Imago Dei Series
Message for the Hillsdale Free Methodist Church
May 3rd, 2026
Message Text: Romans 5:12-19
“Humanity and Sin”
Service Orientation: God made mankind perfect. But, man chose to sin and disobeyed God. Ever since man has been corrupt and perverted. Man’s inner struggle between what he was created to be and what he currently is constantly haunts mankind’s present experience.
The Word for the Day: Depraved
Memory Verse: . . . for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. — Romans 3:23
Good News becomes Great News in proportion to the potential Bad News.
What must we learn about man’s damaged Imago Dei?:
I- At creation man was perfect. After the Fall he is evil. (Gn 1:26-31; 2:7-25; 6:5; 8:21; Job 15:14-16; Ps 5:9; 14:2-3; 51:1-3; 94:11; 130:3; Prv 20:6, 9; Eccl 7:20; 9:3; Isa 53:6; 64:6; Jer 17:9; Jn 3:19; Rom 1:18-32; 3:9-23; 5:12-14; 1 Cor 2:14; 1 Jn 1:8-10; 2:16)
Sin affects every part of our being. It corrupts the desires of our hearts so that we do not want the things we should; since our desires form our will, we choose to do the wrong rather than the right; our corrupted hearts also blind our reason so that we refuse to see what is plain to us about God and the moral order (Rom 1:18-32) and lead us to use our creativity to devise ways to do evil. (Glen Sunshine, The Image of God, 76)
There cannot be a clearer proof that man is a fallen creature, than the fact that he can love sin and take pleasure in it. (J. C. Ryle, Expository thoughts on John, Vol. 2, 152)
Apart from the doctrine of the Fall, there is no explanation for the course of human history. If the first three chapters of Genesis were destroyed, the facts of history would demand that they be rewritten to account for all that has followed since the day when man turned away from God and lost the image in which he was created. Our text stands secure: By one man sin entered. (Donald Grey Barnhouse, God’s Grace, 29)
I cannot pray, except I sin; I cannot preach, but I sin; I cannot administer, nor receive the holy sacraments, but I sin. My very repentance needs to be repented of; and the tears I shed need washing in the blood of Christ. (William Beveridge as quoted by Kent Hughes; Preaching the Word Series, John: That You May Believe, 51)
II- Sin destroys shalom. (Gn 3:7-24; Ps 141:10; Prv 1:31; 8:36; Isa 3:11; 57:21; 59:1-2; 64:7; Jer 5:25; Hos 8:7; Mic 3:4; 7:13; Mk 7:21-23; Rom 5:12-21; 8:7; 1 Cor 6:9-11; Gal 5:19-21; 6:7-8; Jam 1:15)
Sin is the servant who goes ahead to prepare the way for death. When through one man sin came into the world, the result was that Death came into control. Sin is “the sting of death” (1 Cor 15:56). It is the tool and weapon by which death has brought humanity into its power. Through sin death got the human race into its grip, and is now its real master. Death has ascended the throne in this world; and now, with sovereign authority, it uses its power with terrifying effects. (Anders Nygren, Commentary on Romans, 216)
Sin is disruption of created harmony and then resistance to divine restoration of that harmony. Above all, sin disrupts and resists the vital human relation to God, and it does all this disrupting and resisting in a number of intertwined ways. (Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be, 5)
We must realize that whenever we dabble with evil in the slightest way, our love is spoiled. If we fudge truth just a little in talking to a friend, the relationship is marred. The community is made unclean by the slightest bit of gossip. The smallest trace of games, pretensions, or manipulations in our care for others makes our love less than whole or holy. We want to hate with a perfect hatred all those little jabs that puncture our love. (Marva J. Dawn, Truly the Community: Romans 12, 151)
The truth is that evil is not a real thing at all, like God. It is simply good spoiled. That is why I say there can be good without evil, but no evil without good. You know what the biologists mean by a parasite—an animal that lives on another animal. Evil is a parasite. It is there only because good is there for it to spoil and confuse. (C. S. Lewis; The Quotable C. S. Lewis, 265)
Truth exists on its own. It just is. But a lie cannot exist without truth. A lie is a twisting of the truth and so it can only exist by the truth, and in the denial of it. So too life exists without death. But death cannot exist without life. Death only exists as the negation of life. And good can exist without evil. But evil cannot exist without good. Evil is the denial of the good. (Jonathan Cahn, The Book of Mysteries, Day 91)
III- Only the Triune God can overcome the evil in mans’ heart so mankind can return to what he was created to be: Imago Dei. (Rom 8:29; 1 Cor 15:43-53; 2 Cor 3:18; Phil 3:21; Col 3:10; 1 Jn 3:2; Rv 21:5)
