Category: faith

Not from Gibbons, but in the Image of God

“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 the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” Genesis 1:27

“Inaccuracies in a science textbook come from two primary sources. The first is human error.  Authors, editors, and illustrators occasionally make mistakes. Fortunately, such mistakes are rare.”  (1)

I stared at irony in the face.

I was dumbfounded as I thumbed through my daughter’s Biology textbook, particularly when I recognized the book’s foundation from which the study of life on this planet is based upon: a random force of evolution that somehow brings about the order and the wondrous intricacies of all forms of life.

The theory professes that man emerged as a result of primate evolution based on the concept of a molecular clock of time and DNA sequences in a mitochondrial gene. Along this timeline emerged the species of siamang gibbons, orangutans, gorillas, and chimpanzees, whereupon man came into existence as a result of random changes that emerged in the genome. (2)

Random changes that emerged in the genome.  How is it, then, that out of all the gazillion random changes among all forms of life, only the homo sapiens species is controlling the planet’s resources and transforming the world through its intelligence?

Contrary to the man-made theory that molecules are the origin of life, the Bible states that God created man in His own image.  Everything starts with God, the first cause, the Creator of the universe.  Let us consider this concept of God’s image in the human species.

Jonathan Edwards describes two main elements of this divine image concept. “The natural image consists very much in that by which God in His creation distinguished man from the beasts, namely, in those faculties and principles of nature whereby he is capable of moral agency.”  The “spiritual and moral image, consisted in that moral excellence with which man at the beginning was endowed” by God.  (3)

What are the capacities that make us like God and unlike ordinary beasts?

John Stott distills these faculties into five distinct characteristics:  “Firstly, we human beings are rational and self-conscious.  Secondly, we are moral, having a conscience that urges us to do what we perceive to be right.  Thirdly, we are creative, like our Creator, able to appreciate what is beautiful to the ear and the eye.  Fourthly, we are social, able to establish with one another authentic relationships of love.  For God is love, and by making us in His own image, He has given us the capacity to love Him and others.  Fifthly, we have a spiritual faculty that makes us hunger after God.  Thus we are uniquely able to think and to choose, to create, to love, and to worship.” (4)

Being made in God’s image breaks the shackles, the chain of evolution theory, that pigeonholes human beings into the taxonomies of the animal kingdom.  And as God’s image-bearers, we recognize that the sanctity of human life is irrefutable, its value, beyond measure.

by D. G. V.

References:

(1) Brooker, Widmaier, Graham and Stiling, “Biology”, McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2008, p. vii
(2) Ibid. p. 548
(3) Jonathan Edwards, (1703-1758), Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume 1, Hendrickson Publishers, 1998
(4) John Stott, Through the Bible Through the Year”, Baker Books, 2006, p. 18.

*** Photography:  Fisherman by Jose Miguel Rodriguez

Breathlessly Miskeyed

Breathlessly Miskeyed

Oh when a thousand tongues
sing praises
to an unbefitting god,
then the world turns
upside down,
somersaults,
flips over,
plunges into depths
under violent waves,
no breath
for shriveled lungs
till blue meets blue
in direful depths,
suspenseful
waiting,
pleading
for a gasp
of air,
for life,
for truth.

© 2012  by D. G. V.

* photo: Swan Underwater by Viktor Lyagushkin @flickr

God is Light

“This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” I John 1:5

God has many facets to His character, but the Apostle John’s proposition is that we must start with the holiness of God: “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.”  In other words, if we are to grasp an understanding of the Creator, we must not start with His power, or His greatness, or even with the fact that God is love, even though all of these traits are stupendous truths in and of themselves.

Why must we start with the holiness of God rather than with the love of God?

It is by considering His holiness that we can understand God’s plan of salvation for mankind, a strategy achieved only through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary.  If God’s attributes were limited to love, mercy and compassion, then the cross would have been inconsequential because all God had to do was to forgive our sins.  But the whole message of Christianity is that the cross is vital and central, and apart from Christ’s sacrifice, our sins could not be forgiven, and the deep chasm would still persist between our sinful human nature and God’s absolute and perfect holiness.

Why was Christ’s death on the cross absolutely essential?  Because God is light, He is just and righteous, with such purity that He cannot behold and look upon iniquity. (Habakkuk 1:13). “It is the holiness of God that demands the cross, so without starting with holiness, there is no meaning in the cross.” 1

If we start with the holiness of God, we realize that Christ’s incarnation, death, and resurrection had to take place.  And we recognize that fellowship with God, communion with Light, is only made possible in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, Who has reconciled us to the Father by His great sacrifice on the cross.

1 Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Safe in the World: The Assurance of Our Salvation”, Crossway Books, Illinois, 1988,  p. 108

*** References:

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Safe in the World: The Assurance of Our Salvation”, Crossway Books, Illinois, 1988, pp. 99-110.

Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity, “The Holiness of God”,  www.fivesolas.com/watson/wat_holi.htm

*** Photography: The Hand of God by Rich Goldman

How the Christian Glorifies Christ


“… and I am glorified in them.”  John 17:10

As God sent His Son into the world to glorify Him, we who believe in the Son are given the sublime privilege and responsibility to glorify Christ in our lives.  How do we accomplish this? Let us consider the progression of ways wherein we glorify our Lord.

First, we do so by believing in Him. The Pharisees did not believe in Christ. They dismissed Him as just a “Carpenter from Nazareth”,  the son of Joseph and Mary.  And the world to this day does not know Who Christ is and hence they disregard  Him.  To acknowledge Jesus Christ as the incarnate Son of God Who came into this world is to give Him glory.

Second, it is to apprehend why He came and what He has done while He lived on earth.  It is to be persuaded that the Lord Jesus Christ is God’s only way of salvation, that through Him we are brought back into right standing with God, into joyful fellowship with the Father.

Third, to glorify Christ is to know the meaning of the cross: that by Christ’s death and resurrection, our sins are forgiven and we become children of God.  And because of what Christ has done, He is everything to us.  We put an end to our self-reliance and realize that what we have become as a result of His sacrifice is entirely by the grace of God.

Fourth, it follows that we glorify Christ by telling other people about Him, pointing them to His Person, proclaiming Him as the Son of God, and His great sacrifice to free us from the bondage of our sins.  The world delights in lauding and talking about people: sports heroes,  politicians, actors, and other interesting personalities.  The Christian is one who delights in talking about Christ and praising Him.

Fifth, we glorify Christ by being living proofs of His life in us.  We are to be such men and women that the moment others meet us, they think about Christ.  People took note of the apostles when they performed miracles and spoke in a manner inconsistent with the speech of ignorant fishermen: they came to the conclusion that the apostles had been with Jesus.  The test of the Christian is that he or she cannot be explained apart from Christ,  and by this, Christ is glorified.

Finally, we glorify Christ by being the manifestation of His power, having been separated from the world. It is only by the power of Christ that we can leave the mentality of the world, and we become different.  The Christian is a person who strikes others as somebody who is distinct, somebody peculiar, not possessing the self-pride and self-assertion that the world applauds as strength; one who belongs to the lowly and humble Christ.  And he is spiritually alive, interested in spiritual things, making the affairs of the soul the top priority in his life and thinking.

As Christians we have been given a new life and a new understanding, a new outlook upon everything that faces us.  To the extent that we reflect this to the outside world, we glorify the Lord.

What a privilege and a great responsibility it is to be given this high calling, that Christ should be glorified in our lives.

*** Reference:  Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Safe in the World: The Assurance of Our Salvation”, Crossway Books, Illinois, 1988, pp. 79-92.

*** Photography by Artemis