Origin Matters

“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

Origin matters.  Design matters.  Purpose matters.  “Time plus matter plus chance,” this is the atheists’ and evolutionists’ view point on the origin of mankind.  The answer to the question “Who is man?” has huge ramifications to the further questions of meaning, significance, value, hope, and ethics.  To say that man just evolved out of cosmic soup or is the result of random particles colliding together is to say man is meaningless.  Rocks, water, and oil have then as much meaning as man does.  In fact the argument could be made that oil, for example, is much more meaningful than man because oil has a purpose (many purposes, actually) that gives it some meaning, namely that we use a refined version of it to fuel our cars.  But this rushes too far ahead because if life is meaningless then getting anywhere would also be meaningless.  It would not matter if we arrived or not.  If we are here purely by random chance then we have no meaning, no purpose to life.  More than that, if we are here completely by accident, then what we do (or don’t do) should also have no meaning.  The problem is no one can live without meaning for very long before despair sets in.  Not to have meaning is to despair of life itself.  To have no consequences to our actions, that is to believe what we do does not have meaning, ethically allows us to do anything with no need to concern ourselves with right or wrong behaviors.  If life has no meaning then our actions do not add to or subtract from this meaning and there are no rules to govern behavior between people.  It is merely survival of the fittest or the quickest or the most devious.  If there are no rules then murder is okay, rape is okay, stealing is okay, lying is okay.  More than that, these things are not just okay but to be considered normal.  You can see this quickly breaks down into an unlivable scenario. 

Does mankind have any value?  Are we significant?   If mankind is here as the result of “time plus matter plus chance,” then there is no reason to believe they are significant or have any more value than anything else that is here as the result of “time plus matter plus chance” like, for example, a rock or water or plant or insect.  If this is true, then we should be as concerned about the mosquito we kill as the person who is murdered.  To go a step further, we should really be concerned about destroying the state of anything because all things are here by the same chance as we are.  So we could not build a fire for the wood is as important as we are.  We could not eat because what we eat is as important as we are.  We could not breathe for in doing so we are changing the nature of oxygen into carbon dioxide and that is as important as we are.  Again this turns into an unlivable situation. 

Finally, what about hope?  What gives us hope if we are meaningless, insignificant, have no intrinsic value, and no sense of right or wrong?  I can find none.  The logical conclusion is we have no hope, nothing to live for and should expect despair to be imminent.  Does this line up with reality?  Do people really live this way?

If on the other hand, we were created by God in his image as the Bible tells us in Genesis 1:27, then our lives do have meaning and purpose.  God has blown into mankind His breath of life.  We are to rule over the earth and subdue it (Gen 1:28).  God has elevated us above the rest of things we find in the world by breathing His life into us.  He does not do this with the plants or animals, but He makes a point of doing it with the crown of His creation – mankind.  He has given us meaning and a purpose.  The Westminster Catechism proclaims the “chief end of mankind is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever”.¹  The Bible bears this out (Ps 86; Isa 60:21; Rom 11:36; 1 Cor 6:20, 31; Rev 4:11; Ps 16:5-11; Ps 144:15; Isa 12:2; Luke 2:10; Phil 4:4; Rev 21:3-4)²  So we do have a meaning and a purpose.  We are made in His image and this makes life sacred.  We carry with us His image in us all the time.  Then why is it we see so much evil in the world.  Christianity actually offers us the cause of, and answer to, this question.³ 

The fall of man through sin corrupted his nature (Rom 5:12; Gen 6:5).⁴  However man can be redeemed by being born-again of the Spirit of God (John 3:3, 5-6, 14-18; 6:28-29).  So now mankind, once redeemed has these two natures at war within himself (Rom 12:1-2; 7:21-25, 8:3-13; Eph 4:6-8, 22-24; Col 2:6-17, 3:1-2, 5, 8-10, 12-16; 2 Cor 3:18, 10:4-5; 1 Cor 2:16).  And we must by the Spirit put to death the misdeeds of the flesh (Rom 8:12-13).  God’s character and His purpose for mankind give us a basis for meaning, for significance, and for ethics.  He designed us, so we can look to Him for what our proper function is and how we should live.  God places high value on human life.  He sent His Son to die to redeem mankind.  This was the most precious thing, the most costly thing, He could offer as a sacrifice for our sin.  Here is the only one with the ability and right to judge us for our sin laying down His life to restore us to Himself.  Oh what a great love is this!  “What shall we say then in response to this?  If God is for us who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also along with him, graciously give us all things?” – Romans 8:31-32. 

