The Image of Holiness

So these are some thoughts I had while John Meyer was preaching on Genesis a couple weeks ago, and afterwards while doing my study with the Navigators on the first few chapters of Jerry Bridge's The Pursuit of Holiness.  I really wanted to journal them, so I could see what they were, and then as I said my blog is a public journal, so the rest is history.

First of all, John made some really good points about how we as humans are special creatures.  Two points particularly affected me.  The first was that we are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27).  This isn't a new idea to me, really, but it is one that I've struggled to understand.  What exactly does it mean that we're made in God's image?  I often picture it like a mirror: we are not God, but God made us to reflect something of Himself--His character, His nature.  Then, John made a second point by comparing the commands God used to create things.  He when He made fish, He said, "Let the waters bring forth [fish]" (Genesis 1:20).  When He made animals, He said, "Let the earth bring forth [animals]" (Genesis 1:24).  But when God created man, He said, "Let us make man" (Genesis 1:26).  This is significant to me.  Although animals and fish are alive, ultimately they belong to the earth.  They came from it, consist of it, and will return to it.  But humankind is different.  Though our bodies are composed of dust, our souls come forth from God, consist in Him (Acts 17:28), and return to Him--whether for welcome or condemnation (Ecclesiastes 12:7).  Thus, we are more than a simple mirror.  We are the likenesses and ambassadors of God--made by Him of His own power, love, and ingenuity (and probably no small part of His sense of humor, too :) --built into Creation to represent and resemble Him.

The second thing, then, should have come as no surprise.  It was this, that God calls us to be holy.  This was one of the main points of the Jerry Bridges study.  Again, this was nothing new to me.  I knew that God demanded perfect holiness and could stand nothing less.  Sometimes I wondered why, but never really understood.  He was good enough to explain Himself in the Bible, in various ways, among them Leviticus 19:2 and 1 Peter 1:14-16: which say "Be ye holy, for I am holy."  Still, I didn't get it.  Why was God so keen on having us be like Himself?  Then, I put two and two together: God wants us to be holy because He's holy, our being holy is meant to reflect His own holiness--and He wants us to reflect this aspect of His character and nature because that is our primary purpose, our designated function from creation.  God designed us to operate as images of His own self, and is naturally concerned that we live holy lives.  Not only is that our designed function, but also it is His image and character that we represent--consciously or unconsciously, accurately or slanderously.  He also is in love with us.  Truly, He has quite a stake in the venture of our personal holiness!

How greatly we disappoint Him!  We have each of us fallen short of His glory--His holiness--and fallen short drastically (Romans 3:23 and 3:10-18).  We sin daily, in ways big and small, too numerous to count.  It is not only the obvious sins (greed, envy, murder, hatred, lust, etc) that count against us, but even more subtle sins--whatever fails to accurately reflect and represent the holiness of God Himself, whose image we are made to be.  How marred His image is in us!  God cannot abide sin and unholiness in us, not simply because of His distaste for all things evil, but because the slightest sin in us is a slander against His character.  We were meant to be His ambassadors in the world, our every action, thought, and feeling representing Him.  When we sin, we slander Him.  We are essentially telling the world: "See, this is what God is like: God is a liar," or "God is greedy and uncharitable," or "God is lustful," or "God is proud and scornful."  How can God, whose actual character is holy above all reproach--who dwells in unapproachable light (1 Timothy 6:15-16)--stand to have His character so maligned?  We have marred His masterwork, ourselves, and in the process mocked and spat upon the face of Him whose shoes we are not worthy to remove (John 1:27, spoken by John the Baptist, whom of whom Christ said, "Among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John"--Matthew 11:11).  God cannot allow such sins to go unpunished.  He cannot allow such vile effigies of His holy character to survive.  In His holy justice, He must destroy us all with hellfire.

But God has a problem.  For reasons only He can understand, He has fallen in love with us.  Yes, we're vile and despicable in our sins, but His heart is compassionate and--perhaps--He sees beyond the vile things we are and sees what beings He can make us into.  Whatever the cause, scripture is clear on the fact of God's love for us even while we were sinners, and its astounding magnitude (Romans 5:8).  Our faults are incurable and our just fate is inevitable, but with God nothing is impossible (Matthew 19:26).  Moved by His great love, the Father sent the Son, fully God, to take on the role of a man.  Where we had been misrepresenting God in so many horrible ways, God Himself stepped onto the stage and became His own representative, His own image (Colossians 1:15).  To say the least, He was a natural.  He showed us how it was done, and truly He was the only one who could.  No one could teach fallen man how to live as the image of God except God Himself, living as His own image.  Jesus fully and perfectly fulfilled the original design for man, and then, He showed us something new.  He showed us His love for us by the most graphic public display of affection in the history of the world (remember Romans 5:8?).  He gave Himself up to be scourged, beaten, mocked, and crucified--dying the most torturous death mankind has ever devised.  In so doing, He took the full measure of the just wrath of God.  All the punishment that God had been reserving for us, who defiled His image in the world, He poured out on His Son--the only one who had perfectly displayed His image.  Instead of smashing all the disfigured statues of Himself, He smashed the one perfect representation.  When He looks on us now--who put our faith in this--, that's what He sees: He sees His Son, the image of perfect holiness, giving His life for ours (2 Corinthians 5:21).

But God (that's one of my favorite phrases, have you noticed?) isn't satisfied with that.  It isn't enough for Him to leave us as distorted images of His holiness, reconciled to Him through a perfect sacrifice.  He wants us to be what we were meant to be.  He wants us to be like His Son.  So he still commands us: "Be holy for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:16).  We still sin, we can't seem to help it, but God has not left us helpless in our sins.  He has given us His Spirit--fully divine--to mold us into the holy ones He wants us to be.  Truly, the Christian quest for personal holiness is vain without the Holy Spirit--for how can we learn to represent God in His perfect holiness unless He teaches us Himself (John 14:26)?

Well, I finally finished it!  It took a lot longer than I thought it would, but most of that was just not taking the time to write it up.  Thanks for reading!