Transcript
I am created in God's likeness. That means I'm more like God than I am like the rest of creation. There's a moment early in the biblical narrative, the narrative of creation, where God picks up dust and breathes humanity into humanity, and Adam becomes a living being. And God defines the nature of this being with nine words. "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness."
Glory After Glory
In terms of human identity, it is impossible to get more earth-shaking, more important definitional words than those words. God is saying, "I've created glory after glory after glory after glory in this physical world, but this creation is unique and different because I'm saying I have stamped my likeness on this being."
In that moment, God invest human beings with the ultimate in dignity and value. Psalm 8 says God created us a little lower than the angels, and crowned us with glory and honor. And the question in Psalm 8 is, you know, if you look at the grandeur of creation, you would think, "What is little man? Why would you care about him?" And the answer is, "No, no, no, no. This one's been crowned with glory and honor. This one's made in My image."
And so, I must look at every human being, no matter what they believe, no matter what they're doing, no matter how much I would otherwise be disgusted, no matter how wrong they are, how malevolent they must be, I must look at them and I must see the likeness of God himself. And I must always treat that being with love and honor, with dignity.
That's the heart of justice. That's the heart of racial equality. That's the heart of treating women with honor and not as objects. It's why I don't scream and yell at my children and treat him like little slaves to make my life easier. It's why I don't treat my neighbor with irritation because he's different than me. It's why government should never be corrupt, politicians living for human power.
Treating People With Dignity
That's why I should treat people with dignity whose culture is marvelously different than mine and whose language is different than mine, and dress in ways that I find weird and eat things that I would never eat because dignity is stamped on them.
I'm a city boy. I walk the city streets and people say to me, "Don't you miss the glory of God in creation?" And I say, "What are you talking about? I see the likeness of God walking toward me on the street." Me walking in Philadelphia is a time of worship for me because I'm seeing God's likeness again and again and again and again and again. I remember His existence and I remember to treat all these people with dignity. I should walk by a homeless person, I should love them and I should have a heart full of sympathy because that dignity is damaged, but it's there.
This doctrine changes the whole ball game of human relationships and human interaction and all the institutions that deal with human beings because God made the choice that He would place that dignity of His likeness on human beings, and I must always remember that no matter what.