So God has given us meaning, significance, value and a basis for ethics.  Lastly He gives us hope.  His hope is one we can trust for beyond the grave.  “All major religions believe in an afterlife of one sort or another, but none except Christianity has provided the historical substantiation of it.  The Christian faith, although it is a whole system, can be completely decimated in principle if one can fully establish that Jesus did not rise from the dead.”⁵  Because Jesus rose from the dead, we have hope He can raise us from the dead.  “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.’” – John 11:25. 

Because He rose again, we know that death is conquered.  We have the proof that the sacrifice for our sin is accepted.  And we have the promise of eternal life (Rom 6:8-9; 1 Cor 15:3-4).  Because He rose again, we know faith (belief in) the resurrection is a condition of salvation (Rom 10:9-10).  Because He rose again, the Sinner’s justification is confirmed by the resurrection  (Rom 4:25).  Because He rose again, we are dead to sin (we have died to the law through Christ) and are alive in the Spirit and our sinful passions produced fruit for death.  Because He rose again, He sent the Holy Spirit to renew us and produces fruit of Spirit (love) (Rom 7:4-6).  Because He rose again the Spirit makes our bodies alive—gives us the power to put to death the activities of the body (Rom 8:9-14).  Because He rose again, we can put to death the sinful nature and live by the Spiritual Nature.  The sinful nature being crucified with Him, we know it is rendered powerless and we are freed from slavery to the sinful nature (Rom 6:3-11).

Who is man?  He is sinful without Christ.  He is capable of wicked things.  Yet He knows intrinsically there is right and wrong, good and evil.  He is of great value and has significance.  He is redeemed in Christ and through Him is highly valued.  He is hopeful in Christ. 

Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for creating us in Your Image!  You have given us great treasure in fashioning us after Your likeness!  We thank You for redeeming us with Your death on the cross!  We thank you for rising again from the dead!  We have proof incontrovertible of Your power and mastery over all things!  We thank you for giving us meaning, value and hope!  To You be all the glory!  Solo Deo Gloria!  Amen!

Footnotes

¹ "Westminster Shorter Catechism." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 28 Sep 2009, 07:43 UTC. 16 Oct 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Westminster_Shorter_Catechism&oldid=316641347>.

² “Westminster Shorter Catechism with proof texts.” CRTA Center for Reformed Theology and Apologetics. 14 October 2009 <http://www.reformed.org/documents/WSC_fn.html#fn2>.

³ Zacharias, Ravi. Can Man Live Without God (Nashville, TN: W Publishing Group, 1994), 49.

⁴ Tackett, Dell. The Truth Project  (Colorado Springs, CO: Focus on the Family) Lesson 3: Anthropology: Who is man?, 1 DVD.

⁵ Zacharias. 113.

References

All Scriptures not specified are quoted from the NIV. New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003.

God is Self-Existent

“If you ask why we should obey God, in the last resort the answer is, 'I am.'
To know God is to know that our obedience is due to Him.”¹ – C.S. Lewis

“It is not easy to categorize the Attributes of God.  There are clearly two general kinds, but proper words to distinguish them are hard to find.  One kind, only God possesses; another kind, man may possess to a limited degree” ²

Self-existence is the kind of attribute only God can possess.  Scripture shows us God is self-existent, uncreated, and without origin.  John 5:26 says, “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself.” Here Jesus reveals to us the self-existence of the Godhead.  God reveals Himself in Exodus 3:14 as “I am who I am.”  He always has been, and has always been what He is.  “A more positive assertion of selfhood could not be imagined than those words of God to Moses: I AM THAT I AM. Everything God is, everything that is God, is set forth in that unqualified declaration of independent being. Yet in God, self is not sin but the quintessence of all possible goodness, holiness and truth.” ³  God is the origin of all that is.  Tozer again points out:

“God has no origin,” said Novatian and it is precisely this concept of no-origin which distinguishes That-which-is-God from whatever is not God.

Origin is a word that can apply only to things created. When we think of anything that has origin we are not thinking of God. God is self-existent, while all created things necessarily originated somewhere at some time. Aside from God, nothing is self-caused.

