Unfathomable Riches in Christ - What does (made in Gods image) mean? - Part II
Vern Peterman · Aug 19, 2018
Unfathomable Riches of Christ, No. 31
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261911376736

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We are on the topic of the image of God and one of the expanded points we make from Genesis 1.26 is the full expression is the image and likeness of God. That's what that verse has. What you will find as you go through The rest of scripture is that it's the image or likeness after that verse. It's one or the other. They're apparently synonyms such that if one is used, it assumes the other.

So here's Genesis 1.26 and 27, just to kind of get our focus here.

Then God said, Let us make mankind in our image, according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. God created man in his own image. Again, that's the first instance where we have one expression in his own image taken for image and likeness. In the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.

So the image and likeness of God in mankind is observed in Genesis chapter 1 and throughout scripture by the six principles we set forth in the last Sunday's lesson and are summarized at the end of this lesson as we get to the end. One of the key things regarding our unfathomable riches, and one of the points we want to emphasize for the sake of what we're going through in this elective, this is the bullet point, God has purposely made both time-based and eternal outcomes of having made mankind in His image and likeness for the salvation of mankind and for us in the body of Christ as foundational principles for our unfathomable riches in Christ. So having been made in the image of God is not something that God did and we just blew it and messed it all up. The image and likeness of God has been marred and corrupted but not eliminated at the fall.

And it has continuing effect in the Old Testament and on into the New. and on into the church. As a matter of fact, it has continuing effect on into eternity, which is why we want to take a look at this image and likeness of God. So what we see, we would do well to point out the ways in which mankind differs from God. And so this is the last paragraph on page one.

God is not physical, but a spiritual being. is eternally righteous and not subject to time. He is infinite. So there are specific and substantial exceptions to the statement which God only does deliberately, mostly in the person of Christ. That is, is God subject to time? He is not. Time is a created entity. He is not subject to it, except that he voluntarily steps into time, which he did in Christ.

God didn't in Christ suddenly go, wow, here I am in time, I wonder how that happened. So God is not surprised. God doesn't end up with some outcome that he didn't expect. It was deliberate. So that's what I mean by you know, God is not subject to time and God is not finite except that he volunteers to do otherwise and that was specifically done in Christ. Roy?

How does that, in the creation story, is there a He created time scenario there? Yeah, so let's, you ask a good question. We said that God created time One of the things that we see as we go through the Genesis account, of course we kind of zero it in on the sixth day, but what do we see in the creation account that immediately establishes time as a standard in the creative world?

Night and day? Night and day, and you have the first day, so it's a sequential set of days, morning and evening, right? In those sequential set of days, so that's one way in which time was set in place. Somebody just mentioned another. Okay, so on which day? The fourth day, right?

So the sun, moon, planets, etc. So on the fourth day then, God created these things in the solar system and beyond that set things in a time definition. But didn't he define it in the first day? Yes, and that's what we were saying is God created the first day, second day, third day, So from the very outset the days are in sequence and there is morning and evening in each of those days and then he created the astronomical time markers on the fourth day. Are those days what we consider 24 hour days?

I believe most decidedly so from scripture. One is his evening and morning one day. Every time that scripture has a first day, second day, third day sequence, every time other than that, it's literal. Two things. One is there is a word for a longer period of time, olam, that could have been chosen if a long period of time was meant. The other thing is a non-literal use of day was used in the Old Testament and is very similar to our expression. I would talk to my grandkids and say, in my day, and I don't mean by that that I only have one day, but I mean to use it as a figure of speech. And the Bible does use it in that way. But whenever you have a first day, second day, third day, fourth day, fifth day, reference in the Bible universally, it refers to a sequence of literal, as we would call it, 24-hour days. Yes.

So putting that together with what you've already said, in the Apostles, we only have John writing about the same thing, maybe I'm wrong, that in the beginning, that really wasn't the beginning, because God was already there. and there is no beginning with Him. Our beginning, He was already there. Yes, so one way to frame this is what does the Bible do with reference to that term, the beginning? There are both from the beginning, in the beginning, So those kinds of statements and those in the beginning kinds of statements are from before he created things all the way into those early days. Those get called the beginning.

