" CHRIST CAME TO SAVE NOT THE RIGHTEOUS BUT SINNERS ."

6. Q. Did God, then, create man so wicked and perverse?
A. No, on the contrary, God created man good[1] and in His image,[2] that is, in true righteousness and holiness,[3] so that he might rightly know God His Creator,[4] heartily love Him, and live with Him in eternal blessedness to praise and glorify Him.[5]
[1] Gen. 1:31. [2] Gen. 1:26, 27. [3] Eph. 4:24. [4] Col. 3:10. [5] Ps. 8.

7. Q. From where, then, did man's depraved nature come?
A. From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise,[1] for there our nature became so corrupt[2] that we are all conceived and born in sin.[3]
[1] Gen. 3. [2] Rom. 5:12, 18, 19. [3] Ps. 51:5.

8. Q. But are we so corrupt that we are totally unable to do any good and inclined to all evil?
A. Yes,[1] unless we are regenerated by the Spirit of God.[2]
[1] Gen. 6:5; 8:21; Job 14:4; Is. 53:6. [2] John 3:3-5.

Scripture Reading:
Genesis 1:20-31
Hebrews 2:5-9

Singing:  (Psalms and Hymns are from the "Book of Praise" Anglo Genevan Psalter)
Psalm 33:1,2
Hymn 54:1,4,5
Hymn 52:3
Psalm 8:1,2,3,4,5
Psalm 144:1,2

Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ!

What is a person? Better: what are you? How you answer that question determines what you will do with your children, your parents, your neighbor, yourself. Think it through: if there is no principle difference between a human and a rat, there’s essentially no reason why we don’t treat baby people the way we treat baby rats…, and old people the way we’d treat an old dog…. Mr Howard’s recent decision in relation to human stem cell research has its roots in a certain view on people, and so does Dr Antinori’s work in cloning humans.

In our Lord’s Day today we repeat after God what He has told us about people. We learn from Scripture that the Lord has given an astonishingly high status to people, made people rulers over all His creation. This honored identity implies that people, by God’s decree, are much too special to be treated as a rat is treated, or a dog. But to see that point requires that one embrace the reality of God’s existence, and therefore the accuracy of His Word about creation. That, though, is something the sinful human heart refuses to do – unless the Holy Spirit regenerates us.

That sinful human heart. We’d confessed in Lord’s Day 1 that to enjoy the comfort of God’s saving work in Jesus Christ we first need to know how great our sins and misery are. As we busy ourselves today with Lord’s Day 3, we’ll see more of our wretchedness. But please remember, congregation, the purpose of the Lord’s Day: we confess this material –critical of human nature though it is- so that we might delight the more in what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.

I summarize the sermon with this theme:

Last week with Lord’s Day 2, we acknowledged that we know our sins and misery only from the word of God. God’s demand of us is that we love Him with all our heart and soul and mind, and love our neighbor as ourselves. Love: the Lord Himself showed us what that was when He gave His only Son for our salvation (I John 4:9f). Love: that is that one empties oneself for the benefit of the unworthy. This self-emptying is the obedience God demands of us, but we can’t produce it. Such is our depravity that instead of loving as God loved us, we are inclined by nature to hate both God and the neighbor.

That brings us to Lord’s Day 3. For the natural question now is this: how come we can’t love? How come we hate? "Did God, then, create man so wicked and perverse?"

We need to notice first of all the Catechism’s reference to creation. I draw your attention to it because today’s world has embraced the theory of evolution. With the theory of evolution, people have also found an explanation for human frailties. It’s said that weaknesses and self-willed natures are simply part of man’s evolution; as we develop further we’ll get better, outgrow our inclinations for evil. But see, the Catechism doesn’t so much as entertain the possibility of evolution. And no, that’s not because evolution was not known in the days the Catechism was written; Greek philosophers accepted the doctrine of evolution long before Jesus Christ was born. But the Catechism doesn’t mention it simply because the Catechism takes God’s word at face value. Anyone who reads Genesis 1 at face value must conclude that the Lord God created this world in six days, created also the human race. That is the plain and obvious meaning of what the Lord has told us in His word. We did not evolve over the span of millions of years; we are not well-developed monkeys.

