It's always true on the Truth Net. Welcome to Truth Talk Live, a daily program powered by the Truth Network, where pop culture, current events, and theology all come together. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. Good afternoon, Truth Talk listeners.
This is Alicia Grimes. Glad to be with you here today. We're going to talk about several things today, but what's on tap? What makes humans valuable?
What makes us different from all the rest of creation? So if you want to take a shot at answering that question, we're going to discuss that over the next few minutes, but just call in. Let's see, our number is 866-348-7884.
866-348-7884. What makes humans valuable? Maybe where have you seen that? Where have you seen that played out in the positive? Where somebody demonstrated through their words, through their actions, through their motivations on behalf of another person, that life is valuable. Every life is valuable.
So we're just going to start out. I'll go ahead and tell you, you know, there's lots of places we can look to define what it means to be human. Maybe we see that in culture. Maybe we look over the course of history.
Maybe we look to science for what it means to be human. But God actually started and defined humanity in the very beginning when he created us. We look back in Genesis 1, verses 26 and 27, where we find the phrase image of God. It's imago Dei in the Latin, but it says God created mankind in his own image. In the image of God, he created them male and female, he created them. And this concept, this concept of image of God is exclusive to the biblical framework that we believe as Old Testament, New Testament believers. So when we talk about mankind, men and women being made in the image of God, that means there's something that's different about humanity, about mankind that sets us apart from the animals or a plant or even your dog.
I know a lot of you really love your dogs, but humans are in a separate category because we're made with a soul. We're made in the image of God to reflect and represent him in the world. So, you know, if you wonder, so many people are trying to figure out, what's my purpose in life? Why am I here? Why was I created? Well, Genesis 2, Genesis 1 and 2, they tell you that you are created to image God, to bear his image. You know, if I think that I, you know, every everywhere I look, somebody is bearing some image, your hats, your shirts, your shoes, you got a Nike Swish, that means you are bearing the image of Nike. But when God created us, he actually created you to represent him, to reflect him, to bear his image in the world.
So what happened? We have fallen far from God's initial design for us to bear his image. And we see that in the fall of mankind.
And we'll talk about that a little bit later. But what does it mean to be made in God's image? And why did he make male and female in his image?
Well, long story short, he created male and female so that together, we could fully represent his image to the world. And so we need each other. That means that we need every human being to fully image God to the world. We see that played out over in the book of Revelation, when God gathers people from every language, tribe, tongue, and nation, to worship him around the throne, because it will require every different language, tribe, tongue, and nation to fully represent his image in the nations. So if you're listening out there and you want to call in what makes humans valuable, if you want to help me discuss this question, then call in and we'll talk a little bit more about it. But it means if we're made in the in the image of God, it means that we have moral and spiritual capacity. It means that we reflect certain characteristics of God. God is moral, he's relational, he's rational. And so we have the ability to discern right from wrong.
We have the ability to form relationships and worship in a way that sets us apart from the rest of the creation. Genesis 128 also tells us that we have dominion and stewardship, which some people would take that and in a fallen nature, that would, they would take that to mean we dominate. And that's really how the world operates.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. And people want to dominate, they want to compete, and they want to control. But from the beginning, when we were made in God's image, it means that we were made to have dominion, and to steward, to work for the flourishing of the world, to work for flourishing of our cities, of our families, of societies, of cultures, of nations, of civilizations. And so that is a high calling. If you're sitting in your car and you're like, you know what, I don't know my purpose. You were created to bear God's image and to work for the flourishing of those around you. And so that's something that's bigger than you.
It's something that's loftier than living for your own self. So, you know, it's super interesting when you think back through how people explain the image of God. And, you know, we know that from a Christian perspective, from a New Testament, Old Testament perspective. But other worldviews give a very different view of people, of humanity. And so if you don't have the image of God, you're really relegated to assign value to people based on their contribution or how valuable they are to the rest of society. So that is really great news if you are on top, if you're on top and you're to have the place of honor and you are contributing and you have value. But if you're on the bottom for any reason, maybe it's your ethnicity, maybe it's your financial status, maybe it's your demographics.
