RELATIONSHIP ROAD TRIP
BUCKLE UP
DR. JIM DIXON
SEPTEMBER 16, 2007
GENESIS 1:26-27
Today, we begin a new series on relationships: “Relationship Road Trip.” Life is really like a journey. Life is a road trip, and it’s all about relationships. Today, we’re going to buckle up. We’re going to have an introduction to this series to get us ready for the trip.
We all can relate to traveling as a family across country, maybe to some exciting destination like Wally World, and just looking forward to getting there and having time with the family. I know Barb and I have taken our kids on a number of family vacations. Growing up with my brothers, we went with my mom and dad on a lot of family vacations. I remember many vacations, particularly when we traveled from California to Missouri where my mom had grown up on the farm. All of her relatives were there. We would go and spend a few weeks on the farm.
I remember how we’d all pile into the car at our house in California. My dad would always start the trip with a prayer, which was very strategic given the way my dad drove. We’d head out, and it was always summertime. It was always really hot, and there was no air conditioning back then. My dad always said he had 460 air conditioning—60 miles an hour and 4 windows. Dad would really try to make it fun. He would stop at a lot of Dairy Kings along the way. Now they’re mostly Dairy Queens, I guess; but back then, they were Dairy Kings. Obviously this was a long time ago.
Dad tried to make it fun. He really did. We would count gas stations. We would kind of divide them up. Somebody would have Texaco and Conoco, somebody would have Gulf and Phillips 66, somebody would have Standard and Chevron, etc. We would divide them up, and then there would be a contest as we drove across the country. Every time we came to a town or city or even a road stand along the way, we were just excited to see what gas station it would be and who would be able to get the point. At the end we’d add it all up.
Along the open road we’d count diesels, 18-wheelers. My dad taught us to recognize and distinguish them. We would distinguish between Peterbilts, White Freightliners, Mac trucks, Internationals, Kenworths, etc. We divided all those up, and again did that contest thing. But really, what it was mostly about was relationships. Every family vacation was really about relationships and getting to know other people in your family better. It was about laughing together, maybe fighting a little bit together, getting closer to your siblings and to your parents as well. It’s kind of a microcosm of life.
Life is a journey. Life is a road trip, and life is all about relationships. So today, we buckle up and begin this journey where we look at the relationships of life and what the Bible has to say to us. What I would like to do today as we begin this journey is to just discuss a few basic points in biblical theology relating to relationships.
You might be thinking, “I don’t like theology.” You might be thinking, “I have no interest in theology. It bores me.” But that’s really not true. Everyone in this room is a theologian. Theology simply means “to study God.” Whenever you think about God, if you’ve ever thought about God, that’s doing theology. We all do theology. We want to see what the Bible has to say about the theology of relationships as we begin this journey.
I have four very simple teachings, and the first deals with relationships and the nature of God. What is the nature of God with regard to relationships? Theologians say a great deal about the nature of God. They tell us that God is omniscient, that God is omnipotent, that God is omnipresent. They tell us that God is just, and they tell us that God is holy. All of these are attributes of God. All of these are parts and pieces of the nature of God; but it is also true that God is relational, and the Bible makes that very clear. God is a relational entity. So, we have Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The word for “God” is “Elohim.” It’s a Hebrew word for God, and it’s in the plural form. “Elohim,” plural, “created the heavens and the earth.” What’s that about? Why is God’s name in the plural? Why is it “Elohim?”
In Genesis 1:26, God says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” Again, it’s in the plural. “Let us . . . after our image, after our likeness.” Plural. Why? Why is it in the plural? Theologians have different perspectives. Some theologians think that it’s simply a figure of speech. It’s kind of like the “royal we.” It’s like when a king says, “I decree,” but he doesn’t want to sound too arrogant so he says, “We decree.” It’s the plurality of royalty or the plurality of deity. It’s just a figure of speech. It doesn’t mean much of anything. Some theologians think that.