Admittedly, this is a question of faith. The believer says with Lord’s Day 3 that God created the human race. The believer will say that because he accepts what God says in His Word. He accepts what God says in His Word because he believes first of all that God is real. You see, that’s the root of the discussion. Deny the existence of God, remove God from your worldview, and you have to find another explanation for the existence of the world. Though the evolution theory is impossible to hold by scientific standards, millions today hold to evolution as the correct explanation of our origin – and hold to it simply because they refuse to accept the reality of God. But accept that God is real, include God in your view of the world, and you have no problem accepting what He says in Genesis 1. That’s the bottom issue: do you take God for real, or not?

The church of God takes God for real, and so accepts what He says about the origin of the human race too. Well now, did God create man wicked and perverse? The fact that we can’t love as God commands us to love: is that because God made a poor job in creating us?

The believer answers that question with a categorical No. Answer 6: "No, on the contrary, God created man good and in His image." It’s what we read in Gen 1:31: "God saw all that He had made, and indeed, it was very good." That’s to say: there were no flaws in God’s handiwork; the human race was perfect and therefore able to love according to the demands God set.

In fact, Genesis 1 draws out that God made the human race to be unique amongst all His creatures. Genesis 1 had told us that on each day of creation the Lord God spoke a word, and as soon as He spoke light appeared, the stars came to be, trees and flowers decorated the field, etc. In the words of Ps 33: "He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast" – instantly (vs 9). But did you notice when we read Gen 1: after God finished creating the animals on the sixth day, there’s a change in the pattern. With the creation of man God did not speak so that "it was done." Instead, after God finished creating the earth with its oceans and fish and forests and animals –says vs 26- God had a discussion within Himself. Vs 26: "Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image." The word ‘us’ draws out the fact that after the creation of the animals the three Persons of the holy Trinity discussed among themselves what else God’s creation required. Every God had made so far was "good", but, Triune God decided, His world still needed a special creature made "in Our image, according to Our likeness." This special creature would receive a special task; he would "have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle…." The fact that God relates a discussion within Himself about this last creature points up that there is something very special, something unique about this creature. This uniqueness is drawn out further when we observe how God made man. Instead of using a word of command to call man into existence, the Lord God –says Gen 2:7- collected soil and fashioned this soil into the shape of a man, "and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." Special man is, different from the other creatures God made earlier in the week of creation.

For us modern people, this is a point we need to bear in mind. The matter speaks directly to the Prime Minister’s decision in relation to stem cell research. You will know what the decision involved. Though he insisted on particular restrictions to the research, Mr Howard has given the green light to scientists to take a fertilized human egg and do research on the stem cells – all with a view to finding cures for such debilitating ailments as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease. The goal is surely laudable. But what is the philosophy behind this research? It’s this: mankind is one animal among thousands of species evolved over the eons. Since we come from the same living matter as frogs and rats and dogs, we can do with people the same as we can do with frogs and dogs. We all know that a fertilized egg will grow and eventually enter this world as a complete baby – be it a baby rat or a baby pig or a baby dog. That one does research on the stem cells of baby rats is one thing; a Christian cannot object to learning what there is to learn, and eventually throwing out the wasted cells. That is part of having dominion over the birds of the air, the fish of the sea and the beasts of the earth. But here’s the question: may you do the same with human stem cells? To discard an animal –young though it is; just a newly fertilized egg- is one thing; may you discard a human also – young though the human is?

Society around us says: Yes. Why? Because, says society, there is no principle difference between a human and a rat. For we’re both animals on the evolutionary chain, be it that the human is more developed than the rat…. See, that’s the underlying principle implicit in the stem cell debate: humans are animals, in principle no different than animals. So, what you can do to a rat or a dog you can do to a man also. If it’s OK to take the fertilized egg of your pet poodle for research (and destroy it when you’re finished), then it’s OK to take the fertilized egg of your wife for research – and destroy it when you’re done….

But the Christian says: God tells us in His Word that people are not animals, tells us instead that people are special, unique. So you can’t necessarily do with a human what you can do with a rat. That is true in relation to stem cell research, and it’s equally true in relation to cloning. Just as with abortion and euthanasia, stem cell research and cloning of people crosses a line forbidden by God’s word. People are not animals.

