Sunday School | The Doctrine of Man is Dependent on Jesus

Okay guys, open your Bibles to Colossians chapter one. So here's where we are. We've started with the doctrine of God—first person of God, second person of God, third person of God. We've done all of our theology proper, Christology, pneumatology. We're in anthropology, the doctrine of man, humanity.

And what we've basically said so far is two things you've got to understand to understand what a human being is. Number one, we are image bearers. We are made in the image of God. But number two, that image has been marred. Something is broken. We are fallen, and the whole game has changed.

Any understanding of mankind that doesn't embrace both the exaltation—that we are made in his image—and the baseness that we are fallen is gonna be inaccurate. But we're not only made in his image and then fallen and left in our despair. There's a third point, and that's what Colossians one is gonna help us see.

What Colossians 1:15-22 Reveals

Okay, so if you go to Colossians one, this is good stuff. I'm gonna start at verse 15, and I might talk a little faster, and you might talk a little less today, 'cause sometimes I'm pretty flexible where we get and where we stop. I'm going somewhere. I wanna try to get this all in one coherent chunk.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 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. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. Made in the image of God, tragically fallen. Once you were in that place, alienated from God, enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior, but now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight without blemish and free from accusation. — Colossians 1:15-22

Every time I said "he," obviously of whom was I speaking? Jesus. Okay, so you're like, "Well, didn't we do this? Isn't this a Christology class? We did Christology a month or a couple of months ago." Yes, but this is my contention: you cannot understand the doctrine of man if you don't understand the particular one who became a man. Your anthropology, proper anthropology, complete anthropology is dependent upon an accurate Christology.

This passage is about who he is. I wanna give you four things. God help us, four things I want you to get. Number one, what he was. Number two, what he became. Number three, what he did. And number four, why he did it. What he was, what he became, what he did, and why he did it.

What He Was Eternally

So what was he eternally? Here's the sweet spot.

By him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth. The thrones, the powers, the rulers, the authorities. All things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. — Colossians 1:16-17

What was he eternally? Say it loud: Creator God. Anyone wanna add anything else to that? The I Am, right? This is what John says in the beginning of John 1:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. — John 1:1

Jesus—what Paul is saying here is that as clear as he could possibly say it, Jesus is and always has been God. Fundamentally, in the core of his nature, he is co-eternal with the Father. He existed before time itself. He created all things. He rules all things. He made all things, and he made all things for whom? For himself. Everything is his because he is God. He is forever.

You know, there are four basic forces in the world: the strong nuclear force, the weak nuclear force, gravity, and electromagnetism. The question is, what holds the protons together in the center of an atom? Because they repel—it's like a bunch of positively charged things that should push apart. Jesus is the answer, right?

In him all things hold together. — Colossians 1:17

Gravity is simply the will of Christ to draw things together. He is the whole game. He made it. He made it for himself. It does what it does because he wants it to.

But he wasn't king yet. He is God, okay? Jesus is the one God spoke of in Genesis:

Let us make man in our own image. — Genesis 1:26

He's the one. He is the creative agent. He made everything. He does it all.

Okay, again, John 1:1:

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made, and without him nothing was made. — John 1:1

He is God from all eternity. He was, and always will be God. So far so good—that's all review.

Now, when I read you my little proof text from Colossians, did anybody notice where I started just now? When I wanted to establish for you that Jesus is God, do you remember which part I read of Colossians 1? Say it again, Charlie? Yeah, say it out loud. I'm gonna hang out now. I read the whole thing first, starting in verse 15, but when I started talking about Jesus is God, I skipped 15 and we started at 16, okay?

What's verse 15 say? Says he is the image of God. Now, if I was trying to prove to you, and I am, that Jesus is God, why did I skip that line? That he's the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation? Why did I begin in verse 16—"by him all things were created"? It wasn't an accident. Why did I not begin in verse 15 if I'm trying to prove to you that he's God, Andy Fetsler?

Is it possible because we are also made in his image?

Yes, because verse 15 is not claiming that he is God. Just hear the language. He is the image of the invisible God. Do you know who else is the image of the invisible God?

Yes.

