Skeptical - Week 5
Who Am I?
What are the
contradictory voices in our culture today that challenge our identity?
The Point:
What God created; God has the right to command.
Genesis
1:26-28
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. 28 And God blessed them. And God
said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and
have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and
over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Genesis
2:7
7 ...then the Lord
God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
Genesis
2:15-25
15 The Lord God
took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And
the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of
the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not
eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” 18 Then the Lord
God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a
helper fit for him.” 19 Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every
beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to
see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature,
that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of
the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a
helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the
man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with
flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a
woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone
of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she
shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” 24 Therefore a man
shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall
become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not
ashamed.
The Holy Bible:
English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Genesis 1:26-28,
2:7, 2:15-25.
Study
Notes
This lesson can be
broken down into three parts, much like the sermon.
1) You
are Created in God’s Image.
The term “image”
refers to the aspects of reason, personality, the ability to make value
judgments, and other qualities that cause a human being to resemble God. Just
as family members take on the qualities and personality traits of one another,
God created people in His own image to reflect some of His qualities. Following
His creation of human beings, God declared His completed creation to be very
good. Nothing further needed to be made. His creation was exactly how He had
planned it, including continual care for His creation through the provision of
seed-bearing plants that will continue to produce. The completed creation
reflects God’s glory greater than any of its individual parts. God expressed
delight over what He had made thus far.
2) You
are Created for Mission.
The description of
the creation of humans comprises a longer account than the creation of any
other living thing. The use of the phrase “Let Us,” rather than “Let there be”
indicates God’s personal involvement in humanity’s creation. The way God
created man hinted that His relationship with humans would be unique.
3) You
are Created Male and Female.
God intentionally made male and female for a specific purpose. He did not intend for us to decide who we would become or desire to be. For instance, these verses identify the roles God gave to men and women. He designed men and women to compliment each other to accomplish God’s work. “When we receive our identity from God, the pressure of self-identification melts away. We don’t live seeking to understand how we feel and what that means. We live in the objective reality of how He’s made us and what He has called us to be and do. Furthermore, the pressure to impress and seek approval dies when our identity is found in God. Who cares what others think about us when we know what the God of the universe thinks about us? Why should we live to impress others when we have been called to simply, please the One who has made us? Who are we? That question has already been answered. We are God’s very own creation, made in His image and for His glory.”
QUESTIONS FOR
DISCUSSION
How should knowing you are made in God’s image affect your relationship with God and with other people?
According to these
passages, what are the roles of men and women?
Does the fact that
God values you change the way you view yourself?
How does sin blur
the meaning of our identity as humans?
As sinners, how can
we discover and live our created identity?
END
In last week’s
lesson “How did we get here?” from Genesis 1 we concluded that God created
everything and has the right to command what He created. Nothing became what it
is outside of the Creator’s design.
As we transition
from Genesis 1 to 2, we see a shift from the macro perspective of all creation
to a more intimate look at humanity’s origin. We see a profound declaration of
our purpose and place in God’s world. We are told who we are and what our identity
is in reality.
The modern age is
obsessed with identity. Society wants to know who we are and how we define
ourselves. We have no lack of options to choose from when it comes to how we
would like to be known. We can define ourselves primarily by our gender, our
race, our socio-economic status, our education, or even our hobbies. You
choose!
Self-identification
carries with it a lot of pressure. How can we possibly be wise enough to
determine who we are or who we’re supposed to be? The pressure of
self-identification has led to some serious problems in our modern world, most
notably the mental health crises and the contagion of gender confusion.
Humans are cracking
under the pressure of self-identification because we were never supposed to
identify ourselves. We were made by a loving Creator and we are supposed to
find our identity in Him and in Him alone. So much of understanding our
identity is not about understanding who we are, but about understanding Who we
belong to. We are creations of God Almighty and we are His. We belong to God.
Who Am I?
Who does
God say I am?
Many of us waste
time worrying about what other people think of us. We want to be valued, loved,
respected, and admired. But why base our identity and sense of self-worth on
the opinions of other flawed beings when God’s view of us is the only one that
truly matters? The most important question we can ask concerning our identity
is this: Who does God say I am? The Bible contains the only reliable answers
about who we are in Christ and what God thinks of us who have been born again.
1.
First and foremost, God says I am His beloved child: “See what great
love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!
And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1). God is not timid about expressing His
boundless love for us; He repeatedly affirms in Scripture that we are born of
God, His very own treasured children (John 1:12–13; 2 Corinthians 6:17–18;
Galatians 3:26; Romans 8:17; Isaiah 43:1).
2.
God says I am chosen, adopted into His family through Jesus Christ
to be His child forever: “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose
us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance
to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.
This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God
for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son”
(Ephesians 1:4–6, NLT; see also 1 Thessalonians 1:4; 2:13).
3.
God says I am valuable. He calls me His
workmanship: “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ
Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Ephesians
2:10, NLT). We are not random lumps of clay. God says we are the result of His
artistic skill and craftsmanship. God made us in His own image and likeness
(Genesis 1:26–27; 5:1; 9:6; James 3:9).
4.
