Al Mohler has written a very thoughtful, cogent article entitled “The Snare of Beauty – Flashpoints of Our Obsession with Attractiveness.” It is a very relevant message speaking to the issue of our superficiality.
In the article, brother Mohler happens to say something that really caught my attention:
According to the Bible, every single human being is made the image of God, and is thus, for this reason alone, truly beautiful. Truth wins over “enhancements,” and true beauty resides within an individual’s character. The Bible straightforwardly condemns the human quest for physical beauty as vanity.
Jessica Bennett concludes: “The quest for beauty may be a centuries-old obsession, but in the present day the reality is ugly.” She is right, of course. But the ugliness of the our confusion about beauty is not merely a present day reality. That confusion goes right back to Genesis 3 — to a pretty fruit and the Devil’s lie.
Amen. That confusion does indeed go right back to Genesis 3. Something else goes all the way back to Genesis, and that is the popular idea of all mankind being “made in the image of God” as brother Mohler reminds us.
You know, that has always bothered me to hear Christians say that.
Now before anyone jumps the gun and thinks I’m blowing a contrary wind here for the sake of contrariness, stop. You’d be wrong.
Here’s why it bothers me: Genesis 5:1-3
This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.
Adam was created in God’s image folks, but Seth, Adam’s son, was not.
Adam fell. Remember? That image of God in Adam was corrupted. It is no longer ‘the image of God’ in Seth, and the Scriptures emphasize this very thing in this passage! Adam fathered a son in his own image, Seth.
When we continue to say that modern man is ‘made in the image of God’, do we not encourage others and ourselves to have less need for the Savior?
After all, it’s far more favorable a thought for men to imagine some divine spark of God within, waiting to be ignited, than to be reminded that apart from Christ, we are not beautiful at all.
Apart from Christ, you are, in fact, ugly as sin itself – literally. Made in the image of the first Adam.
Now when it comes to contemplating any particular teaching, I’ve always asked myself “How does this glorify Christ Jesus?” If I can’t come up with a biblical reason, there’s something wrong with that doctrine.
I ask you now, which glorifies Christ Jesus more? To say that “Man is made in the image of God”, or “Man is made in the image of fallen Adam, is alienated from God his Creator, is an enemy of Him, and desperately needs to be reconciled by way of Jesus Christ and His cross?”
The Apostle Paul tells us in I Corinthians 15:47-49 this glorious truth:
The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.
As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.
Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
Food for thought.
Related Post:
B.H. Carroll: Losing the Image of God
I am glad you posted this. As in another post, as few months back (http://5ptsalt.com/2010/05/24/b-h-carroll-losing-the-image-of-god/), I asked you about James 3:9 – “With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. ”
While I lean toward the loss of God’s image, I am still unsettled on that conclusion by this verse in James.
Never heard of this thought before. Do you have any trusted men who have taught this? Also I would be careful building a doctrine out of one verse. It must line up with all of Scripture.
We know the Faith was fully delivered to the Saints and is contained in Scripture.
You might want to look into the first Adam and the second Adam (Christ) in your thoughts on this. Also you might want to look into the sons of Cain (devil) and sons of Seth (God) In Genesis 4. My pastor is doing a study of Chronicles of Redemption that you might be interested in. (http://www.beaconofhopesp.org/)
I recently said to a friend that only Adam was made in God’s image. He disagreed. Perhaps I have not considered this adequately, but the idea that we were created in God’s image necessarily interferes with our doctrine of original sin doesn’t it? If we were indeed made in His image, wouldn’t we have the capacity to be sinless? But we know we never had that capacity, so how can that be right? The Psalmist wrote, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Adam’s fall corrupted our very nature, ergo we are dead in trespasses and sin from conception. We aren’t sinners because we sin–we sin because we are sinners…by nature. That corrupted nature doesn’t sound like God’s image to me.
I really enjoyed this article and it was very thought-provoking. So the elect are restored (through justification) to bearing His image?
But the Grammar Police would like you to know that it should be ‘Made in Whose Image?’ rather than saying what is effectively ‘Made in Who Is Image?’