Man's Original State

Well, hello everyone. We are starting on lesson seven this evening, and we're going to be looking at man's original state. This is the way that man was created to be in the garden before the fall. And it's really important that we get this understanding of man because we know mankind as being post-fall, right? But we want to see how God created us from the very beginning, and it was a great beginning. So let's begin with Bible point number one.

Mankind, both male and female, was uniquely created by God to be in His image. That's the first blank. His image and likeness. Likeness is the second blank. So we were created by God, both male and female, to be in His image and likeness. Image and likeness is used interchangeably in Scripture, and it simply means to represent God, to reflect God, to remind creation of God. Because we were made to relate to God, and we can't relate to God except that we are in His image.

Nothing else in creation was made to be God's image bearers. Nothing else. When we think about creation, the Bible says in Psalm 19 that the heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament declares His handiwork. That day and night, they're constantly speaking, constantly declaring God's glory, and there's no language where their voice is not heard. If creation tells us truths about God, how much more so mankind, who's created in His image? All the glorious animals of the world, such as the whales or the lions, they show strength and they show might, but they can't show what man is designed to show because only man is designed to image God.

Only mankind was made to be a finite — that's the third blank — a finite reflection of God's nature and attributes. God is infinite, and He's infinite in all of His attributes, which we've studied in theology. But man is made to be a finite, a limited representation of God. Just recently, I was at the ATM machine, and I heard a familiar voice from behind me, and he said, "Mr. Parker," and I turned around, and there was this very tall young man, and I recognized him, but I couldn't place him right at first because the last time I had seen him, he was much, much smaller. Several years had passed, and he's no longer a boy now, he's a full-grown man, and I couldn't recollect his name even at first, but I knew exactly who he was because he was a spitting image of his dad. He looked like his dad, his voice resonated just like his dad, he carried himself about in his mannerisms like his dad. He was a spitting image of his father, and that's how man was designed to be. We were made to reflect God, we were made to relate to God, to remind the whole creation of who God is.

Genesis 1:26–27 speaks of this. "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness'" — you hear these two words — "'let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them.'" So he was created to be in His image and to be in His likeness.

Now we know that man has fallen from his original state, and we'll begin studying this in just two weeks when we begin the study of hamartiology, and that is the study of sin or the study of man's fall. But where can we find God's perfect image? If we know mankind was meant to be in God's image, and originally we were, but man has fallen, where can we now find God's perfect image? Flip over on the back and let's look.

Hebrews 1:1–3 says this, "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom He made the world, who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person." When he says that Christ was made to be an express image of His person, what he means is that Christ is the exact image of God. He is God's exact representation because He is God. "And upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high."

Likewise, Colossians 1:15 says, speaking of Christ, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation." So Christ is the perfect image of God. Though mankind has fallen and we still reflect God's image in a limited sense, if we want to see the perfect, unmarred image of God, we look to Christ. The application is this. The first blank is: where can we find God's exact image? That's the second blank — image. Where can we find God's exact image? Well, we find His image in mankind, but His image is fallen in mankind. But where do we find His exact image? It's in the God-Man, right? It's in Jesus Christ, the embodiment of God, God made flesh.

Bible point number two. Created in God's image, mankind is a personal being. Now, we spoke about this in lesson number one, where we spoke of man as a creation of God. And in lesson number one, we said that man was a creation of God in two senses. One, he's a creature. And as a creature, he's wholly dependent on God for life, for breath, for all things. But He also created mankind as a person. And as a person, he's in God's image. God is a personal being, which we studied in the nature and attributes of God. And so is man. So God could relate to man. He made man in His own image.

As a personal being, mankind is self-conscious and self-determining, meaning that he is a free moral agent with capacity for the utmost good. Therefore, he can relate to God. So created in God's image, mankind is a personal being, both self-conscious and self-determining. This means, first of all, that man is rational, thinking about God, himself, and others. We talked about this when we talked about God being a personal being. He's a rational being. God can conceive of Himself in the three persons of the Trinity and of others. Well, same with mankind. We know who we are, that we are created by God, that we are in relation to God and to creation and to other men. A dog doesn't necessarily notice, right? A dog isn't self-conscious, but we are rational beings.

