Abel, Genesis Study, Section 33

Who We Are?

There are five main subsections to 'Who We Are,' They are as follows:

(1) Seeing
(2) Knowing
(3) Remembering
(4) Receiving
(5) Doing.

Seeing

Where do we get our sense of identity- how do we see ourselves?

Many people's view of self has come from the environment they grew up in. Environment speaks of the conditions under which a person lives; the sum total of influences which modify and determine the development of life and character. Contributing factors to determining how people view themselves may come from
The place they were brought up in. Some people are brought up in areas that can lead to class-consciousness from an early age. Israel was called to be a light to the nations, yet often assumed she was better than those around her.
The home they were brought up in. Some people were brought up in abusive homes. They may not have received any encouragement. Others may look down on those around them. The view they have of themselves in the early years was not good, and this carries through into adulthood.
Some children will have been under great pressure as parents seek to live their lives through them. Such children often feel they have to achieve in order to be accepted. This can also carry through into adult thinking. They can be restless people and never feel they are doing well enough to sit back and take a rest.

The school years. Some of us may have been bullied; some may have been judged by a lack of ability in sports or academic study. Many people remember what it was like to be judged by the clothes they wore or for being too fat or too thin. Such judgements do not have to have a lasting negative effect, but they can hurt and we can carry some of those hurts into adulthood. They can affect how we view others and ourselves.
The nation we were brought up in, or religious background. If a person was brought up in one of the low castes in India, how are they going to view themselves?
If you were brought up under a different religious system how might it affect the view you have of life and self?
If you were brought up under a different religious system how might it affect the view you have of life and self?
How will a child or young adult view self if they are taught they are the product of accidental mutation and need to rise to the challenge to make their mark on life?

Society based upon the idea that the final reality is impersonal matter or energy, shaped into its present form by impersonal chance. Dr. F. Shaefffer

George Bernard Shaw's daughter became a Christian and spoke of how the dark clouds over her life suddenly parted and the light broke through. How do you think she viewed her life up to that point in time?
Imagine that all our childhood and adult experiences are represented by soil in which we have been growing. What is that soil like? What sort of things sticks in our minds about our upbringing, or about our life right now? What sort of picture do we have of self and the world around us? Where does it come from?

Where Does Our Sense of Well-Being Come From?

Some people create an image of themselves that gives them a sense of value and self-worth. For example some people may feel good about themselves because of the job they have. A sense of well-being from something we do may not be wrong, but it will be wrong if it is the root that makes us feel good, and makes us 'us.' Whether we like it or not there is a good chance that we will run into difficulty if well-being is entirely rooted in self. But why?

Because we are then left having to maintain that identity and sense of well-being in our own strength. In a tough and often unpredictable world, this can be very hard. For example:
A teacher who is made redundant is going to feel much worse if their whole sense of who they are and their self-worth is completely taken up in being a teacher
Athletes who can no longer train due to accidents are going to struggle if their whole identity and self-worth is taken up in their achievements as an athlete.
Many people are weary from seeking to keep everything in their lives in balance as they maintain a view of themselves they can live with.

Imagination is important for remembering and for anticipating - for knowing the past and the future. But how can we know the present if we cannot relate that present to the past and future? If we have no knowledge of what has been happening, how can we make any sense of what is happening now? And if we have no idea about the goal of events, where they are going, surely our knowledge of present events is at best highly defective?'
Dr. J. Frame in, The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God, page 342

All too often our lives are performance-related, as we seek to achieve set goals in order to cope with life. Yet we were never created to rely upon self. If we do not realise this we are in trouble
We can end up like plate-spinners, continually having to run hither and thither to keep everything moving.
We can be like a person carrying a huge pile of books. Each book represents an area in our lives. We are so preoccupied with keeping the pile from falling over that we no longer see the beauty of the world around us.
We are like a person rushing around a small boat and plugging holes as the boat continues to spring yet another leak.
We are left with self on our hands and often wonder just who we really are.

A proper adjustment to reality can only be achieved when reality is correctly perceived. A person of average income, who deludes himself that he is a multimillionaire, is inevitably going to have problems. A person who is in fact a multimillionaire and has the delusion that he is a pauper is equally maladjusted.'
Rabbi Tverski.

How do we really see ourselves? How do we perceive our lives, and those of others? What rule of life do we judge self, and others by?

Never has the human race been so advanced in knowledge, and yet never have people been more confused about themselves and their mental makeup.
Dr P. Masters in 'Conscience.'

Knowing

That I have been created to find my security in God.

If we put a two-year old toddler in a Barbie-doll house made of gold, and with all the junk food they could possibly eat they will not be satisfied for long. But why not?
Because a child was designed to find security and well being in parental love, and not in objects around their lives.
We were made to find our security in a relationship with our heavenly Father.
There is no lasting security in alternative worldviews. For example, how can I find any security in believing that I am an accident in a long evolutionary process?

Anyone who has no doubt that chimpanzees are our distant cousins, or that fishes and worms share a common ancestry with humans, either has not studied the wealth of evidence to the contrary.or is living in a state of denial.
Dr Vij Sodera, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

Our heavenly Father is our Creator/designer. He is the One who knows what we should really be like. If we want to know who we are, we need to be looking to what His Word has to say about us.
God is the only person who holds the real blueprint to my life. Stop and think about that for a moment. We are not insignificant; neither are we just one among many, vying to be noticed.

