ultimately Every one of these Ecclesiastes begin with worship.

Why worship? Because this is. Where we begin by saying We exist to bring God glory. We are here, saved, redeemed.

So we can give God glory.

So let's begin. By giving him glory. That's why we don't begin with our Sermon right off, right? Not because the sermon is any less. No, sermon is very, very, very, very important.

Because without the sermon your worship will become misguided and misdirected. But Worship is where we begin. And I know sometimes people Don't appreciate that because most of the time it's being done very poorly. Yeah, that's true.

So we need good worship. I don't care how big a choir you have, or only one person up there leading. you have lots of instruments, or you have none, you have lights and all these things, or you are just Sitting in a prison cell worshiping. Yeah. When it's done with the right intent, with the right heart, giving our very best.

That's how we're saying that together we are glorifying God, hence, worship. is indispensable. Indispensable to the life of the church. And it could be the case that people don't value it also because they don't have a proper understanding of who they are, of who people are, that they were created. for this activity.

Right. They were created to do this. Right. Yeah. Something else here about human beings said we were created in God's image.

So we began with: we were created for God's glory, but we were also created in God's. Image Genesis 1:26, then God said, Let us I know we already covered that in our Trinity part. Let us make man in our image according to our likeness. This is not some form of ileism. If you remember we were looking for that word.

What is that word? Ileism is like this self reference has nothing to do with the plurality of the Godhead. And we disagree with that. I believe these self-references are not some ileism, not some royal wheeze. This is really God.

The triune God speaking within himself, the persons of the Godhead speaking within themselves. Saying Let us make man man in our image. That when you look at a person, when you look at physically how they're comprised, when you look at their morality, their spirituality, their mentality, all of these things. You're seeing, I guess, a shadow of God. You're seeing some semblance of what He is.

Yeah, a reflection, I would say. A reflection. A skill of a shadow. A reflection would be a better word because since it's an image. Yeah.

Yes. And more specifically, the reflection of the second person of the Godhead, Jesus. Who Yes, he was incarnated. Fully God became fully man two thousand years ago. But the idea was already settled in the godhead that Even before the foundation of the world.

That's why we can say in Genesis that we were made in the image of God, even though the incarnation hadn't happened yet, because that human element was always part of the second person of the Godhead. Right, it was already settled. And you say, well, how? How can that be? If God was only spirit until 2,000 years ago, you know, fully God became fully man.

Yes, 100% true. But The idea. the the the doctrine that the second person Would be fully God, fully man. That idea was always there. He said, How far back?

Eternity. Yeah, yeah, the the idea of God being outside of time. Really breaks down any sort of argument that is based. You know, if God, you're dealing with a creature, with a being, I would say. That is completely void of time.

It's a whole different time. Yeah. It's a whole different kind of time.

So For you to go, but but come on. I mean, if if two thousand years ago it happened, then how can it already in some sense happen? Yeah, because you are a time-bound creature. He is a a different time being. Who made you?

Who is in control? Who is in charge? And there's no one else greater than him. This is who he was. And is.

And then this part of him, the physical part, came into play, but does not mean it added anything to him. It did not make God bigger now since the incarnation. 'Cause that's often people's question. Did God grow when Jesus became man? No, he did not grow because he always was.

Just in our realm now, this part has taken place. to justify His High priesthood. to justify his substitution. In our realm, this had to happen. But in his realm, he said, Well, that's kind of contradictory.

Of course, because you're not part of the Godhead. Right. God is higher than you are. God's ways are higher than your ways. And, you know, the concept of the Trinity is going to be difficult for us to understand.

There's no way around that. Yeah. We're always trying to bind God with something. Yeah. Time or logic.

We're trying to make it to where, okay, but he has to follow these rules, right? The rules of time or the rules of logic or the rules of reason. If he doesn't follow those, then he must not be real. He must not be God. But what we're doing is we're putting time, logic, all that stuff above him.

