This is the transcript of Restitutio episode 577: Nothing Mere about a Man Made in the Image of God by Anna Brown

This transcript was auto-generated and only approximates the contents of this episode.

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577 Anna Brown - Nothing Mere about a Man Made in the Image of God.mp3

Transcript

00:00
Hey there, I'm Sean Finnegan. And you are listening to restitutio, a podcast that seeks to recover authentic Christianity and live it out today.

00:12
Has anyone ever told you? Ohh you believe Jesus is just a mere man? How do you respond when someone says that? Do you just go along with it and say Yep, that's what I believe Jesus is just another guy? I hope not.

00:29
Jesus is not just another guy, he's the Virginally conceived son of God who lived righteously without sin, healed dozens, maybe hundreds of people, preached tirelessly about the Kingdom gospel, taught the Bible, and how to live, performed many miracles and exorcisms.

00:50
And voluntarily died for our sins as a perfect sacrifice. Then God raised him from the dead, and he ascended to God's right hand from which place he is the head of the church and from which place he will come again on the last day to establish God's reign upon the earth.

01:09
This doesn't sound like just another guy to me. Even so, Jesus is unprecedented and magnificent accomplishments don't make him God either.

01:22
He is a genuine authentic 100% human being. He shows us what God can do with a human being, wholly submitted to God.

01:36
In today's episode, Anna Brown will draw upon the Bible and the ancient Near Eastern background to show that humans can bear God's image representing him on.

01:45
Earth, although some allege that Jesus had to be God to succeed, Brown shows in her presentation that it was actually christo's humanity that equipped him to stand in for God as his quintessential image.

01:59
Anna Brown grew up in Oregon and graduated from Hillsdale College with a Bachelors in economics. She's fluent in Spanish and she's learning Hebrew and has traveled in Europe, Australia and Israel. She lived in Spain and Barcelona and she currently resides in Louisville, KY.

02:18
Where she goes to the compass Christian Church with her husband and two children. She's also the marketing and publishing director for Living Hope International Ministries and is the brains behind so many of our recent successful projects. Over the last couple of years.

02:38
Including my own Kingdom journey book, which he helped in a lot.

02:41
Not Jeff Dibbles Christ before Creed's book and Seneca Harbins the cost of truth, so she really deserves a lot of credit for spearheading those projects and some other projects which I won't mention at this time. But anyhow, this is her presentation here now is episode 577. Nothing mirror about a man made in the image of God.

03:01
With Anna Schaffner brown.

03:12
The apostle Paul sending the letter to the Colossians by the Holy Spirit Records a section in praise of the Risen Christ in Chapter 1 verses 15 through 20. It begins like this. He Jesus is the image of the invisible God. I'm interested tonight in this phrase, why would.

03:30
Paul, right this here. What does it mean and what can it add to our understanding of Jesus?

03:37
This is because Trinitarian Christians frequently level an accusation at US Unitarians where they say you can't believe Jesus is just a mere man. But over the last century, archaeologists and scholars have discovered that in the ancient world, certain humans were described as representing the divine. I will.

03:57
Argue this evening that with this phrase, the image of God the Bible describes all of humanity in these terms. We will focus in particular on two figures, Adam and Christ.

04:10
I'll begin by defining the accusation of philanthropists M and citing a modern example. Next, we'll discuss the conclusions arrived at by theologians as they have tried to understand the phrase image of God. Then we'll journey into the ancient world to see what the biblical authors contemporaries believed about images of gods.

04:30
And their relationship to the divine.

04:32
By now we will have built a biblical anthropology, so next we will apply it to Christ and I will show that in the New Testament, our perspective on Adam influences our perspective on the Messiah. Finally, I will discuss the implications for Christology from a Unitarian perspective first.

04:53
Let's define philanthropist MI know what you're thinking you're thinking. I know what a philanthropist is. It's a it's a heretic who gives away their money to charity.

05:05
Rather, from the Greek roots silos or Mir and anthropos, meaning man, philanthropists M is the belief that Jesus is a mere man in all the places I've found that discuss it. Philanthropist Umm is considered heresy here. Some of us Unitarians struggle, we think well.

05:24
Jesus. Jesus isn't a mere man, he is special.

05:30
But the term mere man here is not an accusation that Jesus is some run-of-the-mill regular Joe, instead putting down a human. Jesus denigrates humanity, and Trinitarians do it in the belief that humanity is too lowly to represent God.

05:48
I believe that Jesus is a man and that there is nothing mere about that.

05:53
Within the last century and a half, archaeologists and scholars have shown how the humanity God created was intended to rule on his behalf, representing him in and to creation. If we take this biblical perspective on humankind and apply it to our Lord and Savior, we see that as the human Messiah.

06:13
He is everything mankind is supposed to be, and from the biblical perspective.

06:18
That is a rich and beautiful thing. Kingdom through Covenant is an excellent book. A year ago I convinced Jerry Werewolf to take my copy with him to a conference and get it signed by Peter J Gentry. So now you know something about me and the kind of person that I am. Since I disagree with Peter J Gentry and Stephen Wellum on this point, I will quote them in a section where they explain why.

06:38
To them, Jesus must be God, they say quote. Scripture teaches that this Messiah is more than a mere man.

06:48
Since he is identified with God, how so? Because in fulfilling God's promises, he literally inaugurates God's saving rule Kingdom and shares the very throne of God, something no mere human can do, which entails that his identity is organically tied to the one true and living God. End Quote.

07:08
These claims are vague.