The difficulty which civilised Western man experiences in the world today is convincing himself that he has any special assigned status in the Universe, and upon the sense of instability which this uncertainty produces. Man of the psychological disorders which are so common and distressing a feature of our time are, I believe, to be traced to this cause.
Dr E.L. Mascal in 'The Importance of Being Human' p 18.

Our sense of well-being and security is not meant to come from our own achievements and success in life, or from a worldview that has been imposed on us.
Security and well-being comes from seeing God as He reveals Himself, and understanding His love for us and what He has to say about the world we live in.
We belong to someone and life is more about whose we are than who we are.

Made For Relationship

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27

Adam was created an incredibly powerful being, with intelligence and physical strength that far surpasses our own. After all, look, at Adam's lifespan, and his ability to name all the animals and retain that information.
Adam was created with the ability to communicate with God, and this helps us understand what it means to be spiritual. We were made to transcend the natural and relate to our heavenly Father who seeks to lead and guide us in all things.

What God has decided to create must stand in a relationship to him. The creation of man in God's image is directed to something happening between God an man. The creator created a creature that corresponds to him, to whom he can speak, and who can hear him.
Dr McFarlane in, 'Christ and the Spirit' p 93.

God is a personal being - He is not simply a power or an automatic source of rewards or retribution. He thinks, feels and acts. Being made in the image of God is about relationship, and relationship with God is what spirituality is all about.
We have the ability to assimilate and utilise vast amounts of information and to look below surface appearances and characteristics of that, which is around us. We are called to know God, and are known by God.
Our thoughts, feelings and desires often spill over into action, yet this is not automatic. We have the ability to decide which motive or influence should be given the number one position, so to speak, and express itself in action. Yet how do we arrive at the way we think, feel, desire and act? Where does our input come from?
Knowing God includes a desire to gain more knowledge of Him, to develop qualities of character and grow in fellowship with Him. This fellowship is expressed in deepening friendships with those around us coupled with a desire to promote righteousness of action and peace (wholeness of being).

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. Romans 12:1

Who am I? I am someone made to know and experience the love of God.

God is immanent. He is with us, close to us, available to us. But that does not make Him a tame God, controllable at our disposal. God is also transcendent. He is great beyond greatness. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. But that does not make Him distant, impersonal, impotent, arbitrary, or beyond moral categories. The God who fills heaven and earth challenges us morally in both His immanence and His transcendence - that our only hope is in His grace. That same God also offers us the gospel of forgiveness through Jesus Christ. Neither economic prosperity, nor expertise, nor fame, nor beauty, nor admiration will wipe away every tear, but God will.
R. Keyes in 'No God But God.

The clearest example of what man should be like is seen in the breathtaking depth of intimacy that Jesus had with His Heavenly Father. In Jesus we see one who clearly shows us what God is like.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. Col 1:15

Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does". John 5:19

God wants to be known, and reveals Himself in word and events recorded in scripture 2 Tim 3:16

By revelation is meant then, not some vague, inarticulate awareness of God projected out of the human consciousness, but an intelligible, articulate revealing of God by God whom we are enabled to apprehend through the creative power of His Word addressed to us, yet a revealing of God by God who is actualised within the conditions of our creaturely existence and therefore within the medium of our human thought and speech.'
Prof T.F. Torrence in 'Reality and Evangelical Theology', p85.

Our mind, will, and emotions, did not simply arise by chance. In taking in wrong information we can make an emotional response to statements that were never true in the first place. For example think of a child who has been brought up to believe he is useless. How is he or she going to feel? How might they view their lives?
Israel could only make sense of this world because there is someone out there who told them what life was really all about.

If mind emerged from matter without the direction of a superior intelligence, (then) problems arise.why should we trust the deliverances of the mind as being rational or true?... No one would trust the printout of a computer if he knew that it was programmed by random forces or by non-rational laws without a mind being behind it.'
Dr. J.P. Moreland in, Scaling the Secular City, p97

To recap: What Does It Mean To Be Made In The Image Of God?

When looking at all of God's creative work we see that it is only man whom God enters into communion and fellowship with. God walks in the garden with man. God encourages man to participate in creation. God instructs man.

Only human beings can make choices on the basis of ethics. Man alone can suppress desires even when he thinks there is no possibility of detection or retribution, and purely because the desire would result in something he perceives as morally and ethically wrong.
Rabbi Tverski.

Man has been created for relationship; He is capable of receiving great love and able to give out great love in response

Despite The Fall Man Still Retains The Image of God.

The identity and character of man as made in the image of God is not destroyed by the fall, or by the flood as can be seen from Genesis 9:6 where man is still spoken of as being in the image of God. However, on our own, we court nothing but trouble.

Our plight is not that the image of God has been abolished. It is far worse, namely that while its structures of relationship remain, they are distorted at every point
Dr C. Sherlock in, The Doctrine of Humanity, p43.

