Imago Dei Series
Message for the Hillsdale Free Methodist Church
May 10th , 2026
Message Text: Romans 13:8-14
“Humanity and Law/Ethics”
Service Orientation: Because we are made in God’s likeness and image, and since the Law of God reflects God’s likeness and image; one cannot be truly, fully human apart from following God’s Law.
The Word for the Day: Law
Memory Verse: The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. —Psalm 19:7
We are living in a time of moral free fall. In fact, our times are more closely related to the time of the Judges in the Bible than they ever have been before in this nation. The Bible has been excluded from consideration in the discussion of what it means to be moral and the ethical flavor of the day is whatever is needed to protect my self-identity. In other words, in today’s ethical environment, laws must be passed and people’s behaviors must be restrained so I can be who and what my “inner self” says I am. (P K; Imago Dei., 222)
Why does the Imago Dei mandate the Divine law?:
I- Otherwise, mankind would default to anarchy or tyranny: survival of the fittest. (Dt 17:18-20; Jdg 17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25; 2 Kgs 11:12; 2 Chr 23:11; 1 Tm 1:5-10; Jam 2:12)
You cannot live in society without having definitions, laws, rules, and orders. The most primitive societies have found them to be essential; the most advanced forms of society have found them equally essential. A police force is as necessary in Great Britain today as it has ever been; the magistrates and the courts are as necessary as they have ever been. Why? Because you cannot leave questions of law and order to a man himself. When man is a law unto himself the result is nothing but anarchy and chaos. (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans, Exposition of Chapter 6, 234: red bold emphasis Pastor Keith)
Without a moral framework, society disintegrates into warring factions and isolated depraved individuals. The result is a replay of the violence, perversion, and anarchy described in the book of Judges, which at once diagnoses the moral collapse of ancient Palestine and precisely defines postmodernist ethical theory: “everyone did what was right in their own eyes” (Jdg 21:25 NKJV). (Gene Edward Veith; Postmodern Times, 198)
If we consider soberly what life will become like, were we to have a future of cumulative moral and social derestrictions comparable to those which have transformed life the last few decades, we can only foresee a return to the jungle. (Harry Blamires; Recovering the Christian Mind, 112)
- S. Lewis pointed out that even people who deny the existence of right and wrong react in ways that belie that belief when someone takes their seat on the bus or treats them unfairly.
Honest postmodernists themselves recognize the dilemma of advocating “justice” while denying that moral absolutes exist. (Gene Veith Jr.; Postmodern Times, 197)
We are in bondage to the law in order that we may be free. —Cicero.
The modern fable is that science exposed religion as a delusion and more or less supplanted it. But science cannot serve in the place of religion because it cannot generate an ethics or a morality. It can give us no reason to prefer a child to a dog, or to choose honorable poverty over fraudulent wealth. It can give us no grounds for preferring what is excellent to what is sensationalistic. And this is more or less where we are now. (Marilynne Robinson, The Death of Adam, 71)
II- Because humans are precious and merit protection. (Gn 2:24; 9:6; Ex 21:12-14; Lv 24:17; Nm 35:33; Dt 21:8-9; 32:47; Jam 3:9)
There are lots of Biblical Laws that are designed to show the value of a person. When one dies through murder, and it is not possible to determine the murderer, the people living in the city closest to the location to where the murdered body was discovered was to make atonement for the dead body. You were not to just count it as another murder and bury the body; but, you were to memorialize the loss of a valuable life through the killing of a heifer. A valuable sacrifice in that day just as it is today. — PK
This passage {Dt 21:8-9} shows us how important it is for a nation to deal adequately with crime. Crime dishonors a nation; it makes it guilty and unclean. To ignore it would be to degrade the nation, thus proclaiming that in this nation goodness is not good, important, and valued and that evil is not evil. An individual act of evil harms some people and as such is an act against the society. But the ignoring of an act of evil is a serious violation of what is good in a society. It says that justice is not important. It leaves the society filthy and vulnerable to serious aberrations of justice. So in a sense ignoring a crime may be more serious than the crime itself. (Ajith Fernando, Preaching the Word: Dt, 497)
If we were to think in purely scientific terms, there would be no need to establish and maintain ethical norms at all. If we are going to make science and ONLY science our guiding light, then there is no such thing as right or wrong; there is no need to determine right or wrong; nor is there any reason to care about what is right or wrong. (P K; Imago Dei, 229)
Gn 2:24 is the foundation for sexual ethics. Sexual activity is designed to unite a man and a woman together in a permanent bond. Even our biology points to this, as the hormonal response to sexual activity increases emotional attachment to your partner. This is one reason why sexual activity is restricted to marriage–the potential to cause devastating emotional damage to ourselves and each other is so great, it requires the protection of a permanent, committed, loving relationship. (Glen Sunshine, The Image of God, 31)
