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"For faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." ~ Romans 10:17

The Triune God created man in His image and He restores man in His image.

10/25/2021

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Picture
The Creation of Adam, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, c. 1642, Italian. Public Domain
Trinity 21 
Genesis 1:1-2:3 
Pastor James Preus 
Trinity Lutheran Church 
October 24, 2021 
 
 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Which God? The Triune God: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There is only one God. Deuteronomy 6:4 states, “Hear, O Israel. The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” There is no oneness like the oneness of God. He is perfect in his unity. And yet, there are three distinct persons in the Godhead. This is impossible for our minds to comprehend, yet Holy Scripture teaches it from the very beginning. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Yet, in the original Hebrew it states Elohim, “Gods” created the heavens and the earth. Yet, it uses a singular verb for this plural noun. And this is how Scripture speaks of God throughout the Old Testament. Where you read “God” it usually reads “Gods” in the original Hebrew. Yet, it was always understood that God is one, even though the plural form of the noun is used.  
God is one, yet the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters when God said, “Let there be light. And so, there is one God, yet we have multiple persons: the Father, whom Moses calls God, the Holy Spirit, whom he calls the Spirit of God, and the Son, who is called the Word of God. This is what St. John teaches us in the first chapter of his Gospel. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” So, when Moses wrote, “God said”, he is teaching that God the Father created through his Son, the eternal Word.  
In the Apostles’ Creed we confess that God the Father Almighty is the Creator of the heavens and the earth. Yet, he does not create apart from the Son and the Holy Spirit. St. Paul writes of Christ, the eternal Son of God, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.” (Colossians 1:16) 
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who are three distinct persons, yet, one God, sharing in the one divine essence, created the heavens and the earth. God did this in six days, as Scripture repeatedly declares. Some assert that this is only a myth, intended to be taken allegorically. But that is not true. Moses clearly intends us to understand this as history. And Jesus himself calls this history, along with all of Scripture. Our all-powerful and all-knowing God created the world in six regular days and rested on the seventh. And he caused his prophet Moses to write accurately the account of how he did it.  
Scripture makes clear that the Triune God created man as well. God says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” Us? Our? Who are these? Again, this speaks of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who alone creates. These three are one, as the next verse makes clear, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” We are a special creation of the Holy Trinity, the one and only God.  
Yet, God creates us differently than he did the light, the sky and seas, trees, fish, birds, and animals. God has saved the creation of man for the end. And he takes special care in how he creates this crown of his creation. He says, “Let us make man in our own image.” So, God makes man in his own image; male and female he creates them in his image. This means that man and woman shared in God’s image. This is why St. Peter tells husbands that their wives are “joint heirs of the grace of life.” (1 Peter 3:7) 
Yet, what does it mean to be created in God’s image? Many have discussed this question at great length. Theologians and philosophers have speculated that it includes incredible intelligence, power over the creation, a healthy mind, immortality. And to be sure, Adam and Eve did have all these things from the time of their creation. And what else they enjoyed in that pre-fall world, we can only imagine, because we live in the fallen world and God’s image we have lost. But to speak narrowly, the image of God is original righteousness. Adam and Eve were created righteous. This means they were in a perfect relationship with God, who is righteous. They desired what God desired. They delighted in what God delighted. They perfectly feared, loved, and trusted in God with all their heart, soul, and mind. This is why in the Garden, they were naked, yet unashamed. They had no shame. They were without sin.  
And every other blessing flowed from this righteousness. They were immortal as was the whole creation. They had dominion over every living creature, not with spears and clubs, but by the command of God they exercised dominion by sheer will. They were intelligent, strong in body and mind, and many more things we simply do not know, because we have lost this righteousness.  
When Adam sinned, having failed in his duty as husband by permitting his wife to be tempted by the serpent and having eaten of the forbidden fruit his wife gave him, he lost the image of God. Adam became a transgressor, and so we all became transgressors. While Adam and Eve were created righteous, all their children were born unrighteous, because of their fall. So, while Adam and Eve were created to be the Lord’s delight, his favorite and best creation, we are born children of wrath, dead in our trespasses (Ephesians 2).  
