The Doctrines Series
1. The Doctrine of Scripture.
2. The Doctrine of God.
3. The Doctrine of the Holiness of God.
4. The Doctrine of God’s Sovereignty.
5. The Doctrine of God’s Omnipotence.
6. The Doctrine of Creation.
7. The Doctrine of the Image of God in Man.
8. The Doctrine of Sin.
9. The Doctrine of Justification.
10. The Doctrine of Sanctification.
11. The Doctrine of the Perseverance and Glorification of the Saints.
12. The Doctrine of Eternity.

The Doctrine of the Image of God in Man
“After God had made all other creatures, he created people, male and female. He designed them with reasonable and mortal souls, and he endowed them with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, after his own image. Adam and Eve had the law of God written in their hearts and were created with the power to fulfill it, but also with the possibility of transgressing. They had the liberty of their own will, which was subject to change. Besides the law that was written in their hearts, God commanded them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. While they obeyed this command, they were happy in their communion with God.”

Highlights:
1. Humanity is unique in creation.
2. Our worth comes from God.

Image Bearer Value:
"When we forget the image-bearer dignity of every human being, we end up doing things to one another that we should never do. And we must always remember that hatred of an image bearer is hatred of God, violence against an image bearer is violence against God, and dishonor of anyone made in the image of God dishonors the Maker.”

Biblical Windows on Image Bearing:
1. Relationship
2. Morality
3. Spirituality
4. Representation (Dominion/Rule)
5. Damage

To Fully Live In His Image...
“The doctrine of the image of God in man places relationship as one of God’s highest design values for us.” “I will fully live out of the image, which the Creator has stamped on me, only when I love God above all else and love my neighbor as myself.”

Moral Hardwiring...
“Until they rebelled against God’s wise and loving command, Adam and Eve were like God, perfect in righteousness and holiness. Embedded in this is the fact that human beings were created by God as moral beings, the law of God written on their hearts. It means they were instinctively oriented to standards of right and wrong. They operated with moral consciousness. Human perfection was shattered in that moment of rebellion in the garden, but morel hardwiring still exists.”

Human Spirituality...
“Human spirituality is at the core of who human beings are, why they were made, and what should motivate how they live. Humans were designed with a catalog of spiritual capacities. "The ability to think, the capacity to give and receive communication in language, the ability to feel a range of emotions – from love to hate and everything in between- and the motivation to worship were all designed by God because human beings were made to ‘live and move and have our being’ in him."

Every Human Being is Religious...
“In this way every human being is religious, because we all are made in God’s image and wired with Godward capacities, and we will either give ourselves in worship to God or we will worship something that God has made. Every human being is searching for God, though most don’t know it. "Much of human disappointment, despondency, anger and hopelessness exist because we ask something to do for us what only God can do. Because we are spiritual beings, we name things as ‘god’ that are not God. Because we are worshippers, we will always hook our hopes and dreams to something. Wired with imaginations, we envision what life will be like, calculating if this ‘god’ will come through for us.”

God's Design...
“God’s design is to make his invisible rule visible as his divine values form the way men and women related to him, to one another, and toward the rest of creation. This means, then, that our ability to exercise dominion in a way that would please our Creator depends on a life of submission to and worship of him.”

A Marred Image...
“The image may be marred, dinted, dirty, and damaged, but it is still there. That dignity, that value, that worth is carried by every person who has ever lived. It is not something earned; it is printed there by the Lord Creator. Sin does not have the power to wipe it away. It is the foundational identity of every human being, each one made in the image of God."

So What?
1. Identity
2. Justice
3. Women
4. Respect
5. Jesus

Our Identity:
“It is vital to understand that a stable sense of identity, and along with it, basic human value and worth, can only ever be found vertically. You know who you are by looking first to creation and second to the cross… The foundation of biblical theology of personhood is found in these words: ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness’ (Gen 1:26).”

Dishonor Against Others:
"This means that any act of dishonor against another person is an act of dishonor against God. Violence against an image bearer is violence against God. Rejection of any human being is rejection of God. Abuse of another person is rebellion against God. Objectification of anyone at any time is a violation of the plan, pursuit, and character of God. "This is why it was right for David to say his sexual possession of and aggression against Bathsheba was a sin against God (see Ps. 51). To take and misuse an image bearer is to act sinfully against the design and glory of God.”

God's Heart for Justice:
“You cannot read your Bible without being confronted by God’s heart for justice…Not only is justice near to the heart of God, but God commands it to be near and dear to our hearts as well. It is important, then, to understand the root of this prominent biblical theme and the agenda that it sets for the way we regard and treat one another.”

Roots of Justice:
"Justice doesn’t have its roots in human law, although human law should faithfully regulate and adjudicate justice. Justice doesn’t even have its roots in God’s law, given at Mount Sinai. Justice for every human being is instituted in the garden of Eden as God dyes every human being with his likeness. "We know this from Genesis 9:6: ‘Whoever sheds the blood of man,/ by man shall his blood be shed,/ for God made man in his own image.’ Murder is the ultimate injustice because people are not animals; no, they are the image bearers of God himself. An attack of any kind against the dignity of any human being is an attack on God himself.”