Directly connected to the fact that God made the human race special is the task God gave to mankind. That task is caught in the phrase ‘image of God’. The phrase does not mean that the last creature God made actually looks like God. The point is instead that this final creature was created to reflect what God was like, to represent God. Notice how Genesis 1 weaves the notion of ‘image of God’ together with the concept of ‘dominion’. That is: man was to rule over God’s creation, and his manner of ruling was to image how God would rule over creation. As God would rule over His handiwork with love and care, with justice and holiness, so man was to rule over that creation with love and care, with justice and holiness – and so image to all the world what God was like. Here you see again something of the wonderfully high status God gave to man. God did not create the human race to be equal to the dogs and the cats; instead –Ps 8- "You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor" (vs 5). For "You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen – Even the beasts of the field, The birds of the air, And the fish of the sea…" (vs 6ff). Master he is over creation, master under God. Exalted!

This high-ranking position God gave to mankind is demonstrated in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. I read in Heb 1 that Jesus was "the express image of [God]" (Heb 1:3). Paul repeats the point when he tells the Colossians that Christ "is the image of the invisible God" (Col 1:15; cf II Cor 4:4). Philip asked Jesus to "show us the Father," and Jesus replied, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:8ff). Here is the glorious status God gave us in the beginning, exemplified in Jesus Christ.

How Jesus imaged the Father?

Each of these deeds of the Lord Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters, show us something of the exalted position God gave to man in the beginning. By special decision of the Trinity, God made man in His image so that we might have dominion over all His creation, made us just a little lower than the angels, gave the privilege to be lords over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and animals of the field.

But what, O what, has become of this exalted position? It’s our second point:

For the reality today is that people do not image God at all. I refer you again to the passage we read last week from Rom 3. Paul seeks to show that all people, both Jews and Greeks, are "all under sin," and to prove his point he quoted a string of passages from the Old Testament. What characterizes people, he asks? This: "there is none righteous, no, not one." "Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit." More, "the poison of asps is under their lips," yes, "their feet are swift to shed blood." God had demanded that people love, love as He loved us and so image His love. But the conduct characterizing human beings, says Paul, shows nothing of that love; it instead shows hate, selfishness. See there what God says people are. And this is now the tragedy of it: this sort of behavior reflects what Satan is like! (cf Jn 8:44). That’s people: corrupt, depraved, imaging the evil one instead of imaging the holy One!

How we became so depraved? Says the Catechism: "from the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise." Notice again: here’s no appeal to evolution and the theory that we’ll outgrow our wicked inclinations with time and improved breeding. Here’s no appeal either to the thought that a bad environment produces a bad character. No, here’s simply the humility that comes with accepting the existence of God and therefore accepting the truth of God’s Word. He reports that something radical happened in Paradise long ago, and the Christian accepts that – painful though it may be.

Adam and Eve fell, and we fell with them, as did every person on the face of the earth today. Instead, now, of imaging God we all by nature image Satan; instead of loving as God loved we hate as Satan hates – in pure selfishness. But that reality raises another problem, and it’s this: if the fallen human race can’t image God anymore, in what way are fallen people today different than animals? Or is it so that the fall from our lofty position means that we’re in principle no different from the animals after all – and so stem cell research is OK amongst the unbelievers?

It’s true, beloved, that with the fall into sin people lost the ability to reflect God, and instead image what Satan is like. But the fact that this is what we became does not mean that God has taken away the mandate to image God. The mandate is still there. And don’t forget either: though we’ve fallen far, traces of our initial high status are evident from the talents that still characterize the human race. I asked your attention before for how Gen 1 interweaves the notion of ‘image of God’ with the concept of having ‘dominion’. Well now, despite the fact that in today’s world the human race has to fight against thorns and thistles, storms and earthquakes, plenty of traces remain of the dominion God gave us in the beginning. We still rule over the water so that we can raise its temperature to make a cup of coffee. We still rule over animals so that we can saddle a horse and make it do what we want. We still rule over the coal of the earth so that its energy is released and turns our computers on. True, this dominion is very marred and twisted by sin; how limited is our authority over creation compared to the authority Christ displayed! But the traces are there, and they remind us of the high calling God gave every human being in the beginning. Fallen we have, but that does not mean that we have in principle become like the animals – and so may be treated like animals. On the contrary, each person on the face of the earth, whether Jew or Greek, Australian or Arab, white or black, old or young – all need to be treated with the respect that belongs to being once created in the image of God.