Other theologians say, “No, this is God including the angelic hosts. So, God is saying, “Let us” and “our image” because He’s including the realm of the angels. The Hebrew word for God is in the plural, “Elohim,” because God is including the angels. It is true, biblically, that God made the angels. He created and crafted them prior to forming the galactic systems.
However, there’s another view commonly held by theologians today; and this other view is that it’s all about the Trinity. The idea here is that “Elohim” is plural because of the Godhead. God in His fullness—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—created the heavens and the earth. In Genesis 1:26, when God said, “Let us make man in our image after our likeness,” it is a reference to the Trinity.
In a sense, it really doesn’t matter how you interpret Genesis 1 with regard to the plurality of words. The Bible is clear that God is relational and that there’s intimacy in the Godhead. In John 17, you see the high priestly prayer of Jesus Christ. How does Jesus pray? He says, “Father, I have glorified Thy name on earth, having accomplished the work which You gave Me to do. And now, Holy Father, glorify Thou Me in Thy own presence with the glory that I shared with You before the foundation of the world.” Isn’t that an amazing prayer? Go back and read John 17. Take a look at the high priestly prayer of Christ. I couldn’t pray like that. You couldn’t pray like that. We’d be crazy to pray like that. But Jesus is Immanuel. He is “God With Us.” He shared glory with the Father before the worlds were ever made.
In that high priestly prayer in John 17, Jesus references the love which He shared with the Father before the foundation of the earth. God is relational even within Himself—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus describes their relationship as one, a union of three persons in one nature. God is relational. That’s the first simple point of biblical theology. God is a relational entity. God is a relational being.
The second point has to do with relationships as they relate to the nature of man. What about the nature of man? What is the nature of man? Genesis 1:26 tells us that God chose to make man in His image, in His likeness. “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.” So, this is our nature: to be made in the image and the likeness of God. The Hebrew word for “image” is “tselem.” The Hebrew word for “likeness” is “demuth.” Sometimes Bible scholars and theologians debate. Are these words interchangeable? Are they synonymous, or are they distinctive? The answer is, we don’t know. Sometimes we can look at these two Hebrew words, and we can see that they’re used in an interchangeable way. They kind of have a synonymous meaning. Other times, they seem to be used in a distinctive way. We don’t know. It’s probable that these are synonymous parallelisms, and they’re simply ways of reinforcing the fact that God has crafted us to be like Himself. He’s made us in His image and His likeness.
What’s the meaning of the image? What is the image of God? What does it mean to say that you and I are made in the image of God? What is the “imago dei?” What is the image of God? Well, the primitive view is that it has to do with physicality—that God looks like us and we look like God. That’s the primitive view. It was held by a few of the ancients, and it is still held by a few people today. They think that God must look like us. He must have two legs, two arms, two eyes, two ears, a nose, and a mouth. Of course, the Bible absolutely refutes that. The Bible tells us that the “imago dei” has nothing to do with physicality. The Bible says God is spirit. God is a spiritual being, a spiritual entity. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” He transcends the time-space continuum. He stands distinct from this physical creation. The image of God, the “imago dei,” does not have to do with physicality.
Some theologians have said, “Well, maybe the image of God has to do with dominion.” And it probably does. God has dominion. God is omnipotent. God is enthroned in glory. He is the Ancient of Days. God has power and authority over all things. He is omnipotent, and He has made us in His image. So, we have Genesis 1:26, “Let us make man in our image and in our likeness; and let them have dominion . . .” God has given us dominion over the earth. He decided to share His dominion on earth with us. And so, the image of God, the “image dei,” may have something to do with dominion.
Of course, there’s no denying that we have abused our dominion, have we not? God has given us dominion, and we have abused it. Someday, our stewardship will be judged. We’ll have to give an account. So, when you read about Michael Vick, and you read about the dog fighting operation that he ran—how he trained and bred dogs for violence, to hurt and maim and kill each other—and you read about how he kind of got off on that . . . you should know this: that has to do with the abuse of dominion because God has given us dominion over the animals. You don’t have to be a member of PETA to recognize something’s wrong here. This is an abusive dominion.