Being made in the image of God means that we've been created to exercise dominion over God's creation on His behalf. We are to reveal to the whole of creation what God is like.
We have been created to exercise God's sovereignty over this world in our care for creation and our interpersonal relationships. Whether a millionaire or a pauper, an intellectual or a labourer, all of us are of importantance to the Lord.
The reason we are still able to enter into relationship with God is because God has not given up on His creation. Love always seeks to reach out to a loved one, no matter the cost. Who are we? We are someone God is reaching out to in love. We are someone made for relationship; made for community.

'The Christian worldview avoids the fatal traps of both individualism and collectivism. It declares from the outset that each of us is unique and in the image of God, but that the God in whose image we are made is communal. That is, at our core, we are social beings. We were made for God; we were made for each other.
Dr J. Sire in, 'Discipleship of the Mind, p 64.

God created man with an ability to learn and grow, to laugh and enjoy life, to get alongside others, to receive and give out of self. Yet all too often God is not seen as our creator or the person who can help us see and understand what life is all about.
All too often God is misrepresented (e.g. the words of the serpent in Gen 3) or ignored altogether (e.g. not relevant to 21st century society) with disastrous consequences

They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them. He did miracles in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan. He divided the sea and led them through; he made the water stand firm like a wall. He guided them with the cloud by day and with light from the fire all night. He split the rocks in the desert and gave them water as abundant as the seas; he brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down like rivers. Psalm 78:11-16.

Whenever Israel ended up being oppressed by other nations, it was because she was reaping the harvest of her own sin.

When man starts to think negatively about God, he finds himself in the beginning of his real trouble. In his bitterness, he no longer feels God's warm sunshine or His gentle rain. The beauty and blessedness of all that is permitted to him, gradually turns to the ashes of resentment. He becomes a total cynic. He feels it is a ridiculous proposition to suggest that the best things in life are free.
Dr D. Breese in, Satan's Ten Most Believable Lies, p20-21.

What Sort of Relationship Has Man Been Made For?

One of the problems with modern society is that we drift into casual relationships and do not give ourselves fully to them. But Relationships that are powerful and productive are not usually relationships that we have simply drifted into. An example are some of the friendships we may have had with people in our school or work-place for example. Instead they are relationships where both parties give out to one another.

Man has been made for covenant relationship (Hosea 6:7), but what does the word 'covenant' mean?
The word 'covenant' (1st mention Gen 6:18 ='beriyth, although the idea was present before the foundation of the world), means 'treaty', 'alliance', an agreement based on a relationship between two or more partners.
Covenant is the deepest form of binding agreement in the universe. It is God's way (God is always the instigator) of reaching out to those who deserve nothing in order to offer them life. God has always been reaching out to us.

Real knowledge has been given to men by God as a grace preceding the fullness of grace; it teaches those who partake of it to believe above all in the Giver. The Philokalia', page 132, compiled by Nikodimos & Makarios.

God is a God who wants to be related to us through covenant, He does not sit at a distance in isolated splendour. He seeks to be involved with the human race.
The leading idea of covenant is peace and goodwill. Covenant did not speak so much of what a person or party would get out of something (such as in a business deal), but more of a mutual support within a relationship. Unlike worldly covenants God is always the giver and man the receiver. Man can only give back to God that which he has received in the fist place.
Christ is the Mediator of the new covenant (Heb 12:24) in that He is the true fulfiller of covenant as man's representative. We could not keep covenant; He did. But what is the heart of the covenant?
The heart of covenant is the presence of God's Spirit with his people. Note John 14:23

If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. John 14:23

The heart of Covenant is God's presence with His people. He is our only hope.

Modern man particularly needs a sense of hope, protection, guidance and meaning in a universe that is too often portrayed as mechanistic, chance, cold and impersonal. Man also needs an answer to death. Death overlooks no one and its ever-present shadow on our world forces each person to think beyond this world to the next.
Dr P. Cosgrove in 'Mental Health a Christian Approach p 40.

The Lord (covenant name for God) placed man in His creation to benefit from all His goodness and live in the environment of His love and generosity. We belong to God and were created to receive from God. It is in receiving that we are able to give

We love because He first loved us. 1 John 4:10

Healthy Christians are characterised by a heightened awareness of a sense of belongingness to God - shifting our focus from the egocentric to the Christocentric.'To be' centres on self; 'to belong' centres on Christ. When the decision is made to surrender to Christ and make Him the centre, then everything belongs to Him.to continue to belong is to maintain the surrendered life.
Dr. H. Darling in, Man in His Right Mind, p 29.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. Psalm 1:3

In going our own way we always end up damaging the very life we think we are supporting and protecting. As one psychiatrist once stated, ' we go against the fabric of the Universe.

Remembering

The need to remember whose I am and what has been done for me.

Throughout scripture we are called to remember what God has done and that we are in covenant relationship with Him and able to receive His grace, mercy and love. Remembering is a very important part of being made in the image of God because the view we are to have of history and the world we live in is to come from Him.

rebellion against God does not begin with the clenched fist of atheism but with the self-satisfied heart of the one for whom 'thank you' is redundant. The bankruptcy of our position without God is forgotten, the sting of our former dilemma fades, a sense of God's conviction wears off, and our acknowledgement of God's grace becomes routine and matter-of-fact.
Prof Os Guiness in, God In The Dark, p 35.

