Faith Basics: Doctrine of Humanity Part 2

In this episode we explore God's design for humanity and some of the specific implications for today regarding marriage and sexuality, gender, stewardship of the earth, and more.

• Automated Transcription

• Dan Jarms 0:00
  Today on faith matters, we continue with the Basics series. Nathan Thiry is in with me talking about the doctrine of man.
  
  Dan Jarms 0:14
  I'm Dan Jarms. And you're listening to faith matters a podcast to help update you on matters of faith Bible Church, as well as equip you in matters of the Christian faith.
  
  Dan Jarms 0:34
  I'm here with Nathan Thiry and Nathan again. So the first round we covered sort of the makeup of man, God making men and then therefore Adam and Eve, you know, Genesis one says, Let us make man in our image, male and female, He created them, we really focused on the material and the immaterial, the role being image bearers, the redemption that's in Christ, and what's coming in the future. Part two, we want to cover some other aspects that show up in Genesis one that are essential and really hot topics. So let's jump in and talk about Genesis 126, through 27, I'm going to read it. And then Nathan, if you want to unpack some of the ideas that come here, then God said, Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, 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. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God, He created them male and female, He created them. So here we have this one word and the Hebrew concept, man, then he breaks it down man and woman. So when you think of the doctrine of man, it's not the doctrine of men. It's a doctrine of mankind or humanity. What we haven't been able to talk about yet is man and woman, gender, God making gender. What's significant about the two here? And how does that speak to our current cultural moment? Yeah, and
  
  Nathan Thiry 2:03
  there's a ton of stuff to talk about this. One is just reviewing what we talked about last time with image, what does it mean, we're in the image of God. And so the image of God really reflects sonship. God created us to be His family, sons and daughters to relate to him as our Father, as our Lord. And then it also represents kingship, like God is King, he's ruler. And he made us to rule under his good rule. Yeah. And we do that in these two genders in male and female is interesting, because God, God himself is trying and he's Father, Son, and Spirit. There's diversity in terms of personhood, there's three different persons. Yeah, and diversity and roles, and yet unity, and equality and all three of them are the one God and so they're all equal in, in substance, in essence, and so we have in humanity here, two genders that are equal, but have distinct roles. So it's really, really important understand what God's design is with male and female. Yeah, there's a lot of ways we could go and talking about that we could talk about the purpose that He gave them together, we could talk about what it means that they're male and female. Yeah, let's start
  
  Dan Jarms 3:02
  with the idea that in 126, he gives the creation mandate that they are to have dominion. And then in 128, he talks about being fruitful and multiplying and filling the earth. So the having dominion was going to be done by necessity by lots of people. So Adam, and Eve wouldn't be able to do that on their own, they would need to be fruitful and multiply, and exercise dominion over the earth. How do men and women work together to be fruitful and multiply? Yeah, I
  
  Nathan Thiry 3:36
  mean, there's the there's the biology there. And there's God's design and marriage and sexuality. He created the male and female gender, Adam and Eve so that they could together procreate, they could have children, and then fill the earth with the image of God, that God wanted his creation to be fruitful. So he makes all the birds and fish and animals that creep on the ground, are able to multiply, he makes all the plants in the way they can multiply. And he makes humans in his image as his sons and daughters to be able to multiply, he wants him to, to have more kids to exercise, the beautiful thing that God's given us an institution of marriage of sexuality, which is a good thing is very good. And God designed that as a way for us to obey Him, to to have children to fill the earth with his image.
  
  Dan Jarms 4:18
  Verse 28, says, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over. So you have male and female, not only as they're multiplying, there's the biology. Then you have the dominion, and subduing and I think of what God made in the massive potential at creation. You know, you have swarms of birds, swarms of fish, pods of whales. You think of this, this unbelievable fruitfulness, I think of a wildness. So this idea of subduing if you've ever just let your backyard go It's gonna if there's water stuff's gonna grow. Whether you want it there or not. We see
  
  Nathan Thiry 5:06
  the same thing with animals too. Like you have a you get a dog. You don't train it. What's the dog gonna do? Yeah, it's gonna follow his instincts and not necessarily be a very good companion to men, right woman, or a horse, you know, wild horse versus a trained horse has been trained? Yes,
  
  Dan Jarms 5:18
  yes. So there could be a beauty in both things. But this is Adam and Eve's role is to rule over it. And they're doing it seamlessly. So I think of the original created order was that God has a loving rule over Adam and Eve, Adam and Eve are going to have a loving rule over all of the planet, take the wildness and tame it. And they're going to take the, the various parts of it and provide order structure and care for it so that it's as fruitful as possible. It's in some ways, God leaves the fruitfulness. The potential fruitfulness up to the interaction of human to be involved with, which is pretty amazing. How does that affect male and female? Let's jump to Genesis two and what was necessary with that? Yeah, I
  