And so in each context we have to take a look at what is it referring to. So, you know, big picture on time, that's the Bible's reference. So, just like the terms the Lord's Day and the Day of Christ, those are things we can look at, okay, how is that used and what does that apply to? What's the span, if you will, in which those terms are used? And so the Bible has everything from before God said, let there be light, all the way into those early parts of creation.

So looking here, let's take a look at page two. So created in the image and likeness of God, is that still present or has it been terminated? So this is an important question. Is created in the image and likeness of God still something that matters and continues in some respect or did that end at the fall?

Okay, so let's take a look at, there's a table here, and it says image and likeness of God, and what you find is after Genesis 1.26, the terminology that is used in the rest of the Bible is either the image or the likeness, but never image and likeness again. Nonetheless, the term continues on into where?

Well, in terms of the expression in the Bible, it goes on to James 3.9, but you can see there are several times in Genesis, 1 Corinthians 11.7, it says Made in God's image, woman is the glory of man regarding the church, right?

And then in James 3.9, made in God's likeness and a warning about cursing others. So even in New Testament times, New Testament times, the image and likeness still remained. Having been made in the image and likeness of God, still remained on into New Testament times. Yes?

And how does being conformed to the image of Christ come into this? Alright, so that's what we're going to have to get into, but the reason for looking at the distinction here, because you ask a very important question, the reason for looking at the distinction is having been made in the image of God and our being conformed to the image of Christ, how do those fit together?

And that's something we're going to have to get to, and we can't bypass getting this laid down thoroughly. They're not the same thing, are they? We were made in the image and likeness of God, that having been marred and corrupted, but not disappeared and not terminated. So then we are as believers predestined to be conformed into the image of Christ. Isn't that interesting? So we were made in the image of God, let us make mankind in our image and likeness. we are being conformed to the image of Christ, and there's a reason for the distinction, as we'll see. They're not the same thing. They're not the same thing. Alright, so, but that's a very good question. We can't even hope to answer it today.

So you'll have to come back, if the Lord allows that much time. Okay. So now, what we're going to see in the weeks to come, and I'm in the middle of the page, just to the right of the table there, as we'll see in the weeks to come, there will be many ways in which mankind, having been made in the image and likeness of God, will be essential to the plan of salvation and to our unfathomable riches in Christ. You know that apart from being made in the image and likeness of God, the plan of salvation wouldn't work. Yeah, it wouldn't work. So this is an essential for having been made in the image and likeness of God.

That's an essential for us being saved through Christ's death on the cross. Yes? Is that because Christ couldn't have died for us? Well, so let's take for instance Could any being other than a man have actually affected our salvation? No. All the animals that were sacrificed, what does the book of Hebrews say? A lot of bulls and goats couldn't take away sin.

That's right. At the bottom line, it couldn't get it done. And so one of the points of emphasis in the book of Hebrews, chapters 7 through 10 especially, one of the points of emphasis is Christ died once for all. Once done, perpetually valid. He died once for all.

None of the animals that were sacrificed though it was commanded by God for Israel. None of them could get it done, because there was no having been made in the image and likeness of God. All the animals could do is to point to God's ultimate sacrifice.

As Paul put it in 1 Corinthians 5.7, Christ is our Passover. Christ could get it done, and He could do it once for all. None of the animals ever did that. They're not made in the image of God. All they could do is picture, but the reality was Christ.

Yes? Animals, but did also any other man? Yeah, so here's what's the problem? Let's say you take a really nice guy like Isaiah. Here's Isaiah, he even wrote about Christ, right, Isaiah 53, seven centuries early. Really nice guy, you know, saved eternally. How come he couldn't have done it? He had a problem. And what was his problem? Sin. Yeah. Was he made in the image and likeness of God? Yes.

The problem was He, though made in the image and likeness of God, was not qualified. The only person made in the image and likeness of God that ever lived that was qualified was Christ. So God had to voluntarily step into time with one who was made in the image and likeness of God, like us, but uniquely qualified to be that sacrifice. Nobody else is going to get it done because of sin. No other creature could get it done because they're not in the image and likeness of God.

It had to be likened in kind. Yes? That was why God instituted sacrifices. The sacrifice had to be a perfect Unblemished lamb. Yes, and it had to be physically perfect, correct? Symbolizing spiritual perfection. But then again, the animal, even though it had no physical blemishes, and even though you sacrificed it as God directed it to take place, it still could not get it done. But the similarity was the fact that the life was in the blood, and so the focus was always on the blood. And even though the animal wasn't a perfect being, it did have life in its blood. So what you find is, on the physical level, this animal sacrifice, being an unblemished animal, was a great picture, but it couldn't go any further.