07:10
To Gentry and Wellum, since Jesus one is identified with God, two fulfills God's promises and three quote UN quote shares the throne of God. There is no other possible conclusion. He must be God. These authors conclude this section of their book with a list of accomplishments.

07:32
That apparently no mere man could have completed quote in him as fully human, the glory and radiance of God is completely expressed, since he is the exact image and representation of the father.

07:47
It is crucial to point out to say that Jesus has done all this is to identify him as God the son Incarnate, fully God and fully man. It is for this reason that the New Testament presents Jesus in an entirely different category from any created thing. In fact, Scripture so identifies him with Yahweh and all his.

08:06
Actions, character and work that he is viewed as David Wells reminds us as quote the agent, the instrument and the personified of God's sovereign eternal saving rule end.

08:19
Trinitarian and Unitarian Christians can agree that in Jesus, the glory and radiance of God.

08:26
Is completely expressed.

08:27
Amen. But the second claim here that Jesus is, quote, in an entirely different category from any created thing, End Quote because he is the quote.

08:39
Agent instrument and personified or of God's saving rule. End Quote flies in the face of the ancient Near eastern culture in which the Bible was written.

08:49
On the contrary, in the ancient Near East, kings and image statues were seen as the quote UN quote agents, quote, UN quote instruments and quote UN quote personifies of divine rule. And the Book of Genesis gives this rule to all of humanity despite Trinitarian concerns to the contrary.

09:08
In the biblical perspective, a human being can and does serve as to echo David Wells, quote the agent instrument and personified of God's saving.

09:19
Rule End Quote.

09:22
But before we apply the ancient Near eastern worldview to Christ, we'll need to journey into the Old Testament and take a tour through ancient Egypt and Babylon. Don't lose heart. We will make it back to the New Testament as we bring these ideas to bear on Christ in the Hebrew scriptures, humankind is referred to as the.

09:42
Image and likeness of God at 3 instances all in.

09:46
The first chapters.

09:46
Of Genesis, each time the significance of the statement, though perhaps not its meaning.

09:53
Is apparent. The first thing God says about humanity is let us make man in our image after our likeness here in Genesis 126, the next two uses of the phrase summarize God's creation in Chapter 5, verse 1, and clarify the gravity of murder in Chapter 9, verse 6, the relative scarcity.

10:14
Of Image of God texts coupled with the ideas massive significance have led to centuries of theologians trying to speculate what it could mean.

10:23
Comments Hendricks Berkoff quote by studying how systematic theologies have poured meaning into Genesis 126, one could write a piece of Europe's cultural history. End Quote.

10:36
What Berkoff means, of course, is that theologians, with scant textual evidence to exhibit the phrase image of God, have instead used the anthropology invogue during their lifetime to build an interpretation. Let's do a brief tour through his.

10:51
Irenaeus Clement of Alexandria, and Athanasius seemed to have ascribed to a theory about the image of God that's sometimes referred to as divinization. That is, it's a partaking of the divine nature through salvation. Augustine famously posited that in the same way that God he thought.

11:10
Is a Trinity, so each human being must have been created in the image of the Trinity too. He settled on memory intellect and will as the three components of each three-part human.

11:25
How do you feel about that, friend?

11:27
Do you? Do you feel like a Trinity tonight?

11:31
Other theologians didn't either.

11:34
Martin Luther settled on obedience to God as the meaning of the image of God, meaning that you could be more or less the image of God depending on your conformity to his will. Finally, in our time post, modern Christianity tends to posit that we are the image of God only in our relationships with others. Stanley Grenz.

11:54
Represents this perspective when he says, quote the image of God does not lie in the individual per se, but in the personality of persons in community.

12:04
And.

12:05
You, my friend, are not made in the image of God, but perhaps your family, or your community, or this group of people is.

12:16
In short, without more biblical or archaeological data, thinkers have found it impossible to know what the Book of Genesis means when it says that a man is made in the image and likeness of God.

12:28
And for these theologians, the necessary source material had not yet been discovered. That is, until the last century and a half. J Richard Middleton, in his book the Liberating Image, the Imago Day in Genesis 1, evaluates a 1988 doctoral dissertation by Gulager A Johnson, saying that it, quote shows that the degree of consensus.

12:49
Among Old Testament scholars is close to unanimity.

12:54
Old Testament scholars are almost all on the same page about the image of God. But what is that page? According to Middleton, the consensus takes two factors into account. First, royal aspects of the Biblical creation account. Second, the ancient Near Eastern thought world behind.

13:14
Image of God language.

13:15
The Royal tone is found first in Genesis 126 through 27, it reads. Quote, then God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. This is the first statement about God's creation of humanity.

13:36
It is composed of essentially 2 parts. 1st Mankind is to be made in God's image and likeness, and 2nd mankind is to have dominion.

13:46
Over all the earth.

13:47
Many Hebrew scholars believe the second is the function of the first David J Kleines writes in his article humanity as the image of God quote, Genesis 126 may well be rendered. Let us make humanity as our image so that they may rule. End Quote clients justifies this reading.

14:07
Are pointing out that the Hebrew texts evolve or and can carry the force of so that.

14:12
What Gentry and Wellum concur? They write quote the correct translation, therefore, is let us make man so that they may rule End Quote. A similar text may prove illustrative clients points to the creation of the Sun and the Moon in Genesis 116 through 18. It goes quote and God made the two great lights and God set them in the expanse of the head.

14:36
Ends to give light on the Earth to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. End Quote here, the creation of the two great lights is immediately followed by their purpose, their function. What they do taking this verse into consideration when looking at the creation of humanity just 10 verses later.