  Nathan Thiry 6:08
  think we see God gives Adam instructions. So there's a reception of God's counsel, that he that he has there, and God gives Adam jobs. He says you're going to live in the garden and keep it I've seen in Genesis 215, the Lord God took the man and put them in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. He commanded the man, Adam has jobs. And if you fast forward to Jesus, the perfect man showing us what humanity should look like Jesus defines leadership the way it should be. He defines biblical masculinity. He says that in Mark 1044, and 45, the son of man, the true Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. So Jesus gives us the example that real masculinity, God's designed for what a man would do and keep in God's command. His Christian mandate is to serve. He's a servant. He thinks about what God wants, and he serves, he works hard. He's meant to lay down his life to sacrifice. And so we see that even in Philippians, two is he Paul is saying to the Philippians, that they should consider others more important themselves. And that's really what a leader a man provider, a protector, pursuer should do. And then a woman, what's the what's woman's relevancy in Genesis two, God's there wasn't good that him was alone, couldn't help her fit for him that would help her as the same word that's used to describe God. And oftentimes in Psalm like Psalm 118, verse seven, or in John 1416, it describes the Holy Spirit or Hebrews 13, six and scribes, the Lord. So helper is not a position of weakness. It's not someone that's not as smart or not as good at stuff. It's actually in the Bible as someone who's better coming alongside helping someone else. And so Eve comes alongside and complements Adam, She's stronger, he's weak, she's able to give him insight and help and to partner with him to invite him to nurture. And she's, she's the perfect ideal counterpart for Adam. Yeah. Which is God's design for biblical femininity. Yeah, yeah.
  
  Dan Jarms 7:56
  So there is a dignity to femininity as a compliment to men. So then together, they were to serve, or to work and keep it and that Hebrew word work is often translated in the later priestly laws as service. So your idea that Jesus came to serve, fits right in line with what Adam was to do. So if we think of what Adam did in the original garden, he was to serve the ground, because that word work could be easily translated to serve us to serve the ground to make it more fruitful. That's a man's role. And to keep it is to protect it. Well, together, they had that job. So she was absolutely necessary. There's more than multiplication estate, it's more than just having the babies. It's fulfilling where he is lacking. And God made him intentionally incomplete. So there's a dignity. And I guess the first thing we always want to talk about is the dignity of manhood and womanhood. And this is an era where the only dignity is what I feel like I want to be. And in our cultural moment, I feel like I want to be this or I feel like I want to be that or I feel like my true self is extra. Why? When God's original was he ordains what we are through the birth process, and then we step into the dignified roles that he's given to us. Gender
  
  Nathan Thiry 9:22
  is a biological reality that is lived out, and very dignified and noble purposes and tasks and, and it's not necessarily defined by whether you're single or married, or limited by that. No, we can live out biblical masculinity as single married divorced widowers. You can live out biblical femininity as a single person, as a married person, as a divorced person as a widow. There's many ways that we live out these roles God has given us
  
  Dan Jarms 9:48
  and they're absolutely essential. I think of so many of the women in our church, in a sense, fill out the ministry of the church. Let's talk about those key cultural issues and Let's take maybe one at a time. What is Genesis and the doctrine of man say that about sexuality in a culture where there is assigned gender at birth, you know, maybe on the birth certificate, and then there is chosen gender, where this is what I choose to be? How would we respond to that? Where somebody says, Well, I really want to be another gender. What's the Bible say about that? What does God say about that?
  
  Nathan Thiry 10:26
  I mean, we see over and over in the Bible, that God is the Creator, and the ruler, he's the designer, he's the one who has who assigns and so God knows best. And all throughout the Bible, the key issue that is defined our sin is rebellion, we don't want to do what God has told us to do. We don't want to know his design. And so it shouldn't surprise us that in every possible way, we as humans seek to rebel against God's design. It's just a normal aspect of our rebellion, our sin against Him. But it's actually for our good that God has given us gender. He's given us institutions like marriage and things like sexuality within marriage. And it's for our own good. And so for us to say, we actually know better than what God has assigned us through biology at birth, or through his own design, and the Bible is preposterous for us to think that we were wiser than God. We figured this out. We've been alive for 50 years, and we know better than God. Yeah, there's been alive for all of eternity in his infinite wisdom. And so God would tell us, like he told joke, you know, where were you? When I Yes, created everything. Where were you when I designed gender? And yes, decided this is how I was going to make it and why do you now think that you have a better idea than I do? And I think so many times that corruption and sin in the world leads us to think, well, maybe God's design is bad. But no, actually, what's bad is the corruption and the brokenness of his design and how we carry it out. Yeah. But then, of course, there's hope of redemption. And for that, yeah,
  
