In the first
chapter we learned about the importance of the decision about who we say Jesus is. In this chapter we will address the importance
of who man is. Understanding who and what we are as we begin this walk with Jesus is vital. Jesus had selected disciples to
walk with him and to learn the ways of God, but often it was difficult for them to understand because they had to mature in
the things of God. Jesus began to teach His Disciples the things of God as they followed Him. Since the beginning, man has
had a difficult time understanding the things of God, but God is faithful to us and teaches us through Jesus as we follow
Him. Here we will take a look at man and how he was made and why it is difficult for man to walk with God without understanding
who man is and what God’s purpose is for his life. The issue of not understanding the things of God is common to us
all. Not understanding the difference between the ways of man and the ways of God prevents us from experiencing God’s
benefits in life.
Let’s look at what scripture says
about man and who man is.
Genesis 1:26, - 2:7
“And 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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all creeping things that
creepeth upon the earth.
27. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and
female created he them.
28. And God blessed them and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish
the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living
thing that moveth upon the earth.
29. And God said, behold I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the
face of the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
30. And
to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is
life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
31. And God saw everything that he had made, and,
behold it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth
were finished, and all the host of them.
2. And on the seventh day God ended his work, which he had made; and he rested on the
seventh day from all his work, which he had made.
3. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because
that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
4. These are the generations of the
heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,
5. And
every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not
caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
6. But there went up a
mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
7. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the
ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
After reading these verses what questions do you have?
Cloning is a big topic these days, man has recently successfully
cloned sheep and other animals, but there has been ethical and moral issues concerning the cloning of man. Stem Cell research
and many scientific things seem to be playing God. All the science in the world could never do what God has done though!
Who we are and who
God is are two totally different things. We are created in His image, but we are very limited in many things unlike God who
is without limits in anything. When we attempt to play God we soon see how small and powerless man is.
Would you say that man has been
the first clone that ever lived since we are created by God in to be in His image and likeness? Do you believe that science
will be able to clone man and if so what might they miss? Can science clone the soul and spirit?
If so how would his soul be created
and whose image might he eventually evolve into?
Answer the following questions:
Whose image was man created in?
How did God create man?
Why is it important that we should be created in the image and likeness of God?
When you were a young child who did
you want to be like and why?
Did you know if you were to study a sample of the dirt of the earth you would find the same ingredients
that we are made of? For example Phosphorus, iodine, magnesium, zinc, copper, iron, chromium, chloride, potassium, nickel,
lead, and many more! When God made man from the dust of the earth he made us from the same ingredients that make up the earth
and the same ingredients that we take everyday called vitamins.
Man is created from dirt.
Recently there was a story about an Ethiopian
woman who had been selling “dirt pies” to make a living for many years. She would take the dirt from the ground
and mix it with some water, salt, and some other flavor and then bake it like bread and then she sold it to hungry buyers
as a snack and was very successful! Wow can you imagine eating dirt! Well that is some of what we are made of, but not all;
we also have a soul (the breath of God).
Genesis 3:1-13
1. “Now the serpent was
more subtle than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, ye shall
not eat of every tree of the garden?
2. And the woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the
garden:
3. But of the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden, God, hath said, ye shall not
eat of it, neither shall ye touch it lest ye die.
4. And the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall surely
not die:
5. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be
as gods, knowing good and evil.
6. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and
a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her;
and he did eat.
7. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves
together, and made themselves aprons.
8. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the
day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
9. And
the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10. And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden,
and I was afraid, because I was naked; as I hid myself.
11. And he said, who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast
thou eaten of the tree, Whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
12. And the man said, the
woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
13. And the Lord God said
unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me and I did eat.”
Ok, so we have been
talking about the image of man, we learned that man was created in the image and likeness of God and that man is a living
soul. What has happened to man now? He has disobeyed God’s command because he was tricked, does this now change who
he is? Has his image changed, has his identity changed at all? God’s image and likeness is one of purity, perfection,
and promise. Mans purity changed when he witnessed his nakedness, his perfection changed when he broke the commandment of
God, and his promise was broken when he listened to another.
After reading
these verses what questions do you have?
Answer the following questions:
Man
falls, what does this do to man’s image?
Does man’s image begin to resemble the serpent now that he tries to hide from God and
even trick God by claiming he is not responsible?
God desires us to always live in his image and likeness and whenever we listen to any other
than God, we distort our image of purity, the image that he created us in. When we fall into sin our image becomes like that
of the serpent and when we follow Jesus and keep his commands our image returns and remains in the likeness of God.
Job 5:6,7
5 “Although
affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground.
7. Yet man is born unto
trouble, as the sparks fly upward.”
In many ways this has been a hard concept to imagine, that man is born unto trouble, and that
a brand new baby would be anything but pure and innocent is a thing that is hard to swallow! Wait! God is not saying that
we are trouble when we are born; instead he is saying that we are born into trouble! The world is full of trouble, trouble
is already here when we come out of our mother’s womb, the minute that we are born we are born into a troubled world
and despite the fact that we are created in God’s image and likeness we can take on a new image that resembles the troubles
of this troubled world, a world that is full of a myriad of challenges, many of which we fall captive to without the proper
defenses. This has a great deal to do with maintaining our original image in which we were created. How do we maintain this
image? Our fallen nature or sin nature is not how it is supposed to be, in fact God’s design is purity, without sin,
and living out all of the fruits of the
spirit, meaning love,
joy peace and so on. That is who we are until we are tempted to listen to another voice and to not follow the voice of God.