14:56
There is a similar construction that follows creation with purpose, then God said. Let us make man in our image after our likeness.

15:05
And let them have dominion. What do the sun and moon do? They give light. What do humans do? They have dominion.

15:13
Christians can gain insight into the Bible by studying the cultures that shaped or reflected Israel's worldview, and we don't have to elevate secular or Pagan sources to the authority of Scripture to do it. When the biblical authors wrote, they used local language and cultural expressions of their time as it happens.

15:33
When we look for examples of images and the phrase image of a God in ancient cultures, we find 2 helpful examples.

15:42
Egypt and Babylon, we have evidence for Egyptian influence on Israelite culture baked into the text in acts, Chapter 7, verse 22. Stephen says that quote Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. End Quote young Moses grows up among the Egyptian nobility. He speaks and writes their language.

16:04
And does business with Egyptian ways of the?

16:07
Moses, of course, is traditionally credited with writing the Torah. But even if a later scribe compiled the Pentateuch, Hebrew slavery in Egypt had already left an indelible mark on Israelite culture. Thus, any Egyptian phrases that parallel the Genesis account are worth our study.

16:27
It just so happens that an abundance of inscriptions in ancient Egypt called the pharaoh the image of a lower case G God.

16:35
This is how we know Kleines writes that quote the terminology of the image of God is understood in the ancient Near East almost exclusively of the king, in a text from the 14th century BC, The Egyptian God Amon are among Ray addresses Pharaoh Amenhotep the 3rd. As quote my living image.

16:56
Creation of my Members End Quote. Note that this text not only refers to the king as the image of his God, but it also seems to establish some kind of procreational relationship, as if the God birthed him.

17:12
Now.

17:13
Listen to this next one. A text from the same period has the same God address the Pharaoh quote. You are my beloved son who came forth from my members, my image, whom I have put on Earth. I have given to you to rule the earth in peace. End Quote. I was surprised when I first encountered these phrases.

17:34
Which to my ear sound like the Bible.

17:38
In an ancient Egyptian text.

17:41
But the New Kingdom of Egypt is replete with similar references to the Pharaoh. They serve rhetorically, to elevate the pharaoh to the status of representative of the Egyptian pantheon.

17:54
Please note the dates of these inscriptions. They fall within the currently accepted approximately 2 century date range for the exodus, which means that we can know with some certainty that the enslaved Hebrews lived in a world where people spoke like this.

18:10
I counted 55 occurrences of the phrase image of God with reference to a pharaoh that occur within the early and late dates for the exodus event. If we include hot ship suit who reign in the decades before the earliest exodus date, the phrase is used 59 times and these are just the inscriptions.

18:30
Staleys and texts that remain to this day take a look at this chart. The text may be a little small, but it represents 9 Pharaohs who ruled between the beginning of the 15th and end of the 13th century.

18:44
See by how many times they're referred to as the image of a God in the Egyptian pantheon. Note our most impressive Amenhotep, the third archaeologists have found 18 instances of the phrase image of lower case God that refer to him. What's most notable about this timeline is that it represents the majority of the Pharaohs from this time period.

19:08
Each referred to as a God's quote UN quote image. This Egyptian inscription shows a functional aspects to this relationship. Quote While you a moan are in heaven and illuminate the world. He, Amenhotep the third is on Earth to carry out your kingship. End Quote.

19:25
From the perspective of the royal cult this Pharaohs kingship was literally enacting the rulership of the Egyptian God. But on Earth instead of in heaven, in Egyptian dynasties centuries before these inscriptions, so before the earliest exodus date, Pharaohs did not claim to be the image of a God.

19:44
No, no, they said that they were the God's physical incarnation, the God himself. But texts like this one demonstrate both a close relationship and a distinction in the Egyptian.

19:56
See in this text Amenhotep the third is a close relative to this lower case G God Amone, but not necessarily among himself. Middleton summarizes this representative aspect. Quote in ancient Egypt as the deputy and representative of the God on Earth. The King's exploits were.

20:16
The gods exploits End Quote, Curtis says. Quote the fact that the king is described as the image of God seems to presuppose his creation or procreation by the God End Quote. That is to say, to be the image of a God was equivalent to being the son of the.

20:33
God, hang on to that. This aspect of image of God language will come to light when we talk about the Gospel of Luke.

20:42
But let us return to the biblical account. Humanity is creation in God's image, especially in light of the Dominion mandate that immediately follows, communicates that Adam and Eve are to do for Yahweh what Emman Hotep the third supposedly did for his God. Humans carry out Yahweh's rulership.

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On earth.

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Now.

21:04
Genesis doesn't just copy Egypt's ideas about the King's relationship to the divine. No, it responds to and critiques the ancient near eastern conception of the image of a God first by democratizing it in Genesis, the entirety of humanity is made in God's image, not just the king.

21:24
2nd, where some early Pharaohs and other ancient Near eastern depictions of kings as the image of God imply that the king is the literal incarnation or some kind of avatar of that God. The Genesis text makes it clear Adam and Eve are created beings. They are not Yahweh himself.

21:43
Scholars frequently use the word viceroy to describe this kind of rulership, and that's apt here. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Viceroy, is a ruler exercising authority in a colony on behalf of a sovereign, and that is exactly what Adam and Eve are doing. They are not Yahweh. They are created beings. They do, however.

22:02
Rule in his world on his behalf.

22:08
Klein says that to have a mortal being represent the creator to his creation allows God to be imminent without compromising his transcendence. Quote in this juxtaposition of two aspects of the divine nature. The author of Genesis one has both freed God from ******* to the world order by asserting the creature hood of all that is not God.

