BIBLE STUDY-8

Peace Methodist Church

BIBLE STUDY-8

 

The Image of God

 

◎ Biblical Anthropology

What is man? In other words, it is called anthropology. This is the theme of today’s Bible study. This question is as old as the history of humankind. What can you define as humanity? Microcosmos, the head of all things... There will be many answers. But we are going to talk about the biblical anthropology.

 

◎ Humanity as God’s Creation

So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.(Genesis 1:27)

 

What is man that you are mindful of him,

and the son of man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him a little lower than

the heavenly beings.(Psalm 8:4~5)

 

◎ The Threefold Image of God(imago Dei)

The image of God can be divided into three dimensions: The natural image, the political image and the moral image.

 

◎ The natural image: understanding(reason), will(affections, passions), liberty

 

• Human being is endued with a power of distinguishing truth from falsehood.

 

• Every man must inevitably have a will, as long as he has an understanding. A will is basically related to the attributes of emotion.

 

• Liberty is a power of choosing what is good, and refusing what is not.

 

◎ The political image

 

• Humanity is given a status of privilege and distinct obligation with caring for the lower creation(Genesis 1:28)

 

◎ The moral image: righteousness, holiness, divine love

 

• The moral image of God is the essential condition of the spirit of humanity to be righteous and holy.

 

And to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God

in true righteousness and holiness.(Ephesians 4:24)

 

◎ The Fall of Humanity

 

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it

you shall surely die.”(Genesis 2:17)

 

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food,

and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree

was to be desired to make one wise,

she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some

to her husband who was with her, and he ate.(Genesis 3:6)

 

• Adam believed a lie. So he was deceived by Satan. He gave more credit to the word of Satan than to the word of God.

 

• Unbelief is the parent of all evil and the essence of unbelief lies in departing from God - the fountain of all our life, holiness, and happiness.

 

◎ The Effects of the Fall

 

For the wages of sin is death...(Romans 6:23)

 

• For the moment Adam tasted that fruit he died. He was separated from God. The life of God was extinguished in his soul. His soul has no more life.

 

• God told Adam that if he ate the fruit of the tree, he would surely die. Adam ate it and had to die. So what does it mean to die here? We can understood that the death sentence was given to Adam as God said. However, the execution of the death is only being suspended.

 

• By the Fall, the natural and political images were polluted or lost in part and the moral image was totally lost. He lost the whole moral image of God, righteousness and holiness.