Apart from God’s saving work in Christ, man is doomed to futility. He can never be true man. His frantic search for autonomous humanity can end only in the denial of humanity. As man has been irrevocably set in the context of this world, so life in this world has been irrevocably set in the context of life in the world to come. Anthropology can never be divorced from eschatology because it can never be divorced from Christology. If man tried to set up an independent anthropology, the fact that God has become man in Christ, and invaded this sphere, has negated this attempt once and for all. The fulfillment of humanity does not lie in fallen Adam, but exclusively in the Second Adam, the Lord from heaven. It is the life of the new man in Him. (Geoffrey W. Bromiley, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol 1, 135-6)
As we meet with Christ and experience His glory, we are transformed into His image. The Bible says that we start out with a lack of understanding of the Old Testament, due to hard hearts (Lk 24:25; 2 Cor 4:4). This lack is like a veil over our hearts, keeping us from seeing it correctly (2 Cor 3:14-15). When we turn to the Lord, the Holy Spirit works in us and the veil over our hearts is removed (2 Cor 3:16-17). Then we see the true glory of Christ. “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Cor 3:18). (Vern Poythress, Ph.D., The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses, 6)
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)
Worship Point: Worship the God of the universe Who in His great mercy, patience, love and grace has sent Christ to save us from ourselves and provided us the resources to be transformed into the likeness and image of Jesus. (Ps ch 94; Jn 3:16; ; Rom chpts 5-6; 8:29-30; ; 1 Cor 15:42-49; 2 Cor 3:18; 5:21; Phil 3:21; 2 Thess 3:1-3; 2 Pt 1:3-4; 1 Jn 3:2)
Christ is the true image of God (2 Cor 4:4; Col 1:15) and we are even now “being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor 3:18). Christ is in us as the hope of glory (Col 1:27). Ultimately, redeemed man shall be conformed to this image (Rom 8:29). They shall be like Him (1 Jn 3:2) and be satisfied with beholding His form (Ps 17:15). Our bodies shall be like His glorious body (Phil 3:21). We shall have a new eschatological body (1 Cor 15:42f.). The Christian, having had the glory restored to him, will become what he was originally intended to be. The wise shall shine (Dan 12:3). He shall share a glorious inheritance (Eph 1:18). The riches of God’s glory will be shown in us (Rom 9:23). Christ will be glorified in His saints (2 Thess 1:10). Crowns shall be given at that day (2 Tm 4:8; cf. 1 Pt 5:4). We shall “appear with him in glory” (Col 3:4). The word that sums up the final state of the believer is “glorification.” (Merrill C. Tenney, The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vol. Two, 735)
If we set our desires on anything other than the true God, we will become like that thing. Desire that is focused on the right object–the one true God–enables and grows a human being. Desire set on the wrong thing corrupts and debases us.
If we worship money, in other words, we’ll become a greedy person.
If we worship sex, we’ll become a lustful person.
If we worship power, we’ll become a corrupt person.
If we worship accomplishment, we’ll become a restless, frantic person.
If we worship love and acceptance, we’ll become a slave to others.
If we worship external beauty, we’ll become shallow.
And worshiping anything other than the true God will make us something other than what he created us to be. (Pete Wilson, Empty Promises, 158)
Gospel Application: Because of the life of Jesus and the work of Christ on the cross; sinners can better understand what a TRUE Imago Dei looks like; as well as (if we invited Jesus into our lives) be transformed into that image through imputation. (Eccl 3:22b; Jer 31:31-34; Ezek 11:19-20; 36:24-28; Jn 3:1-21; 6:28-29; 8:36; Rom 6:23; 7:1-9; 8:1-17, 28-30; 1 Cor 15:21-22, 48-49; 2 Cor 3:7-14; 5:17; 2 Cor 5:21; Gal 3:1-29; 5:18-25; Eph 1:15-22; 4:17-32; Col 1:15-23; 2:6-15; ch 3 (3:10); 2 Tm 1:10; Heb 1:1-3; 8:4-13; 10:1-17; 1 Pt 1:23; 1 Jn 2:29; 3:2, 9; 4:7; 5:1-5, 18)
The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God. (C. S. Lewis; Mere Christianity, 154)
The full measure of our creation in the image of God is not seen in the life of Adam who sinned, nor is it seen in our lives now, for we are imperfect. But the NT emphasizes that God’s purpose in creating man in his image was completely realized in the person of Jesus Christ. He himself “is the image of God” (2 Cor 4:4 NASB); “He is the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15). In Jesus we see human likeness to God as it was intended to be, and it should cause us to rejoice that God has predestined us “to be conformed to the image of his son” (Rom 8:29; cf. 1 Cor 15:49): “when he appears we shall be like him” (1 Jn 3:2). (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, 445)
