WWUTT 2190 Q&A Made in the Image of God, Planning to Have Kids, Honor Father and Mother

The Fear of the Lord and the Beginning of Wisdom

Does the Bible say that we all have been made in the image of God? How do Christian parents plan to have children? And how long does the commandment honor your father and mother apply? The answers to these questions and others, when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the word. Be sure to leave us a five star review on whatever podcast app you like to use. Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky.

You're welcome.

It should be at this point. Here once again is Becky.

Yay!

Who hasn't been here in a month.

Sorry, guys.

You enjoy your time away.

Yeah, I did.

You were traveling all over the Midwest pretty much during that time.

I was, yeah. It was a bittersweet, but yeah.

Yeah.

Because your grandmother passed away. Got to see some family, though.

Oh, yeah.

And some friends.

Yep.

Annie went to camp.

Yes.

Raised her own money.

Yes.

And did all of that herself, because God knows we can't afford it.

She was very responsible.

Good.

Yes.

And had fun, too, I hope.

Yes.

Having to raise all of that on her own. I think we covered some of it.

I don't remember.

No, she had it all raised.

Did she?

Yeah, I was expecting to cover part of it.

So I know that I paid it, and then she gave me cash from the bake sales and stuff.

Mm-hmm.

So the cash she gave me, that was enough?

No, it was. The rest of it's on...

Oh, the cash apps and stuff like that.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay.

I was going to say, because I didn't think I got that much cash from her.

Oh, no. No, you didn't. Not there. No, she did amazing.

That's great. Our responsible 16-year-old.

I know.

Look at that.

Praise the Lord.

Well, we've got some questions here. Some of these questions I've sat on for a few weeks.

Oh?

Because they directly address you.

I think that might have been uncomfortable for you. Oh, man.

That was a dad joke. You pulled a dad joke. Oh, well done.

Are you like one-sided now?

That was very unlike you. Generally, you roll your eyes at me for those jokes. I think I got a taste of my own medicine there.

There you go.

And we've also got a voicemail. So a reminder that if you want to send us a voicemail, just go to www .utt .com and click on the voicemail tab right there. And you can record it from your phone or your computer, whatever electronic device you're using to listen to us.

So I finished up Psalm 18 last week without you.

Yes.

Let's jump into Proverbs. We'll do some Proverbs here at the beginning of these Friday episodes for a little while. So this is Proverbs 1. We'll start right at the very beginning of Chapter 1. The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel.

To know wisdom and discipline. To understand the sayings of understanding. To receive discipline that leads to insight, righteousness, justice, and equity. To give prudence to the simple. To the youth, knowledge and discretion.

Let the wise man hear and increase in learning. And a man of understanding will acquire guidance. To understand a proverb and an enigma. The words of the wise and their riddles. And here's verse 7. The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge.

Ignorant fools despise wisdom and discipline. So you have those first six verses really there to tell you the importance of reading these Proverbs and acquiring wisdom and applying that wisdom. That's the six verses.

A good intro to Proverbs. And then verse 7 is really kind of the thesis statement to the rest of Proverbs. The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord. Ignorant fools despise wisdom and discipline.

So we should fear God. And in fearing the Lord we gain knowledge and wisdom and understanding. Because in fearing God we desire to know His Word. As I've been in Isaiah, we haven't gotten to Isaiah 66 yet.

We're pretty close to the end of our study of Isaiah. But it's in Isaiah 66 too where it says, All these things my hands have made. And so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look.

He who is humble and contrite in spirit and who trembles at my word. That's a pretty good descriptor of having the fear of the Lord that we may acquire knowledge. We're humble before God. We tremble at His Word.

And we know that it is the Word that reigns over every other word. His Word has authority over every person whether they acknowledge it or not. But fools will spurn that Word. They will despise wisdom.

They will ignore discipline. They will hate the one who gives them discipline. Instead of recognizing, I've done wrong. That was a mistake. Here's the consequence for my error. A fool won't do that. A fool will think that, I need to get back at this person.

Because they showed me that I was wrong or afflicted me somehow. I don't know if you've ever remembered that attitude you had against your parents whenever they punished you.

Never!

Oh yeah, I was terrible at that.

So we actually talked about that while I was with my family. Yeah, we talked about how I was as a kid. And mom's like, we couldn't ever spank you hardly at all. It didn't do any good. I'm like, yeah, I got mad at you for hurting me.

It was your fault.

You were a fool.