It could never get it done, even if you did it repeatedly. It never got it done, and that's why the author of Hebrews repeatedly, from chapter 7 into chapter 10, says Christ died once for all. By the way, Peter does too. Once for all. Hapax is a real simple Greek word. Hapax.

Once for all. offering for sin, because the only unblemished spiritual person was Jesus Christ. Yes, so the animals were physical pictures of a spiritual, I won't say a spiritual reality, but a spiritual looking forward to. So, a physical picture of a spiritual looking forward to Christ as the once for all sacrifice.

Did the Jews back then believe that their sins were being forgiven when they did those sacrifices? What they did is they looked upon not so much as forgiveness as this deals with it for now, And the New Testament talks about this. It holds the sins looking forward to Christ as the ultimate sacrifice. What many of them, however, got into was thinking that the sacrifices did more than they actually did.

And that's the same thing that you thought, well, if I follow the law, then I'm saved, right? No. the Jews were inclined to look at the sacrifices following the law as accomplishing more than the Bible actually says that it does. This came up in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 15. These guys come and say, you know, unless you get circumcised you can't be saved. Well, circumcision never did save, right? So it's a wrong perspective that the Jews adopted. Circumcision never saved anybody. Hello.

That's why they used the word cover in the Old Testament instead of forgiveness. Yeah, so you'll find other terms than forgiveness that Jews kind of cranked their perspective over in several different regards. And that means they would actually look at, oh this actually does something. they would look at it as I'm actually accomplishing something spiritually rather than seeing this as a standpoint that covers the sin issue in anticipation of Christ. So there was a sacrifice for Adam and Eve, right? In which they got skinned and You know, they're thinking, hey, we got this done. And even Eve thinking, hey, I'm going to have a son and he's going to be the Savior, right? Well, not so fast. Yeah. So it's a temporary fix for a permanent problem. You got it. OK. It's a temporary fix. This holds it. This holds it for now. It's not a fix. It holds it for now. It's not a fix. It doesn't really get it done. So let's look on, now we got into the next part, bottom of page two.

God made mankind to have spiritual senses that were analog to the physical senses. The big picture is this, and we'll continue this on into not next Sunday, because we won't be here, but two Sundays from now, we'll continue on with this theme. God made mankind both physically and spiritually in his image. And, to add to that, we will see that God is said to have characteristics where he is expressed in ways like the physical and spiritual image in which he created man.

Let's take a look at what that means. At the bottom, and we went through this, we went through Hebrews, and I've also been through it in other studies. In the physical realm, you have a body. A part of that body is the brain. And by the way, the Bible does not speak specifically of the brain, so I'm talking observationally. That's what we find, right? So the brain is a part of the body.

You have in the physical realm sight, hearing, and touch in Hebrews, and also taste and smell in the physical realm are also said to exist in the spiritual realm. So you have all five classical senses in the physical realm are in Hebrews or elsewhere, expressed in the spiritual realm.

So, here is the Apostle Paul, he's writing to the church at Ephesus, and he says, I pray, chapter 1, I pray that the eyes of your hearts, having been opened, that you might see. Is he praying that they would have their physical blindness lifted? No, he's talking about their spiritual blindness which has been open that you might see. The unbelievers hearts are what? Blinded. And then, he who has an ear, written to the seven churches in Revelation, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Is he talking about your physical ears?

No, spiritual years. And so you can go through all of Scripture, and especially the New Testament, and especially the book of Hebrews. Hebrews is like the capital city of the spiritual senses. But it's not the only place that talks about it. We have physical senses, five physical senses, and we have five spiritual senses, as the Bible describes it. God made us both physically and spiritually in his image, including these five spiritual senses and five physical senses.

Now, question, is God said to see? Does God see? Yes. And so what you'll find is that the Bible says, this is page 3, the Bible says, it talks about the eyes of the Lord from the Old Testament in Genesis on into 1 Peter 3. The eyes of the Lord is an expression in the Bible and does the Lord have physical eyes? No. But what does it mean? God sees equivalent to our physical and spiritual senses. God sees, and the Bible says that repeatedly.