This is why we do not love God as we ought. This is why our sinful desires often get the better of us and we can’t control our own actions. This is why we along with all mankind must be governed by laws and rules, keeping us in check lest we break out with our own selfish aims. We have lost the image of God. We have lost original righteousness. And in its place is original sin, that is, the sinful condition we have inherited from Adam. This is why our will lashes out against God’s will instead of living in perfect conformity with it. We are inclined to sin as a hornet is inclined to sting. And this unrighteousness is why we are frail and weak in other ways. We are forgetful and slow to learn. Our eyes grow dim and our ears dull. Although, we still exercise dominion over the creation, we do this only with powerful tools and at the cost of many casualties. Left naked as Adam and Eve were, we are the weakest of all God’s creatures. We get sick. We die. Even if we were placed in Eden, it would be no paradise. We’d turn it into a hell. This is a direct result of our sin. This all proves that we have lost the image of God.  
We cannot regain the image of God by our own will or strength. Only God can restore his image in us. As God the Father created man in his image through His Son and the Holy Spirit, so does he restore that image in us. God the Father sent his own Son to be born of the Virgin Mary. God the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary and formed in her womb Christ Jesus. Christ, who is the eternal Son of God took on human flesh, the same human flesh once formed out of the ground. And in the incarnation of God, the image of God was rejoined to the human race. Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God in human flesh (Colossians 1:15). Christ was conceived and born without original sin; having been conceived by Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, he did not inherit Adam’s unrighteousness. So, Christ was and is perfectly righteous. His will conforms to God’s will; he delights in what God delights. In fact, Christ is true God as he remains truly human, so that it is impossible for his will to act contrary to God’s will.  
And the will of God was that Christ should die for our transgressions. By Adam’s disobedience, we were made sinners. By Christ’s obedience are made righteous.  (Romans 5) This righteousness has been won for us by Christ, but we must receive it. And the Holy Trinity does this for us as well.  
Out of water, the Triune God formed the earth. And with water and dust he formed the first man. So, through water and the Spirit God grants you a new creation. He says, “Let us restore man in our own image.” And by passing you through water and placing his name on you, he washes you clean of all your sin, and breathes into you the Spirit of Life. Through Baptism you are regenerated after the image of Christ, the image of God. In Baptism, you are made righteous by virtue of Christ’s suffering and death on the cross for your sins.  
This righteousness and image of God is certainly given in Baptism. And it is received through faith alone. And so long as your faith holds fast to the promise of the free forgiveness of sins for Christ’s sake, you clothe yourself in Christ’s righteousness.  
We retain the image of God through faith alone. Yet, as long as we live in this life, we carry around the burden of original sin. Our old Adam still clings to us. And we still sin. So, it is important to know that our righteousness does not depend on our works. Our righteousness depends on Christ Jesus. When God looks at you through your faith in Christ, he sees an even more splendid reflection of his image than he did when he looked upon Adam when he first created him. Yet, sin does not lie harmless. The sinful flesh constantly rebels against God and his will. Unbelief gives birth to sin, and sin gives birth to unbelief. This is why we must repent of our sins each and every day. We must put off the old self with its practices and desires, and put on the new self after the image of Christ. We do this by turning from our sin, asking God for forgiveness for Christ’s sake, and believing in that forgiveness.  
Only by believing and trusting in the forgiveness and righteousness Christ gives you, can you retain the image of God. But you cannot believe and trust in God by your own strength. Rather God continues to create and strengthen faith in you through the Gospel. It is by the means of Grace: the Absolution, the Sacrament, and the proclamation of the Gospel, that God continues to give you Christ’s righteousness and strengthen your faith, so that you are renewed after God’s image.  
In this life we see only little of the fruit of being restored after the image of God. Our love indeed is kindled, but still in great weakness. We still struggle with sin. We’re still frail. We still die. But through faith we look to that day when we will finally shed this old Adam with its original sin and rebellious nature. And we will finally see ourselves like God (1 John 3:2), after his likeness. Our trust in God will be perfect. Our love for him will not fail. And our bodies will be transformed to the splendor of his glorious resurrected body. And we will never lose the image of God again. Amen.  
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Trinity 21: God Speaks; Faith Receives

10/22/2018

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Picture
John 4:46-54 
October 21, 2018
​ 

“Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your son will live.’ The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.”  
 