III- Because God’s Law is a revelation of God’s likeness and image innately evident in our hearts. Man needs Law to better understand intellectually who he is and who he is supposed to be made in the image of—God, Who is love. (Ps 19:7-14; ch 119; Eccl 3:11; Mt 7:12; 22:35-40; Rom 2:14-15; 13:8-10; Gal 5:14; Jam 2:8-12)
Love needs law for its direction, while law needs love for its inspiration. (John Stott, Romans, God’s Good News for the World, 350)
The two texts chosen by Jesus are together sufficiently strong to bear the weight of the whole OT. This does not mean, as some modern ethicists have argued, that “all you need is love,” so that one can dispense with the ethical rules set out in the Torah. It is rather to say that those rules find their true role in working out the practical implications of the love for God and neighbor on which they are based. Far from making the law irrelevant, therefore, love thus becomes “the primary hermeneutical principle for interpreting and applying the law.” (R.T. France, The New International Commentary on the NT: Matthew, 847) (red bold emphasis — Pastor Keith)
In the life of obedience, therefore, two things come together: man in the image of God, and the law in the image of God. In declaring his law, the Lord declares what he is; in obeying the law we are being fundamentally true to what we are. Because the law reflects his image, it is the true law of our true nature. In obedience we are living according to our revealed definition, we are ‘being ourselves’. The law of the Lord is the ‘Maker’s Handbook’ for the effectuation of a truly human existence and personal human fulfilment. (Alec Motyer, Look to the Rock, 77-78) (red bold emphasis — Pastor Keith)
The humanist is torn between contrary demands: while his radically secular theory renders supernatural claims ridiculous and irrelevant, his moral and ontological claims about man and society have no real basis in a naturalistic view but actually link man responsibly to God in his revelation. On a naturalistic basis he cannot consistently mount a persuasive case for ethical imperatives. What stimulates him to moral concern is the inescapable general revelation of God and the ineradicable imago Dei which, however sullied by sin, survives in man as the imperishable gift of the Creator. (Carl F. H. Henry; The Crisis of Modern Learning; Hillsdale College: The Christian Vision: Man in Society, 10)
Worship Point: Worship the God of the Universe Who gave us His Law so, by obeying it; we might be more conformed into His image and likeness. (Rom 8:29-30; 12:1-2; 1 Cor 15:43-53; 2 Cor 3:18; Phil 3:21)
No matter what one thinks about gay rights–for, against or somewhere in between–this conservative resort to biblical authority is the worst kind of fundamentalism . . . To argue that something is so because it is in the Bible is more than intellectually bankrupt–it is unserious, and unworthy of the great Judeo-Christian tradition. (Jon Meacham quoted by Family News from Dr. James Dobson, January 2009)
Whatever God gives to mankind, Israel or through Jesus, MUST BE in alignment with what it means to be in the image of God. The Law was written on their mind (Jer 31:31-34; Romans 1) but it was partially erased in the Fall. It will one day be restored. The Law that God is giving Israel is not trivial, it is Your life! Obey it or you go (into Exile – out of the Garden). The Image of God has to do with ethical and moral relationships. We need to live out the law in order to live consistent with the image of God. (red bold emphasis Pastor Keith)
Every thinking man, when he thinks, realizes that the teachings of the Bible are so interwoven and entwined with our whole civic and social life that it would be literally–I do not mean figuratively, but literally–impossible for us to figure what that loss would be if these teachings were removed. We would lose almost all the standards by which we now judge both public and private morals; all the standards towards which we, with more or less of resolution, strive to raise ourselves. (Theodore Roosevelt; Adrian Daily Telegram, 5/2/02)
God is after a certain quality of life. He wants us to live in the image of God. We are to be like God and live like Him. That is what the Law is all about and that is why we need to have the Law written in our minds and on our hearts (Jer 31:31-34) if we are to be like God and live up to the reason why we were created to begin with. . . . At Sinai – God was beginning to repair the Imago Dei in mankind. He was showing them what it was going to take for them to become more and more like God and thus conformed more and more into the likeness of himself for which they were originally created. It is in the Law that a true knowledge of God is presented. It is also the way that true love is explained. We need the Law of God in order for us to know what it means for us to be created, designed and now being conformed into the image of God. . . . Humankind is designed for obedience to what God reveals. (Alec Motyer, Look to the Rock, 74) (red bold emphasis — Pastor Keith)
Gospel Application: Jesus came to redeem our hearts so we would be compelled to repent and let God rule our lives. Jesus also is an example for us so we could see what an incredibly powerful and world changing life we could have if and when we submit to God and His Law. (Ps 19:7-14; ch 119; Rom 3:8-31; 7:7; Gal 3:24; 1 Tm 1:8-9; 2 Tm 3:14-17; Heb 4:12; ch 10; 1 Pt 2:21)