I need to remember that my only real hope is in God
There is hope because God is love (1 John 4:8), and love always makes a way to reach out to a loved one.
Our hope is not in our achievements but is based in His nature and character seen in His words and deeds.
Right from the beginning God wanted to be known. This is why He walked with man in the garden of Eden. Even after the fall God came to man with the offer of life, whilst still holding him accountable for his sin (Gen 3:8ff)
One of the ways God was seen in the O.T. times was through the appearance of theophanies (Theo - God; phainos - appear) in the Old Testament
Theophanies are always divinely initiated, whether at the beginning of Genesis (Gen 3:8-9); through a burning bush (Exo 3), or by the Kebar river to a prophet amidst exiled people (Ezek 1:4-28). What does this tell us about God?
God is a loving God and He takes the initiative in reaching out to us, even though He is the wronged party.
Covenant suzerainty (supremacy; power) and covenant faithfulness are essential attributes of God and are manifest in God's dealing with all creation. But what does that mean?
It means that God will remain faithful even though his creatures prove unfaithful. God will not abandon his covenant faithfulness towards what He has made.
God has come to make us holy (Ex 31:13).

'It is apparent in the Bible that God wants people to live with a certain mind-set in order to know full mental and spiritual health. They must learn to live life with a claim on and a sense of God's forgiveness, even in the face of continued faults and failures. They must live with the confidence that God has a plan for their happiness and well-being in this life and that He provides a source of power to meet every challenge. Furthermore they must retain the confidence that even when they fail to appropriate that power, God still maintains control.

Dr P. Cosgrove in Mental Health, a Christian Approach, page 42

Holiness, in regard to God speaks of His sheer perfection, His separation from all that is evil and His other-worldliness. Yet, for us, it initially speaks of something before separation.
Holiness is about belonging to God. It is about relationship. We can only separate self from all that is wrong through belonging to God. We cannot become separate from the world and then belong to God - this is simply an attempt at good works and goes against the teaching of the Bible.
When I come home to God through His work I can begin to say 'no' to all the things that harm and pull down, yet also begin to appropriate the fullness of new life that God gives by His Spirit (the Comforter) and the teaching of His word which helps us make sense of the world.

and to put on the new self , created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Eph 4:24

'New' - not new as in time (neos) but in quality (kainos) as opposed to the old outworn, yet still powerful ways of the world.

A God Who Is Committed To Covenant

In the ANE we see that if a third party attacked the weaker partner of a covenant in order to subvert his position, then the stronger covenant partner was obligated to intervene. As part of covenant relationship the stronger partner must deal with the attacker and restore the other partner to his rightful throne and kingdom.
In the Bible it is a third party (Satan) who sought to subvert the position of Adam and Eve. God is going to deal with Satan.
However: Just as the rulers of the Ancient Near East came in covenant judgment against rebellious partners, so too God must come in judgement against those he is in covenant with, should they rebel.
This helps us see why both judgement and grace were spoken of when God approached Adam and Eve after the fall.
God entered into the garden to deal with Satan (the attacker) and also with man (now a rebel). In this we see amazing grace
When God put Adam and Eve out of the Garden He was, in a very real sense, already ahead of them on a cross at Calvary (1 Peter 1:19-20).

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9

What's so amazing is that the Son of God was going to come into these earthly realms, as man, and stand in our place so that we could find reconciliation and friendship. Who are we? We are the recipients of His love and those who can fellowship with God. The reality of this fellowship will be seen in our inter-personal relationships with others.

We note that no curse is pronounced on our fallen first parents, only temporal penalties are announced for their disobedience, all being in the nature of a spiritual discipline, and appointed in the best interests of sinners. The necessity of daily toil, the experience of suffering, and the certainty of death, all place restraints on man's propensities for evil. When, despite these restraints, we see how appallingly evil men can still become, we cannot imagine how much sooner it would have become still worse without these restraints.
F.S. Copleston in, The Witness of The Old Testament To Christ, p 143.

Perfect love always seeks to reach out to a loved with, with all of ones abilities. There is someone who is reaching out to us right now.
This world continues because God is in the business of reconciliation and growth - right now!
Man has been created for a deep binding relationship with God whereby we can grow and develop in maturity of heart and mind. We are someone whom God has pursued in love. We are someone God wants to bless.

Recap! We Were Not Created To Be Dependent On Self For Everything.

If our identity is taken up purely with our achievements then we are in trouble.
We are in trouble because our feel-good factor is dependent on us controlling the environment around us, and that can be really hard going.

The tragic aspect of self-centred philosophy is that it progressively destroys the very self it seeks to preserve.the basic flaw in modern psychology is not its awareness that the self needs a new centre. It lies rather in misperceiving what the proper centre is. Modern psychology substitutes the human self for God; it sidesteps the need for spiritual and moral restoration of the unregenerate self to God's love and service.
Prof C.F. Henry in, God Revelation and Authority vol 4 page 519.

No matter the ups and downs in life, we need to realise something. God does not want us to be dependent on our own work in order to feel good. We were not made to live this way
You are someone who has been made in the image of God. You have been made for deep dynamic and powerful relationship. You have a heavenly Father. You belong to someone; someone who is very interested in your life no matter how you feel about yourself.

