References for Phl 2:6 —
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2
"CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD"
I. "SO GOD CREATED MAN IN HIS OWN IMAGE."
A. Note first of all that man was created. He did not evolve.
1. The evolutionist would have you to believe that man evolved over a period of billions of years by the fortunate occurances of accidental circumstances.
a. They teach that matter acting on matter given sufficient time can bring anything into existence, even the most complicated machines.
b. If that be the case, why do we not see cars evolving out in the desert? Matter has been acting on matter out there for as long as the earth has existed.
c. Compared to the human body, a car is a very simple machine.
d. Can you imagine a car that could repair itself? If you get in an accident and dent the fender, just let it rest a couple of weeks and it should be in fine shape again.
e. Can you imagine a car that could take all kinds of fuel and convert it into energy? Meat, potato's carrots, milk, you could put just about any kind of fuel into the tank and you could operate the car successfully.
f. How about a car that could reproduce itself.
g. The scientific artist could surely draw pictures that would show to us the evolution of the car. As the archaeologists found a spoke of a wagon wheel surely from that spoke they could imagine what the wagon must have looked like. Perhaps it looked rather hairy, had a receding forehead, and a large jaw, and perhaps was rolling upright with long arms. If course in its primitive state, it had only one wheel.
h. But in time it realized that two wheels would help balance things so after a hundred million more years it gradually evolved one more wheel, and given sufficient time, it gradually ended up with four wheels. Of course the 18 wheeler semi's are some of the latest to emerge from the evolutionary change, but the fact that they appeared in the last 75 years only proves the punctuated equaliberium theory.
i. It took several hundred millions years more of course for the engine to evolve, for that is more complex. Fortunately it was evolving a better braking system the whole while to keep pace with the faster speeds it was able to generate.
j. I want you to know that this is science in it's highest form that should be taught to all children, in our public schools.
k. The fact that man is a machine is well proved by Behe in his book "Darwin's Black Box" that is shaking up the the scientific community because it is not a fool but a fellow scientist that is saying the Emperor is naked.
2. If we are indeed the product of blind random chance, billions of fortunate accidental circumstances, then there is no real purpose of your existence is there? You came into this life by accident and chances are you will depart from this life by accident.
a. You may as well live like a hog, because you are going to die like a dog.
b. There is no real incentive for trying to live a good life.
c. Perhaps the philosophers who said that might was right were right all along, so let's try to get more fire power than the next person so we can subjugate them to our will.
d. Or let's eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.
B. If on the other hand we were created in the image and likeness of God, then there has to be a divine purpose for our existence.
1. The Bible teaches that you are not the product of blind chance but that you were designed by God who indeed has a divine purpose for your life.
2. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Colosse:
COL 1:12 We give thanks unto the Father, who has made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
COL 1:13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated [us] into the kingdom of his dear Son: (concerning the Son Paul wrote,)
COL 1:14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, [even] the forgiveness of sins:
COL 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation:
COL 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether [they be] thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
COL 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
3. Paul declared that we were created for Him.
4. In
Revelation 4:11 it is declared that we were created for His good pleasure.
II. WHAT DOES IT MEAN IN THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF GOD?
A. First of all the Bible tells us that God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.
1. God is a superior trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
2. Man was created an inferior trinity, spirit, soul, and body.
3. It is in the realm of the Spirit that man meets and can commune with God.
a. The Apostle Paul said that His Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God.
b. It is interesting that when Jesus who is the Son of God became man, as described for us in
Philippians 2 Paul wrote,
Phl 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Phl 2:6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
Phl 2:7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
Phl 2:8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
c. Note that He was in the form of God, whatever that form might have been, and was made in likeness of man.
d. John tells us that no man has seen God at any time, but the only begotten Son has manifested Him.
e. Jesus later said, "If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father."
B. We are created in the image of God in the spiritual sense.
1. God's chief emotional attribute is love, so God created us with a capacity to love.
2. God has the capacity to reason, so He created us with the ability to reason.
3. God's chief governing characteristic is self determination, so he created us with the capacity of self determination.
4. God thinks, feels, wills, speaks, so He has created us with the capacity to think, feel, will and speak.
C. What we can learn from discern by observing the abilities and capacities that God has given us?
1. We have the capacity to understand the existence of God, therefore God evidently wanted us to know that He existed.
2. We can understand the concept of infinity. Thus God must have wanted us to understand that He is infinite.
3. He created us with the capacity to fellowship with God, so He must have desired that we have fellowship with Him.
a. Indeed John wrote,
1JO 1:1 That One who was from the beginning, who we have heard, who we have seen with our eyes, who we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
1JO 1:2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
1JO 1:3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship [is] with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
C. What was God's purpose in creating us? As we mentioned earlier for His good pleasure, but what is His good pleasure?
1. First that we believe in Him. "For without faith, it is impossible to please God, for he that comes to God must first believe that He is and believe that He will reward those who diligently seek Him."
2. God desired meaningful fellowship with His creation.
a. That is why He created us as self determinate beings, or has given us the capacity of choice.
b. Man was not made a robot. Though the body functions as a highly complex machine, God gave to us a soul and spirit, that takes us beyond just a machine.
c. I know some people that have a love relationship with their car, they even talk to it, but it really can't be a meaningful relationship, even though some cars can talk. But when your car talks to you that is mechanical, it really has no feelings for you.
3. God built into us the need to worship, so that we would worship Him, the worship of anything less than God is a prostitution of that capacity.
a. The response of Jesus to the suggestion of Satan that He would give the world back to Jesus if Jesus would just bow down and worship him, was. "It is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve."
4. In the book of Romans Paul tells us that God created us subject to emptiness, and that by design.
a. Man has a built-in vacuum.
b. Nature cannot stand a vacuum and always seeks to fill it.
c. So man is always seeking to fill the vacuum within.
d. Only the One that designed that vacuum can fill it.
e. Man tries to fill it with so many things. Sex, alcohol or drugs, things. Solomon tried everything, he said that he did not withhold from himself one thing that his heart desired, yet he ended up with the cry of emptiness. "Vanity, vanity, all is vanity and vexation of spirit."
5. Maybe you have been trying to fill the void in your life, and are hoping this newest adventure, or possession will do the trick. Jesus said to the woman who was trying to fill the void in her life with different men, "Drink of this water but you will thirst again, but if you drink of the water that I can give, you will never thirst again."
6. That is why those who are real Christians are such a satisfied people, not striving, not bickering. Content, filled with joy, restful and at peace.
Verse-Reference
Square — [Jhn 1:1 KJV]
Abbreviate Books
Use SBL Abbrev.
