Genesis 1:26-27 | The Origin of Spouses

Preacher: Tyler Masters

Text: Genesis 1:26-27

Big Idea: Understanding our identity as image bearers of God is essential in becoming suitable for marriage.

1. The Reflection of God

2. The Ruin of Sin

3. The Restoration in Christ 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Amen. God is faithful. Praise the Lord. Even when we're not faithful and those aren't faithful to us, still He remains faithful. Church, let's go to Him in prayer. This morning we'll be coming out of Psalm 27. Lord, we praise you that you are our light and our salvation. Lord, whom shall we fear? You are our stronghold. You are our life. Of whom shall we be afraid? Lord, we come to you today with a battle raging around us. Lord, the enemy wants to see us fall. He wants to see your name dragged through the mud. And yet, Lord, you remain faithful. You remain faithful to your name and to your people. Lord, you are the one who gives light and salvation. And we come to you today, trusting in you to give us that light. Lord, whom shall we fear? Lord, you are for us. Though an army encamp against us, our hearts shall not fear. Though war rise against us, yet we will be confident. Not confident in our power, not in confidence in our wisdom or ability, but in you, our light and our salvation. One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. We long for your presence. We know that you are here. You promised that you are amongst us here in this church at this time. Thank you for the fact that you have never left us nor forsaken us. Lord, may we sense your presence. We want to dwell in your presence. You've said, seek my face. My heart says to you, your face, Lord, do I seek? Lord, that's what we seek today. We seek you. You are what we need. Regardless of what we think we need, what we need is you. Show us your face. Teach me your way, oh Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. Lord, I pray that you would teach us your truth. It wouldn't just be head knowledge, but it would go from our head to our hearts. And that that right doctrine would lead to right passions, which then leads to right living, that you would be glorified. Lord, I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. We know the heaven awaits us, we know that good awaits us after this life, and yet we still can be confident in this life, in the land of the living, we shall look upon the goodness of the Lord. Show us your goodness today through your word. Lord, we wait for you. May we be strong, may our heart take courage as we wait for you this morning. Give us eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to receive your word. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Church, I would like to encourage you, if you're able to do so, to remain standing for the reading of God's Word. Today we will be looking at Genesis chapter 1. Genesis 1. We'll be reading verses 26 and 27. Genesis 1, 26 and 27. Then 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 birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him, male and female, he created them. Church, this is the word of the Lord for us this morning. May God write his eternal truths in our hearts. Good morning, church. My name is Tyler Masters. I'm one of the pastors here at Doxa, and it is my privilege to kick off this series on marriage, a series we'd entitled The Grammar of Marriage: God's Framework for His Gift of Grace. And that's what we want to consider for the next 12, 15 weeks, however long it takes us to get through this. This is a basic introductory to marriage. There is absolutely no way that we could cover everything that needs to be covered in so few weeks. But we want to give you a framework for what marriage is, how God designed it, why he designed it, what it looks like in our lives, and how we can live that out. And so along the way, we're going to be referencing a lot of different materials. So we want you to have that. So we've created a resource page. So you can find resources like books, podcasts, studies, and then the marriage groups that will be coming out in the fall. You can find out more about that and how to sign up for those on the Doxa app or website. Or you can scan the QR code. We have this QR code here for you to get just quick access for the resources that we're using because we want to get those in your hands. Because we got 45-ish minutes to talk through some specific topics. I want to encourage you to commit to your small group, especially during this time. We always want you to be involved in a small group, but you need this accountability, you need these discussions going. So commit to being a part of that discussion outside of our Sunday gathering. Be in a small group. Be participating. And also, I'd like to encourage you to commit to finishing the entire marriage series before you seek out intensive counseling. All right? You're gonna hear things be like, wow, we need to really work on this. Immediately, we need counseling. No. Just stay with us. Come and be faithful in hearing the preaching and teaching. Let the word of God do the work in your heart. And then after that, you say, all right, we need some intensive counseling. All right, we can talk. Well, I'll be out after the service at the first-time visitor desk, we can talk a little bit there. Uh but uh endure, come through this. Uh, and and have a heart posture of humility and openness to what the Lord has for you specifically. And what we really need to do is is seriously consider the condition of our own heart. We tend to be really bad about that, um, especially when it comes to issues of relationships, uh, marriage, or even single and relationships around you in the church, we tend to think about the problems out there. They they they've got problems. And of course, we have to acquiesce and say, like, yeah, I'm sure I'm part of the problem. I have my own issues, right? I