Video Transcript: The Dependence of Humanity

We continue our look at the Creator creature distinction by looking at what the  Old Testament says about the dependence of humanity, and specifically how  human freedom fits in with this idea of the sovereignty of God that we've been  talking about. Freedom is one of those words that seems to conjure up nothing  but pleasant associations in our minds. We love freedom. And we dislike or even hate the things that restrict it. At best we merely tolerate them. But what does  freedom looks like? What's the nature of human freedom? Our answers to these questions may vary depending on our concept of what it means to be human.  And our very answers will inevitably find expression in the way that we live out  our daily lives. Many people in our world think that humans are pretty much  animals who seek to find pleasure and avoid pain. In other words, we're guided  by feeling and emotions. If it feels good, do it if it feels bad, don't do it. Some  people holding to this philosophy of life give up any natural sense of restraint  they might have in the events as diverse as rock concerts and natural disasters  or riots. And there are too many contemporary TV sitcoms whose real or make  believe characters seem to have absolutely no concept of delayed gratification,  they say and do whatever feel good thing comes to their empty minds. Now,  most people aren't that stupid, they know that pain sometimes is not a good  thing is at least necessary. And that unpleasant things like going to work may be  necessary in order to get the money needed to supply life's pleasures. Even so,  in practice, many people see humans as pleasure seeking and pain avoiding  animals albeit with the ability to think and reason. Some of these people think of  themselves as just a part of nature with no more right to exist than another part  of nature. They think it is arrogant when people assume that they have special  privileges or powers that are ideas what motivates some animal rights activists.  A strict behaviorists typically think that there's really no such thing as freedom.  They think that people are products of their genes and environment. So if they  have good genes, and come from a good environment they will be good. If their  genes and environment are bad, they will be bad, on the other hand, are those  who think people have the incredible potential to be whatever they imagine they  can be limited only by their capacity to dream dreams and their willpower to  pursue those dreams. Some in a new age twist would agree with this concept of  unlimited potential, but think that it can be achieved only when people escape  their imprisonment and a body of flesh and blood. In other words, humans have  to repress, deny or transcend the physical in order to attain godlike power. There are undoubtedly more conceptions of what it means to be human to add to  these different and conflicting opinions. But there's one conception in particular  that's radically different. It believes that Scripture tells us what the God who  created us has designed us to be, in a belief that it is only as we know and  follow God's designed that we can find true freedom. We've already seen that  scripture presents God as a creator and sovereign ruler of all humankind in the  whole universe. From the outset, we know then, that who we think ourselves to 

be and where we think we can find freedom must always be in the context of  God's sovereign purposes for us and his whole creation. A strong indication of  what God intends for us is found in the revelation that humans alone, of all  God's creatures, are created in God's image. And Genesis 1:26-27 says, Then  God said, Let us make man in our image in our likeness, and let them rule over  the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock over all the earth,  and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So, God created man in  His own image in the image of God, He created him male and female, He  created them. Man is Genesis uses it is in no way a sexist term but a generic  one that includes both sexes. Only together. Do Adam and Eve represent man  made in the image of God? In man alone, there's this distinction. That is none of the plants or animals that God created in pronounced good are made in God's  image. Instead, they are subject to the only image bearer, the rule of man. And  although, however although being created in the image of God is undoubtedly a  very lofty privilege, man is not and can never be God. Instead, we are subject to  the continuing rule of God. God is a creator, man is a created. God calls the  world into being out of nothing. Man is made from the material of earth. God is  independent man from the beginning is dependent. From the very first page the  Bible excludes the pagan themes of the hidden divinity and self creation of man. Genesis goes on to record man's rebellion against their created condition and  their subsequent troubles with the image of God in them, although damaged by  sin is not lost. Listen to Genesis 9:6 God says to Cain, or God says, to Adam  and Eve, whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed for  the image of God has God made man here, murder is prohibited on the grounds that man was created in God's image. What God did earlier in Eden still has  some effect in the world after the fall and indeed no matter how terrible the  crimes that a person may commit, and even if he deserves to pay with his own  life, it still remains an awesome thing to take it because even murderers, even if  they do not respect it, and others, still bear in themselves the image of God.  Now while all that is involved in bearing the image of God, may not be entirely  clear, we can see ways in which humans uniquely reflect God's image. For  example, we are created beings, obviously not in the sense of being able to  make something from nothing as God did but we're able to use what God has  created in creative and inventive ways. We are moral beings, with a sense of  right and wrong and uniquely accountable for choosing the wrong we are able to be purposeful in our thinking, reflecting, communicating, organizing, governing  and forming relationships in ways that are exponentially greater than any of  God's non human creatures are able to do. And finally, all living things struggle  for life and against death. But humans alone understand somehow that we were made for more than this present life. Undoubtedly, as Ecclesiastes 3:11  poetically puts it because God has set eternity in the human heart. God has  created us in His image so that we may be successful in the mandate, he has 

