God Revealed In His Creature

[dave c]

HEALING SHELTER MINISTRIES #131i Re-Written 10DEC08 http://groups.msn.com/AHealingShelter/welcome.msnw

Save Me Today—Part Nine: God Revealed In His Creature

by rev dave c

In “God Revealed In His Creation,” we discussed how our very existence reflects the fingerprints of a triune God. In that paper we took a brief look at how the Universe itself is trinitarian in structure and composition, and that God’s divine nature and eternal power are revealed through “natural law.” That is to say, we exercise specific and consistent expectations of cause and effect as we work our way through this material and communal life, regardless of our spiritual condition. If I drop a marble, it will fall toward the center of the Earth until something stops it...whether it is my other hand, or the ground. If I sow corn seed, I will reap corn. If I murder someone, I will be treated as a murderer. Because God is not a God of disorder and confusion (1Co 14:33), it is perfectly reasonable to anticipate patterns of “three-ness” throughout existence as evidence and manifestation of the “three-ness” of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. In fact, if we do not recognize these trinitarian patterns, our over-all ability to detect the Creator through His creation is greatly diminished.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Just as in the account of the creation of the Universe in Genesis 1:1, the Bible account of how and why and when the first human being came into existence begins by assuming the presence of an Eternal and Almighty Creator in the Persons of God: “Then God said….” If we begin our understanding of who, and why, and where we are with the knowledge that we have a good, and great, and gracious God, we are simultaneously brought to a place of genuine humility in our concept of self and a place of comfort because we are truly not alone, unprotected, or meaningless.

In Genesis 1:26 God says, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness….” Unfortunately, many Bible commentators disregard any and all distinctions between the words image and likeness. Within the Protestant doctrinal teaching this apparently began with no less a figure than Martin Luther, himself. The Hebrew word for image is tselem, which is from an unused root meaning to shade; a phantom, i.e. (figuratively) illusion, resemblance; hence, a representative figure, especially an idol (Strong’s #6754). Likeness is translated from dmuwth, meaning resemblance; concretely, model, shape; adverbially, like (Strong’s #1823). The distinctions here rest in tselem (image) being a phantom...an illusion, while dmuwth (likeness) is a concrete model (in the sense of being actual).

This distinction is most easily understood if I consider a photograph of myself as compared to the actuality of my daughter. The photo (image/tselem) of me “looks” more like me...but it is an illusion of me. Other than being a visual representation, the photo and I have nothing in common. It is non-rational paper and emulsions...I am flesh and blood with the ability to reason. On the other hand, although my daughter and I are very different from each other (we are of a different gender, she is over four decades younger, she is a very different size, we have different hair and eye color, etc.), we bare a pervasive and concrete resemblance (likenss/dmuwth) in that we are two examples of human beings. This concrete likeness between my daughter and me is due specifically to the fact that she is born of, and from, my wife and myself.

Being created in the image of God, where image is an illusory representation of God, means that mankind was created a trichotomous being, but out of a very different substance, form, and function than the Godhead. In a sense Adam was created as a symbol of God within all of creation—a “snap-shot” of our Triune God. To be created in His likeness, that is, as a concrete representation, is to have the capacity for love, discernment, and communication. Note that there is a difference here between having a capacity for these attributes, and the nature of, and degree to which we possess them. It is through these attributes that we share some of what it is to be God, not in the sense of His divine power and eternal nature, but rather in our ability to love, to discern, and to communicate.

Why is it important that we make a distinction between the words image and likeness? Because God did...through the hand of Moses as he was led along by the Spirit of Truth to write Genesis. Matthew 10:30 tells us that God has numbered the very hairs on our heads. This is an indication to me that details matter to God. If even my short lived individual hairs are important to Him, then perhaps I should not discard words from His Eternal Holy Scripture just because they are superficially similar in meaning...even if Martin Luther said that it is okay to do so.

Of all of God’s creatures, Adam and Eve were the only ones concerning whom Genesis says God created in His image and likeness. God is three persons. He created a trinitarian universe. It makes sense on a fundamental level that they were created as trichotomous beings. Just as my daughter is human because she is born of humans, Christians are the children of God because we are reborn as literal new creatures through the power of the Holy Spirit resurrecting our spirits that were dead in sin and trespasses (Ep 2:1&2). This is the same Holy Spirit that conceived and later resurrected Jesus Christ. God is the Father of our spirits (He 12:9; NIV), and in a very real spiritual sense we are “of one womb” (the meaning of the Greek word for brotherhood) with Jesus. If God is trinitarian, and we are His children, then we are trinitarian...in His image, and in His likeness.