  Dan Jarms 11:49
  the exclamation point to that is in Genesis 131, where it says, And God saw everything that He had made, and he has just talked about making male and female and giving them that mandate. And behold, it was very good. It's a perfectly created order. So that's, that's essential in, in this conversation, about sexuality and gender, how God made sexuality between men and women for marriage. So you have to go outside of this, I'll actually have to go outside of gender Genesis, to where God made. Adam then brought Eve than made Eve and brought Adam to her, the two shall become one flesh. So another key aspect of this is about sexual union and sex inside of marriage. That's where God has put it in that bond. Any comments on that, or anything that would help us think about
  
  Nathan Thiry 12:43
  VR, I think it's really important for us to start with the identity God has given us as people and made in His image. So our whole purpose is to relate to him as his sons and daughters to be under his rule, as male and female. And so we start with that. And then our, our decisions, our emotions, our feelings or desires need to be judged under that standard. And God's given them His Word. He's told them, what he wants to do what he doesn't want them to do. And he's given us so much more in the rest of the Bible now, so. So I may have any number of thoughts about who I am in my identity. But the key issue is for me to go back to say, what does God's Word say about who I am, who he wants me to be, how he's created me why he's created me not to be defined, like you said, by the culture. And same thing with sexuality, we could have any any number of disordered sexual desires, whether those be heterosexual desires outside up for someone outside of the person you're married to, whether that be sexual desires before marriage, whether it'd be homosexual desires, if same sex attraction, there's all these different kinds of sexual desires that that we can have. But those don't define us. Just because I have a certain kind of sexual desire or attraction does not make me into something different identity wise, I am who God has created me to be. And I need to submit my sexual desires to God's Word into his design, and interest him to help me with that. So it's a very good design. He's given one man, one woman, for life in marriage, sexual union only in that context, that's a wonderful design. But of course, our flesh in the world pushes and fights against that. And there's gonna be all kinds of ways we have to fight against wrong desires. Yeah, the
  
  Dan Jarms 14:12
  the general cultural assumption is whatever you want, must have a kernel of good to it. It is. So if you want it, there must be something good about it, because you're essentially good. And so therefore, the world's wrong for telling you you shouldn't want that. But that's not that's somehow scriptures outlined. Nor is that our experience, we don't get to go anywhere. We want to say, I want to steal all the money out of that bank and say, well, that's just a natural normal thing that's good that you want to steal. It's just the world that locks its money up. We don't we don't apply that same reasoning around other terms. We know there are common sense about those things. Yeah, even
  
  Nathan Thiry 14:52
  within sexual desire. Most people in the world would agree that things like pedophilia are wrong. And so we know that there are Wrong sexual desires, and who defines what's wrong? And what's right, of course, God is the one who has the right to do that.
  
  Dan Jarms 15:04
  Let's apply it to one other issue that's vital in our time, which we often call the pro life issues, we think that we should protect the unborn. Since they are vulnerable, we should protect the young, we should protect anybody who is potential victim. So there is a strong urge, based on the dignity of women who is often physically weaker, that we should act in a way or make sure laws are instituted in such a way to not exploit. So all of those go and pro life arguments. How do we talk about the dignity of man in the pro life values that we have? Yeah,
  
  Nathan Thiry 15:45
  I mean, first, we want to say that every single human being has been in God's image and therefore is valuable to life is valuable. We see that in Genesis nine where God tells Noah and his children that if someone takes the life of a human, that's a serious thing that God will punish. And so God wants us to preserve human life. So then we ask the question, when does human life begin? Does it only matter if someone's already been born, that we preserve their life, and we just see in passages like Exodus 2122, are talks about protecting the life of a pregnant woman, and if someone strikes her and her child dies, then that person is accountable for taking someone's life? Yeah, we see in passages like Psalm 139, that God knits us together in a mother's womb, and he knows us then. And so there's all these passages where we see that life begins at conception, when the human life is conceived. That's that is a human being a person that God has assigned to dignity and value, and therefore their life must be protected. So it
  
  Dan Jarms 16:39
  doesn't really matter of viability. One of the common arguments about abortion, mid term, late term, early term is viability, but it really doesn't matter. That's really not the issue. The issue is the dignity. And when God starts the work of knitting, and God starts the work of knitting at conception, so we would want to do everything that we can do to preserve a person, a baby, because that baby is an image bear. Right, right from conception. Yeah,
  
  Nathan Thiry 17:13
  we want to be consistent as they all the way from conception, through the time of someone's death, we want to preserve that life, and show respect, show honor. And we want them ultimately to know, to know Christ, so they can find their ultimate purpose, as an image bearer of God,
  
  Dan Jarms 17:27
  Gods, the maker, Gods the knitter, and every person is an image bearer of God. So it's it definitely affects the pro life value that biblical Christians have. Yeah,
  