For any reason, if you find yourself on the bottom, maybe you're elderly, maybe you're unborn, then if you're not contributing significantly to the advancement of that culture, you may be deemed expendable. I want to read you a couple of quotes and I'm just going to be all over the place on this topic today. But, you know, if you follow apologetics, there are four major atheists who have spoken into the last, you know, into the last probably 75 years. One of them is Richard Dawkins and he has come out and he said, you know, we don't want Christ and we don't want Christianity, but we really need your values because when you start to take the Christian values, which starts with image of God, every person is valuable, inherently valuable because they're created.
When you remove that from a culture, your culture starts to disintegrate. So some really interesting things can be said, just historically and how people have approached this. When we come back, we're going to talk a little bit more about this. Welcome back to Truth Talk Network.
I'm live on the air. It's Alicia Grimes and we're talking about what makes humans valuable. If you want to weigh in on this question or have a discussion with me, Colin, I'd love to hear your thoughts. We were tracing back this idea of the sanctity of every single human life back to Genesis and in Genesis one, when God created mankind in his image, he created them in his image, male and female. And basically we talked a little bit last segment about to be in the image of God means that we reflect and represent God to the world. It also means that we have stewardship, that we work for the flourishing of our societies, our families, individuals, cultures, and the world. We also, it also means that every human being has inherent dignity and value just because they're made in God's image, just because God created them. You know, I think of things that I value.
Some of the things that I value the most are because of the person who made it, not necessarily because of the value or what it can do for me, but because like my dad made a crib for me when my first born, when my first daughter was born, that crib is so valuable because my dad made that for me. So because God created us, we have inherent value and dignity, and that extends to every person who's made. We also have the capacity for relationship with each other with God in a unique way that sets us apart from the rest of creation. And we also have the ability to have a restored relationship with God through Christ.
And we'll circle back to that. But, you know, when I think about the image of God and you look around the world and I mean, we're in the middle of a political season and so many of us are trying to be discerning and figure out like who stands for what and why do you have people on every side of the aisle, um, confused about so many different things. And so I'm not here to talk about politics today, but underneath so many political issues, if you dig down deep enough, you will find this, this concept of image of God. I find it really interesting that over history, people have not agreed around this issue. This is an exclusively Christian, um, Old Testament Jewish idea that were made in God's image. And because of that, every life has human value, but because of the fall, because sin has entered the world, we push against that and we value our lives over the life of another person.
And Jesus came to restore the image of God in us and to call us to restore the image of God in other people to value life the way he values life. But you know, I'll read you a quote if you know who, who said this, some people are born to be slaves. You would think maybe that was from slavery, um, historically in our country, but that is Aristotle who said that.
Some people were born to be slaves. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. in the early 1900s, he said, there's no reason for attributing to a man any more value or significance than a baboon or a grain of sand. And if you look at humanity through a purely scientific atheistic materialist worldview and you believe in the survival of the fittest, then they're humans have no, no more value than a plant or, you know, a piece of sand, according to Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Um, Bertrand Russell, he said, your hopes, your loves, your beliefs, your fears, all those are the result of a random collision of atoms. Basically, if you don't believe that we're created by God in his image for a purpose, then you're one accident between two humongous accidents.
You got the beginning of the world, an accident, the end of the world will be an accident and you're a random accident in between two accidents. Now that's a nice thing to tuck your kid in to bed at night, but really we know from God's word that God is our creator and because he created us, every life is valuable. But what does that mean? Like what, that's a concept obviously that we latch onto, but what does it mean? What is image of God in action? Well, image of God in action motivates us to speak for the voiceless, to advocate for the poor, for the immigrant, for the oppressed. Um, it calls us to speak out against injustice. So like if you look around and you see anybody being mistreated, something inside of you, because you are made in the image of God and God is just and he does love his creation, something and you should well up and want to speak into those conversations. You know, it calls us to act against injustices and there are so many. We've got pornography.
That is pornography, pornography is damaging and treading, trampling on a person who's made in the image of God. Somebody who's either a sister or a daughter or a mother, sex trafficking, racism, all these things set us up to see people as more valuable or less valuable and then we're able to justify the actions that we take either against them or the lack of advocacy that we give for them. You have abortion, the most unprotected, unprotected, um, vulnerable life there is, is the life in the womb. And so do we believe that that, that life is valuable or do we believe that for any reason that life could be ended because it's not contributing in a significant enough way to our society.