And it's not. He's not subject to any of those. And it's hard to understand that. When we sit down to play a board game, for example, you can only take a turn when it comes around to you. You can only act on your turn.

Well, in real life, I'm not going to sit frozen still until it's my turn in the board game. I'm just going to stand up and walk away from the board game because I'm outside of the rules of that board game. I'm not bound by those rules. I'm operating by those rules in a given space. Yeah, but that's a great illustration.

Great illustration. Yeah, absolutely. The same is true of God. Yeah. And I think it's one of those things that even.

And I don't know if Adam and Eve really understood this, but I know that since the fall, like our understanding has been completely warped. Like sin has warped anything. And it's almost discouraging to think that we will never truly grasp God.

Well, I like the word you used, warped, because that's what we're saying here. Because of sin, because of what Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden, the image of God is warped or distorted. But it's not lost. It's not lost. We often say that it's like the image was lost.

It's not lost, it was distorted. Wow. I think that's even more powerful, honestly, because I was thinking, like what I was saying, it was like it's just our understanding, but really it's the entire image that we bear has been distorted. That's right. It's been more powerful.

Well, it says in Genesis 9:6. whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God he made man. This is post. Genesis sin. This is Genesis 9.

That's six chapters after sin came into this world. It does not say that.

Now, human beings were no longer in the image of God, so God has now to deal with them in a whole different sort of way. No. You killed somebody?

Well, that person is made in the image of God. You're going to have to die for this because you just. You just, you know. attack the image of God. You just assaulted the image of God.

You cannot assault God and live.

So Create killing another person, right? More really murdering another person. is going against The person of God. That's right. Isn't it interesting?

That's what happened in the first family. Yeah. The first generation, one generation removed from the fall, and we have murder. Yeah. I mean, to to to better explain this, it's like If there was a seal of the United States of America, well, there is a seal of the United States of America, if I were to make a copy of that seal, and then do something heinous and terrible to it.

Now, in America, a lot of things are not a crime. It's free expression and freedom of expression and those kind of things. But if I were to use it in a way that was a threat to national security or something like that. I could be arrested. But if I say, well, that's not the real shield, the real shield is somewhere in Washington.

or at the Smithsonian or whatever. It doesn't matter. you just imitated a copy and you were doing something to it, that dishonors that that shield, that emblem. Or that symbol.

So we have to not deal with you. Yeah. And again, there's a lot of laws about the freedom of expression, so I want to be careful how I say that. Think about that magnified billions and trillions of times. Where when one person murders another, Cain killed Abel.

That's the image of God. You can make that assaulted. It's the exact same argument when people bring up the abortion thing. God holds the copyright on life. And I think what people don't realize, especially with people like us who are pro-life, who speak out against abortion, is that we would fight for your rights, your life, just as much as that unborn child because you also are made in the image of God.

That's a great point. And not just murdering somebody or murdering a baby. But James chapter three, verse nine, takes it a little further. Talking about our words. Our tongue.

He says, with it, talking about our words, our tongue, with it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men. Mm-hmm. But we're this image of God. Wow. Yeah.

Yeah. You cannot even not just forget about murdering somebody, you cannot even talk. Evil to someone, yeah, because even that God takes seriously, because hey, you're just talking junk about that person. They made it in my image. You just talked about the main thing.

A lot of people listening to this right now are probably feeling a little twinge of guilt. You just got done fussing out somebody this morning, didn't you? Yes, yeah. I told you up top, we're gonna have to take a look in the mirror. You got at the top of the episode, we're like, Well, I'm not a murderer.

You just got off the phone with your mom, didn't you? You just got off the phone just messing, like messing with somebody's reputation. But I think it is, it is kind of funny because James is talking about this, and it's something that we don't consider. We don't consider it the same as murdering because you can't murder someone.

Well, the vast majority of us never will and never want to. But someone's reputation? Oh, yeah, I'll take that out. And that person, every single human being born. Or not yet born are made in the image of God.