You look at the earth, and there are lots of controversies with regard to the environment. But one thing is sure: the rain forests are diminishing on the earth. They are important with regard to mankind and medicinal provisions, but they’re diminishing. Some of this has to do with the abuse of dominion. We should always look at the stewardship of our dominion. It’s part of the “imago dei.” It’s part of the image of God, and we are privileged to have dominion on the earth.
Some theologians say, “Well, the image of God has to do with morality, or the image of God has to do with rationality.” God is a moral being, and God is a rational being. He has made us in His image and likeness, so we are moral and rational beings. There’s no doubt theologically that these things are true, and virtually all scholars would agree on that. Yes, part of the image of God is surely moral. Part of the image of God is surely rational. The intellectual faculties given to man, in some sense, reflect the nature of God.
But there’s another view, and it’s kind of growing in popularity today. The idea here is that the image of God is primarily relational. God is a relational being. He has created us in His image and likeness, which means we have a capacity for relational depth and relational complexity. This is part of the “image dei.”
Many of the early church fathers taught this, and it was popularized in the 20th century by the German theologian Karl Barth. Karl Barth was a controversial theologian. He wrote “Church Dogmatics,” which is considered a theological classic. It is controversial, though brilliant. Barth managed to offend the right and the left. Karl Barth managed to offend liberals and conservatives. He was the founder of Neo-Orthodoxy.
One wonderful moment in the life of Karl Barth was when newspaper reporters asked him to identify the greatest biblical and theological truth. “As a brilliant theologian, what do you think is the greatest biblical and theological truth?” Karl Barth, this highly educated theologian, thought for a second; and then he began to sing, “Jesus loves me this I know . . .” You’ve got to love a guy like that, right? You’ve got to love him. He popularized the view that the image of God, the “imago dei,” is bound up with relationships. God is relational. Therefore, we are relational. So, Genesis 1:26-27, “Let us make man in our image . . . and so God created man in His image, and in the image of God created He him. Male and female created He them.” Relational.
In Genesis 2:18, God says, “It is not good that man should be alone.” You see, God has made us social beings. He created and crafted us for relationships. So, these are the first two biblical and theological truths: God is, by nature, relational; and we are created in His image, which means that we are created for relationship. This is the purpose of God. We are created for relationship. If you want to just go somewhere and live the rest of your life in seclusion and isolation, that would grieve God. That’s not how He crafted us. It’s not how He made us. It’s not how we’re designed.
There’s a third basic teaching this morning as we buckle up for the journey. The third teaching has to do with the fall of man and its impact on our relationships. We are relational beings, but we are fallen. In Genesis 3, we read, “The serpent was more subtle than any other creature that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God say you may not eat of any of the trees of the garden?’ The woman replied, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but God said,’ ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden. Neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
“The serpent said, ‘Ye shall not die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you’ll be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and it was to be desired so as to make one wise, she took of its fruit and she ate. She also gave some to her husband, and he ate. At once their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked. The sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.”
“The man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. They sought to hide themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. The Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’ And he said, ‘I heard the sound of Thee in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself.’ God said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat of the fruit of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ The man said, ‘The woman that You gave to be with me, she gave me of its fruit and I did eat.’”
Do you see what’s happening in Genesis 3? It’s just brilliant. It doesn’t matter whether you view Genesis 1, 2, and 3 as historical narrative or whether you think there are parabolic elements. It’s all from God, and it’s profound. The Bible is telling us that we are created for relationship, crafted for relationship; but it’s all messed up now. It’s all messed up because of sin. So, relationships are messed up on the vertical level, and man seeks to hide himself from the presence of God. Man feels shame and the brokenness of relationship. It’s also messed up on the horizontal level. The man and his wife begin to play the blame game. It’s all messed up. This third point, in terms of basic doctrine and theology of relationships, is so critical. If you don’t know that the human race is messed up, there’s no chance to get healed. We’re very much messed up.