You also have child labor, you've got genocide and you've got the exploitation of women and children. So the image of God in us as believers, as Christians should well up and it should cause us to want to work for the flourishing of society, for the flourishing of the individual and the flourishing of cultures. So by actively engaging in compassion and advocacy, we are really embodying these, these truths that are inherently baked into every person that is created by God.
So, you know, where do we see this, this, this vision? Well, we see it through the things that Christians do in the world. And let's just say out of the gate that the Christian faith, biblical faith has been not always been used positively. There have been times when the Christian church historically has been on the wrong side of human dignity. It's been on the wrong side of working for the flourishing of other people and it's done damage in the world, but Christ loves his church and he created us to image him into the world.
And so at our best, when we are most like him, we are working for the flourishing of people. Christians historically have started hospitals. We start orphanages. We advocate for the poor.
We take care of the immigrant. All the things that we see or are called to in the New Testament, they have a basis in the image of God. And so the, the counter vision for that would be the lack of concern for people who basically we don't see as contributing to culture or to the, the betterment of our own lives.
It's a very selfish stance to take. Um, in a few minutes, we're going to talk about Jesus in the image of God, but there's just a few more things I want to circle back to. Uh, Tim Keller, I I've listened to several sermons that he had on the image of God, but he just talks about the fact that James three verse nine, it says with one mouth, you praise God and you curse humans who are made in the image of God. It should not be that way. So I want us to kind of take a deeper look at ourselves and, um, how we advocate for other people in light of the image of God.
Welcome back to Truth Talk Live. Today we're talking about what makes humans valuable. We're zeroing in on the idea of the image of God, that when God created us in the garden, male and female, he created us in his image, which means that we reflect and represent him to the world.
And so, you know, we look around and we're like, well, I don't think we're doing that very well, but what happened? So in, in chapter three, it didn't take very long. Adam and Eve decided rather than live to live for the glory of God, to image him, to reflect and represent him that they would rather live for their image. And they chose themselves over God.
They chose, they wanted to be like him. And so that that's the entrance of sin in the world where this idea around image of God immediately starts to be darkened and twisted, and then people start to live for themselves and they value their life over others. And in church lately, we're studying, um, Genesis and Cain and Abel, and you see the murder of Cain murdering Abel, um, because he valued himself over Abel. And this, this corruption of image of God has just permeated our whole world. Um, but, but, you know, so God in that, in that moment, um, you know, really before the foundation of the world, but knowing that we would need a savior because he's just, and he can't just let us rebel against him and, you know, live for our own image because that is going to destroy us.
He can't let that go. He wouldn't be just, he wouldn't be good, but he also doesn't want to destroy those who were made in his image. And so that's why Christ came. In the incarnation, Jesus added humanity to his deity and he came to earth to live the life that we can't because the image of God in us has been marred. And then he died on a cross to take the punishment for our sin and all the ways that we have marred the image of God in ourselves and in others. And then he, um, rises from the dead to defeat death, which was the ultimate marring of the image of God. And so Jesus has come to restore that.
But what I really love is when you look at the gospels, you actually see Jesus calling people to a restore, a restoration of the image of God. Because over time, after the fall, when sin enters the world, you know, Jesus is born into this Jewish society where it's a shame-honor culture. The people at the top have the honor. The people at the bottom have the shame. And he is constantly interacting with people who are on the bottom end of that shame culture. And so, you know, in that culture, you've got the lepers. You've got, you know, anybody who is on the outside of the inner circle of Judaism. Those people are not esteemed. They're not valued.
They're the lowest of society. You have the slaves. You have the women who really had no value in that culture. And you see him walking through Israel, redeeming people and restoring the image of God in them, bringing them up from a place of shame to a place of honor. Now I see this, my favorite, one of my very favorite New Testament stories is the Samaritan woman at the well. And here she is in the heat of the day. She's there, not because she's just done some things wrong, because she's on the bottom of a shame culture. She's living in this place of shame. And Jesus breaks every cultural barrier to walk up to her to initiate a conversation with her and to draw her out.
