Becoming Truly Human: Our Original Design and the Destiny of God’s People (Gen 1:26-28)

I was reading one of my favorite books of all time, Union with Christ by Wilbourn And he makes the point that if you don't have a clear answer to the following three questions, your life will feel aimless:

• Where am I going?

• What am I doing with my life?

• What is all this for?

Please keep these up. 

If you don't have a clear and compelling answer that you believe with conviction, your life will feel aimless.  You will often feel stuck. You will also feel what Ephesians says about those who are immature, “tossed to a fro by every wind of doctrine.” you will be constantly swayed by the cultural moment, by whatever seems to bring significance. 

Whether it is politics, the pursuit of a perfect family, a great career, power, or some great justice cause. 

All can be valuable in their right place, but when they become your identity, where you find belonging and significance, they will leave you chewed up and spit out, left disoriented, 

or if you're stubborn, looking for the next one. 

As I considered these three questions, I wondered how many of you here would have a clear compelling answer to these three questions in such a way that it orients your entire life. 

My burden for you this morning, is for each of you to know your purpose with all your heart. Each of you needs to know exactly where you find belonging and significance. 

The answer is that you need to be more human. 

That’s right, you heard me right.
You need to become more human. 

But the problem is, most people don’t know what it means to be truly human. 

Let me go back in time a bit,

For years now, I was burden with the reality that most Christians feel kinda stuck. They grow initially after becoming Christians, but at some point, for a variety of reasons, they hit a wall, and they kind of limp along the Christian life. The abundant joy of Jesus sounds allusive, like a dream they once had but can’t fully remember. 

In addition to this, most do not have a clear idea of what a mature disciple of Jesus is. 

And even if they do, most struggle to identify the stage of maturity, they are currently in or how to progress the next stage. Just like infants need to become toddlers. Christians are stuck in one stage for many years.

The more I studied this and prayed through it, the more I realize that this is not just about Christian maturity, but rather, becoming truly human. Problem is our humanity has been marred by the Fall. 

The title of our three part series is called, Restoring our Humanity: How Discipleship to Jesus redeems our purpose.

What I want to argue is that a mature Christian is really someone who is increasingly  returning to the original design for all humans.

Let’s go back to Genesis to see the original design. 

The Image of God in Genesis

Genesis 1:26–28 ESV

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.”

But what does it mean to say that we are created “in the image of God”? 

In this passage, alone, you can see that the image of God is represented by both males and females. And then something about it, relates to them multiplying and being fruitful and ruling over the world.

But all of this is very significant. 

Union with Christ -  

In his book, The Liberating Image, Richard Middleton demonstrates that the term “image of God” was familiar in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. 

However, the phrase had a specific meaning: the king was considered the “image of God” and no one else. The king was viewed as God’s representative on earth.  

If a king ruled over larger regions than he could visit regularly, he would erect statues, images of himself, to represent his reign to subjects who could not see him in person. In the ancient world, when a person heard the phrase “image of God,” that’s what likely came to mind. 

And what do kings do? 

They rule. 

They rule, on behalf of their god. 

And in the ancient contexts, kings were often seen as the mediator between God and the people. So the way they related to the people  would give the people a good idea of what God is like. 

So the king would represent God to the people. 

But the king would also act like a priest. They would represent the people to God. 

Do you see how revolutionary, the Bible sounded to those who heard it in this context? 

Wait, what?
Both men and women are made the image of God!?

Genesis is saying that both men and females are walking royal statues of God. Walking kings for God. 

They function as co-rulers, for God as they have direct access and intimacy with God and bring God to the people. 

Remember in the Garden of Eden, before sin, mankind walked with God face-to-face in the garden. 

And as mankind multiplies, he is multiplying the image of God throughout the world, spreading God’s loving reign and creation  everywhere. 

Do you see how remarkable it is to be a human? 

Humans are the only ones who are made in the image of God. 

“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.” - C.S. Lewis

You want belonging? 

Humans had face-to-face access and intimacy with God. 

You want significance? 

You are royalty. Everything you do represents the king of kings. 

Your life exists to proclaim the excellencies of the greatest one ever, who is calling all others to come home. 

What could be more significant than this?

What last name is greater to have? 

But there’s a huge problem. 