We're also, as a personal being, resolute, meaning God created us to be free agents, self-determining, that we are able to take these things that we reflect upon, and we are to choose from among them what is going to be our end, and we can then will and make action to reach that end. We are moral free agents. We act by virtue of our own free will. We're not like the brute beast who's acted upon by instinct or by outside forces. We act freely from within. That's what makes us a person.

Also, being a person, this means that man is relational, with the capacity to relate — that's the fourth blank — relate to God, others, and himself. And at the heart of this relational character of personhood is love. That's the highest form of relation, and God made us to love Him, to know Him, just as God loves us and knows us.

Psalm 8:3–6 speaks of man as being a person in relation to God. The psalmist writes, "When I consider Your heavens, the works of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is man that You think of him, and a son of man that You are concerned about him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty. You have him rule over the works of Your hands. You have put everything under his feet." God made us to know Him. If you flip over on the back, we're going to look at John 14, and Jesus here talks about how God desires us to know Him, and we know Him through His Son Jesus Christ.

"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also, and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.' Philip said to Him, 'Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.'" Philip didn't understand. He thought that Christ would be unveiling the invisible God, showing him directly God the Father. "Jesus said to him, 'Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father. So how can you say, "Show us the Father"? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority, but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.'"

Christ's entire ministry was to show the world who God the Father was, right? He was the Word of God made flesh, the God who wants to relate to us. The application is this: is our mind — our rational nature — is our will — our resolute nature — and is our affection — our relational nature — is our mind, will, and affection set on Christ? It's who God made us to be, personal beings to know Him, to relate to Him, to serve Him. And if we are not in relation to Him, then we're not hitting the mark for which we were created to be.

Bible point number three. This personal likeness — that's the first blank — personal likeness to God is inalienable. Now that's a word we may not use that often, but what we mean by that is: is it something that can be separated from us? In other words, if we're made in the image of God in this personal likeness, can that be erased? And the answer is no, it's inalienable. We were created to be persons. If we ceased to be persons, we would not be human, right? Because God created us, again, with a rational nature, a resolute nature, and a relational nature. That's what it means to be a person, and we cannot cease to be a person.

This personal likeness to God is inalienable. It constitutes a capacity for redemption that gives value — that's the second blank for number three — value to all — third blank — all men, as they are made in God's image. All men are valuable because we are made in the image of God. That extends to the elders in our society who oftentimes are dismissed as a burden on society because they're not contributing necessarily to the economy or to how our society works. They are viewed as being a burden in modern society, which is a shame, because they are created in the image of God. This is true of the youngest in our society, those who need parents to feed them and are totally dependent on them, such as an infant. They are made in the image of God. This includes the unborn. This even includes the most despicable human being you can imagine. When you look at prison ministry, we have godly saints who go into prisons and minister to the dregs of society, if you will, those who are criminals, those who have committed atrocities against humanity. Do you know that even they retain the personal likeness of God? Even in them, God's personal image is inalienable. They have value because they are made in the image of God.

Genesis 9:6 speaks to this. Where we are in Genesis chapter 9 is after the flood. If you recall in Genesis chapter 6, God saw that man, his intentions and his thoughts, were only evil continually. So He decided to destroy mankind by sending a great flood, and He would save Noah and his family. So the flood happens, the flood recedes, mankind begins to populate the earth again. In Genesis 9:6, when God gives the Noahic covenant, He tells man again to conquer the earth, to have dominion over the earth, to spread out. He also gives man some commands, and the command that He gives here in verse 6 says this: "Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man." He bases this commandment on — and this is after Adam has fallen, this is after He's destroyed most of the world through the flood, right? Just Noah and his family have survived. But He still says that man bears the image of God. Even fallen man bears the personal likeness of God. Flip over on the back.

James 3:8–9 in the New Testament says this, "But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the similitude of God." The word similitude means likeness, it means to be in the image of God. So he's saying how dare we curse our brothers and sisters when they are made in the image of God. You can't bless God and curse man because man is made in the image of God.

