Protecting the Image of God

 
The recent decision by the Supreme Court is very disheartening because it nationally sanctions a relationship that corrupts the image of the God.  Although we cannot control the decision of the Court, we can control our response and use this time as an opportunity to re-examine our own walk to ensure that we are living a life that honors God following the walk of Jesus.   After all, homosexuality is just one sin found among the extensive lists of transgressions contained in Leviticus 18:1-30 and First Corinthians 6:9-10.  If believers had been more faithful to our own marriages over the past century, loving our wives and honoring our spouses, then the door might never have opened to the Supreme Court.  In some ways, the Supreme Court is only reflecting a generation of people discouraged by the heartache and disappointment of divided homes and broken marriages.  Yet, the word of God remains true, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 
 
Sexual sins are especially grievous to God, “Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body,” (1 Cor 6:19).  While other sins are often transgressions against our fellow man, sexual sins, including homosexuality, can be seen as a direct attack on the very image of the Creator because, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created him,” (Gen 1:27).  Not man singularly, but the union of man and woman in marriage represents a restoration of the original Adam created in the image of God.  “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.  So they are no longer two, but one flesh.  What therefore God has joined together, let man separate,” (Matt 19:5-6). 
 
Since the union of man and woman becomes a picture of the Creator, any deviation from this pattern is seen as a perversion to the very image of God.  For this reason, the Bible goes to great length in describing numerous types of prohibited sexual relationships (see Leviticus 18:1-30), all referred to as “abominations.”  The distortion of God’s image is seen as the gravest type of sin in scripture, whether the distortion occurs in the form of prohibited sexual relationships, the killing of a human being who has been created in the image of God, or the worshiping of an idol, such as the golden calf, formed to represent God.  The prohibitions given by the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 address these concerns to protect the image of God.
 
Marriage is a great "mystery", a gift from above to teach mankind truth about the Creator.  The Hebrew word for “joined” (Gen 2:24)(Matt 19:5) is “dabaq”, the same word used in scripture for “holding fast” to the LORD God, (Duet 30:20)(Heb 3:14).  Not only does marriage provide us with a picture of God, it teaches us the relationship the Creator desires with His creation.

Have a blessed holiday - Scott