God restores His image and likeness

The only way for God to do this is to overturn what man has done to the image and likeness, how we treat each other. That is why Jesus says in today’s Gospel reading: But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return…(Luke 6:31-36)

Are his teachings impossible to do? Yes, because they are foreign to how humanity has learned to do from our existence in the world. But Paul tells us today (2 Corinthians 6:16-7:1), “Come out from them!” Come out. Come out from the darkness into the light of God’s creation, what God created you to be. And he told us what he created us to be: in his image and likeness! Throughout humanity’s existence we have polluted that image and likeness. So what is God to do? Does he abandon us to our devices? Does an artist tolerate his work to be defaced? We are his artwork, we do not belong to any other artist than God! We are his reflection, made in his image and likeness. So he comes to rescue his image. And Paul quotes Leviticus. That’s right, Leviticus, the most ignored book of the Bible, because it is so boring so full of rules and punishments that are not our concern. And yet, this much maligned book of the OT contains some of the most powerful statements in the Bible: Be holy, for I am holy – that’s in Leviticus. And the words Paul quotes. Brethren, you are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will live in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” 

Only the second part is from Leviticus. Paul has added God saying “I will live in them” because Paul is saying to his readers in Corinth that they are the temple of the living God! Paul has experienced the indwelling of God, and Paul knows that God has indeed walked among us, as Jesus Christ, the incarnate Logos. But Paul continues with more words from the OT: Therefore, “come out from them, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch nothing unclean; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” And he concludes: Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, and make holiness perfect in the fear of God. ἐπιτελοῦντες ἁγιωσύνην ἐν φόβῳ θεοῦ – attaining (completing) holiness in fear of God is a better translation.

“Come out from them” is Paul’s admonition that enables us to hear the tough things of Jesus. Only by coming out of the world’s clutches can we love our enemies, can we do good and lend without expecting anything in return – “you will be sons and daughters of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” God is kind to the ungrateful and to the selfish. So must we be, if we are in his image and likeness. And Jesus caps this with, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” Γίνεσθε οὖν οἰκτίρμονες, καθὼς καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν οἰκτίρμων ἐστί.

Beautiful word, οἰκτίρμων (oiktirmōn)- merciful, compassionate. Related to another Greek word (not in the NT) οἶκτος – pity, compassion, but also lamentation, piteous wailing. You’ll find the word οἰκτίρμων more frequently in the Septuagint than in the NT. For example, in Psalm 102 in the Septuagint (Psalm 103 in the Hebrew numbering adopted by most English translations of the Bible):

Psalm 102 (LXX)
οἰκτίρμων καὶ ἐλεήμων ὁ κύριος, μακρόθυμος καὶ πολυέλεος, 
οὐκ εἰς τέλος ὀργισθήσεται οὐδὲ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα μηνιεῖ, 
οὐ κατὰ τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν ἐποίησεν ἡμῖν 
οὐδὲ κατὰ τὰς ἀνομίας ἡμῶν ἀνταπέδωκεν ἡμῖν
ὅτι κατὰ τὸ ὕψος τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς 
ἐκραταίωσεν κύριος τὸ ἔλεος αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τοὺς φοβουμένους αὐτόν,
καθʼ ὅσον ἀπέχουσιν ἀνατολαὶ ἀπὸ δυσμῶν, 
ἐμάκρυνεν ἀφʼ ἡμῶν τὰς ἀνομίας ἡμῶν. 
καθὼς οἰκτίρει πατὴρ υἱούς,
οἰκτίρησεν κύριος τοὺς φοβουμένους αὐτόν, 
ὅτι αὐτὸς ἔγνω τὸ πλάσμα ἡμῶν, μνήσθητι ὅτι χοῦς ἐσμεν

Compassionate and merciful is the Lord, 
slow to anger and abounding in mercy. 
He will not be totally angry, 
nor will he keep his wrath forever. 
Not according to our sins did he deal with us, 
nor according to our acts of lawlessness did he repay us, 
because, as the sky is high above the earth, 
he strengthened his mercy toward those who fear him; 
as far as east is from west, 
he has removed from us our acts of lawlessness. 
As a father has compassion for sons, 
the Lord has had compassion for those who fear him, 
because he knew our makeup. 
Remember that we are dust! 

In the Hebrew, this is Psalm 103. Here is how the RSV translation puts the highlighted verses in the quotes from the Septuagint above.
⁸ The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. 
¹³ As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him. 
¹⁴ For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. 

The Hebrew and the Greek Septuagint pretty much agree, with some small grammatical differences. But the biggest difference is at verse 14, which ends in the Greek as “Remember that we are dust!” But in the Hebrew, “he remembers that we are dust” – meaning God remembers. I like the Greek version, because it tells me to remember that I am dust! And that is why I need Jesus. And that is why I need to be restored to something more than dust. God created Adam from the dust, from the earth, but then blew into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being. Only with the breath of God, which means the Holy Spirit, did that lump of earth become the image and likeness of God. There is so much mystical meaning in those first two chapters of Genesis, the first two chapters of the Bible, that I would need two or three long sermons to do them justice.

In the OT there were three primary offices: Priest, King and Prophet. These three offices were what God had to work with in moulding a people for himself. In fulfilling all that came before him, Jesus fulfilled these three offices. He became King, Priest and Prophet.

Prophet? A prophet is not just someone who foretells the future, he is someone who interprets the present! He is someone who reveals the will of God in the present situation! Jesus did that, repeatedly.

King? But not of any kingdom on this earth. He is King of another kingdom, a heavenly kingdom.

Priest? Yes, priest. Hebrews calls him our great high priest. Listen to how the Orthodox priest prays before the Great Entrance: You, as the Master of all, became our high priest and delivered unto us the sacred service of this liturgical sacrifice without the shedding of blood. Indeed, Lord our God, You alone reign over the things of heaven and of earth; borne aloft on the throne of the Cherubim, Lord of the Seraphim and King of Israel. You alone are holy and resting among your saints….For you, Christ our God, are the Offerer and the Offered, the One who receives and is distributed…

We, together, priest and congregation, enter into the priestly service of the Lord Jesus Christ, when the earthly priest raises the Bread and Wine and the people kneel: Τα σα εκ των σων – Your own of your own we offer to you in all and for all. It’s ‘we’ not ‘I’. We are entering the holy place where the image and likeness is restored, where God the Father looks at us and sees his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

A Christian is not a person who pays his taxes, obeys the laws, works at an honest job and raises a family. Those are things that every Christian should do, as worthy member of society. But that is not why Jesus came to earth. That is not the image and likeness he came to restore. Jesus came to restore the image and likeness, and he does that by making me a king and priest and prophet of God. He came to make you kings and priests and prophets of God. And that’s the only way you can be οἰκτίρμονες, as your Father, our Father, is οἰκτίρμων. Be a good citizen, but don’t settle just for that. Be priest, king and prophet.