In fact, here's Genesis 6.8, the first occurrence of that phrase, the eyes of the Lord. We also have, and we see the Lord sees, right, as another thing.

The next is the ears of the Lord, or also, and I didn't list those, but the Lord heard. The Lord heard this or that. Does God have ears? Not physical ears like we tend to think of. But God, nonetheless, when says the ears of the Lord, and that expression is in Numbers 11, 18 and James 5, 4. So it's an Old Testament and New Testament expression. And then if we add to that, the Lord heard. Can you think of some examples where the Lord heard someone? Did he hear the people cry out from Egypt? That was one thing, the Lord heard the Israelites crying out. Back in Genesis, the Lord heard the cry of Hekar and Ishmael.

So you have the Lord hearing an expression of anthropomorphic expression, not because he's got an ear, a physical ear and eardrums and all those things. And by the way, God is never going to need hearing aids. It's not because he has those physical things, but because God already has those sense and he has made us spiritually and physically to have an equivalent.

So is that why in this picture you've taken brain and you put soul on the other side because the brain is a physical organ? Okay, so that's something we're actually going to be touching on next time. I was going to say next week, but that's not true, right? So next time, which is two weeks from now, we'll be looking at exactly that question. Because, just to look at it quickly, bottom of page two, what you see there is man is made to have, in the physical realm, mind, emotions and will on the physical side and on the spiritual side.

So some sort of a neurologist who might do brain surgery, can they deal with your soul? No. And so that's one thing. There are areas, I mean, they've got the brain fairly well mapped out as to what areas of the brain do different things. They do understand a lot from studying it scientifically. But there is more to a person than simply the physical side. And you also have, on the spiritual side, mind, emotions and will. So we'll be getting into that, because you ask a very good question.

And it's such a big question, we're going to take the whole next time to talk about that. So looking at this, also the Lord smelled. This is Genesis 8.21. Does the Lord have a nose and olfactory senses? It has nothing to do with factories. But nonetheless, it uses that, and we could term it an anthropomorphic expression. God smells it. And further, a soothing aroma is used multiple times, I mean dozens of times in the Old Testament.

Genesis 8.21 to Ezekiel 20 verse 41 in the Old Testament, dozens of times, a soothing aroma. And then on to, yeah, I say 42 times total.

And then the Aroma to God, or to God in Aroma, Ephesians 5.2, which they'll be studying in the Ephesians elective here soon, and Philippians 4.8. So those are in the context of the church, aren't they? So what that says is what we do in fulfillment of God's intent. So Ephesians and Philippians, when were those written?

Here's Paul under house arrest, he's in Rome, and by this time, by this time he is speaking about, you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. By this time he's saying you've been seated with Christ. And by this time he is telling, as we look at this morning, he is telling the believers of Philippi, you have a heavenly citizenship. The best-kept secret is Philippians says that three times, not just once. So you have a heavenly citizenship and so those things are going to come out and so it's those books that talk about an aroma to God. We're talking outside of the physical sacrifices. So things that are done spiritually have an aroma to God.

Next, and this steps into a realm where it's a little hard to be quite as definitive, because it's Christ, who is both God and man, but Christ felt compassion, there was sensation there, deep within him. And next, Christ tasted death. So things are put in terms of a sensory expression. So what we find is that the five senses that we think of classically in the physical realm have a spiritual equivalent in the believer, or at least mankind in one expression or another, and they are also expressed of God himself. Very interesting. Now, So next time when we take a look at it, we'll be looking at Stan's question. We've got the soul, which is biblically expressed as mind, emotions, and will. And there are words in the Bible used with those meanings. Mind, emotions, and will.

Does God have a mind, emotions, and will? Yeah, the mind of the Lord, right? Is God completely emotionless? Or does God express emotions too? Makes him sad to see the world. Yeah, as you look at it, God is not emotionally just neutral to things. What is God's emotion towards sin?

Hates it. He hates it. It has sometimes been said God can't look upon sin. The Bible doesn't actually teach that. As a matter of fact, you can find verses where he does look upon sin or iniquity. So the Bible actually does have God look upon sin, but God just doesn't sit there and say, oh, you know, can I have another cup of coffee? God does not look at sin and say, eh, boys will be boys.