Yeah, I was.

Totally. It wasn't my fault at that point. I was like, whenever you're training your dog and you have to discipline them right away, otherwise they don't know what they're being disciplined for, that was me.

That was totally me. I had the attention span of a dog. It was terrible. Because any time that I was disciplined after the fact, it didn't matter. It was their fault for making me angry and making me uncomfortable or whatever.

And I remember that too, that being my reaction when I was punished by my parents. Not all the time, but most of the time.

Oh, mine was all the time.

So with our children, one of the things that I have tried to do when we would discipline them would be to explain to them, listen, this was your fault. This is not, you got spanked and so I'm the one that afflicted you.

You are bearing the consequence of the wrong action that you made. So you need to learn from this and not do it again. I tried to explain it more to them so they understood they're the reason that they got disciplined.

It's not the person administering the discipline that has done anything wrong.

Yeah, I remember those talks with my mom.

She would say the same thing too?

She would say similar things, yeah. And it just, nope, it was still their fault.

Well, I hope it's taking effect. I hope they're not internally seething. Yeah, you'd say that.

But I mean, really, I wasn't saved. And so that's not in my mind. It just, yeah.

But receiving the correction of the Lord, just like we should receive the correction of our parents.

Yes, yeah.

For as Hebrews 12 will go on to tell us, that the Lord disciplines us because we are his children. If we were not his children, he wouldn't discipline us.

Right.

So important to hear God's word, be convicted by it. Whenever we do wrong, whenever we sin and we feel that conviction of the Holy Spirit, not getting mad at God or our circumstances or whoever it was that caught us in our error.

Or trying to be sneakier the next time.

Yeah, or make excuses for it. No, it wasn't really this, it was actually this.

Excuses, that's a big one. I find myself doing that too. I'm like, wait, no, I need to stop that.

So the wise man will receive correction. That's something humbly we all need to acknowledge. We all need to recognize. Well, this is the Friday edition of the broadcast. And we take questions from the listeners.

And you can send those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. And like I said, there's also voicemail. You can record either from your phone or your computer. Go to www .utt .com and click on the voicemail tab there on the menu at the top of the page.

I've got one voicemail today.

Awesome.

The voicemail service that we use, I just noticed, numbers our voicemail messages. So this is actually our eighth voicemail.

Oh, cool.

So since we started doing this, which was just a few weeks back, it wasn't that long ago. This is the eighth voicemail that we have received. I've got something keeping tabs on that for me.

I like it.

Speaking of which, speaking of proverbs and speaking of numbering things out. So I'm attempting to still add to our website where I had the podcast archives. Hang on, I'm trying to bring this up here.

I don't have it labeled well. If you go to www .utt .com and you click on podcast on the menu bar, which is right in the middle, it gives you a list, an archive list of past episodes. And I've said before that I'm still working on that list because it takes a while.

I have to go back and individually find every single episode and link to it.

Yes.

Because Podbean, the service that I use for our podcast, just doesn't archive very well. So I'm creating our own archive and right now going through proverbs. So you'll notice there are 21 lessons thus far that are in the podcast archive for a study in proverbs.

Nice.

So I think I'll try to finish out Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs. I'll have those filled out, not Psalms because that one was big. We were in Psalms for like two years, I think.

Yeah, I think so.

So I'll wait on that one. But then after I finish those four, I'll pull some of the New Testament studies.

Nice.

And pull those into there as well. Thank you for your patience in building that. Because what are we at here? Over 2 ,100 episodes? I don't even know where we're at.

I don't know either.

I'm not keeping track.

Yeah.

2 ,190. That's what this episode is.

Yep.

So that takes a while to build an archive of over 2 ,000 episodes.

Eh, you know.

Thanks for having patience with me. And I so appreciate that you go back and listen to those.

Yeah, definitely.

That's one of the things I've noticed as I've been pulling up those old episodes. Like I haven't looked at that episode in a year or two. And oh man, it's climbing in listenership.

That's awesome.

So yeah, you're going back and listening to old episodes. That's great. And we're just trying to make that a little bit easier for you. Okay, this first question. Some of these questions, like I said, I've been waiting on, sitting on.

As I said a moment ago. Because I was waiting for Becky to come back. So here we go. This is from Scott. He says, Gabe and babe. Firstly, I have to say how much I enjoy the Friday Q &A. Especially when Becky's laughter or an incredulous comment makes an appearance.

You have been blessed. As has she. You can tell that you give each other joy and love just from the interaction.

