1692. Personhood From the Beginning

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Today, we're continuing a study of the doctrine of man called fearfully and wonderfully made. Today's message will be preached by Dr. Steve Pettit. I'm going to ask you to take your Bibles this morning and turn with me to the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 19. Our theme this semester in our doctrinal studies is entitled fearfully and wonderfully made. It's the study of man, the doctrine of man, how we were created, what we were created for, where we are in our relationship with God, how to be restored back to God, living a life of purpose.

It's all about what we call anthropology. And so I was actually just recently asked to deliver this message this morning that I brought in the core conference last week, and it's entitled personhood from the beginning. When we talk about personhood, we talk about what defines a person, and in this case, we're going to look at it from the very beginning. And of course, this is a message of extreme relevance and importance today. The secular world that we live in, I think we would all know that is very aggressive, and they are very unashamed in proclaiming their opinions, their viewpoints, and their beliefs about what it means to be a person. And furthermore, the propositions that are coming out are a reflection of the fallen and sinful humanity that we all have in our philosophy of life that lives life without understanding the nature of God and relationship to the nature of man. So the result is there are lots of people that are very, very confused, and this influence has impacted almost every major social and moral area in which believers are called to live out.

We're called to live out in this fallen world. I mean, just think of some of these areas, which includes what does it mean to be a man? What does it mean to be a woman? What is the meaning of marriage? What are the boundaries of human sexuality? With whom are you to have a consensual sexual relationship?

Can a woman be trapped in a man's body, or can a man be trapped in a woman's body? When does human life begin? How do we think about the human racial issues? And when we consider these very, very prevalent questions, the answers for the believer are actually found in the first 11 chapters of the Bible. The answers are found in the beginning in the book of Genesis. And so my approach this morning is to look at personhood from a perspective of the way Jesus approached a major social issue in His day. For Jesus was asked a question, and He answered by going back to the beginning.

And I hope that today that we will grasp a stronger thought process of personhood from the beginning. So let's look at Matthew chapter 19. We find here that Jesus is addressing a real life issue of His day, an issue that has great, had in His day, great social, moral, and spiritual implications, and it was the issue of divorce. Let's look at the methodology that Jesus followed, beginning in verse 3 of Matthew 19. It says, the Pharisees also came unto Him, tempting Him, and saying unto Him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?

And He answered and said unto them, Have you not read that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female? Now Jesus here was asked a question about divorce. Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause? Now, I want you to understand that the question was not about the legality of divorce, because according to Deuteronomy 24 in verse 1, divorce was legal under Old Testament law. The question really is in the last phrase when it says, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? In other words, what are the grounds for legal divorce?

What cause can there be a divorce? And in Jesus' day, there were two primary schools of thought that came from two rabbis. The first rabbi is called Rabbi Shammai, and the other was Rabbi Hillel.

Shammai was the more conservative, Hillel was the more liberal. And essentially, Shammai taught that what justified a divorce was only one reason, and that was adultery on the part of at least one spouse. So the cause for divorce was adultery. Under Hillel, he argued that Moses allowed for divorce based for some what he called indecency, or as we read here this morning, for every cause that a man could find in his wife. So it could range from things like simply spoiling the dinner or not being pretty enough.

And those could be causes for divorce. So obviously, there were two different schools of thought, and people were definitely divided over the issue. Why did the Pharisees ask Jesus this question? Did they really want to know his position? Were they really seeking information?

And the answer is no. How do we know that? Because the Bible says the Pharisees came unto him, tempting him. They had an ulterior motive. The question was asked to put Jesus to the test for a negative purpose. Had Jesus answered the question as they proposed it, what would have happened? It would have drawn him into an interpretive conflict and put him on one side over the other.

And it was intended to bring about a division. And so, Jesus did not answer the question as they proposed it. So what did he do? He gave them a totally unexpected answer. And it's in his answer that we see his approach as to how he answered the questions of his day, and I believe the way that we should respond to the questions of our day. The Bible says in verse 4, and he answered and said unto them, have you not read?