Robin Conrad is, right? You are. What Paul is saying here is not—in that moment, he is—again, hear me. Paul is teaching that Jesus is God in verse 16 and following, but in verse 15, that's not what he's saying. You were made in the image of God, but that image got marred. And now you are more or less. But when Jesus came, he is the image of the invisible God.

You might someday see that offered in some class as the beginning of Paul's case on the deity of Christ. Probably just keep your mouth shut when that happens. But if you wanna be like, "Hey, here's one thing that's interesting"—is that we are his image, right? Repeatedly, the New Testament is gonna refer to Christ as the image of God. When it does so, it's talking about his humanity, his perfect humanity.

What It Means to Be the Image of God

So God makes us to be little living statues of himself, and then we kinda break—the face droops, the thing doesn't continue to be what it's supposed to be. And so he sends a new image, a new man. There was Adam, the first man, and then Christ, the second man. The fact that Jesus is the image of God is a statement about his humanity.

Paul says it like this, in 2 Corinthians 4:4:

Unbelievers cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. — 2 Corinthians 4:4

Hebrews 1—do you guys have Hebrews 1 locked in? We have to go to Hebrews 1 for the deity of Christ. It says:

He is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being. — Hebrews 1

And he is God. But he is God. The word became flesh, becoming a human being. Making sense? He's the image of God. So you're made in his image. The image is marred, and then Jesus shows up.

You guys, we are supposed to look like God, but Jesus actually looks like God. And when he comes, these things that we've said are the essence of what it means to be an image. Remember we said—remember the four Rs about what does it mean that we are made in his image? Remember what they are?

Rank, rule, relationship, and reflect, okay. So it's rank, rule, relate, reflect—and that's what we're supposed to be. And then every one of those gets jacked up, right? Within us. Like our sense of worth doesn't come from because we're image bearers—it comes from something else, right? We walk through all of this, all these things that we are, and it gets mangled up.

Run that—run Jesus back through that grid, okay? Think of the rank. When Jesus shows up, have you noticed one of the things that astounded me? Whenever the crowds get big, right? Which for a normal person would be really satisfying and you want to bask in it. When you sell more books and everybody loves you, when people like your performances, whatever it is that you do and the crowd comes, normal people just bask in it. Do you know what Jesus invariably does when that happens?

What?

What does he do, Charlie?

I don't know.

Yeah, okay. So he's gonna pull away. He has no need—he's not getting life from the crowd. John's gonna say he knew what was in a man. He's like, I don't need your good opinion, so he's gonna drive away.

What else is he gonna do? The most puzzling thing he does is he says something weird, okay? The crowd comes, and just like, all right, everybody line up. You don't get to follow me anymore, at least not if you eat my flesh and drink my blood. And everybody's like, what?

John 6 is a classic example of this. The crowds are coming, and Jesus says something that scatters them.

And they begin to go away, and then instead of like, "No, no, no, come back, come back," he's like, "My flesh is real flesh, and my blood is real food," and he thins the herd. Consistently, his worth comes from the Father, and not from the crowd. He does care enormously about people, but he does not care what you think of them at all. His value is not predicated on the whims of man.

Kelly Sue, going back to verse 15 that you skipped—

I think some people can get confused by that phrase, "the firstborn of all creation," thinking that he's like the first thing God created, which is so not true. He is God, but it's a comment on his rank, his preeminent sovereignty, his royal position.

Excellent. So Kelly's mentioning something I kind of glossed over. In verse 15, he's the image of the invisible God. He's a human being, he's a perfect human being. He is exactly what we're supposed to be, but are not. But then it says he's the firstborn over creation. Very easy—if you're like the Mormons or the Jehovah's Witnesses—to say, "See, Jesus is a created being, he's the first created thing." That's not what that means. When he says he's the firstborn, that means he is the heir. The firstborn gets the throne, gets the kingship. It's saying he's—forgive me, I don't know my British king stuff—he's the firstborn son, and therefore he gets everything. That's what that's saying. It is, as Kelly said, a sense of his preeminence, his superiority, rank. He has it in spades.

Four Characteristics of Jesus

Number two: rule. Rulers generally speaking are bad. Just on balance, people who are in charge of things—power corrupts, absolute power corrupts, absolutely. But not for Jesus. In fact, his teaching is remarkable. He didn't go to school, he's not a trained rabbi, he's got none of their credentials, and yet when he was 12 years old, teaching in the temple, all these old guys are marveling at the answers he gives. In Mark 1, it says the people were amazed at his teaching. Do you remember why? What was so amazing about his teaching?

