The Preaching Hour 490. Genesis1,26: Image And LikenessTo Resemble And Represent God    https://youtube.com/watch?/v=GiTinJpr_WA

This is a sermon that has been slowing stewing in my soul, and I pray it overflows, Spiritually, just right today.

As born again Christian, I realize that it's only because I am born again by faith, from the washing water of adult baptism and the everflowing cleansing blood of Jesus and the infilling of the Holy Ghost that comes by personal faith, that I have been given back the rich gift of  God's Spiritual image and likeness that He promised humanity at Genesis1,26, and that Adam and Eve had before they sinned. 

Now ever since Rene Decartes back in the early 16th century, said "I think, therefore I am," and probably long before that too, it seems Western humanity and, Western Chrisendom in particular, has had a real difficulty seeing its image and likeness of God as firstly spiritual rather than rational, as if we in Christendom were Descartes before Descartes.

Descartes paved the way for the enlightenment period of the 18th and 19th century, and this period has never left us.

We have become wise in our own minds, very "rational" and intellectual and "moral" in our own understanding, and have adopted a overly rational way at looking at Genesis1,26 and our very faith itself.

God said something different and way better than Descartes. In fact, God after showing to Moses as burning bush, nothing more Spiritual than that, defined himself to Moses at Exodus 3,14. This was so Moses will have something to tell the people, tell further about God, and give them hope too regarding their liberation from Pharoah: "I am who I am."  In other words, the deliverance out of Egypt is going to be a mighty miraclem worked out by God himself, by the mighty everliving eternal Spirit of God.

So much of Christianity looks at our human image and likeness to God as merely moral and rational. These are both good and right things, but subsets of the spiritual, both immaterial, but are often based on our unreborn selves, on our rationality and our morality that so often falls short of God's inspired super rationaity and super morality.  But the larger point here for this sermon is that moral and rational are both subsets of our spiritual image and likeness, which comes from our one true God, who is defined as Spirit. John4,24.

Now come forward and rise to our high calling dear Christian people! Our God is our personal God, and He is firstly, a jealous God! He suffers no rivals! He is firstly the loving, jealous and zealous God, a consuming fire, a cleansing Spiritual fire, who also guides and protects and showers mercy on all folks who choose to be in a loving "Hesed" (Hebrew concept) covenant with him, fellowship with Him. His first hesed relationship was and still is then Israel and then after Jesus died for all on Calvary, He offers a hesed relationship with all humankind.

Our first responses then to receiving the rich gift of resembling and representing are the first spiritual things of our faith- grateful worship, loving repentance, loving offspring trust, and actual Spiritual fellowship with God himself. Then and only then, are our minds more "rational" and "moral" and only then do we become better fit to serve our ever living and ever personal God- and so achieve on his acoount and by His power our high calling to resemble and represent Him!

Oh what a high Spiritual calling we have in the mighty revealed God, whose name is ours to use, and whose presence guides, protects and comforts, and gives peace beyond the merely rational and moral, and allows us to enter into actual Spiritual fellowship with our loving and jealous and zealous God who is Spirit, Spirit poured out on us, and into us, by personal repentant faith.

Oh what a high Spiritual calling we have, all revealed in our transforming faith-Spirit-Word-covenant-actual fellowship encounter with Jesus.