The Apostle John writes in 1 John 4:20–21. He doesn't use the word image or likeness or similitude, but he's definitely addressing the concept. He says, "If someone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him, that he who loves God must love his brother also." Because our brothers are made in the image of God, they are of value. God loves them and so must we.

Let's look at the application for Bible point number three. "Do you pray" — praise is the first blank — "do you pray for those who do evil" — that's the second blank — evil to you. That's a hard one, is it not? To pray for those who do evil to you, those who are being injurious to you. But what is the basis for us praying for them? Are not even they still retaining the personal image of God? So therefore they have value. In Christ, He died for sinners like them and like you and me, right? And because they bear the image of God, we love them and we pray for them.

Bible point number four. Created in God's image, mankind was made to have a moral likeness to God. Not only do we have a personal likeness to God in that we have a like nature to Him and we are personal beings, but we're also made to have a moral likeness to God. You see, what's the difference? As a personal being, we have moral free agency, but having a moral likeness to God means that we were originally created not just with the power to serve God and to know God, but we were made altogether holy and altogether right. We were not created morally neutral with the power to choose God or to choose evil. We were created morally perfect, morally right in His very image.

Mankind was made holy — that's the second blank — both free from fault — that's the third blank, fault — and with the direction of the affections and wills supremely set on God. Our affections and our will were supremely set on God. It's not just that we had an innocence in that we were morally neutral. We had an innocence because we had never sinned, and our affection, our heart, and also our will were supremely set on God. We loved God in the original creation. That's the way God created Adam. Adam loved God and he loved the things of God and he loved the ways of God, and all that he did was congruent with the love of God. That's what it means to be made in the moral image of God, to have a bent of the will, to have a bent of the affections toward God, not just a relative neutrality that we're free from sin. But he was indeed free from sin and morally inclined to God, and he knew nothing else.

Ecclesiastes 7:29 says, "Truly, this only I have found, that God made man upright." God did not make man evil. He did not make man with a bent of the affections toward sin and the world, the flesh, and the devil. No, He made man upright, with his affections and will supremely set on God. Let's look over on the back. We're going to look at some verses both from the Old and New Testament that relate to this, reference number four on the back.

Look at Genesis 1:31 from the Old Testament. This is at the end of the sixth day of creation. It says, "Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So evening and the morning were the sixth day." When He says He saw everything that He had made, does that include humanity? Yes, they were created on the sixth day. It says, "Indeed it was very good." It wasn't just a little good. It was altogether good.

We're going to look at Colossians in the New Testament. Colossians is speaking here of being renewed in the image of Christ, the way that we were originally created. It says, "Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him." We were created in the image of Christ, and we are to be renewed in knowledge according to Him. In other words, we are to know Him. To be created in the knowledge of God means to love Him, to know Him. It would be impossible for Adam to have walked in the coolness of the day in the garden with God, who was holy, if Adam was not in like nature, if Adam was not in harmony with God's nature. He knew God and he loved God.

Ephesians 4:20–24 says, "But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness." Saying this new man is created in righteousness, which means purity, and holiness, meaning being set apart. So between these two verses we can find that the image of God consists of knowing God, and it consists of righteousness. To know God is to love Him. To be righteous is to set our affection supremely on Him as our end, and to be holy is to be consecrated to Him, to be set apart to live for Him. That's the image of God, the moral likeness of God.

The application is this, for number four: can evil — that's the first blank — can evil men fellowship with a holy God? That's the second blank. Can evil men fellowship with a holy God? Remember what happened when Adam fell? Did he have the sense of freedom that he could fellowship with the holy God anymore? What happened to Adam? Did not him and Eve hide themselves from God? They knew their relationship now was different, right? They could no longer be in harmony with God. They were afraid, they realized they were naked, and they hid from God.

Bible point number five. Although the first man was fundamentally good — that's the first blank, good — he still had the power of choosing evil — that's the second blank. Though man was fundamentally good, he still had the power of choosing evil. In lesson number six, we studied man's will. That was last week, and we said that man has a power of contrary choice. He had that before the fall, and he had that after the fall. Man was fundamentally good, but he still had the power of choosing evil. We are free moral agents.