22:29
And has ensured that this statement about the imminence of God firmly excludes any possibility of humanities divinization for humans, too, are explicitly said to be creatures of God. End Quote, this author goes on to say that through the creation of Adam quote Innocent.

22:45
Hence, the word becomes flesh, the word calls the creation into existence, but the image of God is the permanent link between God and his world. End Quote, according to Kleines, Adams clear status as a created being precludes any claim that he or all humanity is God Incarnate or in our context.

23:06
A member of the Godhead. Rather, mankind represents God to creation.

23:14
Psalm 8.

23:15
Elucidates the biblical worldview on the creation of man. Let's read verses 4 through 8 together. 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 and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things.

23:34
For his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea. Whatever passes along the paths of the Seas, Gentry and well, and comment on this section, saying quote verses 5 through 8 constitute a word by word, commentary and meditation on Genesis 126 through 28.

23:55
Psalm 8/6 through 8 details and unfolds the rule of mankind specified in Genesis 126 B. It is clear and obvious that the Psalm writer has the texts of Genesis 126 before his mind. Note in particular that the terms in Hebrew for Crown Glory and honor are all royalty.

24:14
Terms. This shows that the songwriter understood image to speak of royal status. End Quote, let us turn to Babylon. It's difficult to find many texts from ancient Mesopotamia. Middleton says quote the geographical region corresponding to ancient Mesopotamia is notorious for the relative rarity of manuscript.

24:36
End Quote in fact, Edward Curtis, in his masterful doctoral dissertation, could only find 5 explicit uses of the phrase image of God throughout 5 centuries of Mesopotamian history. Middleton generously counts 7.

24:54
Nevertheless, almost all of these Neo Assyrian inscriptions portray the king as the image of God, and notably one of them designates a priest as the image of God. It's the directions for an incantation to drive away sickness, and it reads, quote. The incantation is the incantation of Marduk, the incantation priest.

25:14
Is the salmon image of marduke End Quote. Here the priest stands in for the Pagan deity as image. He performs an incantation on the God's behalf.

25:28
Note that the word for Image Salmi is a cognate of the Hebrew equivalent Salem.

25:35
Let's talk about the biblical picture of mankind as priests to moderns Adam and Eve's duties in the Garden of Eden can seem demeaning.

25:44
They came into this world to be what gardeners?

25:48
But textual hints show that Genesis is describing the Garden of Eden as a sacred space. Gentry and Wellum draw parallels between the Garden of Eden and the Jewish temple to argue that Eden, too, was where God dwelt and ruled Daniel Leon in his article of the Garden of Eden as primordial temple, or sacred space for humankind.

26:08
He put it all in the title, guys. You know what is these? Says summarizes quote, an examination of the creation narrative points to Eden as the earliest occurring sacred space, as well as the prototype and archetype for future temples.

26:23
Out.

26:24
If Eden was a sacred space, then Adam and Eve were its priests. God's directions to work and keep the Garden of Eden use the same Hebrew verbs that describe the work of the temple. Priests in numbers 37 through 8/8/26 and 18 five through 6. Genesis 215 reads quote the Lord God.

26:44
Took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and.

26:47
Keep it, compare it to numbers 37. They the priests shall keep guard over him and over the whole congregation, before the tent of meeting as they minister at the Tabernacle. The same Hebrew verbs Lambda and Lee Schambra appear in each of these verses, describing the responsibilities of mankind in Genesis.

27:07
And the priesthood in numbers in the ancient world, this biblical anthropology is revolutionary. If you're an Egyptian commoner, say you know what it means to be an image of God of a God. You know it means to be king, and that only the king is the image of a God.

27:24
And then you encounter Yahweh.

27:27
Reading the Hebrew scriptures, you see that in Genesis 1, the most high creator, not just any God, the most high creator made all of humankind in his image. This means that you too were made to represent Yahweh. What kind of dignity does that give?

27:46
Not just for you, but for your servants, for your sisters and brothers.

27:51
Children all were made with this dignity. The Hebrew scriptures not only honor humanity, they challenge you to honor and respect your fellow humans in a way that is different from every other religion and culture in the then known world. The fact that Babylon has fewer examples of image of God text than Egypt presents a small problem for bringing this idea to bear on our Christology.

28:14
Because Israel was in Egypt over a millennia before the birth of the.

28:19
And the writing of the New Testament as we approach the time of the New Testament, we need to know what people thought of the image of God in the 1st century. Let's read an anecdote about Hillel, a rabbi who lived at about the same time as the Christ Ministry. Quote Hillel the Elder at the time that he was departing from his students would walk with them.

28:39
They said to him, Rabbi, where are you walking to? He said to them to fulfill a commandment to bathe in the bath.

28:46
House, just like regarding the statues or icons of kings that are set up in the theaters and the circuses, the one who is appointed over them, bathes them and scrubs them, and they give him sustenance, and furthermore he attains status with the leaders of the Kingdom. I, who was created in the divine image and form.

29:07
As it is written for in the image of God, he made man even more so. Hello interpreted the image of God by comparing himself to a King's statue. This 1st century contemporary of the Christ considered physical images as a parallel to the image of God.

29:25
Thankfully, despite the relative scarcity of later Babylonian texts about an image of God's physical images of gods, that is, idols were ubiquitous in nearly all the cultures surrounding Israel. Most of the later Old Testament occurrences of the Hebrew word rendered image in Genesis.

29:44
Salaam refer to idols, and so perhaps it's ironic any serious study of biblical anthropology should include idols, though the phrase image of a God is relatively scarce in Babylonian texts around the time of Israel's captivity there images in the form of literal idols abound.