As the God-Man, Christ is the prototype of the new, redeemed humanity. The Christian is the person who in repentance and faith, by the Holy Spirit, is identified with the Christ who died and rose again for him. He is dead, and the life he now lives is that of Christ in him (Gal 2:20). He is a new creature (or creation); the old things have passed and new things have come (2 Cor 5:17). This redemption has an ethical implication. He is born again in Christ, and hence the whole movement of his life is to be one of being made conformable to Christ. Every thought is to be brought captive to Christ’s obedience (2 Cor 10:5). The mind of Christ is to be his mind (Phil 2:5). As the mind is renewed, so conduct should be transformed. The old man is to be put off with his wicked works, the new man put on, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness (Eph 4:22ff.; Col 3:9ff.). The process of the Christian life is that of the fashioning of the image of Christ in His people. But there is also an eschatological implication. As Paul says in 1 Cor 15:49, at the last day we shall finally bear the image of the heavenly. The Lord Jesus “will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body” (Phil 3:21). “We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 Jn 3:2). The original purpose of God, that man be created in His own image and after His likeness, will thus be brought to perfect and glorious fulfillment in the new creation, when the redeemed people of God bear the image of their Lord and Head, who bore the image of sinful man for them, and who is Himself the express image of God. (Geoffrey W. Bromiley, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol 2, 805)
Spiritual Challenge: Look for evidence of the sinful nature in your own life and pray that God will show you the resources you need (including discipline) to overcome that sinful nature and become more and more conformed into the image of Christ: The TRUE Imago Dei. {aka: God’s Word and Spirt: reproof, correction, rebuke, discipline} (Prv 3:11-12; 5:23; 9:7-8; 10:17; 12:1; 13:1, 18, 24; 15:5, 10, 31-32; 17:10; 19:25; 22:15; 25:12; 27:5-6; 28:23; 29:1; Jer 31:33; Ezek 36:25-27; Jn 16:13; Rom 6:1-4; chpts 7 & 8; 2 Cor 5:17; Gal 4:19; 6:15; Phil 3:21; 2 Tm 3:16-17; Heb 12:1-11; 1 Jn 3:2) (1 Thess 5:18) Discipline (Hardship) (Heb 12:4-12; see also: Ps 89:30-34; Prv 5:22-23; 10:17; 12:1; 13:18, 24; 15:5; 22:15; 23:13-14; 29:15; Rom 5:1-5; 8:18-25; 2 Cor 4:7-5:10; 12:7-10; 2 Thess 1:4-7; 2 Tm 2:3-4; Jam 1:2-4; 1 Pt 1:3-9; 4:12-14)
It is not simply a book of religious ideas or good moral advice; it is the very Word of God. It “is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” “Doctrine” tells us what is right; “reproof” tells us what is not right; “correction” tells us how to get right; and “instruction” tells us how to stay right. (John C. Maxwell, The Preacher’s Commentary, Dt, 296)
God loves you just the way you are and far too much to allow you to stay there. — Buddy Green
In times of affliction, says the author, keep in mind that all your setbacks come from God; he is training you in godliness and has accepted you as sons. The adversities you encounter are blessings in disguise, for behind your difficulties stands a loving Father who is giving you what is best. God’s children, then, must always look beyond their trials and realize that God himself is at work in their lives. (William Hendriksen & Simon J. Kistemaker, NT Commentary: Hebrews, 376)
So What?: A failure to understand the sinful nature in every single one of us is a failure to understand the battle that every one of us should be engaged in to move us to who and what we were created to be: the Imago Dei. (See discipline verses in Spiritual Challenge ; Psa 51; Isa 26:3)
Our sense of sin is in proportion to our nearness to God. — Bernard of Clairvaux
There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous. (Blaise Pascal in Pensées as quoted by George H. Guthrie, The NIV Application Commentary: Hebrews, 317)
Christian living, therefore, must be founded upon self-abhorrence and self-distrust because of indwelling sin’s presence and power. Self-confidence and self-satisfaction argue self-ignorance. The only healthy Christian is the humble, broken-hearted Christian. (J. I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness, 196)
“The right direction leads not only to peace but to knowledge. When a man is getting better, he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right. This is common sense, really. You understand sleep when you are awake, not while you are sleeping…You can understand the nature of drunkenness when you are sober, not when you are drunk. Good people know about both good and evil: bad people do not know about either.” (C. S. Lewis; The Quotable C. S. Lewis page 268 # 622)