So there are two things I want us to see this morning. Number one, Jesus' answer to life's crucial issues was sourced in the scripture. What did Jesus say in answer to them? He did not give his opinion, obviously he could have, but he actually went back to the word of God. Now question, did Jesus need to appeal to the scripture? Did he have to do that?

Well think about it. Jesus is the son of God. Is he not the word of God? When Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration with Moses and Elijah, and Moses and Elijah represented the Old Testament word of God, the law and the prophets.

And what happened on the mountain? The father spoke and said, this is my beloved son, and then he said, hear ye him, or listen to him. In other words, Jesus is the authoritative word of God. So did Jesus need to appeal to the scripture? The answer is, he did not need to, but he did.

And why did he do that? I believe he did it in part to establish the fact that not only is the Bible the word of God, but the Bible is where we should go for the answers to life's questions. Because in the Bible we have a very clear, objective, authoritative, divinely revealed word from God that speaks to the issues of our day. As a believer, you must settle it. That the word of God speaks for us today.

We need a clear word in a contemporary world. I mean let's be honest, many of you have not fully settled, you have not fully established your viewpoints towards the issues that are right now affecting us in the world that we're living in. We should not make any assumptions that we all know the answers and we all believe the answers. We all know that there is a pressure that is coming from the world, its values, its morals, its viewpoints about things like identity and personhood. And these ideas are very real and very palpable.

We can feel them. We read about them on social media. They are communicated to us through multiple avenues. We know that various governmental agencies and initiatives are pushing their viewpoints. We know there's an aggressive agenda in both private and public educational worlds. And we also understand that today in particular there is a line between the world and truth.

And because there's a line, there's a tension. Those on either side view the opposite side as wrong. Maybe there was a day that we had more of a, what we say, a Christian Judeo ethic in our world. And maybe people would disagree a little bit but respect one another, but today that is not the way it is. If you hold a certain position that is posited by another group, you will be viewed as evil.

Let me also say for many of you, you did not grow up in a home where maybe these truths were taught or modeled. That was my case in some ways. When I became a believer in my college years, I immediately found myself being pressured between a secular and a biblical worldview. How did I view the world?

I had a roommate that lived next door to me who was a biology major, pre-med. He was a thoroughgoing evolutionist and he would walk into my room at night and he would mock me because I believed that God created the world in, really, six literal days? And so as Christians, we must be committed to what we believe. We believe in the inspiration of the Bible, both the Old and the New Testament, and we believe that God has answers. So what did Jesus do? He exemplified for us where we should go to address the contemporary issues of our day by appealing to the authority of Scripture. Have you not read, says Jesus?

But let me also say just one other idea here. And that is that when Jesus gave an answer from the Scripture, he also is implying by his answer that the Bible is sufficient for both our understanding and explaining issues. The issue of divorce came up and Jesus went back to the Word of God as the Bible being sufficient for our answers. The Bible doesn't tell us everything that we need to know about all of life, but it does tell us what we need to know about faith and how we should live our life. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable.

It is useful for life, for godliness, how we should live, and especially with the questions that have to do with either marriage or, in our case today, personhood. So, Jesus formulated his answer to this difficult question through the Scripture, and once Jesus established the authority of the Word, he then lays out his answer. And how does he lay it out? He goes back to God's original intent in creation. Notice what he says, and he answered and said unto them, Have you not read, He which made them at the beginning made them male and female.

So that leads me to my second point. And that is Jesus' explanation. And in this case, he was explaining the issue of marriage and divorce, and also that we can go back to the Scripture for answers for many other things. And I'm going to use it in this case for personhood. Jesus' explanation is rooted in God's original intent in creation. We call that creational norms. Or we would call it simply a biblical worldview. That is how he answered, Have you not read, He which made them at the beginning made them male and female.

