THE IMAGE OF GOD – Part 4 – The Moral Nature of God GENESIS 1:27 26And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. What is the image of God? Well we established in the previous parts of this series, that the ‘Image and Likeness’ of God are essentially one and the same thing, which can be explained as Man ‘resembling’ God in ways that - the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air; the cattle all over the earth and every other thing that creepeth upon the earth – do not. One of the many ways in which Man resembles God, is that just like God, we are Moral. By this I mean concerned with the principles of right and wrong behaviour. Throughout scripture, there are several landmark events which make it abundantly clear that God, in His dealings with Man and in relation to every Heavenly Mandate, provides details of: The Mandate, the Permissible and the Forbidden. One of the first examples of this can be seen in the Book of Genesis in relation to Adam and Eve’s instructions from God regarding their Mandate in the Garden of Eden and we can examine this a little closer below ... 1. Genesis 2: 15 – The Mandate: 15And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to – DRESS IT AND KEEP IT; 2. Genesis 2: 16 – The Permissible: And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 3. Genesis 2:17 – The Forbidden: 17BUT of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou SHALT NOT EAT OF IT: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. The principle of God giving Mandates which are followed by strong – DO or DO NOT instructions, serves in demonstrating the fact that our God has a Moral Nature. Two further and also very popular examples of God’s moral code in scripture are seen in His giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses in Exodus Chapters 19 thru 20 as well as in Deuteronomy 28, where God lays out in quite explicit terms, the blessings that would follow a person who would ‘hearken’ – meaning abide by His statutes as well as the consequences that would befall those that do not. We as human beings, made in the Image and Likeness of God, also posses the moral nature of God inherent within us, as part of our nature. This is seen in that we all, to a greater or lesser extent, even if we are from different faiths, or have no faith at all, have strong opinions about what we see as either right or wrong and how persons who have transgressed from the statute(s) in question should be handled. But in relation to animals on the other hand, many people would argue that although it is known that animals are known to show fear, they do not seem to go through the motions of guilt in the same way that humans do. Conversely, some scientist now feel that they have evidence to the contrary, but a factor that clearly distinguishes Man from other creatures that God has created, is that Man is able to make judgements on the way that him/herself or other people, have chosen to behave and are also able to make a decision to change an aspect of his/her own behaviour, using the privilege of ‘choice’ that the Father has given to us. The fact that there is evidence in the Word of God that our Father has a Moral nature coupled with the word of God in Genesis 1:31 ...’ And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good...’ has caused me to conclude that even though some people may appear to be morally bankrupt (I Tim 4:2b), that moral nature does indeed exist in each of us that were created in His Image and Likeness and the best thing that we can possibly do in the lives of our spouses, children and all those in our circle of influence is to assist them in manifesting ‘Morality’ as a fruit, by allowing the Holy Spirit to use us as the voice of conscience in their lives and diverse situations. Other, much more practical suggestions for assisting them in manifesting morality as a fruit could be: 1. Taking the time to train our children in the ways and statutes of the Lord (Prov 22:6); 2. Loving our spouses, children and loved ones with the perfect love of the Lord, which is demonstrated by lovingly advising them according to what is ‘RIGHT’ in God’s sight, even though it may not be what they wanted to hear (Prov 27:6) and... 3. ALWAYS! ALWAYS! ALWAYS! – Being the voice of conscience, which pours water on the fire of justified anger and stops the escalation of a further war, by drawing the individual(s) back to the Father (Mathew 5:9). Having understood this very simple truth, let us yield our hearts to the Spirit of God to enable Him to use us to assist everyone in our circle of influence in manifesting - The Moral Nature of God :)
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 15:12:12 +0000
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