Image is Everything

 

Retired pastor and author Tracy Hearnsberger wrote a topic article that I'd like to share today on the standard of truth for life in a world where image is everything, the question is who's image? 

A favorite life slogan 
Andre Agassi, a famous tennis star back in the 1990’s, did a Canon camera commercial in which he said, “Image is everything.”  The pitch was clear:  Buy this camera and your pictures, your images, will look more like the subject of the pictures than any from any other camera.  This saying has since been used by many groups whose purpose is to produce images that best reflect the original subject.  It also became one of my “life slogans” a couple of years ago and is still one of my favorites.  I agree with Andre Agassi on the value of image.
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Original intent
1.  Genesis 1:26, 27 (NASB): 26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

2.  Genesis 2:22-25 (NASB): 22 The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. 23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man." 24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

God’s creation of man in His image, His creation of the genders of male and female, and then His declaration, “for this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh” is found in Genesis 1 and 2 which of course comes before Genesis 3 where we have recorded the fall of man into sin.  God’s original intent and purpose for every human being is to bear, reveal, show, and express His image so He can be “seen” in the earth.  God decided His image would be seen distinctively as male and female and then His image would be seen when a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife to become one flesh which reunites together male and female as one. 

Blurred image restored
This beautiful, original, and intentional purpose and plan found in Genesis 1 and 2 became “blurred,” “warped,” and “distorted” in the fall of man into sin which is found recorded in Genesis 3.  We see many examples of this every day all around us.  Yet, Jesus came to “restore” the image of God.  (Please read Romans 8:29, 1 Corinthians 15:49, and 2 Corinthians 3:18.)  “We were created in God’s own image, now in Christ to be transformed into the same image, so that we might bear His image.” (Another of my favorite life slogans.)  Jesus came, lived, died, and rose again to restore all things back to their original condition, especially all things concerning the image of God.  In Colossians 3:10 we are instructed to “put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him--…”   

Image understood
To understand a thing one must understand the origin, the beginning, of the thing and understand the conclusion, the end, of the thing.  Genesis 2:24 is found 3 times in the Bible in Genesis 2:24, Matthew 19:5 and Ephesians 5:31.  Again, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.”

Genesis 2:24 gives us God’s original, created, intent and purpose for marriage.  (See above.)  Jesus Himself quotes this verse in Matthew 19:5 when answering the Pharisees’ question about divorce and remarriage.  In Matthew 19:4 He even says, "Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE,” and then in Matthew 19:8, concerning divorce, He says, “…but from the beginning it has not been this way.”  Jesus was getting everyone back to “the beginning.”  It is “in the beginning” where we find what we must understand and believe about the image of God; the creation of man; the creation of gender distinctiveness as male and female; and the intent, purpose, and plan of the marriage of one man and one woman.

Ephesians 5:31 is where Paul quotes Genesis 2:24, and I might say, quotes Jesus from Matthew 19:5.  In Ephesians 5:22-33 (Please read it.), God is instructing the church in Ephesus to understand that the example, the picture, the image of a husband and wife living their lives in Christ together in the earth is revealing, bearing, portraying, “unveiling” the amazing picture of Christ and the church.  Again, Ephesians 5:31, quoted from Genesis 2:24 and Matthew 19:5 says, “FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.”  Then, Ephesians 5:32 right after it says, “This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.”  

Image to come
In Ephesians 5:22-33 is where we begin to understand “the end of the thing.”  Ephesians 5:27 says, “that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.”  This is referring to the future, second coming, return of Jesus Christ.  Revelation 19:5-9 speaks of “the marriage supper of the Lamb.”  Revelation 19:7 says, "Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready."  Revelation 21:2 says, “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.” 

All these Bible verses in Revelation (the book about “the end of the thing”) and Revelation 21:9-11 and 22:17 make reference to the great mystery found in Ephesians 5:22-33. "This example or picture, the image of a husband and wife living their lives in Christ together in the earth, is revealing, bearing, portraying, and unveiling the amazing picture of Christ and the church.”

In summary
1.  Genesis 1:27: “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

2.  Genesis 2:24: “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.”

3.  Matthew 19:4,5:  4 And He answered and said, "Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, 5 and said, 'FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH'?”

4.  Ephesians 5:31-32: “FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.”  32 “This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.” 

A final word of urged encouragement
Romans 12:1-2 (NASB) 1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

“Image is everything!” – Tracy Hearnsberger