Jesus spoke. The man believed what Jesus spoke. And then the man saw that what Jesus spoke was true. This is not the way we normally operate in this world. “I’ll believe it when I see it” is not only an old adage, but it is generally a good rule of thumb. Yet, this is not the way with faith! “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) And Jesus spoke to Thomas after he was raised from the dead, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29) In the kingdom of heaven, you believe it before you see it!  
Now this can be greatly misunderstood. Faith is not simply blind optimism; you believe that everything will work out for the best. Rather, Jesus spoke and the man believed the word that Jesus spoke. Faith is grounded in the word of God. Faith doesn’t believe what it sees. Rather, faith believes what it hears. It believes before it sees. True faith comes from hearing the word of Christ. And it is on this word that faith trusts, even before seeing.  
You cannot have faith apart from the word of God. It is through the proclamation of the Gospel that God creates faith in your heart. Apart from God’s word, you have nothing to rest your faith on. This is important to mark, because God both reveals himself and he hides himself. God reveals himself in his word, where he tells us that he loves us so that he sent his Son to die for our sins and raised him to give us new life. Yet, God also hides himself. We don’t always know what the will of God is. Why is my child sick and at the point of death? Why did my husband have to die? Why is my mother stricken with cancer? How could God let her children be taken from her at such a young age? Why did God let a hurricane destroy the panhandle of Florida, etc. We don’t know. And there are many other things hidden in the mind of God, which are beyond our knowledge and beyond our business.  
Satan wants us to seek the hidden God through speculation and seeking signs and wonders. This leads us to casting judgment on God or making for ourselves a god out of our own image. But when God hides himself, like at times of immense suffering, he does not want you to seek him where he is hidden, but to seek him where he reveals himself. God reveals himself in his word. In his word God gives you answers that your eyes will never find elsewhere no matter how hard you look. In his word God gives you assurance of invisible things that can only be hoped for.  
Through the word of God you find purpose in your suffering. It brings you to repent of your sins and to have faith with patience. It teaches you to trust in God and to look to his promises for comfort.  
Faith must be grounded in God’s word. Otherwise, it is a false faith. Faith does not make anything true. God’s word is not true, because you believe it. It’s true, because it is God’s word. If you believe something false with all your heart, it does not make it true. It just means that you are believing a lie. And this can be frightfully dangerous, if you are believing a lie about God or salvation.  
We use the word faith in two ways: how one believes and what one believes. If I say, “I have a strong faith.” I could mean that I believe very strongly, or I could mean that the faith I believe in is trustworthy. If the faith in which you believe is not true, then it doesn’t matter how strongly you believe. You want both to believe strongly and to have what you believe be true.  
Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead whether you believe it or not. Yet, it is those who believe it that receive the benefits of Christ’s sacrifice, namely, the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. Likewise, the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper is Christ’s body and blood whether you believe it or not. Because Jesus said, “This is my body” and “This cup is the New Testament in my blood.” It doesn’t become Christ’s body and blood when you believe that it is, even as Jesus’ death and resurrection did not become true when you believed it. Yet, when you believe the words of Christ, you receive the benefits of what Christ gives you.  
Yet, if you were to go to a church, which denies the bodily presence of Christ in the Supper or changes the words of Jesus, so that they mean something different than what Jesus said, you couldn’t make it Christ’s body and blood by believing really hard. It is Christ’s body and blood, because of the word. But without the word it is not Christ’s body and blood no matter how hard you believe.  
Likewise, if someone were to doubt that the Supper were Christ’s true body and blood where Jesus’ words remain, that would not make it just plain bread and wine. It would remain Christ’s body and blood even if an unbeliever were to eat it. That is why St. Paul warns, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.” (1 Corinthians 11:27-29)  
Your faith does not make anything true or false. Rather, your faith can receive what is true, if it is a true faith. If it receives what is false, it is a false faith. When you believe the words of Jesus, “given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins” then you receive the Supper of the Lord to your own benefit with the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation, an increase of faith toward God and of love toward your fellow Christian. Faith does not make God’s word true, but it does receive the power and benefit of God’s word.  
