Image – Part Two: Saved. We’re continuing this series, looking at the grammar of the gospel, in particular the key words used in Ephesians 2:8-10, words that have come to define our faith and understanding of the journey we’re on with Yahweh. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
In Genesis 1 and 2, God makes humanity in his image; that is, God constructs the world as God’s own temple and the image of God in the temple (just like an ancient temples, you go into the temple and there is the image of the unseen diety). In the temple that is creation, the image of the unseen God is humans. All of humanity. As we live lives of flourishing and continue to enjoy and spread the shalom of God within creation, God is glorified b/c that is what the ‘Image of God’ is meant to do: flourish, enjoy God’s good world, and foster flourishing in the great order of God’s shalom. That is what it means to live for God’s namesake.
How does Psalm 8interact with that opening in Genesis? “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.”
As always, we encourage and would love discussion as we pursue. Always feel free to email in questions to hello@voxpodcast.com, and to engage the conversation on Facebook and Instagram.
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Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford
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