I we don't necessarily always call them sins, but my own issues. But the real problem is the other person. Husbands, wives, children, all of us do this. And so as we come to the Word of God, what we need to be doing is, Lord, show me what I need to be working on in my heart. Show me where I need to repent, show me where I need to change, show me where I could give you glory and live out your gospel in my life. And here's the thing, especially in relationships that are strained. Uh oftentimes we're like, we need to fix this marriage, we need to fix the the husband or the wife and the problems that are there, and we feel so separated, we've grown apart, we need to get back together, we need to be closer, we need to be reconciled. Yes, you do, but that actually happens indirectly. It happens as you are are you are seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Because what happens is as we are pursuing Christ up here, though we are far apart here, the closer we get to him, the closer we get to one another. That's where it goes. That's what we have to go back to is where am I standing before the Lord? And so, whether you're married or single, divorced, widowed, wherever you are in your marital status, come to this series. Receive from the Lord what he has for you. There's a lot that can be applied individually. Uh, there's a lot that if you're not married, it'll help you understand your friends who are married, how you could be praying for them, how you can help them, how you can encourage them. This will equip you to disciple other people. And that's as we receive, that's what we do. We want we want heart change, but we don't we don't receive just to keep it. We receive it so that then we can be a blessing to others. And so as we are looking at this series for all of us, let's be careful not just to treat the symptoms. Right? We that's American health mentality, right? Like I'm healthy until suddenly I'm not, and now desperately I need to change all my diet and everything I do. What we need to do instead of just trying to treat the symptoms, we want quick fixes. We need to look at the root problems. We need to look deep down inside of what's going on inside of us, what's going on all around us, what is happening in our spiritual life and in the church and in the family. So don't rush through just to get the quick results, the principles, right? We want to say, hey, I just tell me what to do. And that happens sometimes in counseling. I feel like I'm really disappointing after a first counseling meeting with couples because they're like, so what do we do? We just go over scripture, we pray together, we we focus on Christ, like, yeah, but what how do we fix the problem? Well, we go back and get the right heart posture first. And this is something that we we do often with missionaries, is they're adjusting to cultures. Because when you go to another culture, another country, and maybe you've come here from another culture, or you go into a family, because families have cultures, you're like, why do people do what they do? Like, this is so weird. And we we get fixated on the behaviors. But we have to understand that behaviors are based on values. Values are based on beliefs, and beliefs are based on our worldview. And so we need to constantly go back. So, what is the worldview that is the heart of what produces these actions, both in myself and also in those around me? Because if all we're doing is trying to treat behaviors, we're just trying to produce some kind of behavior modification. It's kind of like training a dog. It's not really changing the heart of the nature, it's just, well, now they're well behaved and they sit when I say sit. And so for us, we need to think through this as we're going through this series and today in particular, and think, what is my worldview? Worldview is what is real? What do I accept as real? Is God real? Is he does he exist? Is he the author of everything? And if he is real, then how do I know who he is? And so we move into from the worldview of what is real to the belief of what is true. What is true about him? Well, how do we know that? We can see generally in creation, but specifically his special revelation through his word. And that's what we keep saying. Come back to this, let the word do the work. And so we establish that truth, then we see what our values should be, how to align ourselves with who we are in Christ, and then we'll start seeing those behaviors change in our lives and that we start walking in accordance with who we already are. And so, with that today, I want us to go back, and ironically, today is not even a whole lot about marriage. It being the first message in the marriage series you think should be about marriage. Well, it's about preparing our hearts for marriage because before we talk about the permanence of marriage, we need to talk about permanence of character, of what's going on in us, who we are. And in order to do that, we have to go back to the beginning. We're gonna go back to the origin of spouses. All right, that's the title of the message today: The Origin of Spouses. Going back to the theological basics: who is God and who is man, what is real, what is true, what is good. That's what we want to consider. Before we start talking about roles and responsibilities in a marriage relationship, we need to understand who we are, created by God with a purpose. And so, as we are considering the marriage series and what marriage looks like, we need to be asking, am I suitable for marriage? Whether you're married or not. If you're not married, how do I make myself suitable to be married? If you are married, how do you remain suitable? How do you become a good husband, a good wife? How does that happen? And so here's the big idea today. Understanding our identity as image bearers of God is essential in becoming suitable for marriage. Understanding our identity as