A friend of God, 하나님의 친구

Gen. 1:26-27

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 and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Do you like animals? Do you own pets? I do. Actually, my children own a dog. She is an Akita breed. Her name is Mia almost 3 years old. Akita dogs are known for their loyalty particularly through the movie Hachi where Richard Gere starred in. I love my Mia. I feed her, play with her, and walk her every day when I am around. I love her but I don’t know if I can or will sacrifice my life for her, if any situation occurs and demands it. Probably not. Not because I don’t love her, I do love her, but because I have people that I love more and must take care of like my wife and my children. Yes, I would sacrifice myself for my wife and children if a situation demands it. I guess I do not love my Mia as much as my family, even though I love her so much. What I am saying is that you might own pets and love them but that they are not your equals. No matter how special they are to you, you are not going to treat them like yourself.

Today, I want to talk about a usually-boring-but-important topic, that is, the image of God. We are all familiar with the “image of God” (imago Dei). You also know that it is not such an exciting topic in the Bible at least based on your experience as a Christian so far. But I say Christians often have a very limited view of the image of God and, therefore, do not appreciate the value and impact it should normally have for them. 

I am once again trying guide you to have a God-perspective, that is, the author’s point of view as He is the author of the Bible. The very first word that appears in the Bible is “in the beginning” in other words eternity, and we studied about it last time. What God reveals in the first chapter after verse 1 is a specific account of the second part of verse 1, that is, “He created the heavens and the earth.” As such He writes the rest of the chapter. And at the end on the sixth day, He writes, He made man in His image (v.27). If He kept His style of writing thus far in the chapter, His account of the creation of man does not have to be too lengthy like what we see in chapters 1 and 2. Perhaps, “the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature …. it was so …. God saw that it was good” would have been enough just as He did when he created the whole universe during the previous five days. However, we see the difference particularly in the depth of description and the amount of space He spares for the account of the creation of man, for example, 1:26-27, 2:7, 21-24. 

What we have about the creation of man is that He created man in His “image” (tselem) and in His “likeness” (demut) (1:26), and the man became “a living soul” (2:7). Here, I would like to eliminate the possible confusion about image and likeness. Some scholars try to distinguish those words as if each word might have a tremendous number of secrets. However, I suggest that you take the words in synonymous meaning. God does not expect the readers of His Bible to be linguistic scholars. At best, it is like “You have your father’s face. You look like him.” So, simply, man resembles God; man looks like Him; man is like God, etc. In what ways? Obviously, man does not look like God in a physical sense, even though it is not totally excluded in its meaning. 

Another clue for us is that man is a living soul, meaning that he is a person of soul who is alive. Man is a living person with his own soul like God is a living person. And that is what it means to be created in the image of God, that is, man is a person like Him. Often, we associate our personhood with life. I exist because I have life. We confine our views to ourselves and do see life from God’s point of view. We have life because we are created in God’s image. Our life, thus, is different from animals’ life or plants’ life. We have life because God breathed His breadth of life into us. We are like God unlike all other living creatures. Some animal activists tend to put the life of animal’s par with human life. That is not how God created animals and man. We have life that is from God and, therefore, are a person like God.

As far as the image of God is concerned, our biased view prevails for us. Often, the best we know of it is that “we” happen to look like God or are kind of like God, whatever that means. It is the “us”-centered perspective.  We have to have God’s point of view. God should be the focal point of the picture. Why did “God” create man in His image at the first place? The best theological answer would be like God would be glorified by us or we would worship God forever. Sounds all good, but the question is “Do you know what you mean by that?” See it this way. If God wanted to be worshiped and glorified so that He created us, is it truly justifiable and even satisfying for God? Did God make us as worship-machines? Did He make us as robots? Did He make robots for Himself so that the machine will continue to say “Hallelujah!” forever. If it is the only thing that the machine knows and does, then, would it be so glorifying for God and fitting to His own perfection? I doubt it. God did not want a praise-machine for Himself. If praise and honor is to fit with the being of God, it should come from the beings of equal value and honor. So, He created man in His image. He wanted man to be a living soul just like Himself. If man is not as special as His own being, man’s praise for Him would not be so special to Him at all. That is the image of God, that is, man is as special, as worthy, and as free as God Himself so that He see him as equal to Himself. As a disclaimer, do not forget that man is a creature “created” in God’s image, even though we try to correct the common misunderstanding about the image of God. Man is free as God is free, but he is free only before God.

