07/22/2009
Author: John Powell
Almost all we need to know about mankind can be learned from the first nine or ten chapters of Genesis. It’s just about all there. And due to the image of God in man we know instinctively that it’s true. It has that ring about it, like the ring of a fine bell.
People’s hearts are exposed by such clear truth and try to suppress it, as we’re told in Romans 1. [In case we didn’t already know this by experience!] Evolution is one attempt to hold down these truths. Postmodernism does its’ part too, trying to convince us that our knowledge of the truth about how God made us is at best wishful thinking and at worst brainwashing.
Enough of the negative. Jesus said that if we let our light shine before men we will glorify our Father who is in heaven; ie. point out these truths by our living as well as by our words. After all that’s why He made us—to express His character through us.
By the time we get to Genesis 9, He says, “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man. As for you be fruitful and multiply…” The ethics of Justice are based on the presence of God’s image in us. The goal is multiplying the reflections of the image of God through multiplying redeemed people.
Try to erase our connection to creation and the fall and we lose all foundation for human ethics; No image of God, no human rights. We’re left with pointing to our abilities and worth to society. And when we lose our abilities, or in the case of handicapped children, never get abilities, we lose our value.
Sound alarmist? In Animal Liberation, professor of Bioethics at Princeton, Peter Singer, criticizes what he calls “speciesism”: discrimination based on the fact that a being belongs to a certain species. Giving lower consideration to animals based on their having scales or fur is no more ethical than discrimination based on skin color, Singer would say.
But our task goes much farther than pointing to examples of “suppressing the truth in unrighteousness.” (Romans 1:18) We have the opportunity to participate with God not only in the creation of other human beings in His image, but also to be His channel to restoration of His image in the world around us. 2 Cor. 3:18 reminds us that when the veil comes off our mind we begin to reflect His image and therefore His glory to the world.
Charles Colson, quoting a sermon by Tim Keller reminds us that when we take the image of God in us and others seriously, we expand the circle of protection of life.
When we suppress the truth of our creation we head for the extremes like Peter Singer and actually shrink the circle of protection. For in making man no different than the animals, he leads to the very end his forbearers who were persecuted in Nazi Germany tried to escape. Trying to expand rights and protection, he shrinks them.
But look! In Jesus comes, “Full of Grace and Truth” (John 1:14). And because of this balance of Grace and Truth He overflows with Mercy and Justice. He balanced both pairs of traits perfectly. He restored God’s image in us by facing infanticide and all the other image defacing experiences that culminated in the cross.
As we turn facing Him in faith, receiving both His Grace and Truth, our lives are transformed. And Grace received becomes Mercy shown to others. Truth received becomes Justice shown in an unjust world. Yes, this is how Grace and Truth in us become fleshed out in Mercy and Justice toward others. And this is how the circle of protection expands, rather than contracts.
“He has shown you, O man what is good,
and what does the Lord require of you,
but to do justice and
to love mercy and
to walk humbly with your God.”(Micah 6:8)
This is the calling of all who receive His grace and truth. The world has yet to see what God will do with people who experience the reality of what it means to be made and being renewed in the image of God.
