February 16, 2022 -- Genesis 1:27 & Philippians 2:6-11 -- What it means to be made in the image of God

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So God created man in his own image,
   in the image of God he created him;
   male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27 ESV

though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:6-11 ESV

Yesterday I listened to a Sinclair Ferguson sermon given two years ago. The illustration he gave was so striking I borrow it freely here and trust it will bless you. Imagine a rich man commissioned a self-portrait. It cost him a great sum. It was stolen from him. The police searched. For a long time there was no word on the painting. Then one day, the police officer returned and said, “the man responsible for stealing your painting is now in custody.” You can imagine the response of the rich man, “Never mind that! What about the painting? Is it safe?” His longing is for the restoration of the painting—his image.

Now, see the verses we read today. God made us to be His image-bearers. We are, in a very real sense, God’s portrait. Sin separated us from Him. At great cost Jesus came, took on the form of a man and He restored the purity of the image of God. The devil is chained. More importantly even than that, Jesus Christ, true Man, is seated at the right hand of power, next to God. God’s image-bearer, self-portrait, is seated next to Him and in Jesus Christ, all of us, once marred, are now restored as God’s prized possession. We took will take our place as the image-bearers, the splendid portraits of the Living God. Isn’t that a powerful illustration?

Beloved people of the LORD Jesus Christ—what a great cost the Father and the Son have given—Jesus taking the form of flesh so that we, God’s image-bearers, might be restored. What power the Spirit exercised to sustain Jesus in His flesh and raise Him from the dead. What glory is ours. Oh praise Him and bless Him; serve Him with all your strength. This is also why we are so persistent in our evangelism. We see the image of God in others. The beauty of our Faithful God may be smudged and dirtied by circumstances and sins of people. Yet, believers who have been restored in Jesus Christ, know how they themselves have been restored in beauty in the image of God look past the dirt and smudges and disfigurements others bear. This is why believers speak eloquently and urgently of the glory of Jesus Christ calling others to share the joy of being the apple of God’s eye.

O LORD, I fling myself with all my weakness and misery into Thy ever-open arms. I know that I am ignorant and much mistaken about myself. Thou, Who seest in very truth, look mercifully on me. Lay Thy healing hand upon my wounds. Pour the life-giving balm of Thy love into my heart. Do for me what I have not the courage to do for myself. Save me in spite of myself. May I be Thine, wholly Thine, and, at all costs, Thine; in humiliation, in poverty, in suffering, in self-abnegation, Thine; Thine in the way Thou knowest to be most fitting, in order that Thou mightest be now and ever mine. Thou art my Strength and my Redeemer. I am Thy poor little creature, dependent on Thy merciful charity alone—Amen.
Père Besson (1816 - 1861) Prayers Ancient and Modern. Ed. Mary Wilder Tileston. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1928. page 226.

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