The people were amazed at his teaching because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. — Mark 1

One of my favorite scenes is in "The Chosen," when he's teaching and basically claiming to be better than Moses, claiming to be better than the law. His disciples are like, "No, no, nobody calm down. That's not what he means." And then Jesus says, "That's what I meant." He has the audacity to say, "I am the law." It's not just that he obeys the law—he is the law. It's astonishing.

His authority, and yet he spends his authority for the good of others. He dies owning a single garment. He gives his life for guilty people. He is full authority and never comes within 1,000 miles of abusing that power. He only spends it for the good of others.

How about relationships? How's Jesus relating to people? Has anybody in the history of the world ever loved like Jesus loved? Moving towards those on the margins of society, particularly gracious to women in scandal, to tax collectors, to children. He does things relationally that are so compelling that prostitutes and former prostitutes are willing to kick their way through the trail in a Pharisee's home. If at the end of all their scorn and derision, she can get to Jesus' feet so she can wash his feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair—well, everyone around her is looking at her like she is just some dirty whore. But fine, as long as I get to him, because he is unlike anybody she's ever met. She knows men. This guy, he's something else.

Rank, rule, relate, and then finally: reflect. Remember what we said reflect means? Do we mean by reflect? Do you remember any of the imagery we talked about? Sun and moon. We're the moon. What we mean by this is you probably want to say, "Look at me. Look how fast, strong, funny, smart, pretty—whatever my thing is. I am this." And the reality is you were not made to be great. You're made to reflect somebody who is great.

And if anybody ever had the right to stand up and say, "Look at me, listen to me, behold me," that person would be Jesus. And he never does that. All he ever says is, "Look at him, look at him."

Listen to this, this is so insane. We start to see this strong together. In John 12:

When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me. I tell you the truth. The son can do nothing by himself. He can only do what he sees his father doing because whatever the father does, the son also does. — John 12

That is as explicit as reflectivity you could possibly have, right? When Jesus says in John 15:

Apart from me, you can do nothing. — John 15

Most of us intuitively feel like, watch me, right? I can do a lot of stuff by myself. Jesus said, good grief. I tell you the truth. The son can do nothing by himself. I can do a lot of stuff by myself, but myself is probably screwed up.

And probably screwed up, indeed. Here he is again:

For I did not speak of my own accord, but the father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the father has told me to say. — John 12

In John 10:

The reason my father loves me is that I lay down my life only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my father. — John 10

He says this kind of thing all the time. He is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being. And he says, I'm a moon, not a sun. Behold the sun. That is crazy, okay?

Rank, rule, relate, reflect. He goes where the father wants him to go. He says what the father wants him to say. He does what the father wants him to do. He gives what the father wants him to give. And then he says, follow me. The implication is that we too would go, give, say, and do whatever the father wants us to do. He is a reflector. He images. He shows forth. He bears the likeness of the father because he loves him. He adores the father like you adore yourself. And so all glory to him. He loves God supremely, obeys him, reflects him.

So the clock ticks on. He's God from all eternity. He has become a human being to show us what human beings are supposed to be. Because this is what we meant when we said rank and rule and relate and reflect. We were made in the image of God. The image of God gets all mangled up in us. The fall breaks everything. God sends a new one who will be, on one hand, an example that we might follow. But as long as Jesus remains an example in your life, you're gone. Examples work for what, twenty minutes? You know, examples aren't that helpful to us because pretty soon we just revert to what we are.

He did not come merely to be an example, but he came to do something else. So take a look again at Colossians 1, look at verse 19, what he was, what he became. Now let's watch what he does. This is gonna be important.

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God, enemies in your mind because of your evil behavior, but now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight without blemish and free from accusation. — Colossians 1:19-22

What Jesus Has Done

What Jesus has done chiefly is come to reconcile us. Now, how he does it—there's a lot of pieces, and we're not gonna chase all of that down tonight or this morning. He's come to reconcile us, to take these two parties that were once apart. We're made to be in his image—it's better to be close to the mirror. But now we're far away. He's come to bring us back together.

