************ Sermon on Belgic Confession Article 14a ************
Doctrine: The Creation of Man
By: Rev. Adrian Dieleman
This sermon was preached on July 19, 1998
B.C. 14(a)
Genesis 1:26-27; 2:7; Ephesians 4:24
"The Creation of Man"
I Man's Creation by God
A In its opening paragraph, based upon Scripture, the Belgic Confession of Faith affirms that God created man.
We are not the result of thousands upon millions of years of evolutionary processes. We are not descended from single-celled creatures that progressed up the evolutionary ladder until one day one of our ancestors crawled out of the sea. We cannot point to tree-creatures hanging by their tails as being our forebears. We are the result of God's creating activities on the sixth day of creation.
B Not only did God make us, but we are the crown of God's creation activity. I can point to a number of things. First, God made us in His image. That is not said about anything else in all of creation. Second, man outranks anything else in creation – he even outranks the angels of heaven. It is man, for instance, and NOT the angels who have been given dominion over the earth (Psalm 8; Hebrews 2:5-8). Third, only into man did God breathe the breath of life and only to man did God give a soul or spirit. God, we would have to say knows and recognizes our true worth.
Topic: Man
Subtopic: Infinite Value of
Index: 2243
Date: 12/1997.2460
Title: Hidden Value
A gem dealer was strolling the aisles at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show when he noticed a blue-violet stone the size and shape of a potato. He looked it over, then, as calmly as possible, asked the vendor, "You want $15 for this?" The seller, realizing the rock wasn't as pretty as others in the bin, lowered the price to $10.
The stone has since been certified as a 1,905-carat natural star sapphire, about 800 carats larger than the largest stone of its kind. It was appraised at $2.28 million.
Just like it took a lover of stones to recognize the sapphire's worth so does it take the Lover of Souls to recognize the true value of human-kind.
C Lest we get too high an opinion of ourselves let me remind you that "God created man from the dust of the earth" (cf Gen 2:7; 1 Cor 15:47). The dust of the earth is part of our perishable world. This means man is subject to the laws of creation. He is subject to gravity and to the confines of space and time. And, like everything else in all creation, man is totally dependent upon God for it is only in Him that we live and move and have our being (cf Acts 17:28).
Topic: Man
Subtopic: Infinite Value of
Index: 2243
Date: 1/1992.16
Title:
There is a Jewish proverb which calls for two cards to be read. The one reads, "I am a worm." The other reads, "For me the stars were made."
This is precisely the thoughts of David some 3,000 years ago when he wrote Psalm 22:6 and Psalm 8:3.
II Man's Creation in God's Image
A In looking at Article 14 we hear the Belgic Confession affirming the teaching of the Bible that God made and formed man in His "image and likeness" (cf Gen 1:26-27). Not everyone agrees with this teaching.
Topic: Man
Subtopic: Created in God's Image
Index: 2239
Date: 2/1998.101
Title: Enjoying Earth. Wish you were here!
The book of Genesis was mistranslated, say followers of the Raelian Church. Humans were not created in God's image, but in the image of space aliens. All the prophets, from Jesus to Mohammed, were space aliens, and these superior beings are ready to return -- just as soon as Earth builds them an embassy. "They are from a planet in our galaxy, but not in our solar system," says church member Marie-Helene Parent of Miami, Fla. The church has raised $7 million for the embassy, which they plan to build in Jerusalem by 2035. Or maybe somewhere else: it has to be a place "where there's beautiful weather," she says.
We can agree with evolutionists and say we have come from apes. Or, we can agree with the Raelian church and say in our ancestry are space aliens. Or, we can believe the Bible and say we have been made by God in His image.
B What does it mean to be in the image of God? In recent years there has been much discussion about the exact meaning of this. Let me pinpoint some of the different answers:
-To be in the image of God means man is a rational, thinking being.
-To be in the image of God means man has a soul.
-The image of God in man lies in our sexuality, in our maleness and femaleness – in other words, that man, like God is a being of community and fellowship.
-The image of God in man lies in man's dominion over the earth.
-The image of God in man lies in the fact that man, like God, has knowledge of good and evil.
-The Belgic Confession of Faith says the image of God in man means that man was made and formed by God "good, just, and holy; able by his own will to conform in all things to the will of God."
We have to say that the view of the Belgic Confession of Faith is essentially correct. The image of God in man is that man is good, just, holy, and able in all things to conform to the will of God – after all, this is the language of Paul in his letter to Ephesus (4:24).
C Even as I say this, I also have to say that the image of God in man is more than what the Belgic Confession of Faith says it is.
Think, for a moment, of the result if we limit the image of God in man to what the Confession says it is. The result is that fallen man or sinful man is no longer in God's image. For after the fall into sin man was no longer good, just, holy, and able in all things to conform to the will of God; he has lost what the Belgic Confession identifies as the image of God in man. We can go still further and say this means that only regenerate man – only those who are renewed and recreated in Christ Jesus – are in the image of God because only they have had restored their original goodness, justness, holiness, and the ability to conform in all things to the will of God. Or, to put it in the bluntest possible terms, anyone who has not accepted Christ is not in the image of God while anyone who has accepted Christ is in the image of God.