You were quite obviously constructed for something more than physical five- sensory comfort, and experience of it alone. I do not wish to disparage these comforts. I am grateful for them. But they alone put us into a state of imbalance. The imbalance consists of too much experience of physical affluence, too much purely material experience coupled with too little experience of the joy of paradise (in this life as well as afterwards) for which we were obviously made.
Prof A.E. Wilder-Smith in, The Causes and Cure of the Drug Epidemic, p155.

Why Some Things Have Gone Wrong For Us

Whilst it is true that we have been made for relationship with God, we also need to recognise that we are sinners saved by grace

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23

If we fell off the Eiffel tower we would not break the law of gravity; we would prove it.
In Hosea 6:7 we read that everyone has broken the covenant that God made with man. What this means is that Man broke his side of the covenant - yet covenant still remained in force, as did the penalty.
The penalty for breaking covenant is death and eternal separation from God. Being brought up in a rebellious fragmented world and being separated from God will have had an affect upon our lives.

Man is born in a dungeon. A member of a royal but fallen and dethroned race..He indubitably has a certain amount of freedom. He need not fall to every single sin, which approaches him. But although he has freedom in and under sin, yet he has no freedom from sin. He has a relative freedom of movement within his dungeon. To some extent He can choose the place in this dungeon where he will sit down. But to burst open the door of the prison is beyond his power.
Dr E. Sauer, The King of the Earth, page 135.

Sin is a disruption of proper relationships with God. As sinners we will have done untold harm to self and loved ones around us

To be a people capable of accepting forgiveness separates them from the world (the church). The world, under the illusion that power and violence rule history, assumes that it has no need to be forgiven.. being a community of the forgiven is directly connected with being a community stained by the narratives we find in scripture, as those narratives do nothing less than manifest the God whose very nature is to forgive. To be capable of remembering we must be able to forgive, for without forgiveness we can only forget or repress those histories that prove to be destructive or at least unfruitful. But Christians and Jews are commanded not to forget, since the very character of their community depends on their accepting God's forgiveness and thus learning how to remember even if what they must remember is their sin and unrighteousness.
Dr S. Hauerwas in A Community of Character, p 69.

When we sin we fail to live as a son or daughter. In sinning we are seeking to be what we are not - independent and self-sufficient.

The basic psychological problem is trying to be what we are not, and trying to carry what we cannot carry. Most of all, the basic problem is not being willing to be the creatures we are before the Creator.
Dr. F. Shaeffer in, A Christian Worldview, volume 3 page 330.

Sin is our failure to live out our calling as God's image bearers - we fail to live in community with God, self, others, and the environment. Yet....

Sis not to be the defining mark of humanity.
Saying such things as 'I've always had a temper' is often taken as a description of who we are. It should simply be a description of what we have become. Think about it!!

The root cause, which the bible calls a sinful nature, results in man's failure to fulfil the original purpose for which he was created, namely, to enjoy daily fellowship with God, who created him for that very purpose. In the final analysis sin is everything which makes this fellowship impossible or which diminishes it in any way. The sense of loneliness which results is inescapable and the true meaning of forgiveness is that it restores that fellowship with God which is fundamental to man's inner health and peace.
Prof A. Custance in, Forgiveness and the Subconscious, page 28.

The universality of sin is seen in that it is both generic (all human beings without exception are sinners) and specific (every aspect of the individual's personality is affected by sin). We need to be stepping out of our chains and past the prison bars of our oft-erroneous worldview and into fullness of life.
We are powerful beings; yet all too often use our power the wrong way

Our power has become poisoned power. We discovered the ultimate physical power in the universe, the power wrapped up in an atom - and the very first thing we did with it was to blow whole cities and their citizens into oblivion. And instead of gaining security by it we are filled with an increasing dread that it may be used on us - on us all. Our power has become power to ruin ourselves. Our very light has turned to darkness. Man has gained control over nature, but not over human nature.
Dr E. Stanley Jones in the introduction to his book, 'The Way to Power and Poise.

Due to sin we become self-centred and shut self into our own little Universe. Even as Christians we can sometimes find ourselves asking God to help us rule our universe (look after me, help me through my day - yet with no desire to pray for others or find out what God wants from us).
In sinning we often seek to create value in self and for self, instead of realising the source from which all value and meaning is to come from - our heavenly Father. In seeking to create value we lean on that which is transient and passing

Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh? Can reeds thrive without water? While still growing and uncut, they wither more quickly than grass. Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless. What he trusts in is fragile; what he relies on is a spider's web. He leans on his web, but it gives way; he clings to it, but it does not hold. Job 8:11-15

In sin, the self rather than God becomes our criterion of value. We may simply refuse to see ourselves as God's good creation or we may actually elevate the creation rather than Creator as our sovereign.we miss the mark of participation in the community of God which the Creator desires for his creations.It (sin) has an active, pernicious dimension, for it is also actually opposition to God's intent.
Dr S. Grenz in, 'Theology For the Community of God p243-244

In one sense the essence of sin is that we become our own masters. In doing so we fall way from the divine eternal life for which we were made.
Due to the fall there is an unwillingness to acknowledge God's sovereignty and rebellion against His divine rule; a rule, which we think, curtails freedom.
The Bible speaks of our human problem as failure before anything else. It is a failure to reach the mark, so to speak, and yet at the same time an overstepping of the mark.
Sin, describes our inability and, at times, our set refusal to fulfil God's design for us.
For example, even as Christians we can refuse to see God as a Father who loves us and reaches out to us in grace and mercy. This may be because it is easier to ignore someone whom we wrongly believe does not have our best interests at heart.
Who am I? I am someone made in the image of God, created to know the love of my heavenly father. My identity and self-worth are not to come from my own achievements or from a sense of success or failure, but from the One who knows me intimately. I have a father who is always interested in my life and regards nothing about me as trivial.
Who am I? I am a sinner saved by grace. I need to understand what grace is all about because I have been far from God and brought up in a society where nothing is freely given, and where I've often had to work hard in order to feel good about myself.