The Law is a moral mirror. A person looking into it sees himself as he really is in God’s eyes. Yet the Law can no more change a person than a face mirror can make a person clean. One can look in a mirror to see the dirt on his face, but he can’t wash his face with it. That’s not the mirror’s purpose. So it is with the Law. It reveals man’s sinfulness, but it cannot make him clean. (C. S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on Romans, 74)
The Law is a divinely sent Hercules to attack and kill the monster of self-righteousness and to show us every day just how desperate we need God’s grace. (Martin Luther as quoted by Tullian Tevidgjian; Life Without God – Pt 7)
If you are a follower of Christ, then you must have within you a deep desire to want to love and obey God’s Word because that is what drove Jesus. Constantly, Jesus refers to his actions as being what His father told him to do or Jesus does what he does so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. How can you say you follow Christ and contradict the very principle upon which his life was based . . . To fulfill the Scriptures. You cannot call yourself a Christian and do less than read, obey and love God’s Word. Otherwise, to call yourself a Christian and to live contrary to what we have just said, is to make a mockery of Jesus. (Tim Keller; message on Acts 3)
The Purpose of the Law of God for the New Testament Believer is: A reminder of our sinfulness and our need for continual repentance (Ps 119:11, 105; Isa 64:6; 66:1-2; Jer 17:9; Mt 3:2-11; 4:17; 5:3-48; Lk 5:32; 13:1-5; 15:7, 10; 24:47; Jn 7:19; Acts 2:38; 7:53; 17:30; 20:21; 26:20; Rom 3:9-31; 7:1-16; 8:1-7; 1 Cor 15:56; 2 Cor 3:1-7; Gal 3:24; 4:21; 5:3-4; Heb 4:12; Jam 1:25; 1 Jn 1:10; Rev chps 2 & 3) — PK
Why should we, like Jesus, care about the Law?: The Law reflects God’s heart and values. (Psa 19:7-14; ch 119; Mt 4:4; Jn 4:34; 17:17; 2 Tm 3:16-17; Heb 4:12)
Spiritual Challenge: God is Love. The Law or Scriptures reveal how to love. Without the Law man would be the measure of all things; including what it means to love. ( Mt 7:12; 22:35-40; Rom 13:8-10; Gal 5:14; Jam 2:8-12; 1 Jn 4:8, 16)
The extreme cruelty and ruthlessness of recent history suggest that when man makes himself, his bosses, his society, or his race the measure of all things, he becomes less human rather than more. The other side of the paradox is more hopeful. When man makes something outside himself the measure of all things–when his absolute is God–he becomes more human as a by-product. God lifts him into genuine humanity. (Chad Walsh, Early Christians of the 21st Century, 52)
If our hearts are hardened by sin, we will see God’s rules as confining prison cells. But if our hearts have been renewed by God’s grace, we will view the regulations of Scripture as wonderful guides to dignity. (Richard L. Pratt, Jr., Designed for Dignity, 107)
As Jesus said to the rich young ruler in Mt 19:17, “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.” If Jesus is right, then no one is good except God alone. If that is the case, and Jesus is right; then we are not only in need of laws; but, we should not expect good laws to originate from the heart and mind of those who are by nature corrupt, evil, sinful and perverted. (P K; Imago.Dei., 225)
So What?: If we fail to look to God for our moral standards, then we are left allowing whoever can garner the most power to dictate what is and what is not morally acceptable.
What is the basis for law if there is no absolute truth? The basis is whoever has the majority–rule by the 51 percent. Oliver Wendell Holmes once said that “law is the majority vote of that nation that could lick all others.” Pure pragmatism.
The inevitable result is tyranny, drawn into the vacuum of moral chaos. If authority cannot be established among people by their shared assumptions, by their agreement about the meaning of life, then it will be imposed on them from the top. As William Penn said, “If we are not governed by God, we will be governed by tyrants.”
When truth retreats, tyranny advances. (Charles Colson, A Dangerous Grace, 292)
Either we are rational spirit obliged for ever to obey the absolute values of the Tao, or else we are mere nature to be kneaded and cut into new shapes for the pleasures of masters who must, by hypothesis, have no motive but their own “natural” impulses. Only the Tao provides a common human law of action which can overarch rulers and ruled alike. A dogmatic belief in objective value is necessary to the very idea of a rule which is not tyranny or an obedience which is not slavery. (C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man, 84-5)
“If God does not exist, everything is permissible.” (Dostoevsky; The Brothers Karamazov)
That we put values, principles and ideals above our very being is what places us above animals. —Dr. Laura Schlessinger
If people are not governed by internal values, they must be governed by external force. Take away the Bibles that direct a nation’s soul, and the government will bring out the bayonets. (Charles Colson, A Dangerous Grace, 194)
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will always find a way around law. (Plato quoted by Philip K. Howard; The Death of Common Sense, 99)
When Mores are sufficient—Laws are unnecessary. When Mores are insufficient—Laws are unenforceable. — Emil Durkheim
The level of politics can be little higher than the level of the morality and sense of responsibility of the people. —Adlai E. Stevenson