By virtue of his personality, man could at his creation choose — that's the third blank. The first blank is good, the second blank is evil, the third blank is choose. Man could at his creation choose which of the objects of his knowledge — God, the world, or self — should be his aim and focus. Aim is the third blank, focus is the fourth blank. In other words, man could consider as a rational being not only himself, but he could consider God, he could consider the world, and he could consider others. And then he could use his resolute nature, his will, to choose which of those are going to be his focus, which of those is going to be his aim, which of those he's going to live for and conform to. And he should have chosen God. That's the way he was created, right? But man was also created with contrary choice, and he could have chosen between God, the world, and self, and he rebelled against God.

Man's affections and will were bent toward God, but mankind was not yet confirmed in holiness. Man was created to have a bent of his will and affections toward God, but he wasn't confirmed yet in holiness. So what we mean by that is this. Last week when we discussed the will of man, we said that every decision of the will brings us closer to its end, to an object that we have chosen, and that with repeated decisions of the will, we form a path, we form a rut, if you will, that future decisions may more easily follow. And that's why a person who's steeped in sin — it's no effort for them to sin. It's second nature; they're doing what is natural to them, right? Conversely, the Christian who has given his life to Christ and is walking in the Spirit, he's going to be naturally living a Christ-like life. It should be easier for him to serve God than it is to serve the devil, because he is forming a path on which to walk. And mankind was formed originally with a bent of the will toward God, but he hadn't had much experience yet, right? He hadn't made that many choices, hadn't made that many actions. And so he was not confirmed yet in holiness.

Genesis 2:16–17 talks about one of the commands that was given by God to man. "And the Lord commanded the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat.'" So he could do whatever he wanted to for the most part in the garden as regards eating. "'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.'" We're going to be talking about this in just a couple of weeks when we study the fall of mankind and what it means to die. This is speaking of spiritual death and physical death, but this was the condition of being in the garden. He says, "You can eat of any tree, but of one tree you may not eat." And isn't it like us to want what we can't have, right? And that's what Adam and Eve did.

Adam and Eve, though, did not have to fall. They could have exercised their will that God had given them, in dependence on God, and not fallen. Mankind is definitely a finite reflection of God. He's not infinite, so in and of his own strength he probably would have failed. But could he not have depended on God to keep him righteous? By all means, yes. Flip it over on the back and let me show you a great example from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Reference number five on the back.

Hebrews 9:14, "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God." He's saying that Christ was able to provide an atonement for you and me, to offer up a perfect sacrifice on the cross. Through the eternal Spirit He offered Himself without spot to God. Christ did all this earthly ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit, did He not? Hadn't Christ been led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit for temptation? Wasn't He sustained by the Holy Spirit in the wilderness throughout His temptation? And after He successfully resisted temptation, did He not leave the wilderness in the power of the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit marked Christ's ministry from the very beginning, right? In fact, even at His baptism, as He came up out of the water, He heard the voice of the Father: "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." And we saw the Spirit of God descend on Him like a dove, representing God's favor and God's anointing on the Messiah, who was the anointed one of God. So Christ perfectly obeyed the Father and fulfilled all things through the power of the Holy Spirit, and mankind could have as well, but mankind used his free will and chose to sin.

The application is this: who — that's the first blank — who alone is — that's the second blank — the source of our holiness? Who alone is the source of our holiness? God created us to be holy, created us to be upright. So God is the source of our holiness, right? And we can depend on Him to live holy lives. You are not destined as a Christian to wallow in sin. You've been recreated in the image of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You've been made into a new creation. And just as Christ perfectly obeyed the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit, so can we.

Bible point number six. The loss of this moral likeness to God was the chief calamity of the fall. The fall is the first blank. This loss of our moral likeness — having the moral sympathy with God to love what He loves and to hate what He hates and to walk in His steps — that was the chief calamity of the fall. Man has defaced the image of God in man's moral nature. Even though the image of God is still enduring in man's personal nature, right? Because in our personal nature we can't cease to be a person or else we'd cease to be human. But our moral nature — that image of God has been defaced because we are no longer holy. Mankind is more marked by sin than anything else.