30:03
Did cult images in Mesopotamia, says Middleton, were first made in a workshop and then concentrated quote by means of an elaborate ritual, typically known as the mouth washing or sometimes the mouth opening ritual End Quote. Idols and Mesopotamia were thought to be alive because they contained some refined material from the God.

30:25
Called fluid spirit or breath.

30:30
Animating them to become the living representative of a divine being. Perhaps this has something to do with Genesis Chapter 2 quote. Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. End Quote. Do these ideas reflect?

30:50
Each other.

30:50
Does Genesis use commonly accepted ancient rituals around idolatry to tell us that as an idol statue is to its God, so humankind is to Yahweh a type of image common to the ancient areas that we seldom here in this discussion is statue images of kings which represented the authority of the King's ancient kings, left statues of themselves in territories.

31:12
They conquered so say if you're an Assyrian king, you and you just conquered a new city. The first thing you're going to do is have an image of yourself set up in that land. The big statue says I'm after Ben a Paul and I own this.

31:25
Place a similar significance of images is found in the Roman Empire that forms a cultural backdrop to the New Testament, Morton Warmond writes. Quote the significance of the picture of the emperor can be illustrated by the fact that all depictions of the emperor were cult images and therefore sacrosanct at the foot of the Emperor's statue.

31:46
The person was unpublishable when a slave was sold. The seller was obliged to inform the prospective buyer about whether the slave had ever run to an image of the emperor for our Christology. We can note that no one believed that an image of Caesar was Caesar himself.

32:06
But that any statue image of Caesar represented the Emperor and his authority in all the Roman Empire was assumed to be fact. Another note about physical images. Without the figure they represent. They're worthless. Were Caesar to die, or to be defeated, his statue would mean little.

32:25
Certainly it wouldn't be revered in the same way without God. Humanity and Christ are without value, only the thing that it represents gives meaning and significance to the image.

32:40
Jews living in the 1st century cultural context would be surprised at the modern American paucity of real life examples of images for them living in a world where kings claim representative status of the gods and idle statues abound. The Biblical creation account clearly honored and exalted humanity to the status.

33:01
Of divinely ordained viceroys and priests of God.

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In sum, Middleton writes, quote the Imago Day or Image of God designates the Royal Office or calling of human beings as God's representatives and agents in the world granted authorized power to share in God's rule or administration of the Earth's resources and creatures.

33:25
Quote But what does this have to do with the price of bread?

33:29
Who cares what EM and hotep the third thought about himself and his Pagan?

33:32
Gods.

33:33
What does it matter if Eden was a temple since we don't?

33:35
Live there.

33:38
In the New Testament, writers both designate Christ as the image of God and compare Jesus to Adam, both explicitly and implicitly. Let us return to Colossians, where Paul writes quote he Jesus is the image of the Invisible God, the first born of all creation and quote.

33:56
What did Paul mean when he called Jesus the image of the invisible?

34:00
Oh, God. Colossians is not just using flowery language. This phrase is deliberate. When Paul applies image of God language to Jesus and uses the same designation given to Adam and Eve in the Creation account, he uses terminology familiar to readers of the Hebrew scriptures to categorize Jesus as a member of the human race even.

34:20
As in context, he exalts him to the apex of it, the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament points out that the statement is deliberate. Quote. Paul equates Christ with the Adam intended in Genesis 127. End Quote.

34:37
Let's imagine for a moment that you are recording a poem about the Christ and your big goal is to prove that Jesus is God. Indeed, that he must be. Isn't that kind of a lame star.

34:51
Clearly referring to Jesus with the same designation given to the first humans, any one in ancient Israel would recognize that an image of a God or king represents or stands in for that God or king. In the same way, Jesus represents God on.

35:06
Indeed, he must. Paul emphasizes God's transcendence, and with it the need for a representative with the word invisible. In one phrase. He not only tells us that Jesus is God's representative, but why, for us, this text should now call the mind on earlier Egyptian text.

35:26
Remember, while you are moan are in heaven and illuminate the world. He I'm in hotep the third is on Earth to carry out your kingship when Paul calls Jesus God's image he is classifying him as the eminent representative of the transcendent God.

35:42
Here, the New Testament illustrates Jesus as the one vested with God's authority designated and empowered to represent him to the parts of the world under God's control, like a statue left in a conquered land. Christ's presence in our hearts shows that here God rules.

36:02
Further, when Paul uses image of God, language of Jesus, he is deliberately making use of the first designation for all humanity and applying it to the Christ.

36:11
Explicit New Testament comparisons between Jesus and Adam showed just as Adam was the first progenitor of humanity. Paul thinks of Jesus as the progenitor of a new kind of human race, first Corinthians 1521 through 22 reads for as by a man came death by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.

36:32
For as an atom, all die soul also in Christ shall all be made alive. Paul does not compare a divine Jesus to a mere man. Adam, On the contrary, the similarity between them is explicit. Paul refers to Adam and Jesus each as a man.

36:51
Without apology to Paul, the difference between the two is outcome.

36:56
In Adam, all die, but in Christ all will be made alive. A similar comparison takes place in Romans. Quote death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. For if because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man.

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Much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ, End Quote that's Romans 5, verses 14 and so.

37:26
In the first verse quoted here, Adam is the quote UN quote type of the one who was to come referring to Jesus. The word rendered type in the SV is a Greek word, 2 posts and it means type dye, pattern print or stamp. Here again Paul binds Jesus and Adam together in their status as first man.

