The Gift That Makes Humans Human (Lent 16, 2023)

Think about it: The evolutionist would say that humans “descended” from other primates. The Bible says that all animals were created on the sixth day…God proclaims it “good” (kind of like closing the book or rebooting the computer) but then He chooses to do something more: creation with His Image, an exception for mankind. We were a totally separate creative effort on the sixth day. And to prove it, only humans display the Image of God.

This is important: It didn’t suddenly get evolved into mankind
where the mother and father didn’t have it, but the child does.
Imagine how ridiculous this is.
Parents with no God-given Image, moral code, or imperative to worship
raising a child who does?
No, we’ve had it from the start. It is the gift that makes humans human.

Focus for Lent: The Image of God is what separates mankind from every other flesh on the planet.

Questions for further thought:

How does an exalted view of the Image of God make it clear that humans and other primates—for all their superficial similarities—are distinct and evolution didn’t cause mankind? How is original causation/creation different from ongoing adaptation? If man and other primates do not arise from a common ancestor, will adaptations of each (evolution) ever truly bridge that gap?

What does it say about God that no other animal bears His Image?

To try to wrap our minds around God’s Image, what are some things humans do, display, or can accomplish that no animal can?

Did Jesus explicitly die for any other part of His creation? Can any other part of Creation respond to the Gospel?

Why might Satan want us to believe we’re nothing special, indeed, not any different than any other animal with animal impulses?

Prayer: Thank You Lord Jesus that we are your precious Image bearers. Thank You for dying on the Cross and being our Salvation. In Christ we pray, for His glory. 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.