After reading these
verses what questions do you have?
Answer the following questions:
Trouble
doesn’t come from where?
Where does trouble come from?
Romans
3:10-18
10 “As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one:
11. There is none that understandeth,
there is none that seeketh after God.
12. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is
none that doeth good, no, not one.
13. There throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues have they used deceit; the
poison of asps is under their lips.
14. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
15. Their feet are swift
to shed blood:
16. Destruction and misery are in their ways:
17. And the way of peace have they
not known.
18. There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Who is man is our question. It seems a bit
harsh to say that we are so terrible and yet who is among us that is good? None! Who can do right by God all the time? Who
can keep all of the law? Who can speak such great words that can convince God that we are ok? No one! Does God look at us
in such a wretched way? Of course not, in fact he loves us and died for us to prove it, but he must share this talk with us
because in truth there are those that think more highly of themselves than they ought, God simply puts things into it’s
proper perspective lest any of us think that we got it right. Truth is, it is only his grace that saves us!
All of us are incapable of controlling
our lives, our tongues, and our hearts in the way that God requires so we must acknowledge who we are and our insufficiencies
before a perfect God! We are imperfect, meant to be perfect, yet perfection only comes through Jesus. We are not born into
perfection, but must resist trouble and aspire to walk in God’s image and likeness, and we can do this by accepting
Jesus into our lives.
Can you think of anything about you that might be described here in the above verses? What are your imperfections
and how might this effect the image that God originally created us in.
After
reading these verses what questions do you have?
Answer the following questions:
What is missing from the life of man that causes them to fall?
Why is man’s image different without Jesus?
Romans 1:17
“for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written. The just shall live by
faith.”
Since the beginning of man’s creation the great works of many men, women, heroes and the like have
been recorded. We can call upon story after story, book after book, and year after year, all the wonderful works of man’s
accomplishments so it is true that Man has a “good side” to him, yet it is through the spirit of God that we are
able to do anything good as it is written: “Every good and perfect gift is from above.” James 1:17 The Bible tells
us that without God all that we do is filthy rags. “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness’
are as filthy rags;” Isaiah 64:6 So which is it? Is man good or not so good?
The answer does not come to us by
reflecting on our accomplishments, it comes to us by reflecting on our faith. Only our faith in Jesus our creator makes us
righteous. Not one thing that we have done or will ever do will make us more or less righteous, except our belief in who Jesus
is, this makes us the man or woman that we were created to be, In his image and likeness. Never have we heard from Jesus that
our accomplishments will reserve our place in heaven with the Father. He has not said it and will not! Only faith in Christ
will give us access to the Father. We must live by faith and not by our works.
After
reading these verses what questions do you have?
Answer the following questions:
How is the righteousness of God revealed?
Can man gain access to heaven by doing great works?
Man’s image is that of an image that has faith in God because
we are created to have faith.
When man attempts to create his image
based upon his achievements does this contradict what God’s original creation was?
What does this do to his faith?
Does he now believe in himself as a god?
Romans 1:21,22
21 “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified
him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
22.
Professing them selves to be wise, they became fools.”
There is a very popular belief in our society that knowledge is power, so many do all to attain
as much of it as possible. They promote higher degrees of education and spend lifetimes in study and leave with a darkened
heart despite their efforts.
They leave their lifetime of studies just like the Bible tells us “Ever learning, and never able
to come into the knowledge of the truth.” 2Timothy 3:7
We are continuous in learning knowledge but knowledge distorts our
original design because it puffs our minds up.
1 Corinthians 8:1
“Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge.
Knowledge puffs up, but charity edifies.”
Man’s image was created in the image of God and man was created
from the dust of the earth as we have previously read, but now that man has taken on this pursuit of knowledge apart from
God they have decided that man has evolved from an ape and can soon be cloned thereby making more of these scientific Frankenstein
clones that obviously evolved from the ape’s mind and not God’s heart! This is the place the great pursuit of
knowledge will bring you to when you forsake the truth of God. You will now become a scientific clone of an ape that has become
vain in its imagination instead of the masterwork of the greatest creative designer that ever existed! Jesus Christ our Lord.
After reading these verses what questions do you have?
Answer the following questions:
What is man’s wisdom?
Why?
Romans 1:28
28
“And even when they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those
things which are not convenient.”
“Retain in their knowledge” Have you ever heard that phrase “use it or lose
it?” This phrase speaks of retaining what we have always known or have always had. Our image or man’s image has
changed in a great way in this new time that we live in. There is a great deal of effort to exclude God from our study and
consequentially from our lives. There are huge consequences to pay for the sin of turning away from God. To turn unto this
new world thought leaving behind how we were originally created and in who’s image and likeness and teaching our children
and their children after them to do the same has nearly erased the benefits of our loving God from this generation and the
generations to come. We are now suffering a true “identity crisis” The question “What is man” can
no longer be answered, Man is the image of God, but instead it must be answered differently with things such as Man is the
image of Ape! As we continue to pursue knowledge we must never lose our identity because when we do our Father will ultimately
cast us aside as reprobates just as he has said here! Now, the answer to the question “what is man?” maybe man
is the reprobate!
After reading these verses what questions do you have?
Answer the following
questions:
Why did God give them up?
Do you think this is fair?
The following message was given at an addiction recovery
meeting. The central focus was to take a deeper look inside the heart and mind of the individual person making a fearless
inventory of who we are and admit to God and to ourselves our need for help through Jesus the only one that can help us to
overcome our weakness.