Man is both the glory — that's the second blank — and the scandal — the third blank — of the universe. That's a quote from Blaise Pascal, the great French philosopher and physicist and mathematician. Man is both the glory and the scandal of the universe. He's the glory of the universe because he still has the personal image of God, which gives him great possibility of doing good, right? He also has great potential to know God and to make this world a better place. So he's full of possibility, he's full of potential for good. But he's the scandal of the universe in that he doesn't use that power. He doesn't live up to that potential. He doesn't live up to the purpose for which God created him to be. He's a scandal of the universe because he uses his personal power to serve himself, to serve the devil, to serve the world in the flesh — anything but God. He's both the glory and the scandal of the universe.

Ecclesiastes 7:29, we read just a minute ago, just the first half. I want to read the whole verse. "Truly, this only I have found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes." God did not make us evil. That fact only lays responsibility at mankind, not at the feet of God. God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.

Look at Genesis 3:22–24. This is after the fall of Adam. "Then the Lord God said, 'Behold, man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil.'" God knows evil as something that's possible, something that's hated and forever rejected. Mankind, before his sin, knew nothing of evil. But now mankind knew evil, not as God knows it — as something that's hated and rejected and is merely possible — but as something that's actual, as something that he has chosen. He knows the bitterness of that evil. "And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever — therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man, and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life." This man was expelled from the garden because he can no longer have fellowship with a holy God. Flip over on the back.

Ephesians 2:3 talks about the fallen condition of humanity and talks about us as Christians before we met Christ. It says, "Among them" — the wicked of this world — "we too all previously lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging in the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the rest." We were using our wills and our affections set upon evil rather than set upon God.

The application is this. How does Genesis 11 — 11 is the first blank — picture man's scandal? That's the second blank. How does Genesis 11 picture man's scandal? Let's turn there. We want to look at this together.

Genesis 11 is after the flood. God had set man out of the ark and set him to fill the earth and to subdue it and to spread out and conquer the world — this dominion mandate. Verse 1: "Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. Then they said to one another, 'Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.' They had brick for stone and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens. Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.'"

We're going to build what's called a ziggurat. We actually have existing examples of those. They're not unlike the pyramids of Egypt. These were tall towers that they built. These were used for their pagan worship, and they actually believed the gods lived up in the clouds and that perhaps they could reach the clouds and tell the gods who's who and kick them out and have a heavenly insurrection — that was what they were aiming to do.

"But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, 'Indeed, the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down there and confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.' So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the earth." God actually graciously prevented them from rebelling against Him more by confusing their language and by scattering them once again.

This is an example of people who are both the glory and the scandal of the universe. They're the glory of the universe because look at the great personal power these people had. They planned, did they not? They reasoned about God and creation and one another, and they said, "Hey, let's all join together and let's build a tower to reach God, to reach the heavens." To build that tower would have taken great engineering skill and great engineering feats. When you look at something like the pyramids in Mexico or the pyramids in Egypt, you realize those were very difficult to build, a very laborious process that required great coordination, great intellect, great personal power. And they were able to use the same language so they could communicate and work together. Man is the glory of the universe when we consider the great potential and the great power that man has. But he's also the scandal of the universe because they used their great personal powers and their abilities that God had given them to blaspheme God and to try to overthrow God. So therefore man is both the glory and the scandal of the universe.

Bible point number seven. The dignity of human nature consists not so much in what man is but in what God meant man to be. "Meant" is the first blank. In other words, we look at people today who are in their fallen state, and some of them don't appear very glorious, right? We wouldn't necessarily say, "Wow, they're the glory of the universe," because they've become so corrupted by sin and they're not using their gifts, the possibilities and the potential that God has given them. So it's not so much in what man is but in what God meant him to be.

The lost moral image of God in humanity can be restored — that's the second blank — by the union — that's the third blank — of man's soul with Christ. All that is fallen can be restored in the person of Jesus Christ. Christ can take the crooked and make the crooked straight. He can take the corrupt and make it pure. He can take that which is blighted and make it healthy and whole. Because of his capacity for redemption, the lowest of mankind is sacred.