Yes. And one of the problems in so many religions is attributing to God characteristics that he really doesn't have. Yeah, so it's important for us to look at what does scripture actually say as part one, because everything needs to be tested by scripture. Right. Just across the board, right? Check everything by scripture.

By the way, 1 Thessalonians 5.21 You'll see, you know, test everything or examine everything. That's documento. Put everything to the assay test. Test it hard. Test it hard. But in the end, what are we asked to do? If something does pass the test, right, this passes the test of truth, we test it, and yep, this is indeed biblical, then that is, stand by that. Stand by that. And it also implies that we can know the difference.

So we will be taking a look next time, two weeks from now, next time at the image and likeness of God as it relates to the soul. And the soul has a physical equivalent that we would call the brain. The soul is a part of the spirit just as the brain is a part of the body. And The soul consists of mind, emotions, and will, and we'll find that God himself has those characteristics of mind, emotions, and will. Now, we'll also look at how is our mind different from God's? How are our emotions different from God's? And how is God's will different from ours?

So, those will be things we'll examine two weeks from now. One of the things to look at, as we presented last time, are the six points, and we can begin to put these together. The six points are at the end of the text that we have here on page three, just below the middle of the page. So the first one is a personal image and likeness.

Are these five senses in the physical realm, five senses in the spiritual realm, and five senses as expressions of God, where God hears, God sees, etc. Do those relate to us having been made personally in the image of God? Yes, because does a rock have eyes, ears, nose, doesn't have those things, and certainly doesn't have those things spiritually speaking. The rest of creation does not have those five senses in both the physical and the spiritual realms that equate to God's seeing, hearing, smelling, and things of that sort. And it is personal, that's opposed to the impersonal God of Hinduism, the impersonal God of some branches of Buddhism. And so we find, having been made in God's personal image, God deals with things, when we say a person, we have things that are personally like God, by God's intent. Next, a spiritual image and likeness.

How many rocks have you run into that are really spiritual rocks? I've got some really beautiful rocks at home. I also have some rocks that are fossils. I was showing them to my grandkids recently. I have a little box like this, and it's the cutest sand dollars that you'll ever see. They're little, tiny, fossil sand dollars smaller than a dime. They're just really cute, but they're not spiritual and they're not personal.

The spiritual image and likeness of God, and we see that not just in Genesis 126, 1 Corinthians 15.45 also relates to that. So this is a teaching out of the New Testament even.

The Apostle Paul recognized it. Next, it is a moral image and likeness. I didn't reference it here, but that's what they covered in the Romans elective, where they went through and the image and likeness of God is a moral image and it's the corruption of that that you see in Romans chapters 1 and 2 particularly. Next is an interpersonal image. So our five classical senses allow us to have relationship with one another. So we're even designed by God to have relationship with one another. Does sin corrupt interpersonal relationships? Yup. And that's a big, it's not the only thing, but it's a big part of the problem. Sin corrupts interpersonal relationships. It doesn't eliminate them. It didn't cut it off.

Next, it is an authority image and likeness. The authority given to man was that something done at the outset, before the fall. Yeah, right there in Genesis 1, 26 and 27, we saw dominion over... Does that authority image go away? Does God give man, continue to give man direction about what you're to do with respect to things on the earth.

Yes. And here's an example. Here's Noah and his wife and the three sons and their wives. They get off the ark and God doesn't just say, well, do anything you like. He tells them, okay, here's some things that are changed and therefore here's how you need to handle things differently. and you'll do that with God-designated authority. And then finally, it's the creative image and likeness of God, and that includes the use of the five senses, even our, and we'll talk about this next time, our appreciation of creativity in another.

I do this terrible thing called Facebook. Some of the stuff I have to delete, you know, filter out and whatnot, but I do this terrible thing called Facebook. And one of the things that is astounding is to look at the amazing range of creativity that people have.

You know, one of the ones that I just saw posted for the first time this last week, here's this 18 year old pizza delivery boy. He notices that the people in the house where he's delivering the pizza have a baby grand piano. So he asks for permission to play. And from memory, he does Beethoven's Sonata.

Just astounding job at this, right? And you'll see people who make things that are huge and large You will see people who can carve little tiny things out of wood and ivory and stone and just like wow, you know, this took some incredible care and patience to come out with what they came out with, right?