And sometimes that story has been told in the context of, you know, Jesus is calling out her sin. And he says, he says, bring your husband. And she says, I have no husband.
And he says, you're right. You've had five husbands and the one you're currently living with is not your husband. So that story has been told in the context that this is an immoral woman who's been divorced five times.
But actually in that culture, only the man could divorce a woman. And so this is most likely a woman who's been discarded by five men and she is living in absolute shame. And so Jesus initiates this conversation with her and he draws out what has placed her in a position of shame. And then he peels back her identity. He reveals his identity. She's the first person in the New Testament, in the book of John, that he discloses that he's the Messiah.
She runs off. She's the first missionary that we see in the book of John. And she tells her people, come see a man who told me all I've ever done, because she's no longer defined by her shame. But you see Jesus interacting with people and pulling them out of a place of shame to a place of honor.
Same thing with the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years. Jesus is on his way to heal Jerry's daughter. And along the way, the crowd pushes in and somebody touches the hem of his of his prayer shawl.
And he stops and he says, somebody touched me. And he's, in this moment, he's going to take this woman who's lived 12 years unclean, untouched, outside the realm of the synagogue, away from family. And he's going to, he's going to bring her from a place of shame and he's going to elevate her. And he calls her out not to shame her, but to value her.
And he says, my daughter, and he esteems her in that moment, in that public arena. He's moving people from a place of shame, a place where the image of them has been marred and damaged and darkened, and in a culture that valued people for what they contributed and what they gave. And in his earthly ministry, he is redefining what it means to be human. And then we see that played out in the New Testament, that the gospel is for every person, every man, woman, child, every ethnicity, every, you know, every demographic, poor, rich, anything in between, the handicapped, the disabled, whatever it is, Jesus came to restore the image of God in us. And he did that through his incarnation.
Absolutely amazing that that's the kind of God that we have. But then he goes farther and he says, now you are ministers of this reconciliation. You're going to reconcile people to God through what I've done in my life, death and resurrection. And so that darkened image in us is restored when we come to know Christ.
And it'll be fully restored when we see him face to face. In the meantime, for those of us who are believers, we're called to work for the restoration of the image of God in other people. And so that's part of what makes humanity different. It's the reason that every human life is valuable. And I hope you hear me say that this is a distinctly Christian value. In other cultures and other religions, there is not this concept of the dignity of a human life.
Any single human life is not necessarily valuable. And that creates very vastly different cultures, vastly different worldviews come out of that. For example, in India, when you have the caste system, their belief is that people are born into those castes for a reason. And so there, if you're an untouchable, you're not inherently valuable.
And nobody would serve you or help you because that would mess up the caste system. As Aristotle said, some people are born to be slaves. Well, in some worldviews, someone is born at the bottom.
They're born into a shame space because that's the way the universe lined up. But as Christians, we have a radically different perspective on what makes humans valuable. And then that should compel us to work for the flourishing of every human life.
There's a lot more to be said about that. But I want us just to go back to Genesis 1 26 through 31, because I was studying this passage this week in preparation for a discipleship study that I lead. And when you look at Genesis 1 26 through 31, really God said, let us make man in our own image and likeness, let them have dominion over the fish and the birds, livestock, every living creature.
And then we see that God blessed them. And in verse 28, he says, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Well, in the New Testament, we have the expansion of the image of God that we see here in Genesis 1. In the New Testament, as believers, we have the Great Commission, where Jesus says, go into all the world making disciples baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Spirit, teaching them to obey all command.
He's saying, go subdue, work for the flourishing of the souls of the world. And so that idea of image of God gets expanded tremendously in the New Testament. And in the New Testament, we realize how the image of God is restored.
It's through an actual relationship with Jesus Christ who created us, who has the power to restore his image in us. And he has the power to send us out to work for the flourishing of others. But when you continue on in that Genesis passage, Jesus, God explains that he's given us everything we need. He says, behold, I've given you every plant, every tree, I've given you food, every beast, everything that has breath I've given to you.