image bearers of God is essential in becoming suitable for marriage. So we look around the world, we see broken relationships, broken marriages, broken homes, broken families, broken systems all around us. It's broken. We acknowledge that the scripture shows us it is broken. But when we we use that word broken, and we use it a lot, at least we do, we we talk about someone or something being broken. I'm so broken. What you are implying when you say something is broken is that there was an original whole or unbroken state of that thing. Otherwise, it couldn't be broken if it wasn't whole at one point. And so that begs the question: well, what was the original design? Well, what was it? What was it designed to be? And that's why we're gonna go all the way back to Genesis. This is where we get to the origin of spouses, the origin of human beings that make up this marriage union. Genesis was written by Moses. Give a little context here, written by Moses to the children of Israel in the wilderness. And this is significant to understand what he's doing and why he's doing this, because we think Moses gave us the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments didn't show up until Exodus 20. You've got like 69 Bible verses, chapters of the Bible, before you get to the commandments of what to do. And that's like four hours of reading nonstop before you get to thou shalt and thou shalt not. So we don't want to skip ahead to the behavior. We want to go back and see the foundation, and that's what Moses is doing is he's giving us a foundation. He's helping the people of God understand who God is, who they are, why they exist, and what is their foundation for their relationship with Him. And so the emphasis all throughout Genesis is God's covenant love and promises. This is the foundation for God's people. To understand why we do what we do, we must understand who he is and who we are in him. So, with that, let's go to Genesis 1.26. And just the first three words. Then God said. We're gonna stop there. Because this is one of the mistakes we make, is that we make marriage and we make life and we make all relationships about us. But we need to see all of this goes back to Him. This is about God. God is the origin, He is the source of all relationships, He is the source of all that is within creation, He is the beginning of human history. And we need to see ourselves in light of who He is, otherwise, it won't make any sense at all. And so as we we look at God, who is the creator, who is what we call independent or the athaity of God, that He needs no one and nothing to exist. All a creation is dependent, He alone is independent. And yet, He chose to create man. It says there, then God said, Let us make man. This is fascinating because now we we see God is holding counsel with himself. He's not talking to angels, he's not talking to the earth, he's holding counsel with himself. And said, We're gonna do something special. He's already created everything else within creation, and now this is the final work here, mankind. This is special. And so the scene slows down to where you hear God talking and says, Let us make man in our image. As you read through Genesis, this is fascinating, and I'm gonna fight the urge to go through all kinds of exegesis here. However, the word for God in Genesis 1 is Elohim, which is a plural word. Plural. Elohim. However, all of the verbs attached to Elohim in Genesis 1 are singular. So when it says God, plural, created, singular, we see something fascinating here, and this has kind of baffled theologians for a long time. But we need to see within Scripture, we first of all, we serve one God. We believe in one God. We're monotheistic. However, we also believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, that there is one God but three persons. And so we we see that within the nature of God, there is a singularity and there is a plurality. And that's important in understanding who we are in relationship with Him. And it is also important to note that God did not create mankind because he was lonely, because he needed someone to love and have a relationship with. No, there was perfect love, perfect community, perfect fellowship within the Trinity for all eternity past. There was lacking nothing relationally. He did not need to make us. And so as we consider this relationship, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit always existing, this perfect love and union and community that should inform who we are being created in his image. Which it says, as you go on, let us make man in our image after our likeness. And this is what we call the Imago Dei, the image of God. Now, all of creation reflects the glory of God in some way. However, there's something unique about mankind. This is what Herman Bavink said about the uniqueness of God creating man. He says, the entire world is a revelation of God, a mirror of his attributes and perfections. Every creature in its own way and degree is the embodiment of a divine thought. But among the creatures, only man is the image of God. God's highest, richest revelation, and consequently the heading crown of the whole creation. So again, think Moses is writing this to the Israelites who were in bondage to the Egyptians. You realize that the Egyptians and pagans, they did not see human beings as being created in the image of God. Pharaoh, he was the image of Ra. That's literally what Pharaoh means. It means that he is the image of the God Ra. Only those who have those elevated statuses are really the ones that have the dignity of the child of the children of God, essentially. Moses is saying something incredibly revolutionary here. He's revealing to us the reality. It's not just those in power and authority and those who are wealthy that are considered the offspring of God, but we are considered the children of God. That we are image-bearers of God. And that gives