God's Plan for Justice:
“As you study the justice passages in Scripture, you are comforted with the promise that one day perfect justice will reign again. But those justice passages also confront us with God’s plan for us. His plan is to make his invisible justice visible by sending people of justice to bring justice to people who are experiencing injustice. But there is more. Justice is not just biblical work; it is gospel work. “The gospel story is not only a grace story, but it is a justice story as well. On the cross of Jesus Christ, the grace of God and the justice of God kiss. We see this in Micah 6:8, ‘He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.’ “What does God require of all his children? Justice, kindness (mercy), and humility. Of all the character qualities in Scripture, why does God choose these three? The answer is that justice, mercy, and humility summarize the entire redemptive narrative. God looked at his sin-scarred world and the scourge of people’s inhumanity toward one another and decided, in righteous anger, that he would deliver his justice and right the wrong that sin had done to those made in his image. He would do this not by unleashing his wrath on humanity, but by pouring out his mercy. In order for mercy not to violate his justice, there had to be a perfectly righteous substitute, one who would be the perfectly acceptable sacrifice for sin. So Jesus humbled himself and became obedient, even to death on the cross. The redeeming plan of God, captured in these three provocative words, is his mission for us between the ‘already’ of the sin in the garden and the ‘not yet’ of the new heavens and new earth.”

“Charles Spurgeon summarizes the church’s call to justice: ‘The church that does not exist to reclaim heathenism, to fight to destroy error, to put down falsehood, a church that does not exist to take the side of the poor, to denounce injustice and to hold up righteousness, is a church that has no right to be. Not for yourself, O church, do you exist, any more than Christ existed for himself.’”

“True evangelical faith is of such a nature it cannot lie dormant, but spreads itself out in all kinds of righteousness and fruits of love;
it dies to flesh and blood;
it destroys all lusts and forbidden desires;
it seeks, serves and fears God in its inmost soul:
it clothes the naked;
it feeds the hungry;
it comforts the sorrowful;
it shelters the destitute;
it aids and consoles the sad;
it does good to those who do it harm;
it serves those that harm it;
it prays for those who persecute it;
it teaches, admonishes and judges us with the Word of the Lord;
it seeks those who are lost;
it binds up what is wounded;
it heals the sick;
it saves what is strong (sound);
it becomes all things to all people."
The persecution, suffering and anguish that come to it for the sake of the Lord’s truth have become a glorious joy and comfort to it.”
~ Menno Simons

Objectification of Women:
“Popular media oppresses women with norms of beauty that literally take surgery to obtain. How far away have we fallen from the dignity of women as image bearers of God himself? When it comes to the value, dignity, significance, and uniqueness of the imprint of the image of God, men and women are equals. Hear these words again: ‘So God created man in his own image,/ in the image of God he created him, /male and female he created them’ (Gen 1:27). To reduce a woman down to the shape of her body, to dishonor, denigrate, or objectify her, or to negater the value of her gifts and her God-given contribution as one of his image-bearing resident managers, dishonors not only her but God himself.”

Charles Spurgeon on Women:
‘We cannot say to the women, ‘Go home, there is nothing for you to do in the service of the Lord.’ Far from it, we entreat Martha and Mary, Lydia, and Dorcas and all the elect sisterhood, young and old, rich and poor, to instruct others as God instructs them. Young men and maidens, old men and matrons, yes- and boys and girls who love the Lord – should speak well of Jesus and make known His salvation from day to day.’”

Honor One Another:
“Understanding that the image of God has been imprinted on every one of us not only forms our foundational understanding of who we are, but it is meant to shape the way we view, live with, react toward, and respond to one another. The biblical commands to love one another, to treat everyone with honor, and to never do evil in the face of evil, grow out of the soil of the truth of the image of God in man. We are called to look in the face of our enemy – even in the face of someone who may otherwise disgust us – and see the image of God himself. Only when we do this will we treat one another with the love, respect, honor, and goodness to which we have been called.”

Points us to Jesus:
“Every point of the theology of Scripture, when rightly understood, leads us to the cross of Jesus Christ. Now, you may think, ‘Paul, how do you get from the words ‘Let us make man in our image’ to the hill of Calvary?’
"The answer is that the image of God is most powerfully expressed and most fully seen in the Son of God, the Son of Man, Jesus Christ. On earth, in the flesh, Jesus stands before us as the ultimate image bearer. In him the image is not dented or damaged in any way. "In him we see God’s image in perfect expression in every decision, every word, every thought, every desire, and every aspect of his character, all spotlessly righteous. It is an amazing, important, and life-changing thing to behold.”

CMC Statement of Theology "Man"
“Man was created in the image of God, sinless, in perfect holiness and fellowship with God; as male and female, equal before God as persons and distinct in manhood and womanhood, with male responsibly for headship in the home and in the church; as a being of choice who willfully disobeyed God, bring alienation, depravity, death, and eternal lostness to the human race through Adam’s sin.”

Hope:
“Observing the image of God in its ultimate expression in the Messiah man, Jesus, should fill us with enthusiasm and hope. He is a living representation of what we will one day be, when the burden of sin has been fully lifted and the image of God is given full expression in us in every way and all of the time.”

Reflection Questions/ Sunday School Discussion:
1. What is the role and importance of doctrine of the image of God in Man in your life? How has this doctrine impacted your faith in the last week?
2. How does this doctrine affect your sense of identity?
3. How does this doctrine affect your understanding of justice?
4. How does this doctrine shape your view of women?
5. How does this doctrine affect your understanding of the Biblical importance of respect?
6. How does this doctrine point you toward Jesus?