In the New Testament, James and John seek ascendancy over the other disciples. They actually ask Jesus to call down fire from heaven and destroy a city because they’re angry. Why? Why are they so angry? Why would they want to eradicate a community? Why do they want to ascend over other people? Because they’re messed up. You come to the book of Acts, and you see Paul, John Mark, Luke, and Barnabus. They can’t get along. They split up. They go separate ways . . . and why? Because they’re messed up. The human race is messed up. I’m also messed up, and you’re messed up. We’re all messed up.
Many years ago, I was in seminary, and I was in the doctoral program. I was kind of hoping to be a teacher or a professor at a college, a university, or maybe a seminary. Then I kind of decided on a whim to go to an interview with a local church. Pastors were being brought in by the placement office to interview students and graduate students. I didn’t think I’d ever want to work in a church, but I thought, “Maybe I’ll go to an interview or two.” So, I lined a couple up. (Some of you know this story; many of you don’t.)
I went to an interview that was set up in a particular room at our school of theology. I was given a sheet of paper telling me what room to go to. It gave me the name of the pastor who would be interviewing me and the name of the church. It was a church in Southern California, a PCUSA church, a Presbyterian church.
I didn’t really notice the name of the pastor. I wasn’t that interested; but as I approached the office, I was nervous as I went to meet with this guy. I knock on the door. He comes to the door. He shakes my hand and gives me his name, and I give him my name. But I’m not really listening, partly because I’m nervous and I’m not even sure I want to do this deal. So, I sit down with him, and he begins to talk to me. He asked me a lot of questions. He says, “I just want you to know, Jim, that if you come to Rancho Bernardo Presbyterian Church, you don’t have to be Billy Graham.” I smiled and nodded. I appreciated the fact that I didn’t need to be so great. Then he said, “And, you know, if you come to the Rancho Bernardo Church, you don’t need to be Oral Roberts.” Again, I smiled and knew that I was not an Oral Roberts. Then he said, “And, you know, if you come to this church, you don’t need to be a Burt Smith.”
I thought for a second. I thought, “You know, I’ve never heard of him.” I began to laugh out loud, and while laughing, I said, “Burt Smith? Who in the world is Burt Smith?” He became very red and kind of animated. His neck came out, he leaned back in his chair, and he said, “I’m Burt Smith!” Needless to say, I didn’t get the job. In the aftermath, I was just laughing at what an idiot I am, what a bozo! Really, I was inattentive and rude; he was perhaps a little sensitive, maybe a little prideful. I mean, who links himself with Billy Graham and Oral Roberts? The truth is that we were both messed up. That’s the truth. Every situation in life you get in, every relationship, you bring your mess to it. That’s really the truth of it.
I’ve been in the ministry for 34 years. I’ve done lots of counseling over those 34 years. I’ve had a lot of married couples come in. I’ve noticed, particularly, a lot of husbands who have this kind of problem where they can never be wrong. Occasionally, you’ll see a wife like that, a woman who has that problem of never being wrong. But it seems to me, at least, that more often in my experiences, it’s been husbands—men who just can’t be wrong. It hurts their marriage. It hurts their relationship because they can never be wrong. So, fights don’t go well, and arguments don’t end well. They wind up putting their wife down or implying that the wife is stupid. It just doesn’t work.
As I’ve worked with folks over the years, I’ve studied and tried to be helpful. I recognize the fact that most men who could never be wrong were raised by authoritarian dads. Their dads would not give approval or even love or affection unless their son was right. Their son had to do what was right. Their son had to say what was right. The son had to give the right answers. Their son had to be right in order to get love, affection, and approval. And so, the son just kind of carries that through life, associating approval, acceptance, and even love with being right. Of course, the problem is, and the irony is that when you always have to be right, you’re not very lovable. That’s the irony. When you always have to be right, you’re not very lovable. And it’s not only that. I mean, you’re really not very lovable even if you are always right. So, be wrong once in a while.
