REFOCUS
Breath deeply as you pray and meditate on the words, “You are the potter, I am the clay,”
(Isa 64:8) at least five times.
READ
Genesis 1:26-27
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, to be like us. Let them be masters over the fish in the ocean, the birds that fly, the livestock, everything that crawls on the earth, and over the earth itself!”
27 So God created mankind in his own image; in his own image God created them; he created them male and female.
Romans 3:10-12
10 As it is written, “Not even one person is righteous.
11 No one understands. No one searches for God.
12 All have turned away. They have become completely worthless. No one shows kindness, not even one person!
Romans 8:29-30 (MSG)
God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.
REFLECT
“Broken Beauty”
A famous Christian thinker once famously wrote that the doctrine of original sin is “the only empirically verifiable doctrine of the Christian faith.” By that he meant that the evidence of our sinfulness, is apparent everywhere. Acts of violence, greed, mistreatment of others, lies and distortions are all around us. Even worse, many of us identify with Saint Paul when he said, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do (Rom 7:15).” It seems that sin is built into our very being. Many of us are deeply aware of our own faults and failures.
Yet, scripture tells us that we are made in the image of God. We are, the Psalmist tells us, “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps 139:4). Our ability to reason, to decide, to communicate, to create beauty and meaning are just some of the evidence of God’s fingerprints on us.
Pulling together these two Biblical teachings – that human beings are made in the image of God and yet filled with sin can be tough. Still, both ideas are extremely important. Understanding that we are made in God’s image gives meaning to human life – life is sacred; it is to be protected, treasured and honored. It calls us to “love others as ourselves” and as we love God.
Seeing our sinful nature keeps us from pride. It warns us that what we see as even our best thoughts and actions can be tainted, incomplete or just outright wrong. It protects us from harm and at the same time instills in us the need for God and others.
One image that has helped me reconcile the two ideas is that of a beautiful vase made of the most precious of metals and encrusted with gemstones. In that form the vase is both useful and beautiful. Yet, throw the vase into a fire and it melts. What comes out is a blob. While all the elements that made that vase precious still remain, the beauty and the usefulness are gone. It has become distorted, twisted.
It is a picture of humanity: Created with beauty and formed to be eternally useful, we were shaped into the very image of God. Once sin entered the world, however, we no longer resemble the high purpose and shinning glory that we began with. Everything about us is tarnished and our purposes have become misshaped. Our continued sin only continues to distort and pervert God’s greatest creation.
The “good news” of the gospel tells us that God is reshaping us. For each one that has submitted to Him, the master sculptor sees not your misshapen form, but what he will create from it. And what is he creating? He tells us in the text above. He is making you into the “image of his son, Jesus.” Just for a moment meditate on this – you are being remade to be like and to resemble Jesus.
Do not have any illusions about the depth and severity of yours and others brokenness. The journey from brokenness to beauty is a long one. So long that no simple act of your will can accomplish it. Only complete honesty will motivate you to the kind of surrender required for the Master to remake you. Only His tender hand of grace can reshape you.
But you need not despair either. Not only can you witness your broken nature, you can rest in His promise to recreate you.
RESPOND
Questions to Consider
- In what ways do you see God’s image in yourself?
- What do you see in yourself that shows the brokenness of sin?
- What do you know about Jesus that you would most like your character to resemble? How do you see God re-shaping you to be like Jesus?
Prayer
Almighty God I confess to You, what You already know:
I am broken.
Stained and malformed by the world,
the flesh and the devil.
Lord Jesus, I confess to You, what You already know:
I am beautiful,
Made in Your image,
created as your child,
The delight of Your heart and the apple of Your eye.
Lord I confess to You what You already know:
I am being changed
Remade, restored, refreshed, redeemed
To look like Jesus. To be like You, Father. To be filled with You, Holy Spirit.
Forever and ever. Amen
Blessings,
Rev. James R. Needham, PhD, MDiv