Aww.

I'm glad it comes through.

And this is so much easier to do with you.

Oh yeah.

You've said that before.

It takes me longer to do this when I do it by myself. I have a lot of stops and starts. You don't notice that because I edit it very well. But whenever you and I are sitting here, I think we have like two flubs.

Yeah.

Which will end up in the outtakes.

Yes. Always.

But other than that, I mean, you listen to an hour long broadcast and it took us an hour to do it. But not if I have to do it by myself. It takes a little bit longer than that. So yeah. It's a lot better when it's interactional.

Yeah.

I can look at you and talk to you.

It would be hard to like be entertaining by yourself to yourself, you know.

I think I can do it. I think I can entertain myself okay. I think I'm hilarious. So anyway, Scott says, to the question, what makes humans in the image of God? Chris Roseborough of Pirate Christian Radio recently suggested that only Adam and Eve were created in the image of God with everyone else in Adam's image.

However, I'm not convinced as the reason not to murder is because we are made in the image of God. Someone close to me suggested love when I asked them, but it would not appear to be uniquely human. Chimps and birds and dogs would at least appear to love their mate.

Could it be that we are spirit, which would imply angels also are made in God's image, which although isn't biblical, doesn't conflict with the Bible. My personal current thinking. Or could it be, to which you will disagree, autonomous free will.

The ability to choose to follow Christ or deny Christ. This would certainly be a unique characteristic. Anyway, I look forward to catching up on the podcast as I was on holiday recently. So a little behind.

Obviously, we're a little behind, too. God bless you and your family as well as the larger family you serve in Casa Grande. Your friend, Scott. Well, I appreciate your question. And Scott, I have heard Chris Roseborough do this before.

Now, all respect to Chris Roseborough. I love his teaching, love his ministry. I think that he still reigns as having the best Christian podcast name. Pirate Christian Radio.

Yeah.

It's kind of like he did it first and the best. Sorry, guys. I got the best name. Whatever else you are going to be tinkering around with.

Yeah.

We're living in the shadow of Pirate Christian Radio. Especially an old radio guy like me. I can now say old about me, I think.

Yeah.

I mean, you know, to some.

I'm getting there. Over the hill, officially. But anyway, looking at my history in radio and what Pirate Radio was and stuff like that, that's the other cool thing about it.

Yeah.

And the logo and everything. He just does that spiel very well. So, I love Chris and I love the ministry that he's done. I don't agree with him on this, though. That only Adam and Eve were made in God's image.

Everybody else was in Adam's image. I know where he comes from in this. I get what he's saying. So, let me kind of walk you through his argument. I think I will represent this correctly. But if you go to Genesis 127, and this is reading out of the ESV.

Genesis 127. So, God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. So, you have God made man. He created man in his own image. And so, Chris would take that as Adam was made in his own image.

Or Adam and Eve is quantified by man, but not all of mankind. And I disagree with that. God created mankind in his own image. It seems awkward, actually, to read that as God created Adam and Eve in his own image.

That seems strange. So, the word man is used there. Adam, which can also mean mankind. It could be an individual man or it could be mankind. But it does appear to us to mean mankind. God created man in his own image.

And I take that from the statement that's made in verse 26. Then God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens, so on and so forth.

So, that's clearly plural in the context. It's not the singular Adam or even just Adam and Eve. So, God created man in his own image. That's mankind. That's the context. In the image of God, he created him.

I think that's also plural. Male and female, he created them. There's really nothing in this. It's a poem. The way that it's structured, it has that poetic structure to it. There's nothing to this poem that indicates that only Adam and Eve are being singled out here.

It seems to be a poetic reflection upon the fact that God made mankind. In his own image. Which is therefore what makes our sin so blasphemous. It's not just disobeying God. But we who were made in God's image are therefore made to reflect God.

We are supposed to conduct ourselves in holiness and in righteousness because God is holy and righteous. And when we made in God's image, do not do what is holy. We do what is unholy. We do what is godless.

We do what is sinful. Then we are blaspheming God's image. Because instead of reflecting his glory, we're reflecting our own glory. We're exalting ourselves instead of God. Which is why it is so blasphemous for mankind to sin.

Why an animal can't technically sin. Or doesn't have the will to sin. Or the understanding of what it is that they do being against or contrary to their purpose. And order. If that makes sense.

Yeah.

So that's kind of part of the argument though. Because if you go on then in Genesis 5. It says right at the start of the chapter. This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.