We’re messed up. You just realize this as you live life and go through relationships with folks. You see it in your own life and in the lives of others. We’re fallen. We’re sinners, and we’re desperately in need of mercy and grace. So, we need to take this journey together. We need to buckle up. These next seven weeks are really important. We’re going to take a look at what God has to say to us with regard to our relationships and life, about this journey we’re on together.
God is relational by nature. He has imparted the “imago dei,” so that we too are crafted for relationship. But we are fallen, and we are sinners. On the vertical and on the horizontal, our relationships are messed up.
There’s a fourth point in this biblical theology of relationships. It has to do with relationships and the Old and New Covenants. There’s a sense in which Genesis 1, 2, and 3 gives those first three messages: God is a relational being. We are created in the “imago dei,” so we are relational. We sin, and we’re fallen. You could argue that the whole rest of the Bible after Genesis 3 is redemptive. The whole rest of the Bible is about God’s plan to redeem man and God’s love for us. The Old Covenant is about God reaching out to redeem mankind. The New Covenant is all about God seeking to redeem us relationally on the vertical and on the horizontal levels.
In the Old Covenant, God appears to Moses at Mount Horeb and Mount Sinai. God gives the Ten Commandments, imparting His law to man. The first four commandments have to do with man’s relationship with God. The last six commandments have to do with man’s relationship with man, with how we treat our neighbor and how we relate to our families. It’s all meant to be redemptive. But as the New Testament points out, in a sense, the law just serves to remind us of how messed up we are. We can’t live up to the law. We can’t measure up to the standards of God; and so, while the law is given in love, it is also true that it reminds us constantly that we’re messed-up sinners who fall short.
We come to the New Testament, and we see God, in His love, sending His Son. Jesus comes, and He is the image of God. In 1 Corinthians and Colossians, you see the Greek word “eikon,” which is the Greek word for “image.” Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God. In Hebrews, you see the word “charakter,” from which we get the English word “character”; but in Greek, it means “impress.” We’re told that Jesus is the perfect impress of God’s nature. So, Jesus is everything we were meant to be, and He’s come to earth. He loves us. He’s come to redeem us and to die for us. He’s come to shed His blood for us in substitutionary atonement and to give us His grace and His mercy. Then, He comes to indwell us. As we embrace Him as Lord and Savior, He comes by His Holy Spirit and imparts His nature within us.
Now, there is this dichotomy. As followers of Jesus, we have the old nature and the new nature. They’re at war daily, but Jesus has come to help. He’s given us this new nature, and He’s given us a new example. Jesus provides an example unlike anything mankind has never had of how we are to relate to each other. Jesus said to His disciples, “You call Me Master and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Master and Lord, have washed your feet, how much more ought you to wash one another’s feet. I’ve given you an example that you might follow in My steps.” We have this example in Christ Jesus. Through the gospel, He calls us into a new community called the Church. “I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”
Jesus gives us a new nature. He makes us a new creation. He gives us a new power, the power of His indwelling Holy Spirit. He gives us a new example, and then He calls us into this new community. It’s all part of His redemptive plan, that we be less messed up this side of heaven and that we would begin to experience growth and sanctification.
When Mark talks to you about joining a small group during this seven-week series, remember it’s part of the redemptive plan that Jesus calls us into, this new community called the Church. We gather and share the mess as we grow. We need to learn what it means to forgive and love and give each other grace and mercy, as well as some accountability. When we do, good things happen.
So, buckle up! As we go on this road trip, we’re going to look at road signs. The first sign we’re going to deal with is the yield sign, what it means to yield in relationships—how it should and shouldn’t work. That will be next week. This is a journey that should change our lives. I hope and pray you’ll commit to this. Let’s pray together.