us dignity, that gives us honor, that elevates us, man and woman, no matter what your job is, no matter how low it is, no matter how high it is, we are all created in the image of God. But what does it mean to be created in his image? What is it that separates us from the rest of creation, from all of the animals? Well, there are a few ways in which that's seen. Primarily it's seen in our soul and in who we are internally. And so what we call substantive or the issue of being. We see that we are moral, rationalistic, we have a conscience, we are creative, we're imaginative. These are things that reflect who God is as creator. I see monkeys may use tools, but they don't create new complex ones. They're not strategizing how to build their communities, how to strengthen and produce industry. Animals don't think that way. We do, because we we're reflection of a divine creator. They don't think moralistically, they they live and act instinctively. And yet we have morality. Even in our broken, fallen condition, we still have a sense of morality, of decency, of something that is right. We have the ability to wonder at creation. We talk about the true, the good, and the beautiful. You know what a monkey doesn't do? He doesn't go to an art gallery and stare at paintings and ponder how beautiful this is and the and consider the artist. Monkeys don't do that. We do. When you listen to music, animals don't care about what we're saying. They don't care about music. All right, they howl, they bark, they have their own instincts, but there's something about that creative nature that God has put within us that reflects his glory and the ability to reflect on that and have. Wonder. But we also reflect him relationally, again, going back to this idea that God is perfect love and perfect community without mankind. He simply has expanded that to mankind, and now we get to enjoy that as his image bearers. And so we have an interpersonal I and thou relationship with us and our creator and also with one another. And then functionally, this is the doing. This is God elevating man as the crown of creation to rule on earth, to give him dominion, to subdue the earth, to be his vice regent. There is a great amount of dignity and honor that God has given us. We are very unique in finding our identity upward to God and not downward toward creation. Speaking of art, I've got a painting here for you. I would love for you guys to consider this. Now, you may or may not recognize this guy. I actually really enjoy a lot of his art, and you don't normally see him in this state because his glorious beard is missing. It's very sad. This is Vincent Van Gogh. This was a painting, an oil painting on canvas, 1889, possibly his very last self-portrait. In 1998, this painting went up for auction. It was sold for 71.5 million dollars. This painting. Why on earth would anybody pay that for this paint? I mean, I like Van Gogh. But why would anybody spend $71.5 million on this paint? There's nothing special about the paint. It's oil paint. Nothing special about the canvas. There's not like gold dust mixed into any of the materials. In fact, the reason he he doesn't have a beard is because he gave this to his mother as a birthday gift, so he wanted to shave for her, I assume. There's really not a whole lot special about it, except it reflects its creator. That's what makes this valuable. Is that this self-portrait reflects the one who painted it. And in doing so, it gives identity and it gives worth. And we, being the creation of God, created in his image, we have our identity in him, and we have our worth and our value in him. That's where we get this idea of dignity and human dignity. This is why we bury people. This is why we have have moments to honor people, is because there is human dignity. We talk about the sanctity of life. That's why we believe in the sanctity of life, because we're talking about image bearers of God. There is intrinsic value in human beings being a reflection of their creator. When we don't recognize that we're the image bearers of God, we develop a weak sense of identity. And what that ends up doing is producing insecurity. So what we we tend to do, when you introduce yourself, say, Hi, my name is so-and-so, I am, and then you name your occupation. When you talk to people and and you're and you want to talk about how blessed you are, you talk about your accomplishments, your your financial status, your your job, the things that that you do. You find your value, and we often, as human beings, find our value in how we're accepted by people, which is usually dependent on things that are very unstable. You're beautiful, so people love you, until you're not, because beauty doesn't stay. People love you because you're wealthy and you're successful, but when you lose it all, we're all your friends. And so when we base our identity and our sense of worth and value on those things, we're always gonna live very insecurely. And that's gonna come out in relational conflict. Insecure people bounce from relationship to relationship, always looking for someone new to affirm who they are. But to be secure, we need to find our identity in the unchanging one, the one whom we were created to reflect. So, verse 27, we read this again. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. This is the first example of poetry in the Bible. So we we already know God created man in his image. He already held that counsel, but we he we see it again here. This this isn't being redundant. This is adding emphasis to the glory of what God has done, to his generosity, to his grace that he has poured out on us and allowing us to be his image bearers and giving us dignity and honor as his creation, reflecting him. And so it erupts in this song, if you will, this rejoicing. It makes me think of that verse that says that he sings over his people, he sings over us. This is how God views you. This is why we have to go back to that reality was grounded in truth. Whether you feel it or not, this is what's true about God, and this is what's true about you as his image-bearer. And we also see here that God's glory is displayed both in unity and diversity. Alright, he says, let so God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him, singular, male and female, he created them, plural. And so just like we looked at the the nature of God, there's a singularity and a plurality there, so within mankind, there is a singularity and a plurality. Something that exists there that reflects God's glory in a way that the rest of creation does not do. And as we continue to study this throughout scripture, we're gonna see this doctrine, this biblical gender, this is important. That we don't erase genders, that we don't erase male and female and try to blend it all together. It's essential for the glory of God that they be distinct. And so we see that in scripture that male and female are created equal but not identical on purpose. Mankind is binary. There are two. This is how God has designed it. And our culture teaches us, well, that that means one is more valuable than the other. That's not true at all because both man and woman are created in the image of God. Both are equal image bearers of God. And so an example of this would be gold. Gold has value. It has value no matter how you mold it. You can turn it into a bowl, you can turn it into a bar, but if it's gold, it's gold. And so its function and its and its use might look different, but its value is exactly the same because of the intrinsic value it has. Likewise, we, male and female, though the roles and their distinctions and how God has created us, instead of despising those things, thinking it's part of the fall, they were baked into creation before sin entered to the world. And we we dilute the glory of God when we try to eliminate those differences. And so this is important too for singles here that you are an image bearer of God. You don't have to be married to be a full image bearer of God. You're not half a person if you're not married. You're a full image bearer of our Creator. But we see that the glory of God is best reflected when men and women embrace biblical masculinity and biblical femininity. I got a definition for that, because it's important to throw, put, put definitions out there when we talk about what is biblical masculinity, what is biblical femininity. And I don't have time to preach an entire message on this. But I like the definition given by John Piper in Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. Uh, he says this. He says, Biblical masculinity. At the heart of mature masculinity, is a sense of benevolent responsibility to lead, provide for, and protect women in ways appropriate to a man's differing relationships. There's a lot there. We have a lot of definitions and distortions of masculinity in the world. He said, but this is mature biblical masculinity. It is a sense of benevolent responsibility. Whether you are able physically to carry out all of this is one thing, but you should at least, as a man, have a sense of a responsibility to lead, provide for, and protect people. That is built into you. And it says here for biblical femininity, it says, at the heart of mature femininity is a freeing disposition to affirm, receive, and nurture strength and leadership from worthy men in ways appropriate to a woman's differing relationships. So we see there's a there's a complementary nature to this. We see as God has designed men in a particular way, and we'll see this, I believe, next week, what man was created for, in working and in keeping, and cultivating, and in producing, and protecting. That's all built into who Adam was before Eve was created. We see this sense of responsibility to lead, to provide, and protect, and then we see within the woman this freeing disposition to affirm and to receive and to nurture. There's a nurturing nature to womanhood. And even though sin has distorted it, and we're like, well, that's not that, I don't fit that description. That's okay. There is an echo of that, though, in the heart of every human being. It's in there. And we again we have distortions of this all throughout the world, and then we're gonna, we, we run off on worldly definitions and saying, well, you're saying one is inferior and one is superior. No, we were saying that God intentionally designed man and woman to reflect him in different ways. Both brilliant, both glorious, both image-bearers of God, but they are proclaiming his glory in the way that he has designed them and intended for them to function within the family and within the church and within society. So biblical masculinity is not domineering. It's not domineering and abusive. It's sacrificial responsibility model by Christ. Biblical femininity is not inferiority or weakness, it's strength expressed by wise, life-giving support and partnership and nurturing. And so the best way to live it out is to think about how you can make it easier for the other person to fulfill their calling in God's life. In other words, you think, well, how does this work? Within a marriage, and I believe it was Chad and Emily, Emily Van Dixorn in their book that talks about responsibilities of husbands and wives. He said instead of listening to what the responsibility of one is and then holding that over them to condemn them, you should be seeing it as your privilege to try to make it as easy and as enjoyable as possible for them to fulfill the role that God has given them. And so when we think masculinity, femininity, we've got to think in those terms. If I'm a man, alright, I'm leading and I'm providing, I'm caring, how do I make it easy for the relationships in my wife, in my life, my wife, my children, for those that God has put within my care? How do I make it easier for them to affirm and to