Goodwill Doesn't Mean Divine Worth

Affirmation #2

As God’s image-bearers, all humans both display His divine worth, power, and attributes, and possess equal, objective worth before God, not varying based on incidental characteristics; such as ethnicity, age, size, means of conception, mental development, physical development, gender, potential, or contribution to society (Rom.1:19-20; Gen.1:27; 9:6; Matt. 18:6).

Again, in review, I want to answer the question raised by the booklet “How Can We Rescue Those Being Taken Away To Death?” by addressing first the idolatrous motivation to respond to a sinful problem, such as abortion, by cheapening the Word of God and exchanging it for lies. While I don’t want to discourage anyone from laboring to answer and respond to this question Biblically, I do want to raise concerns about the motivation and the practice that, from my perspective and Biblical convictions, bring reproach upon the Word and therefore bears no spiritual fruit to God because the response to abortion isn’t born out of a proper understanding of the Word of God (Jn.15:5; 1Pet.1:22-25). But in this post, we are looking closer at “affirmation” number two. As I labored in my previous post, I believe the point is clear that it is a presumption on our part to put “all humans” in the category of God’s image-bearers, which presume to display ‘divine worth, power, and attributes in equal and objective worth before God.’ So now I am laboring to look at this closer from both the perspectives of our use in reconciliation to God’s kingdom and in what was our separation from that kingdom under the dominion of the darkness (of the world)(Jn.15:19; 20:21; Phil.2:15).

So let’s ask the question of how Romans 1:19-20 is being used to answer this presumptive “affirmation.” For starters, it doesn’t answer this affirmation at all. If anything, it creates a bigger problem because it is being used apart from Romans 1:18. What is it that is manifest (in them) and what God has shown to them? According to (v.18), it is the wrath of God revealed to them by what is manifest in them in God’s sovereignty over them (Jn.3:36; Rom.2:8, 12, 15; 9:22; Eph.2:3; Gen.2:16-17; Rom.6:20). The ungodly actions that follow are what flows out of them because they exchanged the truth and glory (i.e., the nature) of God for the nature of the lie. Their thoughts became “empty,” but empty of what (Rom.1:21)? Empty of God (futile/worthless), for when they behold the creation in honesty without their own suppression of the truth, they are forced to see death and destruction (v.18) because God has removed His blessing, separating the nature of His light from the nature of their darkness according to (the serpent’s deluding lie/emataiothesan) (Gen.1:4; 1Jn.5:19; 2Thess.2:10-11). So the wrath that is revealed from heaven is the wrath that abides in them in the absence of God’s likeness (Jn.7:28-29; 8:18-19; 14:7; 15:18, 21; Matt.11:27), holding them under the spiritual nature of darkness through the consequence of believing the lie (Jude 6; Rom.6:23; 8:5-9, 15, 20). We fear death because we know of the judgment by which the spirit of the serpent holds us in bondage to his dominion and to the image of his lie (Jn.8:34; Gal.4:3; Lk.13:16; 2Tim.2:26; Acts 10:38; 1Jn.3:8; Rom.6:20). Hopefully, this answers my objection to using Romans 1:18-20 to justify “Affirmation #2.”

Gen.9:4-7

Surely, flesh with life still in its blood, you shall not eat. (v.5) So indeed, only that (direct) blood (singular) that is for your lives (plural) will I demand an accounting, from the hand of every beast I will seek atonement (emphatic), and from the hand of that man. From the hand of that man’s brother, I will seek atonement (direct) for the soul of that man (v.6) who sheds the blood of a man. By that man, his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made atonement (direct) for that man. (v.7) But as for you, be fruitful and multiply . . .

