The Manhood Talks | Foundation & IdentitySample

Day 10 | Romans 8:19-21 | Making God in Man's Image

This devotional works best as an audio experience. Hit the play button now, and read along if you like.

Hello fellas or should I say men! Welcome back to The Manhood Talks. So we left off with man’s sin and God’s curse. These are huge. Between the two, they explain a whole lot about all that’s messed up in this world — and in particular — with manhood. Now sin is just sin — people do bad things, and men abuse their God given strength to do wrong. But what about the curse? Did God have a purpose for that? And is there a plan to restore manhood?

We get a clue in Romans 8. Listen carefully:

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed." (Romans 8:18-19)

That’s an interesting phrase. “Creation waits for the children of God to be revealed.” Then it says:

"'For the creation was subjected to frustration…'" (Romans 8:20).

That’s the curse. The frustration of toil and all that goes wrong…

not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope…

Pay attention here. It says that God did this — in hope? What hope is there in frustration? In hope…

"that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God" (Romans 8:21).

So God’s plan — is a return to freedom — and to glory. And it is for — His children.

Now there’s a lot to this plan. But let’s start with what happened to God’s image. Remember — that’s the foundation of our humanity. So where did it go?

The word image comes up again in Exodus in the 10 Commandments. You know Moses ... Mt. Sinai ... God’s 10 biggest rules for man. The first one is have no other gods. But check out the second commandment:

“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them" (Exodus 20:4-5).

So the second commandment right up there with adultery and murder is don’t make an image and worship it. They’re called idols like a statue of God. Cultures all over the world made statues of their gods. So what’s the big deal?

Throughout the Old Testament, when God’s people are getting things wrong messing with sin and far from God it’s always at a time when they’re keeping idols. And when they get it right it’s always when they toss their idols. So what’s the connection?

We find an explanation in Romans chapter 1. Here Paul explains what happens when we are godless — when we ignore the evidence of God all around us. Check it out:

"For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles" (Romans 1:21-23).

You see, so it starts as simple as not thanking God then their thinking becomes foolish because they deliberately ignore God and then they exchange God’s glory for images — of man or beast. In other words, instead of man created in God’s image, we make a god in our image. And it’s not just about statues. Whenever we remake god to fit our desires — or when we worship money, knowledge, pleasure, success, self, whatever it may be — that becomes our idol that becomes our god!

And when we try and re-create god we not only reduce our view of His glory we also change our view of humanity — of ourselves. Because we’re in His image. So if we worship money as god — then human lives become dollar signs. When we worship pleasure — then a female is not someone to love but someone to use. If you worship knowledge, then people are test subjects. Worship success, and friends are just like rungs in the ladder. Lying, cheating, stealing — all that is just a means to an end — to get whatever we worship. And remember we become what we worship!

Back in Romans 1:

“Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen” (Romans 1:24-25).

Paul goes on to describe all kinds of sin and the picture here is a pretty accurate description of mankind today: greed, arrogance, sexual perversion, violence, murder, lies. Man gone bad. I hope you're following my drift or picking up what I'm throwing down. People do a whole lot of bad.

And that’s where it stands. Mankind is messed up, and the world is cursed by it’s Creator. Man degraded God’s image and degraded his own image in the process. And the downward spiral goes on. But what about God’s plan? Well, it starts right here in Romans. But we’ll see that tomorrow.

But for now, read today’s scriptures, and for your journals, write your thoughts on these questions:

For Thought & Discussion:

Question 1: How do people form idols today?

Question 2: How do those idols change the way we see God, and the way we see ourselves?

Read Romans 8:19-21

All verses are quoted in NIV.