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And draws a distinction between their respective outcomes through Adam's death and through Jesus life. If Jesus is God.

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What does Paul?

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Doing. Why would he repeatedly compare Jesus and Adam without drawing that vital distinction? If we are offended to think that Jesus and Adam can be compared, we should check our hearts, not worrying that we denigrate Jesus but searching to find if we adequately appreciate the humanity God created to bear his.

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Image.

38:20
It isn't just Paul who draws comparisons between the two figures. The author of Hebrews interprets Psalm 8, the Royal Psalm we read earlier, by applying it to the Christ in Chapter 2 verses 5 through 9. Concluding quote. We see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death.

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So that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. End Quote.

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This is not an explicit comparison. It specifically names Jesus only not Adam, but to apply to Jesus a meditation on the creation of the first humans is certainly an implicit comparison between the two figures, and it shows that the New Testament mind sees Jesus as embodying.

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And fulfilling God's design for that first human.

39:09
Another implicit comparison, perhaps the most intriguing, occurs in Luke.

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The evangelist notably bestows the title son of God on two individuals. Of course, Jesus receives the appellate of multiple times in this gospel, but Adam too is called the son of God. In Luke, his designation is found in Jesus's genealogy, which goes backwards from Jesus all the way to create.

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The genealogy concludes quote the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God, End Quote Gavin Ortland in his article image of Adam, Son of God, argues that Genesis 5 three where Adam father to son is own likeness after his image and named him Seth, draws a parallel.

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Between Adam and God on the one hand, and Seth and Adam on the other. If Seth's in God's image and likeness is his son, then Adam in God's image and likeness, must be God's son too.

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Trinitarian commentators struggle with this detail and Luke.

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Why would the evangelist call Adam, the son of God, immediately following Jesus baptism, where a voice came from heaven? You are my beloved son with you. I am well pleased. Some 15 verses prior referring to Adam by one of Jesus titles, especially in such close proximity in the text, seems to make a comparison between.

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Jesus and Adam from a Trinitarian perspective, Luke 338 presents a problem because Adam cannot possibly be a member of the Godhead, but Jesus is supposed to be God.

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But Unitarians are in a uniquely privileged position to understand the verse, and indeed Luke's intention in applying the same moniker to both Jesus and his ancestor in the greater scriptural narrative. Adam and Jesus are described as fulfilling analogous roles. Both are rulers of God's creation.

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Representative images of the transcendent God Priest to God and progenitors of a kind of human race God designed each of them to live in covenant with him and carry out his authority.

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In biblical scholarship, a shift in understanding the image of God has taken place almost entirely within the last century. Even now, it is filtering down from the Academy into the popular consciousness through resources like the Bible Project and books like Michael Heiser's the Unseen realm as popular theology.

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These Edenic humanity and the status of royal priestly viceroys of Yahweh. Perhaps the time is coming when we can acknowledge that a human need not be God to represent him.

41:55
Michael Heiser, himself a Trinitarian, explains image of God, language, and Genesis in a way that rings Christological. Listen to this quote, humankind was created as God's image. If we think of imaging as a verb or function, that translation makes sense. The image is not an ability we have, but as a status. We are his representatives on Earth.

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To be human is to image God.

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This is why Genesis 126 through 27 is followed by what theologians call the Dominion mandate. In verse 28. The verse informs us that God intends us to be him on this planet. End Quote.

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Writing in 2015, Heiser correctly ascertains the functional aspect of the image of God. Genesis 126 through 28 empowers humanity to be God's, quote, UN quote, representatives on Earth.

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Remember how earlier in my presentation, Gentry and Wellum quoted a scholar who said that Jesus must be God because, among other reasons, he is identified with God, fulfills God's promises and quote UN quote shares the throne of God Hyser also a Trinitarian apparently disagrees.

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Here, he says, we humans are God's representatives on earth to Unitarians comparing Jesus and Adam isn't uncomfortable. You see, like Adam, Jesus was made to be God's representative to the created world order. He is empowered to be God's viceroy, to represent the invisible.

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God on and to the earth.

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Heiser's concluding statement is intended to refer to humanity, but it could easily refer to Christ.

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Unitarians can openly assert that, in a similar way to how God intended Adam and Eve to be him on this planet, so to speak, during his ministry, God intended Christ.

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To quote UN quote. Be him on this planet.

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So which is it?

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Are humans inadequate to represent God, or are we designed to represent God? Is humanity incapable of keeping covenant, or was mankind intended to be in relationship with?

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God must the Messiah too be God. Was humanity exalted, empowered and later pushed to the back seat of our destiny.

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Many scholars still stubbornly assert that only God can take on the messiahs mantle. Gentry and Wellum contend that the whole biblical history, beginning with Adam serves to prove that only God can keep covenant with.

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God quote who is able or what kind of person is able to fulfill all God's promises, inaugurate his saving rule in this world, and establish all that is associated with the new covenant. The answer in biblical thought is clear. They say it is God alone who can do it and no one else. He must unilaterally act.

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If there is going to be any redemption, End Quote.

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Gentry and Wellum are asserting that only God can bring about salvation, which is certainly the case only God has the authority and the power to effect change in his world.

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But beyond just that, these authors argue that God could not possibly include in the process a human being. I am shocked at these two authors willingness to place limits on the all knowing and all powerful creator of the universe, the same authors who asserted earlier that Adam was created to represent.

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But as his advisory?

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Earth here assert that quote God must unilaterally act if there is going to be any redemption. End Quote.

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To the scholars hanging on to the false accusation of philanthropists M while teaching an exalted and empowered humankind, I say this you can't have both.