He reconciles us by becoming a human being, living a human life, and then dying a particularly miserable human death, and then offering to make a trade with us. He will give us credit for his perfect life. He will take the blame for all the unworthy things we did. His goodness is credited to us. Our blame is charged against him. And there we go. Everything's better.

But there's a couple more things. I want you to notice something. It's a funny little detail that almost sticks out a bit when Paul says this. After affirming that Jesus is God and that he has become man, Paul again draws attention to Christ's blood and his human physical body. He says in verse 22:

By Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight without blemish and free from accusation. — Colossians 1:22

It's almost like a strange particular focus on Christ's physical body through death.

You probably know sacrifices have been offered for centuries—kill a sheep, kill a goat, wring out their blood, kill a bull from time to time, right?

They would attribute the sin to these animals and slit its throat because sin equals death, sin equals death, sin equals death, but it doesn't have to be your death. A substitute could die in your place, right? They've been atoning for sin, to an extent, by killing sheep for centuries. There was a blood bath. But in Hebrews, it says that the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin. Those things are just reminders. It would be as if it was paying the interest on the debt, but not really retiring the principle of the debt. But eventually the bill came due. And when Jesus came, he came to pay off the debt entirely, just to wipe it out, okay?

And the central thing, you cannot miss this. Remember, this is a class on anthropology, on humanity. Only a human being can obey in the place of a human being. Only a human being can die in a place of a human being. And only a God can die for a world of lost humans. So that's what Jesus did. That's why he is so precious to us. He came to be what he has been from all eternity, God, and what he became at a moment in time, man, and he had to be both, right? He had to be, or he never would have worked.

Image Restoration

So far so good, okay now. Image, why we still talk about image? Because look at this, look again at verse 22. Scan verse 22 for the language of image. What does Paul say there that ties this back into the notion that we were made in the image, but the image was damaged, and now the image needs to be repaired? Where do you see that in verse 22?

But now he is reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you wholly in his sight without blemish and free from accusation.

Without blemish. Do you hear that without blemish? That's back to image language. The goal is to present you without blemish. This does not mean that God is worried about your acne, okay? He wants to make you look like God again. It's image restoration language. That is why he came. Jesus became like us so that we could become like him. We are made in the image of God. We are tragically fallen and we are being restored, right?

This shows up all the time. Just listen, I'll just give you a list of this, okay? Romans 8:29 says that those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son, conformed to the likeness. It's like, hey, this is an image restoration project.

Romans 8:29 — Those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son.

2 Corinthians 3:18 says that anyone who turns to Christ is being transformed into his likeness with an ever increasing glory.

2 Corinthians 3:18 — Anyone who turns to Christ is being transformed into his likeness with an ever increasing glory.

Ephesians 4:24 says that we who have come to Christ are given a new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Ephesians 4:24 — We who have come to Christ are given a new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Colossians 3:10 invites those who have been raised with Christ to put on that new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator.

Colossians 3:10 — Put on that new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator.

You with me? This is a common language in the New Testament. We have a tendency to think of the gospel in the language of like, I'm a beloved sinner who's forgiven, right? There's this preexisting state what we've fallen into and now it's being fixed. And that's true, you can go with beloved sinner who's forgiven, that's great. But what Paul is saying is another facet of this is you are an image bear who's been deformed and are being remade. You with me?

And they're also the little kid. You are a new creation in Christ Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5:17 — If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

Yes, yes, right. And the sense there is that we are going back to our original creation, which we're created in his image. We could add that to this list of passages that convey one of the lenses through which you can view your salvation as that of the image. Made in the image, tragically fallen and marred, renewed in the image of the Creator.

Why Jesus Had to Be Human

Okay, now, this is a fun part. Here's what I want you to see. This is really why we're here. So you're gonna stay with me for the three more questions. These are my very favorite things to teach about. If I could teach about absolutely anything, this would be high on the list, okay?

Jesus who was God, he came in the man, he was made in our likeness while perfectly bearing the likeness of the Father. He took our judgment by bleeding human blood, dying of human death so that we could be restored and made back into that image. Good enough, baseline? Okay, now, some questions. When Jesus came to earth in what form did he appear?