  Nathan Thiry 17:41
  you see, if you see an example of the personhood of the child before they're viable in the mother's womb with Elizabeth and Mary, when Mary comes up as Elizabeth and the baby inside Elizabeth's womb, John the Baptist leaps joy or he's, he's somehow excited because he knows that the mother of a Savior has come. There's a little story example, anecdotal example of how there's personhood, yes, that's the gun way before a child was viable. Let's
  
  Dan Jarms 18:06
  bring the Gospel to bear on this, Nathan, because this is vital to what's happened, we don't see the full extent of dignity and image bearing right now. Because Adam and Eve went ahead and said, we're gonna make our own rules they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the one prohibition of that tree represented the ability to decide for oneself what was right and wrong, don't eat from that tree, they did. And they catapulted the whole human race into sin, corruption and decay. So not everybody acts dignified. Not everybody is a wholesome image bearer, so we're corrupt. And so therefore, we have corrupt desires, and there are judgments and difficulties, diseases, and so on. Talk about how the Good News of the Gospel comes to bear on our image bearing, and then what were to do with it. Now
  
  Nathan Thiry 18:59
  the gospel corrects all of this wrong thinking that thinking that my identity is based on what the culture says about me or how I feel that's coming from Adam and Eve rejecting God's direction of who they were, they wanted to find their own way. They wanted to choose their own way of thinking about who they were and their own source of wisdom. And so when we go back to the gospel, we are submitting to Christ and saying, what you say about me is what matters. I want to submit to your rule, your opinion, your purpose that you've given me and so it corrects that that wrong view of who I am, I realized my purpose is to be like Christ to be in the image of God. All these ways that our image bearing is corrupted, like for men being selfish or passive or domineering or abusive for women, maybe being autonomous or controlling or any other way that they're not being that ideal counterpart or that helper that God designed them to be we corrupt those things through self. So Christ corrects that he turns it all back towards faithful worship, service, faithful love faithful, sacrificing faithful, partnering with each other. As humans, to carry out God's purpose, and so the Great Commission, because we stopped doing the Christian mandate, we stopped living as God's image bearers with that image was broken. It's a now Christ is making us like himself. So we can through being disciples of Jesus, we can become people in the image of God.
  
  Dan Jarms 20:15
  Yeah, we're, we're recording this resurrection week, you know, what we call often called Easter Week, or Holy Week. And at the crux of it, we have God Himself, taking on humanity, taking on flesh. And so to swing back to Mark 1045, that you quoted earlier, the Son of Man did not come, to be served, but to serve. So here we have Christ, taking on human flesh to serve or to work on our behalf. And He does that by giving up his life for us. And then at his resurrection, He gives us the example and by His resurrection power, he gives us new life. So there's something radical that goes on. When a person trust Christ, they are given a power by the Holy Spirit of God, to live out the new life, and then a commission, a great commission. So we can actually see the overthrow of the corruption. I think the Apostle Paul says, you know, we see our outward body wasting away, Second Corinthians four and five, we see our outward body wasting away, but inwardly we are being renewed day by day. So there is a renewal happening, that we can control these bodies with remaining Senate. And we can now live according to that image, and then there's a great day coming. Yeah,
  
  Nathan Thiry 21:36
  he said to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth with his image. And now we see God has made nations, tongues, languages, peoples, and Jesus is making of all those tongues, Nations peoples, a kingdom and priests to get himself into, to our God. And so that's, that's our hope, from Revelation five, nine and 10. That what Jesus commissioned us to do in Matthew 28, to make disciples of all nations, that's that's happening. God's image is spreading throughout the whole earth throughout every people group. And it's exciting to get to be part of that and to see God's Kingdom spreading. If you want
  
  Dan Jarms 22:05
  to see the most powerful illustrations of that attend a local church, with people who have surrendered their life to Jesus Christ, who have trusted Him as Lord and Savior asked him for forgiveness, they are changed people. They're not perfect people yet, because we're all being renewed. Christians hurt each other two, but there is transformation that's going on. And this image is being more and more visibly seen. In the end when there is a resurrection body and sometimes I like to call it a resurrected creation. There's a new creation where it's been given new life. There again, we will all operate, having been fruitful and multiplied. You know, there will be plenty of people in the new heavens and the new earth now representing and perfectly imaging God back and worshiping Him and serving Him. So it's a glorious hope,
  
  Nathan Thiry 23:01
  man. Thanks, Nathan. Thanks, Dan.

Dan Jarms

Dr. Dan Jarms is teaching pastor and team leader at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at TMS Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, gardening, brick oven cooking.

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Nathan Thiry

Nathan Thiry is the Growth Groups & Outreach Pastor at Faith Bible Church. He enjoys biking and outdoor activities, and has a passion to see the gospel spread throughout our community and the whole world!

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