And in the New Testament, we see that God says he's given us everything we need for life and godliness and to carry out his mission to the ends of the world. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Truth Talk Live. I think we have a caller. Let's see if we can get our caller on the line here. Hey there. Hey there. Hey, found it good today. Love this topic.
And I just want to call in. I was thinking about our recent study on Jesus responding to the Herodians. Oh, on the coin. Yeah. Yes. I love that message.
Yeah. So it all came down to image, you know, and Jesus asked the question, whose image is on that coin? And I thought, wow, the image of a ruler, of course, and that's not uncommon.
That's how a lot of our coins are, you know, here in America. But Jesus said, rendered is Caesar of the things that are Caesar's, but rendered of God, things that are God's. And effectively, it was such a profound moment, because ultimately, we bear the image of Almighty God. And that defines us. That's such a beautiful thing.
And any culture that has undermined that has ultimately fallen. So Alicia, I love your topic. And I'm just so glad that you're talking about this.
Well, stay on if you can. We can talk more about it. But when we studied that passage in Mark, that was, you know, I really loved it. And just this idea of what belongs to God, everything. But there's one object of creation that bears His image. And like that coin, like we are stamped with His imprint, with His likeness, with His image. And He chose us to bear His image, which is, you know, phenomenal, given who we are, and how badly, how poorly we've done that.
But He's so redemptive to redeem that image in us through Christ. And I don't know, how have you seen that played out? I know you are involved with so many organizations that are doing exactly this. They're working for the flourishing of those made in the image of God. Every human.
What does that look like? I know you have organizations they're super passionate about. Oh, absolutely. And you know, it's interesting. At Wednesday in the Word, I got a couple guys, Caleb and Bill, and they're probably listening.
They leave. I got a guy named Fred that goes down to the bus station every Wednesday morning, right after Bible study, and starts witnessing to people. I mean, all kinds of people.
Anyone but one. And just shares the gospel, passes out tracts. Caleb and Bill, they go to the Maplewood Avenue Salem Pregnancy Center. Now, this is in Winston-Salem, and we have listeners all over the country. And they hold up a sign that says, Pray to End Abortion. And they so see the image of God on these dear young moms who have found themselves in a crisis, you know, pregnancy, in a tough situation, that they want to love on them and they want to pray.
They're not yelling at them or, you know, clamoring or screaming or berating anyone. And so one week, a couple months ago, I went out there with them after Bible study. There's a lady with a guitar and she sang, let us in a couple of praise songs. And we sang and we prayed. And we, and a lady, a lady pulled up, put her window down and said, I just want y'all to know that there's a baby in the, there's a little young baby, young child in the car seat. And she said, I just want y'all to know that your influence, your prayers led me to keep this baby. When I was one of the moms that were coming to the Planned Parenthood across the street and your prayer and your God, the influence led me to, to, um, keep my baby. And I just was so blessed by that. Oh yeah.
I bet. So, you know, sometimes, sometimes you don't see the result of loving people well where they are and encouraging them that they are seen, they are known, they are loved in there. There's somebody that's going to walk beside them. And if they can just find that hope, then, you know, there's hope for their situation. And, you know, very often they'll, you know, they'll choose a different path because, you know, they're just looking for hope. They're looking for a way out. They're looking for where do I, how do I find resolution to the situation I'm in? And, and part of the answer is that God has made them and in His image and He's made that child.
And they're just, they're just looking like just, you know, where can I find help? And so that's the, the beauty of our pregnancy care centers. It's, it's, you know, we, we should stand up and have a voice for the unborn, but the fact that we follow through and walk women through these pregnancies, you know, that's, that's image of God in action.
Image of God as a, as a theological concept that we sit around and talk about, yeah, it may, it may inform some of our, you know, our thoughts, but like Jesus is like, no, now go do it. Live it out. You know, work on behalf of the marginalized and the poor and everybody on that spectrum who, who needs, needs an advocate. So yeah, I hear you Stu.