God says I am redeemed. So valuable are
we to God that He purchased us with the precious blood of His Son, Jesus
Christ: “For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life
you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or
silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the
sinless, spotless Lamb of God” (1 Peter 1:18–19, NLT). Through the blood of
Jesus Christ we are forgiven and set free from sin: “He is so rich in kindness
and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave
our sins” (Ephesians 1:7, NLT; see also Galatians 5:1; 1 Corinthians 6:20; 1
John 1:9).
5.
God says I am a new person in Jesus Christ. Through His
salvation, we gain an altogether new identity and a whole new life: “This means
that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is
gone; a new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:17, NLT; see also Ephesians
4:24). He says I am the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians
5:21), a living temple for His Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16), and a saint
(Ephesians 2:19; Philippians 4:21).
6.
God says I am His friend. Through a
relationship with Jesus, God shares His heart with us: “I no longer call you
servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I
have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have
made known to you” (John 15:15).
7.
God says I am His ambassador (2 Corinthians
5:20; Ephesians 6:20), His light in the darkness, and His witness to the world
(Matthew 5:13–16; Acts 1:8; Ephesians 5:8). God has entrusted us with the job
of making disciples (Matthew 28:19).
8.
God says I am a member of Jesus Christ’s body: “And this is
God’s plan: Both Gentiles and Jews who believe the Good News share equally in
the riches inherited by God’s children. Both are part of the same body, and
both enjoy the promise of blessings because they belong to Christ Jesus”
(Ephesians 3:6, NLT; see also Ephesians 5:30). Because I belong to
Christ—united with Him in His life, death, resurrection, and glorification
(John 15:1–10; Romans 6:4-6; Ephesians 2:6)—God says I am an heir to His
Kingdom and His glory (Galatians 4:7; Ephesians 1:11; Romans 8:17), a citizen
of heaven (Philippians 3:20).
9.
God says I am exceedingly loved: “God showed his
great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners”
(Romans 5:8, NLT; see also Romans 8:31–39; John 3:16–17). So great is His love
for us that He mercifully gave us life: “God is so rich in mercy, and he loved
us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life
when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have
been saved!)” (Ephesians 2:4–5, NLT).
The more we study
the Word of God, the more we discover who we are in Christ. We are transformed
into the person God says we are when we make Jesus Christ the pursuit of our
lives: “So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the
glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like
him as we are changed into his glorious image” (2 Corinthians 3:18, NLT; see
also Romans 8:29; 12:2; Philippians 1:6; Ephesians 4:15).
What does
it mean that humanity is made in the image of God (imago dei)?
On the last day of
creation, God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness” (Genesis
1:26). Thus, He finished His work with a “personal touch.” God formed Adam from
the dust and gave him life by sharing His own breath (Genesis 2:7). Accordingly,
humanity is unique among all God’s creations, having both a material body and
an immaterial soul/spirit.
Having the “image”
or “likeness” of God means, in the simplest terms, that we were made to
resemble God. Adam did not resemble God in the sense of God’s having flesh and
blood. Scripture says that “God is spirit” (John 4:24) and therefore exists
without a body. However, Adam’s body did mirror the life of God insofar as it
was created in perfect health and was not subject to death.
The image of God
(Latin, imago dei) refers to the immaterial part of humanity. It sets human
beings apart from the animal world, fits them for the dominion God intended
them to have over the earth (Genesis 1:28), and enables them to commune with
their Maker. It is a likeness mentally, morally, and socially.
Mentally, humanity
was created as a rational, volitional agent. In other words, human beings can
reason and choose. This is a reflection of God’s intellect and freedom. Anytime
someone invents a machine, writes a book, paints a landscape, enjoys a symphony,
calculates a sum, or names a pet, he or she is proclaiming the fact that we are
made in God’s image.
Morally, humanity
was created in righteousness and perfect innocence, a reflection of God’s
holiness. God saw all He had made (humanity included) and called it “very good”
(Genesis 1:31). Our conscience or “moral compass” is a vestige of that original
state. Whenever someone writes a law, recoils from evil, praises good behavior,
or feels guilty, he or she is confirming the fact that we are made in God’s own
image.
Socially, humanity
was created for fellowship. This reflects God’s triune nature and His love. In
Eden, humanity’s primary relationship was with God (Genesis 3:8 implies
fellowship with God), and God made the first woman because “it is not good for
the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18). Every time someone marries, makes a
friend, hugs a child, or attends church, he or she is demonstrating the fact
that we are made in the likeness of God.
Part of being made
in God’s image is that Adam had the capacity to make free choices. Although
they were given a righteous nature, Adam and Eve made an evil choice to rebel
against their Creator. In so doing, they marred the image of God within
themselves, and passed that damaged likeness on to all their descendants
(Romans 5:12). Today, we still bear the image of God (James 3:9), but we also
bear the scars of sin. Mentally, morally, socially, and physically, we show the
effects of sin.
The good news is
that when God redeems an individual, He begins to restore the original image of
God, creating a “new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and
holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). That redemption is only available by God’s grace
through faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior from the sin that separates us from
God (Ephesians 2:8-9). Through Christ, we are made new creations in the
likeness of God (2 Corinthians 5:17).
