Sermon Tone Analysis

Who Do I Look Like

You've been to see a relatives brand new baby.

You're immediately impressed by how much he has his dad's nose, but his face, it looks so much like his mothers.

Most of the time, we can pick out parts of both parents in the child right from the start.

That’s what we should expect when two separate individuals come together in love to create a family right?

We are the image of our parents and our parents are the image of their parents and their parents are the image of …….right?

According to the world population clock there are about 7.5 billion of those images out there right now.

But where did that first image come from?

What Is An Image

The dictionary states that it’s a physical likeness or representation of a person, animal, or thing, it may be photographed, painted, sculptured, or otherwise made visible.

Another definition: an idol or representation of a deity.

For most people the word is sanonymous with idol or idol worship.

Many verses in the Bible talk about this kind of image.

Another is

Images are usually a copy of the original. .

The sun projects an image of itself on the surface of a lake.

This is a perfect representation of it's self.

A painter looks at that and paints on canvas an image of the same heavenly body.

The two are not sun images in the same sense.

One is self-projected and shares in the nature of the sun itself, being a part of its radiance.

The other is made to represent the image of the sun, but consists of paints on a canvas and has not emanated or come from the star itself.

Images can represent both good and bad can't they.

What Are We an Image of

The bible tells us that we are created beings.

We've learned that when you create something it is usually a representation of the original.

So we must be that image of something or someone.

We all have parents.

The Bonjour line can be traced back to a man named Frederick Aime Bonjour who came over from near Switzerland and had nine children.

Family lineage can be a fascinating exploration.

We can potential find good people as well as disreputable people in or family trees.

If we could trace our lineage back far enough we would come to our first parents.

It would be cool to follow the our tree's back to Noah, because he was everyone's grandparent sitting here and then of course we would go back 9 generations to from Noah to our very first grand parents.

The Bible gives us their names and we know them well.

If Eve is the mother of all living, then we are her children and the image of our original parents.

Notice the word man.

The Hebrew word for man is Adam.

The definition means man, person anyone, mankind.

The word Adam or man includes both male and female.

Man and woman together make man.

They are both made after God's likeness.

That description points to both individuality and complementarity of the sexes.

What Does It Mean to be and Image of God

First off remember the sun on the water and then on the canvas?

With this in the back of your mind, Christ is, in merit of His own nature, an eternal image of God.

He “is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” (Heb.

1:3, NIV).

Even more, “He is the image of the invisible God” (Col.

1:15).

As such, He Himself is the Creator and Maker of man in the image of God (verse 16), though the whole Deity was no doubt involved in the expression “Let us make.”

Humans are an image of God, not as an extension of Himself, but as a portrait or a canvas painting achieved by His creative design.

So should we understand that the word image means that we look like God himself or should we limit our resemblance to spiritual aspects?

The text does not immediately give us a clue to this question.

If we place too much attention on how we look in resembling God, we might be erring in trying to squish God’s infiniteness into our finite reality.

We are made with our bodies corresponding to our environment.

I suspect that there is much more to the word image than our looks.

Let’s look at some bible answers.

God said “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

Attention to this is important because it shows that we didn’t just turn out in the image of God, we were carefully designed to be such.

The idea of God’s image is far more than the conceited thought that God looks like us.

This statement of intention also allows insight into God’s much larger purpose.

The idea of the human creatures as an image of God primarily points toward their role as God’s representative over the lower creation

God made the universe and is sovereign or ruler over it.

He gave us the earth to manage and keep and be representative for him, a kind of governor if you like.

He told us to have dominion over everything in the earth.

Along with that dominion comes responsibility.

We were supposed to be stewards of the earth and ourselves.

If we are a likeness of our creator then our characters should be like His.

But we cannot completely ignore the thought of resemblance with our creator either.

If we were not at least similar physically to our God, we would not be able to communicate with our maker for it says

Physical (at least a resemblence), intellectual, social, and spiritual properties, as well as the ability to talk with God, must be built-in to the concept of God’s image.

What Does It Mean to Created Male and Female

So what is a male and or a female?

Let's go back to this verse.

We have male and female, both named “man,” and yet the male and the female is each a distinct expression of this common and equally possessed nature of “man.”

Both male and female were created by God and they share equally in God's image.

He blest them both.

He told both of them to be fruitful and multiply and have dominion over the earth.

This fundamental equality is proclaimed right here in the first chapter of the Bible.

but they are different.

One of the differences is the fact that they were made in different ways, Adam being created from dust but Eve was made from Adam.

We are told that

The whole plan and accomplishment was God's.

Woman was to be the Lord's wonderful gift to the male or man.

So the Creator goes to work, opening up the man's side, removing bone and blood, closing the wound, and building the woman.

Then he raised her up in the form of the perfect helper or companion that Adam needed.

She was the most beautiful work of all His creation and she was made just for Adam.

God roused the man from his sleep to meet her.

Adam realized at that very instant what she ment for him and what an awesome gift she was.

Why didn't God make her from the dust as he had made her husband?

Because God made woman from man, Adam immediately recognized that she was something of himself.

"This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh," Adam said.

She was of Adam and from Adam.

She was made of the very same substance as himself.

She wasn't made out of inferior stuff, nor was she made of superior stuff.

She was the very bone of his bone, and the flesh of his flesh.

She filled a place that Adam could never have anticipated when he was considering and naming all the animals who shared the Garden of Eden with them.

God chose to build her from Adam's rib.

"Eve was not taken from Adam's head that she should rule over him, nor from his feet, to be trampled underfoot, but she was taken from his side that she might be his equal, from under his arm that she might be protected by him, near his heart, that he might cherish and love her." (Matthew Henry Commentary).

Do you see the significance of that for the Christian understanding of marriage?

The Bible is telling us that marriage is more than a union, it is a reunion.

When Adam and Eve were united it was the union of two persons who originally were one, and then had been separated from each other, and now in marriage had come together again.