So, here's the question I want to ask. What was, or what is, God's original intent in man's creation? In making persons, why did he do that? And the basic answer is found in Genesis 1, 26, in the beginning.

We obviously read, He made them at the beginning. And in Genesis 1, 26, it reads these words, Let us make man, God is speaking, let us make man in our image and after our likeness. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them.

Because the word man there is referring to mankind, which is made up of male and female. So on the sixth day of creation, we find that God's intent was to make man in his image and in his likeness. Now, to grasp the image and likeness of God, which none of us can do that fully, obviously. But to try to grasp the image and likeness of God, we have to realize something very basic. And that is that God has revealed himself as one God in more than one person.

Do you understand that? God is revealed. So if we're made in the image and likeness of God, then what do we need to understand about God? There's one God who has revealed himself in more than one person. And we see this in the very beginning of creation when the word God is mentioned, which is the Hebrew word Elohim, it's always in the plural. Let me read to you just Genesis 1, 1. In the beginning, God, plural, created the heaven and the earth. Genesis 1, 26. I just read it to you.

Let me slow it down and just emphasize it. Notice he says, let us make, plural, man in our, plural, image, after our, plural, likeness. So God, plural, created man in his singular own image. In the image of God, plural, created he him. Male and female created he, singular, them. We see this in Deuteronomy 6 and verse 4 where we have what's called the Shema and he speaks about the confession of a Jewish person about the nature of God. He says, hero Israel, the Lord, singular, our God, plural, is one Lord, singular. So man was created in the image and likeness of God, singular, who is manifested in more than one person, plural.

So let's take that and expand that idea. To be made in the image and likeness of God, I must understand, I must have a comprehension of the plurality or the persons of the Godhead. I read a book a number of years ago I would highly recommend. It's not a long book. It's written by a man named Michael Reeves entitled Delighting in the Trinity. It's probably the best book I've ever read about grasping the Trinity. And there's three important things I want to say about the person or the plurality of the Godhead. Number one, first of all, we must understand that God is primarily understood as a father.

Are we not told to pray, our father, which art in heaven? Before God was ever a creator, as it is revealed in the first verse of the Bible, he was a father. Now, if he is a father, what does that mean? Well, it means that all his ways are fatherly. All that he does, he does as a father.

That is who he is. He creates as a father. He rules as a father. He is kind and loving as a father. He is called father because that's what he is. He is a father.

Now think with me. If he is a father, which he is, he can't be a father without having a child. Can you be a husband and not be a father?

Obviously. So if you are a father, there has to be a child. So if God is a father, therefore he has a child, then what was the father doing before he created the world?

Have you ever thought about that? Well, whatever he was doing, he was doing it with his child. He has to be. He is a father. He has a child.

Listen to what Jesus says in John 17 verse 24. He says, father, you loved me before the creation of the world. Do you know what God the father was doing before the creation of the world? He was loving his son. Now, we see how God is manifested in one person.

There is a father and there is a son. By the way, it's very interesting that in Genesis chapter 22 verse 2, God tells Abraham to take his son Isaac to a mountain and what was he to do with his son? He was to sacrifice him. That is a picture of Jesus, the father sacrificing the son.

But Genesis 22 and verse 2 is very interesting. He says, take your son, your only begotten son whom you love. We see throughout scripture the father loved the son. Did he not call his son his beloved son? So when Jesus said that the father loved him before the creation of the world, he was telling us about the son, that the son was not created, but that the son was eternal because he was living with the father. And we know this when we read the New Testament. Colossians says the son is before all things.

Hebrews says Jesus laid the foundations of the earth. The father is the father of the eternal son. The father loves the son. The son loves the father and both delight in one another. That's what we understand in the plurality of the Godhead. Then secondly, let me say this, that the father has revealed his love to the world, that's you and I, through his eternal son.

