by Sean Chen

In the Lord of the Readers book club, we’ve been studying The Christian Life. Upon reading chapter 2, I was struck by the title— “God’s Broken Image.” I initially thought to myself, “God is perfect. How could His image be tarnished?” Sinclair Ferguson clearly illustrates how our sins dishonor the image of God. According to scripture, the effects of our sins disintegrate our relationships with God, our fellows, the world around us and ourselves. Sin is missing the target which God has appointed, and falling short of the glory of God which we were created to enjoy (Romans 3:23). Naturally, we not only deviate from the right path but also rebel against our rightful and loving King. Consequently, we find ourselves as traitors to the goodness of God (Romans 3:10-18), guilty in the presence of the Eternal Judge.

1. The image of God defaced

Genesis 1:26-27 introduces us the image-bearer of God—man. The image of God probably means that God originally made man to reflect his holy character and his position as bearing rightful rule over all his creation. In that respect he is like God. From the first moment of man’s sin (Genesis 3), however, God’s gracious plan is distorted, accompanied by a change in the image of God.

Fallen man is essentially an affront to God. He takes all that God has lavished upon him to enable him to live in free and joyful obedience, and he transforms it into a weapon by which he can oppose his Maker. The magnitude of his sin is also the measure of his need for salvation. The wonder of God’s saving purpose lies in the fact that he longs more than we imagine to restore what has been lost. But the old creation must pass away, and a new one must be established; what was lost in Adam must be restored in Christ if there is to be any hope of sharing the glory of God from which we have fallen.

2. Man under the dominion of sin and death

The threat of sin and death appears early in the narrative of Genesis; Satan came in serpent-guise to destroy the divine-human fellowship. He attacked the promise that man would come under the dominion of death (Genesis 3:4). He also undermined the goodness of God by his suggestion that God grudged their presence in his garden (Genesis 3:4-5). The rest of Genesis 3 narrates the sad tale of man’s yielding to temptation to sin. The same truth appears in the teaching of Jesus (John 8:34). Paul emphasizes the same point in Romans; the references to sin in the Greek are usually to The Sin, as though it had taken on personal characteristics (Romans 5:12-6:23). As a result, men are powerless (Romans 8:6-7), yet “the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Romans 7:19).

3. Man guilty before God

Not only does man suffer the consequences of sin in human misery, but he comes under the condemnation of God. In Romans 2:1-16, Paul outlines the principles which God employs in coming to a verdict on our lives. He shows that God’s judgment is always according to truth and reality (verse 2) that is given in accordance with works (verse 6), and also is tempered by the light of revelation which men have received (verses 12-15). It is a judgment which will be administered through Christ (verse 16) and therefore will take into account all the secrets of men’s hearts. Paul demonstrates the guilt of all men before God. By the standard of Christ’s life we are guilty sinners. Every mouth will be closed and all men will be declared guilty before God (Romans 3:19). Apart from Christ, “the wrath of God remains” (John 3:36).

4. Man in the grip of Satan

The light shows the true nature of the darkness. In the full light of Christ, Satan is drawn out into the open, unmasked and identified. Men are seen not only as living a lifeless death in sin, dominated by the course and fashions of this world, but are described as being under the dominion of the devil (Ephesians 2:1-3). John describes Satan as the “prince of this world,” suggesting that the whole world lies in his power (1 John 5:19). The ultimate tragedy of man’s self-understanding is that he believes himself to be free, has all the feelings of a free agent, but does not realize that he is a slave to sin and serves the will of Satan.

In order to escape the grip of Satan, the gospel exemplifies our needs:

1. We need re-creation by Christ in order that the image of God, once distorted by sin, may be restored.
2. We need deliverance from the dominion of sin in order that we may live freely for God.
3. We need to be rescued from the power of Satan so that our lives may be given to Christ the Lord as his glad bondslaves.
4. We need to be saved from the wrath of God so that, released from this most terrifying of all prospects, we may live the life of forgiven sinners.

Salvation

We will never properly understand the work of God which takes place in the Christian life unless we first of all have some kind of grasp of why we need the grace of God. It comes to us in our sin and begins to undo what had been wrongly done in our lives in order that God’s image may be restored. But the Bible pronounces us already to be, in Christ, what we will be only when we are transformed into his perfect image (1 John 3:1-3). Our newness does not only reflect what Adam was in the presence of God and what he would have been had he continued in obedience. The gospel does not make us like Adam in his innocence—it makes us like Christ, in all the perfection of his reflection of God.

This is the essence of the salvation Christ provides (Romans 8:29). He came into the world as the Second Man, the Last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45, 47). Out of his perfect reflection of the image of God we may draw by the power of the Holy Spirit. We share in his death the freedom from the dominion of sin (Romans 6:10). Under him we shelter from the wrath of God, knowing that he bore our guilt (Galatians 3:13). He became sin for us although he himself knew no sin, so that in him we might be made the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). He died, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18). On the cross he triumphed over Satan, and exposed him as our enemy (Colossians 2:15). In his name therefore we may also conquer (Revelations 12:10). Christ is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30). All we shall ever need we will find he supplies by his grace.