love and to nurture? Not harder, but easier. And as a wife, and thinking the other way, how can I make it easier for him to lead and to provide and to protect? How can I encourage him in those things? That's how we should be thinking of these. Not how do I protect myself, how do I keep value for me? Don't fall into the trap of comparing and competing. Now I love this statement by G.K. Chesterton. He said, This is our tendency as human beings. He says, if I set the sun beside the moon, and if I set the land beside the sea, and if I set the flower beside the fruit, and if I set the town beside the country, and if I set the man beside the woman, I suppose some fool would talk about one being better. Right? We love to just compare and say, well, which one's better? We like to give scores. The Bible doesn't give a score on performance or on roles. Because our goal isn't self-glorification, it is to reflect the one that we were created to glorify. That's our purpose. What is the chief end of man? Think about the Westminster shorter catechism. What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy him forever. That's our goal. We have got to keep our eyes on the mission. And what it means to glorify, it means to enhance. God is already glorious, He's already magnificent. You can already see Him. Nature declares His glory, but what we do is we enhance that glory by reflecting who He is. And so when mature men and women embrace their distinct calling, their complementary natures proclaim the glory of God in stereo. Some of you may be old enough, remember you had like those uh those music boxes, right, that you could you could listen to it in mono or in stereo. Now, now both systems played the same music. You could hear it, mono or stereo. Say, all right, well, fully image bearer of God, yes, we can proclaim that as individual men, as individual women. But God created this complementary nature of men and women in the world and in the church and in the home, so we would proclaim his glory in stereo. So the world would hear the magnificence of their creator. And they were blessed. It says in verse 28, and God blessed them. They were happy, they were content, there was no fight, there was no struggle, there was no insecurity, they were both naked and not ashamed, but that didn't last very long. And so the second thing we need to look at today is the ruin of sin. The ruin of sin. And because of sin, the image of God has been distorted. It has not been completely lost. And that's why you can see people who have rejected God, atheists who do good things. Because there are still reflections of God within mankind, albeit it is distorted. It is not what it was, it is not what it should be. And you see this immediately happening with Adam and Eve. They felt that shame. When they took the fruit, they felt the shame. They knew they were naked and they hid themselves, they protected themselves, they knew they weren't safe with each other anymore. And so we we lost that substantive that that substantive uh nature, that that will to love and to serve God, that original righteousness that we have, we no longer have that. The morality that was that was made and put within man that was that was part of his nature, now we have lost that. We have lost our desire for holiness. I mean, if you want to put people to sleep, just talk about holiness, right? Say, hey, come to church, you're gonna hear a message on holiness. Almost nobody except for believers are gonna wanna hear it. Like, why would I want that? Sounds really bad. It sounds like I'm gonna have to limit myself and do things I don't want to do. It's because we lost that desire that we had for holiness. That that was part of our being. Our mind was darkened, and our thoughts became distorted, our will was corrupted, and we can no longer want what we should want in our nature, in our fallen human nature. It is impossible to want to do good, it is impossible to want to choose God. And then our affections and desires were distorted. Everything that we want, everything we crave, it's it's it's corrupted. It doesn't mean that we always do the worst thing possible, but it means everything we do is corrupted by this sin, by this selfish desire for us seeking our own satisfaction, seeking our own significance, seeking our own security. That's what we're doing. We're seeking it for ourselves. When we were supposed to find it in our creator, now we're trying to find it in ourselves and fight for it. Functionally, now we see the leadership and the and the uh dominion that God gave to mankind has been distorted. And we're not ruling the way that we were designed to rule. And you can see that all throughout creation. Relationally, we've been alienated from God. We don't have the fellowship with Him. Our sins have separated us from Him. We have broken communion with God, and we also have broken relationships with others. And now we fight with pride, we deal with violence, we deal with hatred, exploitation, injustice. And one of the ways that this happens is that we tend to objectify other people now. And this is one of the biggest sins that we deal with in marriages, husband and wife, is objectifying image bearers of God. No longer do we see them with the dignity and honor that they have that they were created with. We see them now, as Paul Tripp mentions in his book, Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands. He said, We see people as either vehicles for getting what we want or obstacles getting in the way. That's objectifying. You're not seeing your spouse or that other person in your life as an image bearer. This is what happens with pornography. You're not viewing them as image bearers, you're using them as tools for yourself and your self-gratification. And this is blaspheming the name of God because you're blaspheming an image bearer of God by objectifying them. So husbands then tend to domineer