IMAGE: GOD LOVES
What does the Bible reveal about the origin of human life?
•Genesis 1:26-2:25
•Relationships
•God (theological)
•Self (psychological)
•Others (social)
•Creation (environmental)
What is the place of humans in relation to God and creation?
•Psalm 8:5-8 – Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
Dichotomy or Trichotomy?
•Aspects of our humanity in the Old Testament
•Soul (nepesh) is the person as a created being
•Spirit (ruach) means “wind” or “breath”, especially when speaking of the Holy Spirit.
In humans, it can also mean “mind”, “resolve”, or “will”
•Flesh (basar) refers to our physical being as opposed to our spiritual being •Blood (dam) denotes our humanity
•Heart (leb) is our inner life of emotions and decision-making
•Aspects of our humanity in the New Testament
•Body (soma) is our physical being
•Soul (psuche) is our deep inner life of thoughts and feelings
•Spirit (pneuma) is our internal life and sometimes the soul
•Heart (kardia) refers to feelings, thoughts, will, moral decision making, and worship
•Mind (nous) is knowing, thinking, judging, self-determining, and responsible
•Conscience (suneidesis) is the capacity of universal moral judgment
•Dichotomy or Trichotomy?
•Trichotomy – people are 3 parts
1. Body – our outward physical being
2. Spirit – our inward non-physical being that relates to the Holy Spirit
3. Soul – our inward non-physical being that causes our affections,desires, reason, emotions, will, and self-consciousness
•Dichotomy – people are 2 basic parts
Body-ourentireoutwardphysicalbeing
Soul-ourentireinwardnon-physicalbeing
What do Dr. Luke and the Holy Spirit say about the unborn?
•John the Baptizer in the womb
•Luke 1:41 – …when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her
womb…
•Luke 1:44 – …the baby in my [Elizabeth] womb leaped for joy.
•Jesus Christ in the womb
•Luke 2:12 – …you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.
•Luke 2:16 – …they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.
•Children outside the womb
•Luke 18:15 – Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them.
•Acts 7:19 – He [Pharaoh] dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants, so that they would not be kept alive.
What happens when we don’t mirror God?
•Romans 1:25-28, 32 – …they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error…God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done… Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Who has best imaged God?
•2 Corinthians 4:4 – In their case the god of this world his blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
•Colossians 1:15 – He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. •John 14:9 – Jesus said…”Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”
How do we image God?
•Romans 8:29 – …those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
•Colossians 3:9-10 – Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
•2 Corinthians 3:18 – And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