Now we have already looked at the Genesis 1:27 misapplication and interpretation, but now we must resolve the Genesis 9:6 presumption. The new covenant that God made with Noah and his descendants is not like that covenant that was annulled in the garden of God (Gen.3:24). The Adamic covenant was both of works and of grace. For Adam to retain his right to the tree of life and to live forever required him to restrain from eating from the forbidden tree of knowledge of good and evil. That is the angle of the covenant according to works, but it also required grace on God’s part for Adam to have fellowship with the Godhead according to God’s own likeness. So it was both of grace and works through the free grace of God’s justification. Noah’s covenant, however, is of grace through faith in obedience to the sign of this atonement, which was the shedding of blood, that provided mercy in the form of a token in the sky after the judgment of a storm in remembrance of this particular season of God’s justice in the earth, but was also of grace and goodwill towards those who walk with God among those who believe according to the likeness of the substitutionary sacrifice, which speaks of both the nature of our sin (a beast) and of the nature of God (Jesus Christ). According to Genesis 9:5-6, atonement must be made through a living beast at the expense of that man seeking atonement, except in the case of murder, then it requires justice by the hand of a responsible party like a brother. This was later ratified by the Mosaic covenant in the act of stoning offenders of the law by the whole community in a judge and juridical system of responsibility to do justice as one nation under this spiritual covenant in the likeness of the LORD (Dt.6:4; Matt.11:25; Dt.1:37-40). But here, it only required one male family member acting as an equal (brother) to administrate life for a life as this was to be ratified in every generation that continued in the blood sacrifice.

So, while Noah’s sons were all brothers, they would eventually become patriarchal heads that must act as equals in the administration of this justice. This was to foreshadow the (singular) exclusive atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who would fulfill all these things according to “the image of God” (Jn.14:6). The beast that was sacrificed was sacrificed to image the likeness of sin and its total corruption of the human nature. But the destruction of the beast could only provide mercy for the soul because it couldn’t kill the nature of sin, for the heart of this covenant requires the death of “every” beast to make atonement (Isa.43:3-4), and so the nature of the beast still lives every time a beast is born (Jer.51:35-37). Yet, in the death of Christ, the nature of the living beast is put to death forever (Rom.6:6) so that the human soul can live forever in the image and likeness of the resurrected Christ (Eph.2:15; 4:24; Col.3:10). Also, it is vitally important for us to understand this text in the context of the global flood, which destroyed the earth and all who lived upon it (Isa.43:1-4); men, women, and children who were judged because of the ‘violence’ that corrupted it (Gen.6:5-6, 11-12; 18:20-25, 32; 19:1, 12-17, 23-29).

Therefore this covenant is being instituted in response to the violence in the earth, which God has demonstratively atoned for by satisfying His good justice, and which also required death to the practice of Adam’s mercy that grew corrupt in the refusal to restrain evil. Now, in this new covenant, violence must be dealt with by satisfying proper justice lest wicked rulers rise up and give birth to violence again (Pr.21:7; Ps.11:5). So now it requires more than just the life of a beast for the mercy of the stewards of the covenant but the life of the man who commits the violence to satisfy justice as in (life for a life). So this is the first judicial covenant being made to preserve the mercy that God has demonstrated toward the race of Adam until grace would come through Jesus Christ (Jn.1:14-17), who is the image of God (Col.1:15; 2Cor.4:4), and who can make atonement for the corruption that has become of every man that requires the blood of a beast in the debt to God’s mercy, by which they live in the image of that beast (Heb.10:1; Rev.13:14, 15; 14:9, 11; 16:2, 19:20), as their head covering until grace is understood according to the knowledge of the Holy One (1Cor.11:7; 15:49; Rev.15:2; 20:4; Col.3:10; 2Cor.3:18; Rom.8:29). It is Christ’s death and atonement that ends this insufficient covering to impart the fulness of grace to the soul of the one who is justified by freely by God’s good grace through faith as an irrevocable gift.

Therefore that blood (singular) according to Gen.9:5 is only applied to those who apply it by the prescribed faith, not according to works as Cain had earned for himself in ex-communication from the sacrifice (Rom.6:23; Gen.4:2-7). The atonement, then, is emphatically towards those who exercise and practice this pattern of justice (1Pet.3:18-20). Therefore (the direct object), which our most popular translators ignore, exclusively “belongs to” or has ownership of the lives for whom this justice is applied, as demonstrated through God’s actions in the flood (1Pet.3:21-22). So this is just a smaller scale and image of what God exercised against the world to save Noah and his family of eight to reinstitute not only mercy but grace towards the following generations (Isa.43:3-4). The “divine longsuffering” (NKJV) was according to mercy (Jer.51:36), but grace is according to being saved through water. Therefore the blood sprinkles mercy upon the guilt of the conscience (Jer.51:35), but the water is for the cleansing of it in good conscience from obedience to the distinction of the mercy and grace of our Lord’s sacrifice offered to us at the Table of the Lord of hosts in remembrance of His substitution (Heb.10:22; 12:24; 1Cor.11:29).