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Either a human can represent God or no human can.

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The time is ripe for Christians to leave. This mere man rhetoric aside and acknowledge that a human Messiah can represent God.

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I have shown tonight that in biblical anthropology, there is nothing mere about man from the beginning, God designed humanity to represent him and to rule his world. Adam's failure and the subsequent failures of other covenant heads came after the creation of humankind in Genesis one. It was a problem, not an inherent aspect of God's design.

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And Jesus, instead of representing God's abandonment of partnering with humanity, step forward and rectify this mistake, becoming everything humanity was originally intended to be.

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In his work on his understanding of the incarnation, the Person of Christ, David Wells writes, quote the saving and vindicating Rule of God has been born with Jesus, yet it is also plain that this is the rule of God. End Quote to wells when Jesus describes his ministry in terms of the Kingdom of God, he must be hinting that he is God because no human can reign.

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Over God's Kingdom, but in the ancient Near eastern mindset, even a statue could stand in for the authority of a God. How much more could a human image of God represent yaha.

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Ancient near Eastern parallels show us that the language of the Genesis creation is filled with significance. Mankind was designed to rule over and represent God to creation. Adam and Eve were further intended to fulfill the role of priests in God's cosmic primordial temple space.

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In light of this elevated initial status of humankind, Christians should not be surprised when later New Testament texts explicitly and implicitly compare Jesus and Adam. Nor should we fear classifying Jesus as a man.

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I hope that tonight I have armed you with the perspective to respond to accusations that your beliefs denigrate Jesus when someone asks you, how could you possibly believe Jesus is just a human you can talk to them about Ancient Egypt, point them to this presentation, or send them to resources more in their sphere like the Bible.

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Project to show them that the role of humanity was intended to and that Jesus does fulfill, recognizing that a human being can and does represent God is not inappropriate, it's biblical.

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With this tool, I'd like to offer you a challenge. What did Uncle Ben say? Oh, yeah, Uncle Ben said with great knowledge comes great responsibility. Now that you now that you have this information, I challenge you not to let it lie during this conference, you've sat through presentations.

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You've met with fellow Unitarians and I pray that your time has been blessed. There's more to come as you return home from this time. Consider in your heart what is the conversation? I can have the person. I can invite the friend to whom I can offer a resource.

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Where are you calling me? God, to open this conversation.

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And when you next hear an accusation that Unitarians believe in a mere man, Jesus, remember, if limited corporeal humanity was created to serve as kings and priests to God. There is nothing mere about man. A human Christ can represent God.

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Well, that brings this presentation to an end. What did you think? Come on over to restitutio.org and find episode 577. Nothing mere about a man made in the image of God and leave your feedback there.

49:40
Someone wrote in on our last episode 576. Thank God.

49:46
Sean, I think the alone team must have heard you preparing this talk. I am watching alone season 11 at the moment and at least three of the contestants are praying to God that they get a big fish or their arrow flies straight and they are thanking God when they do get something to eat and the fluffy pagans thank the land.

50:06
Eat too many berries and tap out early.

50:09
This is from Ken, and he's referring to the episode from last week, which was a Thanksgiving sermon that I delivered where I started out by talking about the TV show alone. I don't know if you've ever heard of it, but it's where you are trying to survive, and you have your own camera. And I was just kind of noting.

50:29
Now, infrequent they had any Christians on the show, but I'm glad to hear that there are more Christians on the show in season 11. I think anytime Christians can get on TV and do so in a way that makes Christianity look good, that's great. So that's encouraging. Thanks for writing in, Ken.

50:47
Just a couple of hours ago, somebody named Larry wrote in on episode 568 in which we discussed the Witch of Endor with Sam Teitelman and Dustin Smith, and he wrote Samuel was dead. What the medium saw and communicated with was the familiar spirit, a demon.

51:06
Who was familiar with Sami?

51:08
Cool.

51:09
Well, Larry, that is an interpretation, but I think if you're really honest and you go back to the text and you read it, it doesn't say that.

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Now you could very well be correct, but there is no evidence to indicate that that is in fact what happened. Furthermore, people in the New Testament don't comment back on it and say, Oh well, that was really just this.

51:30
So you have to make a case if you think that what the text seems to be saying didn't actually happen and that there was something else going on, you have to make that case rather than just asserting it. If that is, if you want to persuade others.

51:45
And in my own interpretation, I go back and forth on several different options for the what actually happened there? And a lot of it depends on your view of the intermediate state. So if you missed this whole conversation, we had go check it out. Episode 568. We've got that on YouTube. Full video if you are a YouTube person.

52:07
Or you can check it out on the podcast as well. Just the audio.

52:11
No.

52:12
We also got a comment in from Episode 573, which was called prophetic words of encouragement with Garrett Bova, someone named Lady Alpha writes in on Spotify saying is there any way you can maybe do a podcast on the marriage views in the Bible and how to follow it God's way?

52:32
And not society's way. Well, I did have an episode about marriage episode 114 called Divorce and Remarriage, in which I talked about the various important Bible verses on the subject from the Old Testament and the New Testament.

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Within especially the Jewish context of the debate right before the time of Christ between hello and shamai. So take a look at that. If you're interested. I also cover John Gottmann's 4 horsemen of the marriage apocalypse, contempt, criticism, defensiveness, and stonewalling. And that's from his book, the Seven Principles.

53:10
For making marriage work, which I do recommend, Gutman is not a Christian. He I think is a secular Jew.