And even Preparing a meal is an act of creativity. Here's one meal, and it looks like, oh, I want to eat that. To this other meal, you look at it and say, wow, this presents before I've taken the first bite. Between the appearance and the aromas coming from this food, oh boy, this is good.

Nancy was showing me one gal that says she's kind of, you know, working on her expertise in making cakes. And I said, working on it? This gal has phenomenal cakes, you know, and she just thinks she's kind of starting to get there, right? And we could look at a lot of things like that, just amazing ranges and spectrums of creativity from fallen people.

But the other half of that is we are made in God's image and so does God take pleasure in things? God created this and God created that and He called it good and in one case even very good. God takes pleasure in things and that's even what we saw in Ephesians and Philippians passage that we just read moments ago or just referenced moments ago. God did in fact make things such that, yes, there's mind, emotions, and will, but even things like pleasure and aesthetics.

We look at something and say, oh, wow, that is amazing. We look at people who have phenomenal talents, fallen people even, and how could that be after the fall? And how could we? Have you ever been someplace where the scenery, maybe it's a sunset, the scenery is just spectacular. Just amazing. The ability to look at that and say, you know, that really looks good. As a matter of fact, it's impressively good.

Slugs don't do that. Sour bugs don't do that, but we do. The even fallen man can express creativity and enjoy it. Because God is the one who made this thing called aesthetics, and the evolutionary viewpoint can't explain it. We can't. Because we've been made in God's image, and only the believer from God's Word can say that.

Isn't that great? It's fantastic. So, the Lord, even though we look at this as a fallen world, are there spectacular scenes in this fallen world? Yes, there certainly are. People are forever capturing a sunrise or a sunset, and that's just the beginning. The Lord has indeed made us creative beings and able to appreciate the aesthetics, the beauty, the spectacular character of what God has made. Yeah. Sometimes even atheists will give God credit for sunrises and sunsets.

Yeah, one of the ways we can tease them is, do you ever feel like you need to be thankful and you have nobody to thank? One of the things atheists and agnostics will admit is that the hallelujah chorus is very sturdy, even if you don't believe in God. It's just that you have got nobody to say hallelujah to, right? And hallelujah means what?

Praise God. Praise God. So the problem is they can have, because they've been created in the image and likeness of God, they can have a sense of awe, a sense of stirring, a sense of pleasure, and it's there because even though fallen, they're created in the image of God. That's why they've got it.

Slugs do not get stirred by the Hallelujah Chorus, right? I've never seen a rock jump up and down with excitement over the Hallelujah Chorus. Paul in Romans chapter 1 talks about that, that it is in the heart of man to know who God is. It's an absolute refusal of God. Here they have a sense of God and they've got a sense of how God has made things and yet they'll corrupt what God intended and they will be blind to what God has revealed.

Yeah? Could we have a class on a comparison between the new heaven and the new earth with the one present one? It must be amazing. Well, and I think, here's what I will say, and I covered this in Genesis in the Revelation study quote, and that is that comparison is amazing because it's been made in the image and likeness of God. What's it going to be like? Yeah, and the Bible described it. One of the things I get excited about Revelation, a lot of people read Revelation and, you know, I did this intense study of Revelation, it's not because I'm a prophecy nut. I'm not. But it's because it's got 150 verses describing home.

And the Apostle Paul was prohibited from describing it. John was told, you must write. And I like that. The reason Paul was told, you cannot talk about what you saw, is because that's John's assignment. The Apostle Paul was told, you can tell people, they're blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, they're seated with Christ in the heavenly places, set your mind on things above, you have a heavenly citizenship. Paul, you may not speak of anything that you saw, but John, write away. W-R-I-T-E. Get writing. Really cool.

And it's because we were at the outset made in the image and likeness of God, and that is not accidental or incidental. So that's what's exciting about all this. And when we look at our salvation and the unfathomable riches, those are only the case because we were originally made in the image and likeness of God, and Christ was born a man. When we say a man, He was born a male human being after the fashion of having been made in the image and likeness of God.

Let's pray. Because we have people stirring in the hallway here. Thank you Lord for your word. Thank you for just these fascinating and just marvelous insights that you revealed in your word. We thank you for what we can look back upon and what we can look forward to for eternity because of these things that you've revealed in Genesis chapter 1. And you knew about it, Lord, long before that. We thank you, Lord, for all these things. We present them before you. We thank you, Heavenly Father. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.