November 25, 2017 - - Psalm 119:73 Image bearers in a disintegrating culture

Your hands have made me and fashioned me;

Give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments.

Psalm 119:73 NKJV

What is man?

We are not even confident of the intrinsic value of the human person made in God's image, whether pre-born, new-born, disabled, aging, sick or despairing. Indeed, we are so fundamentally uprooted that we are no longer assured of the scientific and chromosomal reality of the binary gender distinctions of male and female, of normative human sexuality, or of the oldest institution known to the human race--marriage and family.

Our profound confusion today is such that some people are not even sure that they occupy the right age group or gender, were born into the right people group, or even gestated by the right species, since they "feel" like something else. No one dares to challenge these inner fictions, since all that is left of the human personality is the notion that an autonomous and subjective feeling has the absolute existence of God himself. As such, there is no longer a basis for differentiation of any objective kind. And thus, in a world mired in the irrational fluidity of all things, where the possibility of normative differentiation between truth and falsehood, right and wrong, reality and unreality, has collapsed, culture has not simply reached a bump in the road, but has been sucked into a kind of vortex of democratic insanity..."

By denying, debunking and defacing the image of God in man we are losing our very soul (Matthew 16:26).

Jesus Christ said: "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?" (Matthew 16:26).

The Rev Dr. Joseph Boot "Gospel Culture" page 14

Out of this vortex of insanity and chaos, God the Creator, Who made us male and female in His image, calls us to holy living. In Jesus Christ we find both our example for holy living and the One Who stood in our place, taking God's rightful condemnation against sin. The Spirit of Jesus restores our humanity. The Spirit of God gives those who follow Jesus Christ the compassion to deal with the inane concepts of our age and point to the aimless, helpless, and confused people of our age find welcome Truth in the Word of God.

God, if You are for us as believers in Jesus Christ, who can be against us? Let my life and my witness shine brightly into the darkness of this culture. Spirit of God, embolden Christians to speak to this culture the reality of life as it is revealed in the Bible: One God to Whom all people, as His image-bearers, are accountable. Father in heaven, as Christmas approaches, remind this world Jesus has come, as a Man, born of a woman. Jesus Christ by His perfect, obedient life, and His death by which He took our place and bore the punishment against sin we deserved and His resurrection and session to Your right hand ensures the victory of Your glory and triumph of believers. Let the lives of Christians continually declare these things to Your glory and through our life and testimony thereby give hope to the people of this age. In Jesus' great Name I pray. Amen.