But as we behold Noah’s covenant under the microscope, God foresees that not all of Noah’s descendants will continue in this image of sacrificial justice to restrain the corruption of Adam’s race. God said he would establish this covenant and bless it to all who are ‘with’ Noah. This is to say, all who gather with Noah under the responsibility to this covenant. And as long as this covenant is practiced in the earth by the hand of God’s blessing, the whole creation benefits from the union and bond of this covenant, for it is for the mercy of the earth (Gen8:20-21) as well as for the grace of His ministers (2Thess.2:7). But again, this comes at a cost to preserve this mercy, for Noah and his sons are now made responsible for administrating proper justice as witnesses of the global flood. The demonstration of this divine justice did not change the nature of original sin but provided the understanding through which mankind can now exercise reasonable justice between themselves (Rom.5:12-14). Therefore this practice of taking every clean animal as a sacrificial offering to the LORD was preparatory of the national covenant that God is going to establish with Moses and the children of Israel to distinguish between right and wrong, good and evil in the latter context of Biblical history. The clean animals are significations that God has sanctified Noah’s family to be the heads of the coming generations according to the example of the purpose of these burnt offerings. By these sacrifices, God is saying that they have been made clean to pass down the responsibility of this administration of proper justice in the earth (Gen.9:8-10, 12, 17). Since it was the mark and image of mercy that Adam put on Cain that permitted injustice to spread without any fear of consequences, this is made for a new mark and a new image that is to preserve the peace (among brothers), but this covenant cannot secure peace with God because of original sin, that requires the death of every beast, yet this covenant also (conserves) even the beasts by mercy until the Day of the LORD (Gen.8:20-22).

This is why we pay our taxes, as it is a form of ‘requiring’ a sacrifice to administrate this proper restraint of anarchy in the earth. It is to be from the hand of every beast (lover of money) (1Tim.6:9-10) and from the hand of the violator of the covenant in the form of fines or retribution. So this is a ‘religious’ practice even at the humanistic and secular level no matter how the humanist tries to spin it, for they will always seek to use the sacrifice for their own ends, but for the ends of justice is the purpose God instituted it. But what is being displayed here, through the Noahic covenant, is more than a secular separation of church and State. Rather it’s a promise that God will avenge (care about/lend the ear to) the blood (and outcry) of His martyrs as He did in the days of Noah (2Pet.2:7-8; Gen.18:20), but not according to a global flood but by fire as Sodom and Gomorrah serve as examples of the future judgment to come upon the sons of disobedience (2Pet.2:6; Jude 7; Ps.72:14; Eph.5:6; Col.3:6).

Therefore you should make it your honor to serve on jury duty and go the extra mile in presenting yourself as a living sacrifice to stand in a jury box and participate “doing justice” (Pr.21:7; Isa.1:17; 56:1; Zech.8:16; Mic.6:8; Rom.12:1-2). For in that box, it is your opportunity to shine in the likeness of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (Matt.5:14; Phil.2:15). Therefore, are you truly making it your outcry by means of the exclusivity of Christ’s substitution, or are you just standing on a righteous cause because it will profit you? When we have, as believers, this precious promise that the Lord himself will descend to judge and walk among this injustice, we have to ask why aren’t motivations bearing fruit? Are just asking for money to fight these endless battles in the court systems of the corrupt, or are we getting on our knees and doing battle in the spiritual realm to put an end to the lives that are infiltrating the court systems with this corruption (Hos.9:10-17; 10:1-4)? Is it really for the love of these lost children’s souls, or for the love of your own soul to remain in the glory of the battlefield that continues to trample down the children’s bread (Matt.15:26)? Human life begins at conception, yet it is not definitive when God assigns the soul to the ‘unformed substance’ (Ps.139:13-16; Matt.16:26; Mk.8:36; Lk.9:25). But we know that God has written the souls of His creation before their days were ever made in His Book of Life (Ps.139:19; Rev.3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:12, 15; 21:27), a Book of which their names cannot be erased because they were written with the blood of the Lamb who was slain from before the foundation of the world. Therefore they are the possessors of their souls in the grace that was given to them to overcome (Rev.3:4-6; 1Jn.4:4; 5:4-5; Eph.2:1-10).

