The crowning act of God’s creation was the creation of man (human beings). Unique among all creatures in the universe, man is made in God's own image. This means that men and women possess the attributes of personality as God himself does, but as animals, plants, and matter do not. To have personality one must possess knowledge, feelings, and will. For example, man can reason but animals cannot. We are able to think, imagine, innovate and relate to God and one another. But the image of God does not merely refer to what we are; but also refers to what God created us to do.
Besides living in fellowship with God, Adam and Eve were given the job of ruling over and caring for His creation as His vice-regents. Thus, God told them that they were to "subdue" the earth and "have dominion" over it—not by abusing and tyrannizing it, but by "working it and keeping it" (Gen. 2:15). In doing so, they would communicate to all creation the love and power and goodness of the Creator. Adam represented God's authority to the world over which he was given dominion.
We are made in God’s image and are therefore valuable to God and others.
When Adam sinned, he did so as the representative of every human being. So Paul wrote to the Romans, "Many died through one man's trespass" (Rom. 5:15). That is why each of us ratifies over and over again Adam's act of rebellion against God with our own sin. We, too, long to be free of God's authority and rule, and so we give ourselves to the pursuit of pleasure and joy in created things as ultimate ends. In the process, we declare that God is not worthy of our worship, and thus we prove ourselves worthy of the curse of spiritual death that God pronounced in the beginning.
But praise God, the story doesn't end there. Instead of leaving us to die in our sin, God acts to save us. Through the incarnation, death, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus, He saves His people from their sin and makes everything right once and for all, finally and forever.
When God saves a person he saves the whole person, beginning with the spirit, continuing with his soul, and finishing with his body. The salvation of the spirit comes first; for God establishes contact with the one who rebelled against him. This is regeneration, the new birth. Second, God works with the soul, renewing it after the image of the perfect man, the Lord Jesus Christ. This work is sanctification. Finally, there is the resurrection in which even the body is redeemed from destruction.
1. Slide Presentation: The Creation of Man
2. The Doctrine of Original Sin - Comparision Isam & Christianity
コメント