53:19
And he's very data-driven, but he really he really is somewhat of an expert on divorce and what kinds of ways of handling conflict result in divorce. So he can, he's really good at telling you what not to do and some of what to do as well, especially with respect to conflict. And I've learned a lot from him.

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I definitely am not perfect to my marriage, so I wouldn't claim that, but it is something that I do seek to improve over time and I think if you want to stay married for a long time, you do need to periodically review how your marriage is going.

53:54
Continue to learn about how to do marriage, especially from Christian books, which I highly recommend. Tim and Kathy Keller's book The Meaning of marriage on that front. But there are also lots of other books that are helpful on this subject. Obviously, as a pastor, I've read a lot more books than normal people would probably want to on the subject of marriage, as I do give marriage.

54:14
Counseling and premarital counseling as well. In my local church, but yeah.

54:20
It is certainly an important subject. Take a look at episode 114 if you'd like to hear some thoughts, especially on the subject of divorce and remarriage. I would also recommend Tim Keller's talk at Google that he gave some years back because I thought it was particularly helpful and courageous really to speak in front of that audience.

54:41
And that's titled Tim Keller speaking to Google employees about marriage. If you search for that in YouTube, you'll be able to find it. No problems from 12 years ago.

54:50
So hopefully that will help you out a little bit at some point. Maybe I will do some sort of series on marriage because it is just such an important part of life for many of us. I think it's totally fine even in some sense is preferred to be single as a Christian, if you read First Corinthians 7, it seems that it seems that.

55:08
The apostle Paul.

55:10
Is very much in favor of single Christians and certainly in the context of missions work. You just you just can't beat a single Christian as far as the flexibility they have to travel and to.

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Take risks that perhaps for a married person with children and dependents would not be as appropriate. So a lot to think about there. Thanks for writing in Lady Alpha, whoever you are. Thanks for writing in on that. Well, I did want to before closing out mention also that.

55:41
I am hard, hard, hard at work on my first Corinthians in context class, which is going to launch in a little more than a month. It'll be.

55:50
Towards the end of January, when it starts coming out on the podcast and also on YouTube for Living Hope International Ministries on their YouTube channel and I wanted to read out to you the description of the class. Here it goes. Watch Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians come alive as you learn about the city of Corinth, the kind of society that live there.

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And how Christianity challenged so many aspects of their way of life.

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In this class, you'll learn about animal sacrifices, city governments, Corinthians, sexuality, and much more. We'll work our way through the major themes, and 1st Corinthians always asking the question, how would they have understood this before? Also asking how does this speak to us today?

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First Corinthians is easily the most revealing letter Paul wrote to any of the churches reading it. We find a church riddled with strife, sinfulness and doctrinal.

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Error, although this resulted in a difficult situation for Paul, it's wonderful for us today since we get to see how the apostle definitely navigated complex issues like lawsuits, divisiveness, communion, divorce, singleness, and gifts of the.

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Spirit.

57:02
So I realize there's a bit of a long description.

57:05
But I wanted to throw a lot in there. I mean, essentially what I'm looking to do with this class is not to go verse by verse through all the first Corinthians, which I actually have done at the college level in the past. I've done all first Corinthians and 2nd Corinthians, first by verse, and let me tell you, it is long.

57:21
And I don't think people are going to be able to stay with me for that. Maybe in the future I will do something like that. But instead of doing 1st and 2nd Corinthians, we're just doing first Corinthians and instead of doing every verse, what we're going to do is really focus on building for you a great, realistic, historically informed.

57:41
Imagination so that you when you read First Corinthians, you're reading it as someone who understands what life was like in the city of Corinth at that time. And so we're going to look at archaeology. We're going to look at other literary sources. We're going to look at.

57:59
Coins at inscriptions. We're going to look at whatever we can to situate ourselves within that world at that time, so that when we read about different aspects, we're reading about it within its own context. So we can see how Paul the Apostle.

58:18
Is really in in some ways challenging and in other ways going with the the mindset of the time. And I think this is really going to help you as we go through the major themes of First Corinthians to read the Epistle.

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3 dimensionally, as opposed to just flat words on a page. I think it's really after this class it's going to make this epistle pop for you, and much of what we learn with respect to Corinth and 1st Corinthians also applies in other cities. So this actually is going to help you read the church pistols in general. I think in a more understanding and insightful way.

58:53
So stay tuned for that next month towards the end of January that will be coming out, Lord Willing. And I'm hard at work on doing the research and developing it.

59:04
OK, one last thing before signing off today is that my good friend Brandon Duke?

59:11
Posted his Spotify wrapped for 2024. Now, for those of you who are Spotify listeners, this is a report that Spotify gives you each year about what you listen to and as part of that, they include your top five podcasts. And here is my ask to you.

59:33
If you're Spotify user and if Restitutio is in your top five podcast.

59:39
Yes, please screenshot that and post it on social media. That would just be such a help because the number one issue in getting new listeners is it's just people that they know telling them about the podcast. So if you're Spotify listener, I don't know if Apple does something similar to this or not, but if you are.

59:59
Getting a report and end of year report. That's saying that Restitutio is one of your top podcasts. Please share that on social media. Take a look at Brandon Dukes post. He did this and I'm thinking this is.

1:00:09
Really. Probably the best advertising that you can do so that others who aren't listening to the podcast can know about it. It's a great way for them to also see what other stuff you're listening to, which you're probably passionate about as well. So thanks everyone for doing that and letting people know about the podcast. It really makes a difference if you'd like to support us financially.

1:00:30
You can do that at restitutio.org. We have a little donation button there. That's it for me for this week. I'll catch you next week and remember the truth.

1:00:38
Has nothing to fear.