Don't ever write somebody off and say, "They're a lost cause." Christ's death for man revealed the infinite worth of the human soul. Now you say, "David, isn't that a little bit of an exaggeration? Isn't that a little bit of a hyperbolic statement, to say that Christ's death for man revealed the infinite worth of the human soul? Because are not humans finite creatures — how could their soul be infinite in value?" The value of something is determined exactly by the price that's paid for it.

Was not Christ's death of infinite value? The Lamb of God who was perfect, without spot, without blemish — He laid down His life for unholy man, for fallen man, for finite man. Therefore, in Christ's estimation, mankind has infinite value, and we must trust Christ's estimation and not our own estimation of men's worth. Christ's death for man revealed the infinite worth of the human soul and taught us to count all men as brethren, for whom we should lay down our lives for their redemption.

Look at Romans 8:29, "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." "For whom He foreknew" means whom He foreloved, talking about God in the eternity of the past setting His love on those He would redeem. He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. The purpose for us is to be recreated in the image of His Son, to be conformed to His likeness, to have the lost image of Christ — that moral likeness that was lost in man's first sin — to be restored to us in Christ, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren, that we may look just like Christ.

Flip over on the back. 2 Corinthians 3:18 talks about our sanctification. From the minute that our soul is united to Christ through faith, from the minute that we are redeemed, Christ begins His process of restoring us in His image. "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." We're constantly being made into the image of Christ.

Have you ever seen one of the TV shows where they take a dilapidated old house and they restore it? Usually they make it look very simple. It takes place in 30 minutes or an hour of the TV show, but if you've ever done that in real life, you know it oftentimes takes weeks and months. It's not as easy as simply slapping on a new coat of paint and maybe adding new landscaping and selling the house. Oftentimes it requires perhaps a new roof, right? Maybe you need a termite treatment for that house. Maybe you have to have the plumbing redone because there are lead pipes or bad pipes. Perhaps you have to have the wiring redone. Maybe you have to have the foundation corrected. Maybe you have to have the driveway re-poured. Maybe you have to have new turf laid down. It's an endless supply of things that have to be done.

That's what happens to the Christian the minute he's redeemed. The minute his soul is placed into union with Christ, Christ begins to restore this lost image. But those whom He foreknew, He's predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. We are guaranteed that what He has started, He will indeed finish. Praise God.

Flip back over on the front. The application for number seven is this. How does Luke 15 — 15 is the first blank — picture man's worth? That's the second blank. How does Luke chapter 15 picture man's worth? Let's flip there together. Luke 15 is a beautiful chapter. One of my favorite chapters in the New Testament. It's three parables: the parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin, and the parable of the lost son.

The parable of the lost sheep says this. "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?" A picture of a shepherd who has a large flock and one of them goes astray, and he leaves the flock and he searches diligently. He doesn't stop until he finds it. "And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.'" He's so joyful and ecstatic over finding this erring sheep. "I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance." So we see the picture of man's worth in the celebration of the great Shepherd when one lost soul is found.

Look at the parable of the lost coin. "Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?" So if a lady has ten coins and she loses just one, she diligently searches. She gets out her light, she sweeps the house — she's got to find this. It's so important to her. "And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost.' Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." So even the angels break into celebration when one sinner turns to Christ.

Then we have the parable of the lost son. You know the story of the prodigal son who asked for his inheritance and wasted it in prodigal living. He finds himself among the hogs in a miserable life. All his friends have left him, and he determines to go back to his father and to ask his father to make him even just a servant in his household, because at least there he would be fed. So as he comes, we find in verse 20: "And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him." This would be highly undignified of the patriarch of a family to run, but he did. He ran and he had compassion and he fell on his neck and he kissed his son. The son would have smelled like hogs at this point, would he not?

"And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.'" Before he could even really finish his confession of repentance, the father said to his servants, "Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.' And they began to be merry."

We see the worth of a lost son in the celebration of the father, right? This shows us the value of all mankind, because we are made in the personal image of God. And we were originally created in the moral likeness of God. Though we no longer have the moral likeness of God — in that all mankind are sinners estranged from God — we still have the personal likeness of God, and we can relate to God, and God longs to relate to us. So turn to Christ, turn to Him, and have His image be restored to you. Thank you.