given us as it summarized in Genesis 1:28, be fruitful and increase in number fill the earth and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air over  every living creature that moves on the ground. We'll have more to say about  this mandate in the next lecture. But for now, let me emphasize that our unique  status as image bearers of God is not so we can become emancipated from our  Creator, but so that we can use our abilities to serve and honor him by fulfilling  our God given mandate in his world. Human authority in human freedom is  always subject to and found within the sovereign purposes of the Creator. To go  against this is as foolish as that would be for a fish to seek freedom outside of  the water in which it is able to move and breathe. That's the opposite of freedom it's enslavement and ultimately, death. Cain was warned of this very thing after  he became angry that God had not accepted His sacrifice but had the one his  brother Abel, offered Genesis 4:6-7. The Lord said to Cain, why are you angry?  Why is your face downcast if you do what is right will you not be accepted. But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door desires to have you  which you must rule over it. The problem with Cain's offering was one thing but  what made it worse was that he did not accept responsibility for his own failure  but became angry at his brother for the favor the Lord showed Abel. Cain did not heed God's warning confirmation of his wrong motives, but persisted in his  anger and ended up murdering his brother. And he spent the rest of his life and  unrepentant rebellion against God and he trained his descendants in the same  attitude. By resisting God's gracious initiative and refusing to give God the  service he required. Cain could not find true Freedom, but ended up in slavery  to sin. There's another important story in the book of Exodus that contributes to  our understanding of the nature of human freedom. The first part of Exodus  describes Israel's attempt to get free of the slavery, under which they were held  in Egypt, how the Israelites yearn for freedom. It had been a century at least  since their people had been free to come and go as they pleased. Finally, God  raised up Moses to lead his people to freedom. At first glance the subsequent  story of their exodus from Egypt appears to be typical of history stories of  national drives for independence. But on closer examination, it becomes clear  that Israel's desire for freedom, while it involved a declaration of independence  from Pharaoh was not a seeking of a right to self determination, but a  declaration of dependence on another ruler, Yahweh. Pharaoh, the master of  Egypt had laid claim to the service of the people of Israel, and God had claimed  as his own since the time of his work with their ancestor, Abraham. So he sent  Moses to tell Pharaoh, this is what Yahweh the God of Israel says, Let my  people go that they may hold the festival to me in the desert that was laughable  to Pharaoh, what did he care if Israel's priests wanted a special occasion to  worship their god? Besides he already knew something of the truth of a  statement Jesus would make famous 2000 years later, No man can serve two  masters. Pharaoh knew that if he wanted to keep Israel in service to Egypt, he 

could not allow their god to demand such all encompassing service to himself.  And so he impatiently dismiss Moses, until Yahweh showed his power over  Egypt in a series of plagues each more severe than previous, increasing  judgment upon Pharaoh for his stubborn resistance to God's claim. The tenth  and final plague completed to break down of Pharaoh;s resistance Finally, let  the people go in then, after a final attempt to get them back lost his army in the  Red Sea, because of the power of Yahweh. Yet Israel's freedom did not simply  involve escape from this oppressive ruler, ruler Pharaoh involves wholehearted  allegiance to the rightful ruler. That's why God next led his people to Mount Sinai where he gave them the constitution of his kingdom. It began with a reminder of  his authority to propose a constitution, I'm the Lord who deliver you out of  bondage out of Egypt. And then He continued by outlining their obligation to  obey Him, and a promise to accompany that obedience. Exodus 19:5-6, he  says, Now, if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations,  you will be my treasured possession. The whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. So, so God made it clear that the  freedom he had given Israel imposed on them, an obligation to obey Him. What  God set up here was not a democracy, ruled by the people, but a theocracy  ruled by God himself. In other words, Israel's freedom was incomplete after their successful declaration of independence from Pharaoh, and it became complete  only by a corresponding declaration of dependence upon their Creator and  deliver. As strange as that sounds to modern ears. There is no freedom apart  from correct dependence dependence upon the one and only Creator and  Redeemer of the world. What God told Israel in fact, is reminiscent of what he  had told Adam and Eve in the beginning, then, he had outlined the conditions by which they could fulfill their immense potential as image bearers and servants of their Creator and be richly blessed. In doing so, of course, Adam and Eve opted  for the illusory freedom of independence and found only slavery to sin. But at  Sinai, God gave people another chance. Israel's world was not free of sin like  the original one, but God repeated the conditions under which they might  continue in this freedom into which he had brought them by Grace obey me fully and keep my covenant was simply another way of God telling Israel to be his  obedient servants and filling the earth and subduing it and ruling over the rest of  his creation that all of it might declare the glory of God. Afterward, God would  lead them to another paradise, not a sinless one like the first, but God's foothold  in redeeming his creation. The constitution that God gave to govern his people  in this enterprise is summarized in the 10 commandments. In a way this  covenant or constitution, like all constitutions was a legal document. But God  always intended that obedience to His law be more than attention to the letter of  His laws. He wanted the hearts of his people. That's why the whole law can be  captured as it was in Deuteronomy 6:5 in the first commandment, You shall have no other gods before me. Or as Jesus later summarized it, you shall love the 