All of us know it and if we don’t know it, we feel it. 

The Fall happened.

Eden turned into… paradise lost. 

Adam and Eve, did not want this job. 

They didn’t want to represent God, they wanted to be God! 

And that, if we are honest, is the same heart that everybody in the world shares unless they have a radical encounter with the love of Christ. 

We want to call our own shots.  
We want people to think much of us, not much of who we represent. 

What was the result of our rebellion?

The Result

The image of God, was distorted. God’s masterpiece was marred. 

We are marred from the outside and the inside. 

We have a broken heart and broken body. 

Sin has marred us thoroughly but not irredeemably. 

Let me highlight three truths that were hindered or lost because of the Fall.  

1. We lost, Face-to-face intimacy with God

2. We no longer reflected the image of God clearly

3. We lost our position as co-rulers with God.

Each of those were compromised at the Fall.

If you feel a great emptiness in your soul, a longing for purpose, this is it! This is what all of humanity is longing for for. 

It is etched into the distant memories of our soul. 

All of these three pieces have been marred by the fall, but God has a plan to redeem it all and more, and he has called us to join him in the work as well. 

And the answer is found in His Son, Jesus. 

Jesus doesn’t just reverse the Fall, doesn’t just restore our humanity but glorifies the original design in ways never imagined. 

Jesus Redeems Each Problem 

1. Intimate Relationship with God

The greatest loss of the fall was our face-to-face access to God.

And not only access at this level, but we were now at enmity with God. When our ancestors decided they wanted to be their own God, and all of us have followed their footsteps, we not only lost our true home, but we declared war with our creator. We betrayed our purpose.

But God, being the originator of love, was not content losing his people. 

And so the Father sent the Son, in order to pay the penalty of our treason. 

John 1:14 ESV

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Instead of leaving us on our own, God has come to us. 

By dying on the cross, we no longer had to die. 

Jesus, loving and willingly, took our place and absorbed all the animosity we deserved. 

John 3:16 CSB

16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

And God did not do this for us while we were seeking him or on our best behavior, but while we were still dead in our sins, desiring nothing to do with him. Still wanting our own rule and reign. 

As Romans 5:8 says, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

Because Jesus died, and because he rose from the dead, he has made away for all peoples everywhere, to come home. 

Be restored to God. 

In other words, become truly human.

And if you would like to receive this offer, if your heart believes this good news, that 

1 Timothy 1:15 ESV

15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners

If you realize you are a sinner, needing a savior. And you need forgiveness of your sins and you want to be restored to God, 

And if that’s you would you be so bold to come and pray with me at the end of the gathering this morning?

PAUSE

That is how Jesus reverses the first and greatest loss. 

Now all Christians, from all peoples, all genders can have a restored relationship with God. We get to be with God!

Jesus has given us access to God again truly although not in its fullness. 

The fullness will come one day again.

Being with God is what the gospel is all about. This is what God’s heart is all about, us getting swept up into his trinitarian love. 

The goal is not heaven. It is restored relationship with a person, God that begins in this age and extends into eternity which will be in a place, the new heavens and new earth. 

That changes how we think about salvation.

It immediately helps with all the questions about who’s saved or not.

Are they currently enjoying an intimate relationship with God through Jesus right now? 

If so, then they will be in heaven, because already have eternal life. 

They are merely continuing what has already begin. 

Because Heaven has already started. 

1 Corinthians 13:12 ESV

12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

All of this could be said, as “be with the Father.” 

Now the second problem that Jesus solves, 

2. Restoring the Image of God

Three texts to bring together to see this rightly but we will dive way deeper next week into this piece. 

Hebrews 1:3 CSB

3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

Colossians 1:15 ESV

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

Remember, when God says, “let us make man in our image” that us is plural. We were originally made in the image of the Son. 

While we are imperfect in our imaging of God, Jesus is the perfect image of God!

What we will see in the upcoming text is that there are two families you can be part of. Everyone is automatically born of Adam, the man of dust. Inheriting all the fallenness of Adam. The last, Adam is referencing Jesus. 

1 Corinthians 15:45–49 CSB

45 So it is written, The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 Like the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; like the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.

All of us have borne the image of Adam, but through Jesus, we will bear christ’ image. 

Jesus is restoring and beautifying his marred masterpiece. 