The Bible does not allow us to say that fallen man is no longer in God's image. Nor does it allow us to say that only Christian believers are in God's image. I say this because of what God said to Noah. God said:
(Gen 9:6) "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man."
God said this to Noah after the fall into sin. Here God clearly forbids the taking of human blood because even fallen man is in His image.
Do you know what happens if we deny that all men are in the image of God? What happens is that man is robbed of his created dignity and worth. What happens is that there is nothing special about man. What happens is that it becomes too easy to commit abortion, euthanasia, and murder. When a man is no longer seen as being in the image of God it is as easy to kill him as it is to quash a bug to death or to kill a cow for a side-of-beef.
You all have heard of Muslim extremists who consider it their duty to kill whom they call the infidel – those who are not of the Muslim faith. The theological basis for doing this is that the infidel are not special or holy. In Northern Ireland some of the extremists who claim to be Protestant or Roman Catholic take the same viewpoint – those who hold to a different faith do not deserve to live and, in fact, should be killed.
D We want to affirm that all men – whether Christian or not – are in the image of God. But we also want to affirm that man has lost something of God's image when he fell into sin. For this reason, Reformed theologians have generally made a distinction between the broad and narrow aspects of the image of God in man. The broad aspect of the image of God in man is used to show that man, despite his fall into sin, is still in the image of God. Under this broad aspect comes such attributes of man as:
-he is a person
-he is spiritual
-he is capable of making choices
-he is free
-he desires the companionship of other humans
-he uses tools
-he communicates by means of the spoken and written word
-he has and develops culture
-he is immortal
-he has a moral nature
-he has some conception and knowledge of God
This broad aspect of the image of God in man clearly distinguishes man from the animals and shows that even after the fall man remains in God's image.
E Under the narrow aspect of the image of God in man comes those things man lost when he fell into sin. These are the attributes mentioned by the Confession of Faith that we find listed in our Scripture passage from Paul's letter to the Ephesians: good, just, holy, and able by his own will to conform in all things to God's will.
The first characteristic is that man was created "good." This refers, of course, to what we read in Genesis:
(Gen 1:31) God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.
Part of God's "good" creation includes man. To say that man was made good is to say he was made perfect. There was in man no flaws and no mistakes. In this man was like God – because God is perfect in every way, without any flaws or mistakes.
The second characteristic is that man was created "just and holy." Here the Confession uses the language of the apostle Paul:
(Eph 4:24) ... put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
To say that man was made just and holy is to say man was created without any sin or the stain of sin. He was created perfect in body and soul. In this man is also like God – because God has no sin or stain of sin within Him.
The third characteristic is that man was "able by his own will to conform in all things to the will of God." The heart's-desire of man, as created, was to serve the Lord His Maker with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. Man did not have to struggle to do and to love the will of God. As created, man did not have the struggle Paul speaks of in his letter to the church at Rome:
(Rom 7:15) I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
Paul wanted to do good, he wanted to obey God, he wanted to submit in all things to the will of God; but instead he found himself doing anything but. As created, though, man not only desired to do God's will but was able to do God's will. In the Garden of Eden no one cried out, "The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."
These three characteristics of the image of God in man were lost in the fall. After the fall into sin:
-Man was no longer good.
-Man was no longer just and holy.
-Man was no longer able by his own will to conform in all things to the will of God.
These three characteristics of the image of God in man were not only lost in the fall but they are also restored in the lives of all those who believe in Christ Jesus. When we believe in Jesus we "put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness" (Eph 4:24). When we believe in Jesus we "put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator" (Col 3:10).
When we believe in Jesus we regain what we lost in the fall. Yet, as you all realize, in this life and in this flesh and on this earth we don't regain them fully. For until the time of the second coming we remain deeply divided people: in the same person there can exist side-by-side great goodness and great evil, great holiness and great wickedness, great obedience and great disobedience. Yet the fact remains, in Christ we regain what we lost in the fall so that in all things we are like the God Who made us in His image.
Conclusion
Man is made in God's image. Which means we are the most exalted of all of God's creatures.
Man is made in God's image. And, those who believe in Christ are remade in God's image.
So you may wonder, how much like God are we? Many months ago we looked at the attributes of God in Article 1. Let me list some of them and how we image them.
God is Spirit. But God's Spirit lives in anyone who believes (1 Cor 3:16).
God is eternal. But anyone who believes in Jesus has everlasting life (John 3:16).
God is immutable; He does not change. By Christ's sacrifice God has made us perfect forever so that there will come a day when we too do not change (Heb 10:14).
God is infinite; He is beyond space. We who believe are granted all the fullness of Christ (Col 2:10).
God is almighty; He is powerful. Through Christ's Spirit we have been given God's power (Acts 1:8) so we can do all things through Him Who gives us strength (Phil 4:13).
God is perfectly wise. We are wise in Christ (1 Cor 4:10).