Lord God above all, and your neighbor as yourself. The rest of Israel's history  shows the continuing difficulties they had in believing what God had told them  about how they might remain in the freedom into which he had delivered them.  That should not be too surprising for Satan's temptations are always designed to make it appear as though people are missing out on something by a life of  obedience to God. Trusting God's direction over human instincts and impulses is hard enough. But what makes obedience even harder is the difficulty of self  denial, especially when it appears that the choice is between freedom and a  difficult obedience, rather than what it really is a choice between masters. I  mentioned this before and in speaking of Israel's transition from a mastery of  Pharaoh and the mastery of Yahweh, but it bears repeating. The lesson the  Bible repeatedly teaches is that there is no such thing as absolute freedom for  humankind. All we have is a choice of who we serve, whether we serve the God  who created us for service to himself, or some false god. Some of the favorite  false gods in Old Testament times were the Canaanite fertility gods Baal and  Asherah. But plenty of people back then also served one of the one or more of  the gods popular today, power, fame and fortune, all of which are forms of self  worship. Indeed, every form of false worship, says an outright or implied no to  what God created humans to be. His servants entrusted to care for and develop  his creation, loving Him above all, and our neighbors as ourselves. And every  form of false worship ends up not in freedom, but in slavery. If one insists on  calling it freedom, it is merely the freedom to suffer the consequences of sin,  which is a sad freedom indeed. Jeremiah 34:17, speaks in this very way, giving  the Lord's message to his disobedient people. Jeremiah says, You have not  obeyed me. You have not proclaimed freedom to your own people. So now I  proclaim freedom. God says, For you, freedom to fall by the sword, plague and  famine, I will make you abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth some freedom. Pharaoh would find freedom in the service of the Lord results only in the  freedom to suffer the consequences of sin. The Lord's message through  Jeremiah was illustrated many times in Israel's history, one of the best known  was how King David's indulgence, in the sin of lust led to the sin of adultery and  afterwards to the sins of lying and murder. His original act looked like freedom to him, but brought severe consequences to himself as well as others and finally  also resulted in the death of the son born of this illicit affair. Sin always parades  itself is ultimate freedom and self expression. But to serve and worship another  god besides the one true God is not freedom, but slavery to a false and  destructive master. slaves to sin are not in control. They can choose only what  what to dream of and what delusions to entertain. They are controlled, like  smiling drug addicts who pretend to power in choice. So those who reject God's  way become addicted to sin and lose control. No wonder Jesus said we'd all be  better off chopping off a hand than having that hand lead us into sin. The apostle Paul writes in Romans 6:16, says, do you not know that when you offer yourself 

to someone to obey Him as slaves you are slaves to the one you obey. Whether  you're slaves to sin, which leads to death or to obedience which leads to  righteousness. Commenting on this passage, John Stott says that conversion  really involves an exchange of slavery's each slavery, slavery to sin and slavery  to God is a is a kind of freedom. But the one is true slavery, and truly true  slavery, the one to sin, while the other is actually liberating. So each freedom is  a kind of slavery but the one, the freedom to sin is degrading, resulting in all  sorts of bad things, including guilt and death. The freedom of service to God, on  the other hand, is ennobling and the fruit it yields, includes holiness in the  present and in the end, eternal life with God in heaven. Slavery is not the perfect metaphor for the Christian life. It doesn't do justice, for example, to the love and  gentleness of the master or to the fulfillment there is in serving Him. But it does  serve well to remind people that we can have only one master and it serves well to remind us of the quality of service to the only one in whom true freedom is  found.