Broken Image, Man’s Likeness (Lent 10, 2023)

Adam and Eve, perfect in their initial Creation,
decided that reflecting God’s Image wasn’t good enough.
They wanted to be exactly like God,
independent, and be gods themselves.

God had to have been heartbroken. Genesis 3:22 “And the LORD God said, ‘The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.’ 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.” 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.”

Before we consider this move too harsh, we must admit God is God and we are not. For us to live forever with a broken Image and man’s likeness born of a sin nature, that would be hell. So, God acted to preserve us and those who would be our next generation.

Genesis 4:1 Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man.”

In fact, Scripture says, Genesis 5:1 “When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them “Mankind” when they were created. 3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. “

After Adam and Eve, every human (apart from Jesus Christ) would have a broken Image, man’s likeness and a sin nature.

Focus for Lent: Seek God’s likeness in Jesus Christ, fully man, fully God.

Questions for further thought:

Considering the state of race relations in the United States and around the world, what does the Bible say about the Image of God, man’s likeness and how to live?

In the account of Adam’s line (above), Abel was killed by Cain. Cain was still alive but is not described as in Adam’s likeness. The remnant of faith, Seth, was the son in Adam’s own image. How do we explain Cain?

Is it possible to be born with the same father and mother, but display a likeness that resembles neither when under the influence of a sin nature? See John 8:44.

Prayer: Father God, though Your Image in us has been broken on account of human sin, please reform us by the power of Your Holy Spirit to have our likeness be more like Jesus than arising out of our sin nature. We repent of not treating our fellow man as if they have Your Image and Adam’s likeness. To rely upon superficial characteristics like skin color is surely an anathema to You. They are our brothers and sisters in the family of man. Remind me always that faith is not hereditary, no matter how much our earthly parents may have tried to teach us of Your ways. May we persevere in teaching Your truth to the next generation since each person must decide which way they will go and whose likeness they will pursue. “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). Amen.

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If you’re already signed up on my Home Page sidebar to receive posts, you’ll get the 2023 Lent Devotionals automatically. Or you can “Like” Seminary Gal on Facebook and they’ll be delivered to your Facebook news feed. If you haven’t signed up, today is a great day to do so. Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings. You don’t want to miss this encounter with God to prepare your heart for Easter! Understanding that prior years’ devotionals continue to minister, you may want to have access to a full series ahead of time:

Lent 2013 looked at The Letter to the Romans: Paul’s Masterpiece to reclaim foundations of our Christian heritage and began February 13, 2013.
A very special and ever popular offering was Lent 2014’s Be Still and Know that I AM God which can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014.
Lent 2015 began on February 18, 2015 with a series entitled With Christ in the Upper Room: Final Preparations. We explored what is often called “The Upper Room Discourse” found in John chapters 13-17.
ReKindle, the Lent 2016 series, began on February 10, 2016 and encouraged us to rekindle our spiritual lives.
Light: There’s Nothing Like It was the 2017 Lent series and explored this metaphor often used to portray Christ. It is archived beginning March 1, 2017.
Lent 2018, we explored the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We asked and answered the questions “Why?” from the movie Life of Pi as we discovered the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in a world of many faiths.
Lent 2019 gave us a deeper window into Easter “More to the Easter Story” since we miss so much when we rely only on a superficial understanding of the work of Christ. These devotionals are archived beginning March 6, 2019.
Our Lent 2020 devotional series offered prayer points surrounding “Be Thou My Vision” and were aimed at helping us to see God for who He is. The full set of devotionals are archived beginning February 26, 2020.
The theme for 2021 Lent Devotionals was how to live between two worlds while waiting for Christ’s return. Into the gap between the City of Man and its fixation upon sin and the City of God with its demand for holiness, two words minister peace: But God. Praise God for His intervention! They are archived beginning February 17, 2021.
Last year’s devotionals, Revelation in 40 offered 40 vignettes, scenes, concepts, and thoughts to inspire us to read the Book of Revelation as it is written and to go deeper. They are archived beginning March 2, 2022.