Receiving

Who am I? I am a recipient of God's Grace.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:8-10

Grace - 'charis' - undeserved, unmerited blessing and favour from another.

We need to understand God's grace because we have never encountered anything like it before.

The Relationship Between Grace and Wages.

Grace has nothing to do with wages. A wage is something that a person works for and earns. Grace is something a person receives that he does not deserve and that he cannot and did not earn.
A wage is a payment for work done. The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23) and sin shatters all relationships. It is a failure, an overstepping of the mark, a breaking of God's laws, a refusal to live as a son or daughter. Sin carries a heavy 'payment' Grace is something freely given based on the work done by another - Jesus Christ.
God owes me nothing, yet in Christ I have received eternal life (Romans 6:23).

Grace and Debt

Grace has nothing to do with debt because debt has to do with work and earnings, whilst grace speaks of receiving what I do not deserve.
God does not owe anyone salvation. There is nothing we can do in our own strength that would result in God owing me salvation. If God were to give us what we really deserve (what we really 'earn) then it would be eternal death - 'the wages of sin is death' - Romans 3:23.
Death is not annihilation, but separation from God. It is the weaker end of existence as opposed to the power of life. Death (separation from God) includes: abortion, euthanasia, murder, manslaughter, wars, famines, plagues, non-prescriptive drugs, adultery, homosexuality, child abuse, hatred, envy, violence, idolatry, jealousy, occultism etc. Outside of Christ death leads to eternal separation from God in Hell.
I owe God for the wrong-doing that I have done: I owe Him my life. Yet in God's mercy I don't receive what I do deserve; in His grace, I do receive what I don't deserve: abundant life.

Grace and Reward.

Grace has nothing to do with receiving a reward. A reward is something that is given in return for good or evil already done. Note, for example, that hypocrites who like to pray in a place where they are seen have already received their reward (Matthew 6:2).
Salvation is not a reward, which God gives us as payment for the good we have done. We are saved by grace alone.
Our obedience to God enables us to receive what God has already prepared for us. For example, I do not earn a meal if someone asks me to go to their house at five o'clock for a meal; my obedience to their request enables me to benefit from the work of another.
God encourages the saved person with rewards (1 Cor 3) for work done, yet as 1 Cor 3:15, Eph 2:8-9 and Titus 3:5 reveals good works do not save us. Reward for work done flows out of salvation and not into salvation (note Eph 2:9). Salvation is by grace, based only upon the Person and work of Jesus Christ. It is based upon what He has done, not upon what we have done.

Grace and Mercy.

As already mentioned, grace focuses on all that God gives us that we do not deserve (such as eternal life, forgiveness of sin, peace with God).
Mercy (in part) focuses upon all that God does not give to us that we do deserve. Jude 2 says, 'mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.'
The mercy and grace of God is clearly seen in Acts 3:19 where Luke writes, 'Repent then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.'
Because of the work of Jesus the record of our sin is obliterated - the debt is cancelled.
Paul uses the same word translated 'wiped out' in Col 2:13-14. 'He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled (wiped out) the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.'
The word for written code is cheirographos meaning 'written agreement' acknowledging a debt. God's law shows that, along with the Colossians, we owe God a huge debt, but are unable to pay it.' Yet Paul says that our debt has been cancelled.
Paul could have used a common Greek word for 'cancelled', but he doesn't.
The more common word for 'cancelled' would have been 'chiazein.' This word means to write the Greek letter 'chi' (which was the same shape as a capital X right across the document. So a debt could be 'chiazein' - crossed out. But Paul does not use this word.
Paul uses the word 'exaleiphein' meaning, 'to cancel, to wipe out'. It was a word used of wiping ink off the page with a wet sponge so that it no longer existed on the page.
Acts 3:19 and Col 2:13-14 show that because of Jesus the debt I owe has been cancelled.

Grace and Free Justification.

and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Romans 3:24

In John 15:25 we find the same word used above (freely), expressed in this way: '.but this is to fulfil what is written in their Law: 'they hated me without reason.'
The words 'freely' and 'without reason' are from the same Greek word (doorean). But what does it mean when scripture says that the Lord's enemies hated him without reason? It means that there was not one thing that Christ ever did to deserve their hatred. It was a hatred that was undeserved, and unearned.
Now apply the meaning to Romans 3:24: Paul writes that sinners are justified freely. He or she is justified 'without cause', in that there is no reason found in the sinner as to why God should justify them.
The word 'justification' comes from a Greek concept meaning 'to declare right with God.' It is a legal act wherein God pronounces that I have been forgiven (the price paid) and have been credited with all the virtues of Jesus Christ who indwells my life by the Holy Spirit.
Justification is more than pardon since it declares that the demands of the law are satisfied not waived.>/

Paul (quoting David) writes:

Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him. Romans 4:8.