Therefore, if not all “humans” are God’s image-bearers and do not display “divine worth, power, and attributes according to God’s objective standard,” then how do they still have value (to the world)? They would have and hold their value (in the world) the same way sin has value to the glory of God’s purpose for the world (Rom.9:17-24). But our use according to the world system carries a much different weight of glory than in God’s kingdom (Lk.6:31-36). In the world, we were never meant to have “equal, objective worth without variation” because there are no “incidental characteristics” of our human nature. Things such as ethnicity, age, size, physical development, and gender are all predestined by God (Rom.8:28). Nevertheless, we cannot control how the world views our potential and contribution based on these characteristics and their limitations or their excellencies (2Cor.12:9). The world will choose to love its own by the standard in which the world desires to be loved or loved less (Jn.15:18-19; 1Jn.3:13). The world’s system of rewards shouldn’t be discouraged based on the good purpose of work and the ability to satisfy a demand according to the quality of the desired effect. This might require discrimination based on age, size, or physical capability. You wouldn’t expect a ten-year-old female to lift 100 lbs, would you? So, no, not even in the kingdom of God do we have “equal and objective worth” before God (1Jn.2:12-14; Heb.5:13; 1Cor.3:1; 14:20; 1Tim.5:17). The difference between the weight of the world’s gold and the weight of God’s children of glory is that God’s little ones retain their value where the world’s gold comes to corrosion and returns to dust (1Cor.15:42-50; 2Cor.4:17; Matt.22:17-21; Dan.2:38; Gen.3:19; 1Pet.1:22-25).

Now, this leads me to the misuse of Matthew 18:6 to justify this presumption of all of Adam’s race bearing the image of God. The classification of these “little ones” is qualified by those “who believe in Me” (i.e., Jesus Christ). Therefore to sin against them, or even to lead them into sin, means that the Spirit of the blood of this atonement will surely search out and require justice for those who have been (made clean) by this covenant as it continues in Christ’s blood (Jer.51:36; Isa.43:3-4; Heb.10:28-31; 1Cor.7:14). Little children are unclean apart from the household of faith; therefore, this battle cannot be won by casting our holy resources to the dogs who use the system of law to trample our little children underfoot by increasing the parental workload and drowning our children’s minds through indoctrination (Isa.10:11). There must be a complete separation of the household of faith from the secular government, not in terms of defending liberties of trade and defending our borders from domestic and foreign invasion, but in terms of all forms of education, because all education is spiritual at the core (Eph.5:1-7; 2Cor.11:14-15). Surely, we should promote God’s law to our neighbors and friends through the spread of the gospel so that the heart of man is changed to obey out of a good conscience, but until that takes root, we should let the current corruption in the system die out through its own policies (Matt.5:5; 12:25-30; Dan.4:15, 23) and cherish the gifts that God has given to us and treat them as holy (Ps.127; 1Cor.7:14; Matt.7:6). Our best contribution to promoting life and liberty is to sow all our resources into the ministry of the Word and the local church and wait upon the Lord to shrivel up the life of the weeds that are choking out the life of the church (Rev.18:23; Matt.13:39; 25:9). So is it more important to you to save the world through common law and to preserve your para-church ministry or to bear fruit God’s way through the established authority of the local church? How are you seeking to be recognized as a fighting member of the kingdom of God? Therefore while the enemies of the gospel live as though they do not have a soul, we should continue to treat them as though they do, but as a soul that will be judged in keeping with its own sin (Ezk.18:4, 20; James 5:20). But where we aim our resources in this battle should be directed by the local church as the priority (in her battle) against the cares of the world, the flesh, and the devil as the one and only bride of Christ.