By our effort to discover the origin of things we confess our belief that everything was made by Someone who was made of none. By familiar experience we are taught that everything “came from” something else. Whatever exists must have had a cause that antedates it and was at least equal to it, since the lesser cannot produce the greater. Any person or thing may be at once both caused and the cause of someone or something else; and so, back to the One who is the cause of all but is Himself caused by none. ⁴

Colossians 1:16-17 says, “For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.  He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”  God is THE ORIGIN.  He is also THE SUSTAINER.  All that is owes its allegiance to the source and sustainer.

"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.  And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.  From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.” – Acts 17:24-26

God does not need – from anyone or anything or anywhere.  He alone is self-sufficient.   He is self-existent.  He never has a need and therefore never changes; just as James tells us “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17).  The Psalmist puts it another way, “Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.” – Psalm 115:3.  His knowledge alone is perfect.  The creator thoroughly understands what He has created.  He is not in need of someone to advise Him.  Romans 11:34-36 quotes Isaiah 40:13 and Job 41:11 writing, “Who has known the mid of the Lord?  Or who has been his counselor?  Who has ever given to God that God should repay him?  For from him and through him and to him are all things.  To him be the glory forever! Amen.”  God is completely without need in knowledge or power or all else that He is because He is self-existent.  He is wholly other than we can conceive of.  All that we know of beside Him has needs and dependency.  He and no-one else is fully independent.  Where He to withdraw His hand from creation, it would cease to exist.  Remember Colossians 1:17, “…He is before all things, and in him all things hold together?”  God speaks of Himself to Isaiah in chapter 40 and verse 25, “’To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?’ says the Holy One.”  Tozer again sums up for us:

To admit that there is One who lies beyond us, who exists outside of all our categories, who will not be dismissed with a name, who will not appear before the bar of our reason, nor submit to our curious inquiries: this requires a great deal of humility, more than most of us possess, so we save face by thinking God down to our level, or at least down to where we can manage Him. Yet how He eludes us! For He is everywhere while He is nowhere, for “where” has to do with matter and space, and God is independent of both. He is unaffected by time or motion, is wholly self-dependent and owes nothing to the worlds His hands have made.⁵

Perhaps some sincere but puzzled Christian may at this juncture wish to inquire about the practicality of such concepts as I am trying to set forth here. “What bearing does this have on my life?” he may ask. ”What possible meaning can the self-existence of God have for me and others like me in a world such as this and in times such as these?”

To this I reply that, because we are the handiwork of God, it follows that all our problems and their solutions are theological. Some knowledge of what kind of God it is that operates the universe is indispensable to a sound philosophy of life and a sane outlook on the world scene.⁶

There is no one else self-existent.  God alone holds this place.  He alone has no need.  He alone is unchangeable.  He alone is independent.  He alone is self-sufficient.  He alone is the origin.  He alone is eternal.  He alone is all-powerful.  He alone is self-existent. 

Oh Almighty Sufficient One, teach us our place of dependence on You.  Help us to understand Your awesome power at work in all creation; indeed at work in us.  Thank You for sustaining all things. Thank You for Your power at work.  We worship You for who You are All Sufficient One!  You are the SOURCE of all good things. We draw strength from You.  We look to You.  We trust in You.  Help us to see you as our Sufficient One and trust in You.  In Jesus', Almighty Name, Amen!

Footnotes

¹ Lewis, C. S. Surprised by Joy: the Shape of My Early Life. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1995. 224. Print.

² Duffield, Guy P., and Nathaniel M. Cleave. Foundations of Pentecostal Theology. Los Angeles, Calif.: L.I.F.E. Bible College, 1983. 69. Print.

³ Tozer, A. W. The Knowledge of the Holy: the Attributes of God, Their Meaning in the Christian Life. New York: Harper & Row, 1961. 25. Print.

⁴ Tozer. 25.

⁵ Tozer. 26-27.

⁶ Tozer. 27.

References

All Scriptures not specified are quoted from Life in the Spirit Study Bible (NIV). Stamps, Donald C., and John Wesley Adams. Life in the Spirit Study Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003. Print.

Tozer, A. W. The Knowledge of the Holy: the Attributes of God, Their Meaning in the Christian Life. New York: Harper & Row, 1961. Print.