Our English words 'count against' translate the Greek word 'logizeshtai,' a word used by accountants. The idea is that our sins have put us completely and without any hope of payment in God's debt. The balance of the ledger of life is totally against us.
God in His mercy wipes out the debit balance that we ourselves could never pay, and the work of Christ is credited to us. Our sinful nature is covered by His work.
It is a finished transaction, which is what Paul means when he says to the Ephesians.

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are Gods' possession - to the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1:13-14

Please note again that the word 'seal' speaks of a finished transaction. For example, if I were selling goods to another person the last thing done would be to check that the order is complete before I placed my seal on it.
Our position in Christ is now that of a son or daughter whom God has made His home with by the Holy Spirit.
My life is now about appropriating all that is mine because of Christ. I need to allow the Holy Spirit to work in my life, and work with the Spirit in dealing with the old thought patterns and fallen nature, whilst appropriating all that Christ has given.

Grace and Boasting.

If a person is saved by grace, then boasting (in self) is absolutely and totally excluded. Boasting says, 'Look at what I've done, look at how learned I am, look at my dedication.
On one occasion Paul challenged the leaders at Corinth who were carrying on as if they had achieved their position and learning in their own strength. He said ...

For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? 1 Cor 4:7

The person who is saved looks away from self to his or her Saviour. We boast in all that He has done

but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,' declares the Lord. Jeremiah 9:24

Boast - 'halal' - to shine, to shout for the Lord, to have genuine appreciation from the heart for all that God has done.

Grace and Works

Some verses seem to point out that we are still working out our salvation, as if it were not fully ours. For example, Paul said .....

continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Phil 2:13-14.

In the above verse we need to note that Paul does not say, 'continue to work out the salvation that will be yours' but 'continue to work out your salvation.
There is a difference between position and experience. For example if you were suddenly made a King or Queen that would be your new position. But you would still be you, and need to work out all that your position enables you to receive. In Phil 2 Paul tells the Philippians to work with God so that they may benefit from all that He has done now and not just wait for the future. Salvation is theirs, is becoming theirs more fully (as they learn to lay aside wrong thinking and feed on all He provides) and will be fully when they go to be with Christ.
The 'fear and trembling' that Paul speaks of is the response that we should have to the awesome presence of God by His Spirit, working out His purpose in us.

Good Works Prepared In Advance For Us To Do.

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10

In Isaiah 41:13 God asks the rhetorical question, 'Who has known the mind of the Lord, or instructed him as his counsellor?' In 1 Cor 2:16 Paul turns this rhetorical question around in the light of the coming of the Spirit (we have the mind of Christ). As believers we know something of the mind of the Lord because we know what the Spirit has revealed.
We are to think the way Christ does and therefore our attitude should be the same as that of Christ (Phil 2:5).
Our 'good work' is to learn to rest in the finished work of Christ and seek the leading of the Spirit in all things. We need to continually hand our lives over to God.
It is God who imparts wisdom, knowledge and understanding whereby our hearts and minds are transformed (Romans 12:1-2), so that we can find our real self in Him.
The fruit of the Spirit will be present through the life of the believer

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Gal 5:22-23.

As servants of the living God we seek to look after one another, care for one another, encourage one another, and uplift one another in and by the Holy Spirit. We cannot live this way on our own. It is too hard. We need the leading of the Spirit in all areas of heart and mind.
In seeing the world as God expects us to, we are to regard no-one as trivial or insignificant, and need to recognise the importance of meeting together and sharing fellowship no matter our differences. This is because God has created us for community.

Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. Hebrews 7:22

Guarantee: 'Enguos' (surety). One who personally answers for someone, whether with his life or his property.
If I owed a large sum of money I could not become a guarantor for someone needing a guarantee for a mortgage. Neither could I have a dog or a cat as my guarantor - it needs to be someone of the same nature. Hence the following scripture:

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

The One who stands surety for us has freely and willingly assumed the obligations of another.

The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life - only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father. John 10:17-18

Who am I? I am someone who is receiving amazing grace right now. I am someone who has had amazing wealth imputed to my account.
The One who gives Himself to us is the most perfectly loving yet also the most offended person of all time. Despite being all-powerful He chose to stand in our place
Imagine working hard in a factory all day and failing to achieve the task at hand. You had needed to succeed in order to be allowed through the door so that you could go home. The owner may pardon you for your incompetence, but he cannot let you go through the door.
The Son of the owner has also worked hard all day, although he did not need to. He manages to succeed where you failed. This man then stands in your place - it is as if he has taken your name and done your work and you are set free - if you graciously accept what he has done as yours.
Imputation means the charging or crediting to one's account as the ground of judicial treatment.
Because of the work of Christ we are treated as those in whom covenant has been fulfilled. Christ's righteousness satisfies the penalty of the law.
Think of going home and finding that someone had credited a £1,000000 to your bank account, and that the same person had taken away all the rubbish from your house and we get a very pale idea about what Christ has done for us.