Christian, This is your destiny, to rightly bear the image of Jesus. 

And who perfectly images God? 

Jesus!

Follow the logic. 

If Jesus is the perfect image of God

and we were originally made in the image of God, 

then Jesus helps us know what we are supposed to be!
The deeper you go into knowing Jesus, the more you will know how to truly be you!

If you want to be truly human, you become like Jesus. 

Christians are the true humanists. 

It's important to note that God created humans to bears image. And so the idea is that there should be billions of images of God walking around this world. And whenever someone believes the gospel, and is restored to God, they begin the lifelong restoration process of restoring the image of God. The masterpiece that was marred. 

As each of us gets closer to Jesus and becomes more like him, we each individually mirror him in unique ways. And that is the great news. Sometimes when we think about this, we can believe that becoming more like Jesus loses our individuality. That we will all look the same. 

And in one sense, this is true. We will all look more gentle, more patient, more courageous, more loving, all the different characteristics of Christ that we will look at more next week. 

However, it will be, manifested uniquely through how your personality. How you are. You will become the real you. And so becoming more like Christ is in one since losing your old self, but finding your real self. The one you were created to be!

But how can we do such a thing? 

We are going to be digging in this at length next week but one piece is that not only are we formed in the image of Christ, Christ becomes one with us, which is far greater and secure than what Adam and Eve had. 

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Eden 2.0, has come! 

But more on that next week. 

This whole section could be said short-hand, “Become like Jesus.” 

› The final piece that Jesus restores in the image of God is that Jesus gets our job back!

3. Reigning through Multiplication 

Keep Genesis 1 in mind as we re-read the Great Commission. 

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Instead of reigning with God through having dominion through politics or through other means, the primary way that God is spreading his glory, spreading his image, is multiplying disciples throughout all peoples. 

And this is not a job, just for you or me individually, but together, as a family in concert with the capital church family throughout the world. We do this together. 

And this call is not fore the paid professionals. Its not for the elite Christians. Its the normal ordinary design of all humans!  

He wants us to help others be with the Father and become more like Jesus. 

This could be said, “Make Disciples” 

Which put these together, makes a nice clear definition of a disciple of Jesus. 

A disciple of Jesus is someone who is increasingly being with the Father, becoming like His Son, and making disciples of Jesus. 

Conclusion

We are told by popular culture that the caricature of the Christian life is trying to be a better person, go to church, give some money, and believe in Jesus or he'll send you to hell.

But there's so much more to the Christian life!

You were created for the grandest purpose in all of the universe. 

You are God’s image!

You already have belonging and significance. 

 And you have the greatest story to invite others into!

So much more compelling and purposeful than say this prayer so you don’t go to hell. 

Come be with the one you were made to be. 

The one who loves you unto death. 

The one you have missed your whole life but didn’t know it. 

But also, become like him. 

Be healed and restored into your original image. 

Become all you were meant to be!

And join the greatest mission of all time, helping others do this as well. 

Restoring masterpieces till Jesus returns. 

Response

But what do you do if you hear all this, and it doesn't do much for you?

You mentally agree with these truths, but you have yet to revolutionize your life around these truths. 

These truths have not given you the belonging and significance you long for. 

If that's you this morning, there could be a number of reasons.

But I want to highlight one primary one.

You cannot find belonging and significance in Christ and his purposes for you, if you are clinging to another. 

He won’t give it to you while you're still holding onto another. 

Hopefully, that is very reasonable. 

It is only until you give up all counterfeit purposes and counterfeit lovers that you will get all of his heart and all his joy and all of his purpose and all of his power. 

I want to transition into a time of reflection and prayer. 

What are you finding belonging purpose in apart from Christ? 

And I don't want you to just merely think about this question. I want you to ask Jesus himself.

Ask him,

”Jesus what am I replacing you with?” 

I am confident that if you ask, honestly, you will know in time. 

And if you realize that you have someone or something replacing Christ, then give it to Jesus. He already knows. Turned from it as the source of life. Whether it's something overly sinful or something, that is a good gift, but you have made an ultimate gift. Surrender it to him. Ask for forgiveness. and receive his mercy in grace, he is happy to give it and prayer with someone today. 

Commission

1 Peter 2:9 ESV

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

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