and abuse, or they abdicate their responsibility and they abandon the home. Wives tend to fight for control, try to manipulate and constantly criticize the husband. Holding on to offenses and becoming bitter, it defiles the whole family. Because that's what it comes back to, is we are not seeing the other person as a dignified image bearer of God. We're seeing them as a vehicle to get what we want or an obstacle getting in the way. We see them as either gonna make us happy or get out of my life. We've got to change our perspective of ourselves and we've got to change our perspective of those in our life. So if we're gonna be suitable for marriage, getting into marriage, we have to understand who we are. We have to understand who we're marrying, what we're getting into. If you are married, understand who you're married to and the severity of what's happening when you're objectifying your spouse, using them to get what you want, thinking this person's gonna make me happy, and if they don't, then I'm gonna find someone else who will. But how do we not lose hope? And here's the third and final point the restoration in Christ. Alright, so we that we're we see that we're reflections of God as his image bearers. We see the ruin of sin, but then we see the restoration of Christ. We see that the renewal of the image of God in us begins with union in Christ. To be united to him. Jesus provides a way for complete renewal and restoration. And this is interesting. If you go to those passages in Scripture, and we'll we will get to them. Uh, in Colossians and in Ephesians, we talk about rules for the household. We want to talk about what should wives do? All right, Colossians 3 says, wives submit to your husbands as is fitting the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. And then children obey your parents. We want to go straight to the command, but you're in chapter three. And just like it took Moses 69 chapters to get up to the Ten Commandments, we see in all the epistles the same thing happens. He lays a theological foundation, who is God, and then he shows us truth about who Christ is, what Christ has done, and then who we are in Christ, which then produces new values in us to want different things. So then finally he gets to, now husbands, this is your role. Now, wives, this is your role. So what we see first is that the image of God is being restored through Christ. He is the perfect image of God. So let's do that real fast, and maybe in your time this week, go through Colossians one through three before you get to the rules of the household. And see this pattern that we talked about. Again, what is real that goes to what is true, that then it goes to what is good, our values, to then what is done. So we see the objective truth in Colossians. I'm sorry, the reality, the theological reality, chapter one, verse 15. Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Jesus is the image of God. He, in a sense, you can say he is more human than we are, because he never fell. He never corrupted the image of God. Verse 19, for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. Chapter 2 and verse 9, for in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. Jesus is the perfect image of God. He reflects God's character to all perfectly. You want to see who is God? What is God like? Look to Jesus Christ. But then it moves into objective truth, and this is where it becomes practical for us. In chapter 2 and 12, it says, having then been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith. And it goes on, it says in verse 13, that God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses. So here is what has happened that the perfect image bearer of God, Jesus Christ, he was perfect. He lived perfectly and fulfilled God's law perfectly on our behalf. And then he was crucified and he died and he was buried. And he was raised again on the third day. And he's saying, Because that happens, if you believe in him, you also died with him, you also were buried with him, and now you're raised again. Now you actually have a new identity, a new life, which should produce new values. Chapter 3, verse 1. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. He said, Great. I'm not trying to tell a dead man to do good things, but because you've been raised alive, you are now alive. So now desire the good things. Desire what you once desired when mankind was in the garden before the fall. Desire to please God. Seek for his glory and not your own. If then you've been raised with Christ, seek those things that are above. And then it produces new behaviors. Then he goes on after that and says, put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you. And he goes on talking about putting off the old man. And he reminds us in verse 7, he says, You too once walked in these when you were living in them. He said, Look, this is who you used to be defined by your sin, but you are not any longer. So now put off the old and put on the new. Verse 10, having put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge after the image of its creator. You see what's going on? Jesus Christ is the image of God. And in him, you're now being renewed and restored to that image. That should affect everything. How you view the world, how you view your relationships, how you view marriage, how you view scripture. This should affect everything about what you see, what you believe, and what you do. It was after that then, chapter 3, verse 18, wives submit to your husbands. Husbands love your wives and do not be harsh with them. But we have to see who we are in Christ first. We have to find our identity in him. We have to find our value in him. In Christ alone, the proper image of God, the image of God is restored in mankind. So whether you're married, single, divorced, widowed, your goal should be this. It should be to grow in Christ-likeness, to be more like him, to