Doing

In this section we see how resting (in the biblical sense) is an activity. One of the clearest signs of covenant in the Old Testament.

What is one of the clearest signs of covenant in the Old Testament.The Exodus?...Dietary Laws?...The Moral Code?...The Kingdom under David or Solomon?... Miracles?

In fact one of the clearest signs of covenant in the Old Testament is the Sabbath Rest.

Who are we? We are people who have been created to rest in the work of another - the work of our heavenly Father - the work of Jesus - the working of the Holy Spirit.

Say to the Israelites, 'You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy.' Exodus 31:3

'Do not profane my holy name. I must be acknowledged as holy by the Israelites. I am the Lord, who makes you holy and who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord.' Lev 22:32 (note also Lev 20:8)

It is only in receiving from God that we can become holy. Our righteousness is like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6), and we are all sinners (Rom 3:23). It is resting in the finished work of Christ that I can become in experience and practice what I already am in position by virtue of His saving work.
Who are you? You are someone made to benefit from all that Sabbath rest means. So what is the Sabbath all about?

The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant. It will be a sign between men and the Israelites for ever, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and on the seventh day he abstained from work and rested. Exodus 31:16-1

'Sabbat' meaning, 'to sever,' 'put to an end.' 'come to the end of.'

The Sabbath was a cessation of one's own work in order to rest and recall that all blessing is because of another.
This can be seen from the Deuteronomic record of the 10 commandments that carry an additional point concerning the Sabbath.

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. Deuteronomy 5:14

Observe - 'quadas' - to set apart.

God spoke through Hosea saying that feast days and Sabbaths would cease (Hosea 2:11) because of Israel's disobedience, yet we still see God's grace, and the Sabbath is ultimately fulfilled in Christ.

'Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a new moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come, the reality however is found in Christ.'
Colossians 2:16-17

In Christ we find our true rest. In Christ we begin to see the world as we should be seeing it - from God's perspective and not simply our own experiences.
The Sabbath reminded people that all the achievements in Israel primarily came about from the hand of God, as did other commandments (eg Joshua 8:31).
Israel was often called to remember. But why?
The Sabbath encouraged people to focus on and trust in the Lord. It speaks of a reorientation of the mind - a refocusing on the ways of the Lord for those distracted by the every day demands of life.

We often forget that God's very attributes of omniscience and omnipresence must necessarily intimately involve Him with every detain of our lives.God is deeply moved, affected, and touched by the pressures, problems and personal heartbreak people go through.
Dr W. Pratney in 'Nature and Character of God p 344.

In forgetting what the Sabbath tells us about God's grace and mercy, man heads back into self-sufficiency and self-centredness. Yet where did this get people such as Cain? In looking at the fruit of his lineage (Gen 4:23 - 'I have killed a man for wounding me) we see the danger of building on our own worldview.

The tragic aspect of self-centred philosophy is that it progressively destroys the very self it seeks to preserve'
Prof C. F. Henry in, 'God, Revelation and Authority vol 4 p 519.

Note also the year of Jubilee which:
1.Prevented a permanent class system.
2.Gave everyone a chance to start over again, economically and socially.
3.Reminds us that one of God's interests is liberty for His people.
4.Is a witness to God's desire for justice on earth.
5.Is prophetic in that God will one day restore all that has been perverted by man's sin, remove the slavery of sin, establish true liberty and deliver the creation from the bondage of corruption.

'The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.' Luke 4:18-19

Who am I? I belong to someone - to a heavenly Father who created me to receive great blessing from His hand. Because I am in a sinful and struggling world I too will struggle at times with inner thought patterns and attitude of heart as I learn to appropriate new ways.
I am someone who has been created to receive and am called to receive before being called to do.

God With Man.

When God makes His home with those who repent of their sins and trust fully in the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ there is:

An obvious leading of the Spirit (Rom 12:2) as opposed to a depending on the transient ways of the world.
There is the presence of the Spirit in the redeemed that involves a sense of kinship with our heavenly Father.

'May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.' 1 Thessalonians 3:13.

There is a communication of the Spirit that reveals the will of God to us through our minds

'If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.' Philippians 2:1-3

Who are we?

We are people who have been created to know God, and respond to Him with all that He has given.

Paul prays that God would give the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that believers might know Him better (Eph 1:15ff).
Paul prays that love would abound in knowledge and depth of insight (Phil 1:9) and that people would be able to discern what is best in all things (Phil 1:10).
Paul prays that God would strengthen people with power through His Spirit in the inner being; and that people would be rooted and established in love, and know the fullness of God (Eph 3:14ff).
Paul prays that God would fill people with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. He prays that people would be able to please the Lord and grow in knowledge of God being strengthened by His power (Col 1:9ff). Paul thanks God for people (1 Thes 1:2; Phil 1:3-4), and prays that love would increase and also strength of heart and mind (1 Thess 3:11-13).
Paul prays that God, who gives endurance and encouragement, would give unity

'May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.' Romans 15:5-6

Please stop and think about how this section has helped you see who you are. What does this section tell you about God, and how can you begin to apply what you know? How can you help others to see who they are in God's eyes?

Genesis Bible Study

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