For you to do that, whether you're murdering them or talking hateful about them. Or cursing them. You need to remember, God takes every single of those assaults seriously and personally. He takes them personally. Yeah.

And so that's scary, isn't it? It is. It is. There's a huge value on human life that we don't take into consideration. I think we think that human life is valuable just because someone's alive.

But it's because someone is made in the image of God. And I think, like what you said earlier, Dr. Shah, it's not just Christians who are made in the image of God. All people. All people.

All flesh. That's right. All flesh. Dr. Shah, we've talked about because people are made in the image of God, things that we should not do.

In the time that we have left, which is not much, in the time that we have left, talk a little bit about the things that we should do. How ought we to treat people knowing that they're made in the image of God? Wow. What a great question. many things.

But the first things first. Mm-hmm. Because people are made in the image of God, every single human being. Doesn't matter who they are, doesn't matter which side of the tracks they come from. What color or pigmentation their skin is.

Doesn't matter how much they have in the bank account, doesn't matter what status or class of life they are, doesn't matter what they've done. They have been made in the image of God, God has a patent on them. And it is his. His pattern on each of these human beings, and he. wants to redeem them.

So It is difficult because some people are easy to win to the gospel. You know, I show somebody who's like, And just this poor fellow who who doesn't know any better. But you bring the gospel and they're like, Yes, I'm ready to pray to receive Jesus. My life has been horrible. I haven't been a good person, and I need Jesus.

That's an easy one. or little child. who says yes i want to pray and ask jesus in my heart Oh, that's great. You want to pray right now? I do.

I don't want to run from God anymore. I want to come to Him.

Okay, great. But then there are people who are hateful. Yeah. doing horrendous things or Just Just I mean, downright ugly in their behavior. And you feel like, not them.

No, every single person We have to first and foremost see them as. They have God's copyright on that. Reminds me of uh the story of Jonah. Yep. Reminds me of Jonah.

It's one of my favorite stories in the Bible because of how weird it ends. I always love stories with weird endings. And Jonah is one of those where, like, in Sunday school, in VBS, you never hear that. You hear Jonah. Preached to the city, and the city was saved, and everybody holds hands and they're smiling.

Yeah, well, you stop at the good news, yeah. You stop there, and then it wasn't seriously, it was not until I was an adult that I read the full story of Joan. I was like, oh, he didn't like it, he was happy. He went off and pouted, and that's. Where the story ends, yeah, and we look at Jonah and we're like, man, what a dork.

But a lot of times we do stuff like that. I do stuff like that. I'm like, absolutely. Really? All right.

Yeah. We should, we should. Let's go. And you may not be able to have that encounter of sharing the gospel with them and leading them to the plan of salvation to receive Jesus as their savior and as their king. But if you don't get that opportunity...

At least pray for them. Especially when people rub you wrong or whether you know them or not. Or whether uh people just act in a way that is so you know, does not bring good feelings. Pray for them and say, God, I may not be the person to bring them the gospel. But please, God, send someone in that person's life that they may be saved.

That's right. So Look at every single human being as redeemable. By the grace of God through Jesus Christ. That's right. And we're going to talk about that more tomorrow.

That's right. Yeah. Understanding that changes the way that we see ourselves. It changes the way that we see the world around us. And I hope that it changed your perspective.

Those of you who are listening at home, maybe you've had a difficult conversation with someone or you've got a difficult one on the horizon. Hey, remember that not only you, but that other person, they're made in the image of God. And we all of us exist to bring glory to God. That's exactly right. You know, the whole purpose of this show is to help you get a clear view of who God is, what He's doing in your life.

And we hope this episode on people has really helped you. And we're going to talk a little bit more about this tomorrow: how Jesus came for every single person. It means salvation is full and free, even for the people who you don't like, even for the people who get on your nerves, who rub you wrong, who are maybe actively against you. Jesus died for that person too. And so we're going to talk about that a little bit more on tomorrow's episode.

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