How would we know what God is like except the father has revealed himself to us? Listen to what 1 John 4-7 says. Beloved, let us love one another.

Why? For love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. And this was manifested, the love of God towards us, because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. The father demonstrated his love for us because he sent into the world his only begotten son. Now, do you know what only begotten means? I mean, we don't really talk that way. Well, who is this guy? Well, this is his only begotten son.

Well, nobody talks that way. So what does only begotten mean? It's really important that you understand this.

It means unique, special, one of a kind, one and only. And the whole idea is it has to do with the one that you love. And we have three illustrations in the Gospel of Luke. Luke chapter 7, 8, and 9 of three parents and their relationship with their only child. There was a widow from Nain whose only son had died.

There was a ruler named Jairus whose only daughter died. And there was a father who had a son who was demon possessed, who had epileptic seizures, and he was his only son. And I believe Luke uses the word only there to capture our emotions, because when we think of the mother who lost a son, how would she feel? Or the father who lost his daughter, how would he feel? Or the son, or the father who had the son that he couldn't help him, how would he feel? And when Jesus came, he raised the boy from the dead, he raised the daughter from the dead, and he delivered the boy from the demons.

What did that do for the parents? And I believe that Luke uses this language to help us to understand that when Jesus is called the only begotten son, he's referring to Jesus as the son of the father's love. Jesus said, as the father has loved me, so I have loved you. Why did Jesus come into this world? So that we would comprehend and understand the love of the father and the love of the son for one another.

And that leads me to the third thing, because I'm getting very quickly to my definition of personhood. The love of the father and the love of the son is known and experienced by us when God gives to us his Holy Spirit. What does the Holy Spirit come to do? He comes to reveal to us, to make known to us, the love of the father and the love of the son.

How does he do that? He does that through the preaching of the crucifixion. When you and I hear the message of the crucifixion, what does it do for our hearts?

How does it get to us? How does it touch us? It helps us to understand God's love. And when we believe or we receive Jesus Christ, what happens to us? Romans 5 and verse 5 says the love of God is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that is given to us. The love of the father and the love of the son now goes out to us and we literally share in it.

Let me use it in modern language. We get in on the love of God. So when we understand why we were created as persons, being made in the image of God, we are made in God's image, fallen in Adam, but recreated in Jesus Christ.

Why? Because of the love of the father, the love of the son, and the love of the Spirit of God that we enter into that. So what does it mean to be a person? Think with me. What are the two greatest commands? Love what? Love God in what?

And love your neighbor. If that's God's greatest commands, then what does it mean to be a person? And this to me is a biblical worldview. This is not a secular worldview. And it is simply this. It is the capacity that God has given us as a person to know God and His love. When I say no, we're talking about the mind, the will, and the emotions, us as human beings, that when we are redeemed in Jesus, we now have this full capacity to know God, to know His love, to experience that, and then secondly, to show that love. First of all, by loving God. And secondly, by loving our neighbor.

Let me put it this way. If in your definition of personhood, you don't have the word love, then you don't understand what it means to be a person. Because, and by the way, everybody in this room knows what I'm saying is true. Because you know deep in your heart, the most satisfying experience of life is either to be loved or to show love. And so, a person is one who has come to know the love of God.

If you have been redeemed, then your purpose of life has become known to you. God loves me. He loved His son. He gave me His love. I have entered into that love. I can know God. I can love Him.

I can walk with Him, and I can show that love. To me, that's a person. That's a person fulfilled. That's a person redeemed.

And that's the way God made it from the beginning. So many more things could be said. Our time has run out. But I do hope that in your life, this will become real to you, that God loves me, and I know Him through His Son and by His Spirit. And now I can show that love by loving Him and by loving others. Lord, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for Your life and Your light. Thank You that You made us in Your image. You have redeemed us. And thank You, Lord, that we can know You and show that love to others. Help us, by Your grace, to live this way in Jesus' name. Amen.