We believe a lot of things we have not seen. We believe that God the Father almighty made the heavens and the earth. None of us were there when he did it, but Hebrews 11:3 states, “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” By the power of the same word, which created the universe out of nothing we believe this truth, although we did not see it. We believe that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, crucified, died and was buried, rose again on the third day and ascended into heaven. None of us have seen any of that! Yet, we all believe it, because God’s word says it is true.  
Furthermore, we believe in a Holy Spirit we have never seen. We believe in the Holy Christian Church, that is, the Communion of Saints. Is that what we see? Is the church holy? It seems rather that Christians mingle with the unbelieving world so much, they are indistinguishable from it. They don’t live exceptionally holy lives nor keep themselves from sin. Christians are supposed to love each other, yet, the love of many has grown cold. The Communion of Saints implies that we are actually united in fellowship, yet the Christian church is scattered throughout the world, divided into sects and various denominations. Even the Lutherans, who believe the Bible is God’s word, are not united in doctrine and practice on all fronts. Yet, day after day, week after week we confess the one, holy Christian Church. Because we believe the word of God that he has washed us with the water and the word and presented us holy as Christ’s spotless bride. So, despite our sins and schisms, God has united his own invisible church around his holy word and Sacraments through faith.  
We believe in the forgiveness of sins; just think about that. God, who knows your every secret. He knows the sins you haven’t told your wife or husband. Everything that shames you, that causes your conscience fear and pain, even the sins you’ve forgotten about God knows them full well. And yet, we confess that God forgives all these sins. Because God says so. We are like the father walking home with no evidence that his dying son has recovered, except the word of Jesus, and so do we walk to our deaths confident that we will stand sinless before the throne of God.  
We believe in the resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting, even though none of us has ever seen a single dead person rise from the dead, nor have we known someone who continues to live without aging. For all of us it’s just a matter of time before we die. Yet, based on God’s word alone, we believe what we have not seen.  
Now the word of God is no fairy tale or compilation of unverifiable events like the Book of Mormon or the visions of Mohamad, which are uncorroborated, baseless claims made up out of thin air. The Bible is not this way. The four Gospels are complementary and corroborating accounts of the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus written by men, who saw Jesus in person. Hundreds of people witnessed Jesus alive after his resurrection. The apostles faced beatings, prisons, and death confessing the life and resurrection of Christ with nothing material to gain by it. And the writing of the New Testament, written by ten different individuals are historical proofs of the Scripture’s legitimacy. And there are several writings outside of the bible along with other archeological evidence that supports what both the New and the Old Testaments claim.  
Yet, this is not why we believe that the Bible is true. We believe the Bible is true, because the Holy Spirit caused the Bible to be written and continues to work through the Bible to create faith. The power of the Bible is not that it can be verified by multiple human witnesses, but that it is indeed the word of God. St. Paul writes, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16) God’s word is uniquely powerful to create faith, which we ourselves can see evidence of as millions of people throughout the world and throughout generations continue to confess this same Gospel. And some confess it even in the face of persecution and death! 
St. Paul writes that the Gospel is the power of God to salvation to all who believe. And so, we should continue to hear this word of God, so that our faith becomes stronger. Consider the official in our lesson. He already had faith in Jesus. That is why he went to him for help. Yet, when he heard Jesus’ words his faith increased. The word of God continues to increase your faith even after you believe, so that you not only have a faith that is trustworthy, but have a faith that believes strongly.  
This is why we continue to hear Jesus’ word and receive his pledge of forgiveness from his body and blood given to us. It is so our faith would continue to grow, so that we might believe with confidence those things, which our eyes do not yet see. And by God’s grace we will see what our faith holds dear, as St. John says, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2) Amen.  ​
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    Rev. James Preus

    Rev. Preus is the pastor of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ottumwa, IA. These are audio and text of the sermons he preaches at Trinity according to the Historical Lectionary. 

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