We have the account of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the early chapters of the Bible in fact right after the account of man’s creation. There is God’s will revealed in that order. You know very well that in this account freedom is at stake whether man takes his freedom to eat the fruit or not. Freedom would not have been an issue for man if he was not created in God’s image at the first place. Please note that man is not created not to sin at all. As Augustine puts it, posse peccare, posse non peccare, man was able to sin and able not to sin. Man was neither unable to sin in his nature nor did God stop man when he was about to sin. It is all because he was created in the image of God. He was as equal as God even in freedom. Almost! Man should have exercised his freedom not to sin as a free person not as a robot. Man should have honored God as a free being in order to glorify God for who He is. So, man had to be free as God. That was what the image of God meant, but man failed. He failed to be free like God. He failed to be a person like God. God wanted man to be His friend, a friend just like Himself, a friend in His image, when He created him. But He lost him.

How much do you have to love a person so that you would willingly sacrifice yourself on behalf of the person? I love my dog Mia but doubt that I would die for her. It is not about how much love you have but about how worthy the object is. The person for whom you die must be at least as equal as yourself and as lovable as your own self for you to sacrifice yourself. That is exactly what God did for His friend whom He created in His image at the first place. God loves the entire creation but did not die for it except for His friend created in His image. The angels are superior to man but God does not die for them. “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor” (Psalms 8:4-5).

God came and died for His friend so that He would continue to share the fellowship and love that He intended when He created His friend. We often fail to see it, but God loudly tells us as such in the Bible. God called Abraham a friend according to James 2:23, “and the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’—and he was called a friend of God.” Look first how the scripture is fulfilled. It is fulfilled when it said that Abraham was called a friend of God when he was justified by his faith in God. The scripture puts Abraham’s justification on par with him being called a friend of God. How incredible and amazing is that? Justification on part with being called a friend of God? Is it how the scripture is fulfilled? Amazing! That God called Abraham friend was not a cute gesture of God. The scripture is fulfilled that way. Why? The “friend” in the Bible carries the weight of God’s image. Justification means here that he is finally and rightly restored to be God’s friend as once created as a friend of God. Friend in the Bible carries the weight of the image of God.

Here, friend in James 2:23 is “philos” in Greek. We want to zoom in two Greek words in the Bible that are often translated as friend, “philos” and “hetairos.” For example, “And he said to them, ‘Which of you who has a friend (philos) will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, (philos) lend me three loaves’ (Lk. 11:5) and “And when he comes home, he calls together his friends (philos) and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost” (Lk. 15:6). In contrast, “But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, (hetairos) I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?” (Mt. 20:13) and to Judas Iscariot “ Jesus said to him, ‘Friend, (hetairos) do what you came to do.’ Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him” (Mt. 26:50). 

Here, “philos” means “beloved,” “loving” or “friend.” However, “hetairos” is a person who has something in common with others and enjoys association but not necessarily the level of “philos.” “hetairos” would be a pal, bud, dude in English. But “philos” signifies someone personal, affectionate, and loving. 

To appreciate the vibe of “philos” I would like to see John 15:13-15, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you” and “I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” Here, friend (philos) is not a worldly term in the Bible. It is a word of saving grace than common grace as Jesus himself distinguished “philos” and “hetairos.” 

Here, as I conclude my message, I want to take a moment to think about how we allow ourselves to be influenced with a worldly standard and interest. Friend is a very nice word. It would be nice that everybody is friends rather than enemies in this world. Friend (philos) in the Bible is not a kind of friend defined in this world. People have their standard and definition of friend in this world. Some may sacrifice themselves for their friends, but it could be only a kind of common grace. “If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing” (1 Cor. 13:3). The love demonstrated in the friendship in John 15:13 is the love of saving grace. God performed love for us because we are His friends, the friends created in His image, the friends He sees equally lovable as His own. For us, a friend should be a friend created in God’s image. We live in this world, and it is very hard not to be influenced by such a seemingly neutral word like friend. But we have to define it in a Christian way and rebuild our church and society and nation in such a way that we call each other friends in the way God called Abraham a friend. 

We must restore and rebuild the knowledge on the image of God. It is more than we look like our God. We have to regain God’s perspective of how He values us in His eyes. It is the will of God revealed at the very early stage in the Bible that God wants us to know that we are created in the image of God. Now God calls us friends restored in His image. If we are called friends by God, then we are friends amongst us. We should call each other friends in the way God calls us friends created with equal value, honor, freedom, and love. We often mistreat others because we fail to see who they are. All people are created in the image of God and as special as they should be and must receive due respect and love. That is a Christian way only to be perfected when we go to the Kingdom of God. It is the will of God that God created man in His image so that we be friends to God. So should we be friends to each other and, therefore, treat each other with the love of God.

Praise be to the Lord!