Image of God. The term points up how great our sins and misery are. Look at the fighting in the Middle East; where’s the image of God in the actions of a suicide bomber?! Look too at the strife in so many Australian homes; where is the image of God in spouse divorcing spouse?! And what shall we say of victims of traffic accidents, or those so damaged by drug abuse that they can scarcely look after themselves; what is left of the traces of God’s image in these people? God created us to exercise dominion over creation –including the magpies and the honey-eaters of our backyards, including the ants under our houses and the snakes under the leaves, including the sharks of the sea- but what is left of that dominion when people can’t even control themselves! The alcoholic doesn’t have dominion over the bottle, but the fruit of the vine has dominion over him. The drug addict doesn’t have dominion over his syringe or his tablet, but the tablet has dominion over him. The same is to be said of the person who needs his panadol at the drop of a hat.

But why speak only of substance abuse? God created us to have dominion over our tempers. But how many of us can scarcely control that temper, fly off the handle at a small provocation? God created us to have dominion over our sexual urges, but how many of us find ourselves controlled by those urges? How far, how terribly far we’ve fallen from the exalted position God has given to us! And what horrible misery appears in our lives because of it!

And the bitter effects of that fall are found not only in the realm of sin. Live with a person suffering from dementia, or come close to an Alzheimer’s patient. When thought becomes irrational, or one can’t remember that he’s asked the question a minute ago, what is left of the exalted dignity God gave to man? How warped, how terribly warped the image of God has become in these people! It all underlines how terribly far we’ve fallen from our high state! And that spells out how great our sins and misery are….

I come to our third point:

The picture of Scripture that we confess in Lord’s Day 3 points out so tragically how great our sins and misery are. But precisely here lies reason to praise God the more, congregation! For see: for what sort of people did God send His Son into the world? Was He sent into the world for decent people? For the healthy? For the loving and the kind and those who exercised proper dominion over God’s handiwork? Those with great gifts of self-control? No, beloved, no! God knew how terribly we had fallen, knows how we don’t have dominion over our emotions and our urges and our tempers and our panadol and our wine closet, knows how we mess up His creation instead of caring for it as He does. Yet He sent His Son into this world, sent His Son to obtain salvation for such fallen wretches! And yes, on the cross of Calvary Christ obtained that salvation; even in the midst of hellish suffering and death He retained dominion over His human feelings and urges, retained dominion over Satan and the hosts of hell, retained dominion over death so that He gave Himself to Death at His own time – and rose again the third day. Despite the heat and agony of the cross, the lordship of our Lord Jesus Christ –true man!- is so powerfully displayed! (cf Heb 2:5ff). And His lordship is our salvation!

In fact, we get to share in the riches Christ obtained on the cross. Though by nature we image Satan, though by nature we are so broken as to show next to nothing of the glory of our exalted position, the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ includes that His Holy Spirit renews sinners so that they image God again. No, not perfectly, it’s true. But by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit the children of God begin to show again those fruits of the Spirit. They include not just love and joy and peace and patience and kindness, but also –says Paul in Gal 5- also self-control! That is to say that the child of God, in the strength of the Holy Spirit, again begins to exercise dominion over himself. And –say the Scriptures- "he who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city" (Prov 16:32). Here, in principle, is the restoration of the exalted position of the beginning!

And as to the future: we shall reign with Christ over all creatures (cf Lord’s Day 12). That’s to say: we’ll be kings with Christ, exercising dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and the beasts of the field – yes, even angels and principalities subject to our judgment (I Cor 6).

We confess with Lord’s Day 3 something of the greatness of our sins and misery. When we compare the splendors of how God made us with the broken reality we see today, we can only marvel that God still bothered to save the likes of us. And that’s the point of the Lord’s Day: what a wonderful God we have! To send His Son to save wretches as we are: what infinite love this is for sinners!  Amen.