I love that. Yeah. And so, you know, that, that affects everything and that affects why we, you know, that should affect how we vote. I mean, the, the scariest person to vote for is the person that has a low view of the unborn. They are, they are, they are completely innocent, unprotected, you know, in the womb. They have their own DNA. They can feel pain up to like, you know, three weeks and they are precious in the sight of the Lord.
And so if a politician has a low view of that life, then that tells you everything you need to know about them. Yeah. And so I don't care how, you know, how creative and how, you know, they try to get to, you know, tear jerking ads, you know, up there to, to tell you how bad the other guy is and, and how this desperate situation, those are, those are, those extreme cases are not Tim Tebow, Tim Tebow's doctor, Tim Tebow's mom, Mrs. Tebow, the doctor said, do not keep this baby. This will kill you if you have this baby.
She said, I'm going to do everything I can and I'm not going to take your advice. She kept that baby and we have Tim Tebow. Yeah. We have a Heisman trophy winning guy who gets up in front of millions of people and shares Jesus. But if she had obeyed the doctor and the politicians, by the way, if she had, if she had obeyed a certain party that's pushing this agenda that has abortion providers right outside their democratic convention, if she had obeyed them, Tim Tebow wouldn't be here today. Yeah. You know, she could have been on that, on that, on that tear jerking TV ad saying, well, the doctor told me and then, you know, but no, I mean, so God, not only is his image to be valued, but he honors that and he honors those that will stand up for what's right and do it in a gracious way.
And it has everything to do with how you live, how you voted, how's everything to do with how you value people. I mean, look at the, the least of these among us have the God's image on them and we're to serve and love and, and, and, you know, and introduce them to their, to the one who gave them that life, you know? So, and I'm, I've got to go cause I was going to come in the studio, Alicia, and hang out with you and talk on the air, but I had to come by the hospital cause our buddy Dwayne is here hanging on by a thread.
And thanks for the shout out earlier. Y'all pray for Dwayne, great member of Keem Truth. And he's in a deep coma and his organs are shutting down and we're praying for a complete healing right now or the ultimate healing of heaven.
And so I'm about to go in and just love on his family and pray with him and pray with them and kind of say goodbye. And so, but that again, the image of God, you know, we see in, in life and death, it's all about him, his image and his glory and how beautiful that he, that Jesus Christ became the image of God in the flesh. You know, he is the image of the invisible God, the first of all, first born of all creation, Colossians one. And he holds all things together and he bore the image of God and he bore the wrath of God. So we could bear the image of Christ so we could be reborn. Isn't that beautiful? But the gospel's in all this too, you know, that the, the death that came so we could have it.
Absolutely. I love that in Genesis was our creation. And then the incarnation is our recreation. God has recreated the image of God in us and then given us an identity in Christ. Like he, the image of God even gets expanded when we come to know Christ. And that's what kind of, what kind of God do we, do we serve that, that would do that for us instead of just saying, I'm done with you, you know, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll find somebody else. But because we're created in his image, he doesn't want us to be destroyed. And so we made a way for us to be restored and, and recreated, um, through Christ. So I, yeah, go love on that family. Um, that's, you know, it is, it is really interesting how we view birth and how we view death.
My, I remember when my grandfather was dying, have a long conversation just around with a doctor around the different ways that people die. And he said, there is a demonstrative difference among, between Christians and people who don't have any faith, this grasping for life and the fear, um, that, that comes with that or the security and knowing that, you know, my Redeemer has, is going to restore me completely in his presence. And there's that promise of eternal life with each other in Christ. So go encourage that family. I'm sure you'll be a tremendous encouragement. So thank you, Stu, for all you do. I will finish out the show here without you, but thanks for calling. God bless you. Thank you so much. And thanks to all of our Watson listeners out there.
Bless you. We're going to finish by, um, just looking at a passage that I've been looking at this week because I'm in the context of study and image of God with a discipleship group, Psalm 139 verses one through 18. And, and basically the psalmist just pours out, um, his heart and says, Lord, you've known me. You saw me, you know, like, you know me, you know, my actions, my thoughts, my ways, my words. And then he says, your hand of protection has been around me. You've always been with me. You always will be, you know, me and your thoughts about me are precious. So let's just leave on that note, considering the image of God in you and in the people around you have a great rest of your day.