Male and female he created them. And he blessed them and named them man when they were created. So there you have that qualifier again. You have male and female he created them. And named them man when they were created.

So again, this is Adam used as mankind. Not just simply the male. And not just simply Adam. But then when you have verse 3. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness. After his image.

And named him Seth. So Chris takes that statement. And he believes that all offspring then from that point on. After Adam. Is in the likeness of Adam. But mankind is not in the likeness of God.

I can see where he's coming from on that.

So that would be the argument. But in 1 Corinthians 11 .7. We read the following. For a man ought not to cover his head. We talk about head coverings there. In this portion of 1 Corinthians 11. A man ought not to cover his head.

Since he is the image and glory of God. But woman is the glory of man. So there you have right there. In 1 Corinthians 11 .7. That man is the image of God. It doesn't say Adam. It doesn't say just Adam and Eve.

It says that man as though mankind. Is the image and glory of God. But the woman now notice here. In verse 7. The woman is not the image of man. It says the woman is the glory of man. So I've heard some make this argument.

I don't know if Chris has made this argument or not. I'm going to go ahead and just kind of like. Throw another argument in there. I've heard some make the argument.

Let's just add to his questioning.

Let's just broaden this out a little bit. I've heard some make the argument that. Genesis 1 .27 is only about the male. Man was made in the image of God. Woman was not made in the image of God. And they will use 1 Corinthians 11 .7.

To support that argument. Because it says. Man was made in the image and glory of God. But woman is the glory of man. But note that. It doesn't say woman is the image. And the glory of man. All this is talking about.

The context of 1 Corinthians 11. Is talking about headship and submission. That's the context. So in verse 3. It says I want you to understand. That the head of every man is Christ. The head of a wife is her husband.

Or the head of a woman is her husband. Technically. I'm reading this is the ESV. The legacy says woman. The head of a woman is her husband. And the head of Christ is God. So you're talking about headship here.

And submission to that headship. So that men and women would understand. Their roles in the church. That's the instruction that Paul is giving there. So since the context is headship. It would not make sense there.

For Paul to include. Man and woman made in the image of God. Because that's not the context. That statement is true. Man and woman are made in the image of God. But that's not what he's talking about here.

So therefore. In the order of succession. In who was created first. So who is nearest to God. In that order of creation. Man comes first. Then the woman is made for man. And that is. That's understanding the headship.

And the reason for a wife's submission. To her husband. According to that context. We have there in 1 Corinthians 11. So a man ought not to cover his head. Since he is the image and the glory of God. But woman is the glory of man.

And once again. She's not the image of man. She likewise is made in. The image of God. As we saw that established in Genesis 1. In Genesis 5. Now when mankind sinned. Something serious obviously happened there.

We were separated from God. For that statement to come about. The way that it does in Genesis 5. 3. That Adam had lived 130 years. He fathered a son in his own likeness. After his image and named him Seth.

There is. There's something that is. Not quite pure there. Because Adam is a fallen creature. By this point. So the one that he fathers in his own likeness.

Is.

In his sin nature. So Seth has his sin nature. And Genesis 5. Reflects that. Because you have the genealogy that comes. With Seth begat Enosh. Who begat Kenan. Who begat Mahalalel. And every one of those names that comes up.

It says he lived this many number of years. And then he died. He lived this many number of years. And then he died. So you're seeing the effects of the fall. But just because it says there. That he fathered a son in his own likeness.

Named Seth. Does not mean. That Seth was not also made. In the likeness of God. But Seth is fallen.

Right.

Because he brought on the sins of his father.

That's right. So just like Adam. Who was made in the image and likeness of God. Seth. When he sins. Commits a sin against God. A blasphemy against his image. Because. We're not holy as we should be. In the way that we're supposed to image God.

So it's necessary to remember that. It's part of the reason why Seth dies. Not just because. He's born in the likeness and the image of Adam. But even because. As one who is an image bearer of God. Has sinned and therefore is worthy.

Of the penalty that comes.

But yeah.

I think that 1 Corinthians 11. Pretty well secures for us. That even we today. Are made in the image and the likeness of God. We don't properly image God. The way that we should. Because we have a sin nature.

So it is being remade. In the likeness of Christ. That we are. We are born again. And we are growing in. We're growing in holiness. We're growing in sanctification. So Ephesians 2 .10 for example. We are his workmanship.

