The Image of God - and OUR Envy

Mankind always wants more authority, more power.

I spoke to the students at FCA about the Image of God. I actually used a pretty basic illustration, and it worked out well. But before I get into that, let's look at what God tells us in Genesis 1.

"²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

²⁷ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

(Genesis 1:26-27, ESV)

What I explained to the students is that an image is a visual representation of something else. Then I showed them a color photograph of me. I told them that the photograph was not me, but an image of me. I went a little further and I showed them a copy I produced from the photograph. Although I did not plan this, the photocopy was black and white, and had a large smear of ink across the bottom of the image. I thought that was a bit ironic, but I continued to explain.

I told them that no matter how much someone wanted it to be true, the color photograph could never take place of the real 'me'. I also explained how the attempt to reproduce without help from the original creator, usually meant we made a mess of things. Then we talked about Genesis 3. We talked about how Adam and Eve were given the ability to think and create with their thoughts; they were given authority to rule over all of the creatures on the land, in the sea, and in the air. But they were also given one rule to obey from the only authority over them at the time. It was not their place to go against that authority...and that authority happened to be the perfect Creator of EVERYTHING. Who did they think they were, when they gave in to the serpent's temptation to answer the question, 'would they really die?' Surely not!

Instead, not only did they want to be like God, as the serpent suggested. The mere idea of them thinking they can disobey His perfect authority meant they thought they could replace His authority, by doing exactly what He said not to do. But that seems to go with free will these days, does it not?

And we have been getting this Image of God more and more twisted ever since!

I told the kids that this has been happening throughout history. And it all stems out of envy. Us, being envious of someone else, what they have, and how much power they have, and where they are in our perception of success. It happened with kings and queens of the past. It happened at the Tower of Babel. It happened with Cain and Abel. And it is happening now. It is inevitable. I gave the example of a father and Son, and told them that the bible even had this to say about Adam and his son, Seth:

"When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth."

(Genesis 5:3, ESV)

Even the son was in Adam's own likeness - his image. And just like God, Adam taught Seth to obey God and wanted Seth to learn from Adam's mistakes. Adam wanted Seth to be the best version of a likeness of Adam he could be. He already no longer had Abel, and he definitely could not find that in Cain. Then I gave the opposite example, with King David and his son Absalom. Absalom didn't just want to be king one day; he wanted to take the throne from his father...and that is what he did, for a time. The kids in FCA even understood that David was right to want his throne back. After all, Absalom used a conspiracy to get it in the first place, and he stole it from God's anointed. But then I told them how the source of Absalom's pride, ended up being his downfall, just like a certain Satan we know, when we get to the end of time.

And so history moved on from the time of Adam and his son Seth. Pretty soon after the flood, and God sparing humanity through a righteous man named Noah, people became envious of God's authority once again. Because of the incident at the Tower of Babel, people scattered into different nations and built other things to take the place of God. They decided they would worship those gods instead. In a sense, they were their own little gods, because they thought it was more important to get what they wanted, than to listen to what their Creator said.

And look how far we have fallen since.

People now put themselves up as the image; they worship themselves and their own authority.

There are entire religions and political movements based on this idea, and Satan has duped much of humanity into falling for it, every single time. We have people who have no care for what God tells them about how they are beautifully and wonderfully made, but these people would rather ignore that and make themselves in their own image, not some image created by the God of the universe. Or they prop someone else up, and that someone else and their ego makes them their own little god, with a little 'g'. Since we were in FCA, I used professional athletes as an example, and how many of us are guilty of idolizing them. I was no exception; I confessed to them how I obsessed over Michael Jordan in my teens.

But this is what I told the students in FCA, despite the challenges we face in society. It turns out, Christ came to Earth; God's perfect Son, in the Incarnation of a man - and He presented us with an example of how to best represent God, as His Image...His likeness.

So what do we do? That is the simple part. It might not always be easy, but the concept is simple. We go back to following God's perfect authority. And we do that by following the two greatest commandments, because if we do that, everything else falls into place. I reviewed the two greatest commandments with the kids at FCA.

"“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."

(Matthew 22:37, ESV)

and

"You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

(Matthew 22:39, ESV)

We finished up by talking about how much a difference they could make in their school, by being the example others need, to see us reflect the Image of God - the way Jesus told us to. I like to think some of the message sank in. I like to think one day, they will each make a difference. In the meantime, couldn't we all take a lesson from this? This world is a crazy place, and it only seems to get worse, all around the world. There certainly seems to be a progression towards something, something inevitable. Many people will usurp their Creator's authority, and tell you that a technocratic society is coming. Others will tell you that we will all be wiped out by some alien race the same way native Americans and Latin Americans were wiped out by the European settlers and conquerors. They can believe what they want, but I choose to focus on hope instead.

Maybe we should all do our parts, as believers. Spread a little more love in this world, and be like Jesus... and don't try to replace Him!