love him, to pursue him. Because understanding our identity as image bearers of God is essential in becoming suitable for marriage. So with that, I want to give you guys just some application as we're going into this series of marriage and just thinking back on who we are as image bearers. First of all, we need to find our identity in Christ, our value in him, and our purpose in him. Our identity. We don't find our identity in our performance. We don't find it in our job. We don't find it in our position. We don't find it even in our marital status. We find our identity in Jesus Christ because all those other things are temporary. Christ is unchanging and is eternal. In Christ, you are a child of God. You have dignity and honor. You have value. So see yourself and see others the way that God does. You have value because you've been created in his image, but you have value as his child. In Christ, you have dignity and you have honor and you have grace. So refuse contempt in your marriage. Refuse manipulation. Refuse objectification in your marriage. Refuse selfishness. Because honestly, what we're doing is we're trying to get our value from the other person, from our children, from our sponsor. We're trying to get our value from them. That's not where your value is found. You see that all the time when children move out, parents are like, I have no value anymore. It's because your value isn't in your children. They are a blessing, but that's not where your value is. Your value is in Christ alone. So husbands lead with sacrificial responsibility. Understanding that your wife has value, you have value. This is your purpose. You're going to serve one another rather than objectifying one another and demanding to be served. View marriage as a context for sanctification. Think of it that way. Because that's what all this is, right? This is us being sanctified by the Holy Spirit of God. And whether you're married or not, we're being prepared for a greater marriage. The marriage in this life doesn't last for eternity, but marriage of Christ does. And so everything we're experiencing, the suffering of marriage or the suffering of lack of marriage, all of that is preparing you for an even greater weight of glory to come. So see that as the context for your sanctification. Husbands lead, wives encourage and strengthen their husbands. Both should pursue mutual service, gratitude, and forgiveness. And then let's strive for suitability. Whether being suitable to be married, looking for a suitable mate, or already a marriage, to become suitable and live the way that God intended you to live within this covenant relationship. To repent of your dead works, turn to Christ. You need Christ. You can't do this in your own strength. And then put off the old sinful patterns of selfishness and lust and anger, pride, and bitterness and passivity and control, and put on Christ-like character, humility, patience, gentleness, self-control, sacrificial love. The greatest thing that you bring into your marriage is not charm, it's not beauty, it's not even money or provision. It's holiness, it's humility, it's Christ-likeness. That's the greatest thing you bring into your marriage is pointing your spouse to Christ by living out the design God has created for you. Again, for singles, look, cultivate sanctification in Christ now. Use this waiting period, or maybe it's for life, whatever it is, is you're still to be sanctified in Christ. Learn self-denial and self-sacrifice now. Develop permanence of character before pursuing permanence of marriage. Don't wait for marriage to pursue holiness. Married couples, pray together. Encourage each other, remind each other of who the other one is in Christ. We're quick to point out faults. Point out the evidences of the work of the Holy Spirit first. See, this is how I see God at work in you. This is how I see you reflecting the glory of God. Stop keeping score and trying to evaluate who's doing better or who's failing. Replace criticism with gratitude and ask, how can I help my spouse succeed at the responsibilities that he or she has? How can I make that a joy? How can I make that easier? The more clearly we see Christ and the more we pursue Christ-likeness, the more faithfully we will love one another and find joy. We need to remember who we are as image bearers and seek to glorify God by reflecting his character to the world. So this morning, let's respond with thanksgiving for the value that God has placed on us as his image bearers, for the purpose he has given us in glorifying him. And let's focus on permanence of character before talking about the permanence of marriage. Let's abide in Christ and allow him to make us suitable for marriage. Lord, thank you for your love. Thank you for your grace. Lord, thank you for the truth that we have in your word. Lord, that we can trust you for the change that needs to happen. Lord, that even though we have inherited a sin nature and willfully have rebelled against you, Lord, you and your grace have sought us out, and through Jesus Christ, we now have been redeemed. We now are redeemed image bearers, and we now can reflect your glory in a way we could not before. I pray that as we go into this marriage series, that you would settle our hearts, you would settle our minds, that we would focus on you and reflecting your glory, not receiving glory, not receiving the pleasure that we want or the results that we want, not to try to change our circumstances, not to try to change the people around us, but that we would look to you, the unchanging one, and that we would trust in you to change us, to change our hearts, which then would change the way we act with one another, and that through our behavior and our interaction and our love for each other, you'll be glorified as your gospel is being proclaimed and lived out in our marriages. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.