Baby, human? Yes, right, you said that 500 times, why are you asking us, yes, okay? Here, I'll tell you why, we'll get there. He became a man, a human being. Was his humanity an illusion or was it real?

It was real. Real, he didn't just put on a human suit, he didn't just dress up, right? He became actually one of us, okay? Did he need to become a human in order to bear our sin and die in our place? Unquestioningly, here's what Hebrews 2 says:

Hebrews 2:14 — Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity, so that by his death, he might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is the devil.

He had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. He had to be made like us. So he was a man, he was a real man, and he had to be a real human if he was ever going to be our substitute.

We're almost done—two more questions. This is the hard one: What was it that was true of us that made it possible for Jesus to be made in our image, in our likeness? Because we were made in his image. Think about this: if Jesus wanted to be incarnated as a toadstool or a goldfish or a sheepdog, he couldn't. The incarnation is a marvel, it is a marvel to be sure, but it is a marvel made possible by the supreme grace that he had already given us to make us in his image. Goldfish do not rank or rule or relate or reflect. They are not sufficient vehicles for God to embody, but he could become a human being because human beings are already fundamentally made in his image.

You are what you are because he is what he is, and it is because man was made in God's likeness that Jesus could be made in our likeness. Do you feel this? When Jesus came, he came in the form of a man, a real man. If he had not taken on human flesh, he could not have been incarnated. He could not have been our substitute. He could not have obeyed in our place. He could not have died in our place. He had to be a man, and he was only able to be made a man because man had already been made in God's likeness.

And so here's the final question that I want you to answer: What does that tell you about why God made us in his image in the first place? Do you see that he was going somewhere from the word go? Do you think he had anything, particularly in mind when he made us in his image? He knew all along that he was going to be sending Jesus. It was all set up.

If God had not made us in his likeness, then Jesus could never have incarnated himself in our likeness. We would have been an insufficient vehicle. And if he could not be incarnated in our likeness, he couldn't be our substitute. And if he couldn't be our substitute, we would not just be unredeemed, we would be unredeemable. There would be no remedy. There would be no hope. It would be impossible. He could not save us because he could never come and live our life or die our death.

But he did. He did make us in his image. He fashioned us in his likeness for all of the reasons that we've already described, and so that someday Jesus could take on human flesh, be falsely accused, be mocked, spit upon, beaten, crucified, killed in our place as a substitute for us, drinking the wrath of God. We were made in his image so that he could be made in our image and die for us.

So there is rank and there is rule and there is relate and there is reflect, but there's one more R that I've been saving till now, and that is redeemability. You were made in his image so that he could redeem you when you fell. That is why he made you in his image. If he had not, you would be lost forever without remedy. It's almost as if he knew everything that would happen before it happened. It makes it look like your salvation was planned before the foundation of the world. It's as if he has worked out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will so that we who hope in Christ might be for the praise of his glory. It's like he predestined you to be conformed to the likeness of his Son.

He made us in his image for all the reasons we already talked about, and so there would be a means to save us when we fell. And if you're going to understand what it is to be a human being, you have to get the whole picture: made in his image, tragically fallen, and redeemed. But not as a side trail, not as an accidental ending. This was his purpose—so that he could rescue us and draw us back. And a proper anthropology is going to have to get its arms around all of that, as massive as it may be.

This is why, in the Ten Commandments, you're not allowed to make an image of God. Do you know why? Because he already did. We are the image of God. So you make some stupid statue of a cow—don't do that. We are his image. We don't need to make stupid statues. We need to be conformed back to his image. This is what the whole thing is about.

If you're going to have a proper understanding of the plot, you've got to get your head around that. Those three big things: made in his image, tragically fallen, being renewed. But that whole arc was what he planned from before the foundations of the world.

Okay, final thought.

Your final thought of we were made in the image of God is exactly the deception that Satan uses for us to worship man.

Right, so Satan likes to play around in the garden. He's like, "Hey, eat the fruit, you'll be like God." And Eve should have been like, "Sorry, buddy, I already am." Honestly. And so to corrupt this in a thousand different ways is a million ways that you can recognize the work of Satan as an undermining of the fact that we are image-bearers who are fallen, who are being made back into his likeness, for sure.

But we gotta stop. Okay, good enough. All right, sweet dreams.