Created in Christ Jesus. For good works. Which God prepared beforehand. That we should walk in them. A lot of people take that verse to mean. That every single person. Is God's workmanship. We are his workmanship.

Created in Christ Jesus. That's every person. No the context is specifically Christians. That's who Paul is talking to. He's addressing the church in Ephesus. So we who are believers. Are his workmanship.

We have been brought into. Faith in Christ. As stated there in Ephesians 2 .8 and 9. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God. So in this. God has worked in us.

This process of becoming more Christ like. So we are created in Christ Jesus. For good works. We're born again in Christ. For good works. So now being followers of Christ. God has prepared these works for us beforehand.

That we should walk in them. And only those who are in Christ. Can do those things. This is the way that we are being. Remade in his image. But specifically in the image of Christ. We are made in the likeness of God.

We're being remade in the image of the God man. Christ Jesus. Who lived a perfect life. Colossians 3 is another good one there. Colossians 3 .12. Put on then as God's chosen ones. Holy and beloved. Compassionate hearts.

This isn't the right spot.

Hang on.

Let me go back a little bit. This is. Verse 9. Do not lie to one another. Seeing that you have put off the old self. With its practices. And have put on the new self. Which is being renewed. In knowledge.

After the image of its creator. So we are being remade in that likeness. In that image that we are supposed to have. Born from the very beginning. But we could not have.

But it's tainted.

Because of our sinful nature. So we are now. Bearing the image of our creator. We are bearing the image. And the likeness of Christ. As we are his workmanship. So there are. I guess you could say. There's a yes and no to this.

Yes it is true. We are all made in the image of God. Imago Dei. And yes it is also true. That we are made in the likeness of Adam. We don't properly image God. As we should. But we understand from that.

That God is remaking us into that. In Christ Jesus.

Amen.

So thank you for your question Scott. And I hope that I represented Chris's arguments. Well there also. Let me play the video. That I did. On what it means to be made in the image. And the likeness of God.

So this goes back a few years. I remember doing this video in Utah.

Oh wow.

I don't know why that popped into my head. Yeah I was speaking at a church in Lehigh, Utah. And while I was sitting in the airport in Salt Lake City. Ready to come back to Kansas. I worked on. I worked on this video.

On what it means to be made in the image of God. So here's the video. And then we'll jump into our next question. In Genesis 1 .26 -27. God said. Let us make man in our image. After our likeness. And let them have dominion over all the earth.

So God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him. Male and female he created them. What does it mean to be made. In the image and likeness of God. Often this is interpreted to mean.

That we look like God. Surely you've seen paintings of God as an old man. Even wearing clothes. But Numbers 23 .19 says God is not man. And Jesus said in John 4 .24. God is spirit. So God has no human or even physical form.

Rather to be made in the likeness of God. Means that we are like God. In the sense that we are interpersonal beings as God is. We've also been given dominion. As God has dominion. To fill the earth and subdue it.

Most of all being made in the image of God. Means that we are to reflect. His holy and righteous character. Animals cannot make moral decisions. It is for men and women. To glorify God in righteousness.

Every person's life is sacred. Because we are all fellow image bearers. Of the one who made us. When we sin doing what is contrary. To God's righteousness. We desecrate God's image. Romans 3 .12 says together we have become worthless.

Before God. Good to be cast into the flames. But Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness. And by faith in Him. We are being remade into the image of the Son. To reflect the holy and righteous character.

Of Christ. When we understand the text. Alright here you go Becky. You ready for the next one?

Sure.

Family Planning, Adoption, and Trusting the Lord with Children

Hello Pastor Gabe and Becky. I really hope Becky is on this week. Because this question involves her. I just want to first say. How encouraged I always am by Becky.

Me too.

That makes two of us. By the example that she sets. For biblical womanhood. I don't follow that example. Right now I'm just being goofy. Sometimes I can be bogged down. By all the stereotypical expectations.

That are mainstream as of late. But I am encouraged because it seems like Becky. Really exhibits godly modest character. Christ likeness. And goes about home making. In a non-legalistic way. Am I reading that right?

In a non-legalistic way. But in a way that is under God's grace. And His provision. And has a good foundation of what He expects of her. Submitting to husband. And training children. Obviously I don't know you all.

But that is what I perceive. And just want to say I'm encouraged.

Well thank you.

My question is. Can you all share any of your story. About your journey. With bearing children. You all have a big family. Of today's standards. I grew up with five siblings. We have five kids. So this is still smaller than the household I grew up in.