At the end of each day of creation, our Creator pronounced His work “good;” culminating on the final day with “very good” after the creation of humans (Gen. 1:31). I think we have a tendency to read these words not as any kind of moral declaration but something along the lines of “nice” and “very nice.” In other words, we read these words as aesthetic markers not ethical ones. And of course, I’m sure the newly fashioned and gloriously perfect world was nice, very nice, indeed. But the more our world careens off the rails, the more I recognize there is more than beauty in the original design, there was morality, something “right” about reality, and it’s distortion now is not just weird and ugly, but downright evil. Consider the following…
A friend recently sent me a link to a sermon in a text. It was so out-of-the-blue that I had to ask him if he had meant to send it to me. He responded that yes, he had. He had enjoyed it and thought that I would too. I certainly did and it helped me close the circle on some things I had been thinking on. (So, thank you, Christopher; here’s the fruit of that seed you planted…) In this sermon, the pastor used the parable of the prodigal son as the framework for telling the story of Alexander Hamilton’s life. It was a fascinating sermon and I learned much about this famous founding father. Perhaps no other American political figure has climbed to such heights so quickly only to plunge to such depths so deeply as he. It was apparent from the oft muted details of his life that God had had His hand on him from the beginning, and I’m convinced brought him safely home in the end. But what struck me in the sermon was that popular line from that most famous parable of our Lord, “but when he came to himself…” (Luke 15:17) This was the turning point in that wayward son’s life. And the result of coming to himself was returning to his father. Why should this be? Wasn’t it his self that had lead him so far astray in the first place? Why would coming back to himself cause him to return home? Because he bore the good and true image of his father and returning to himself meant returning to the one who had made him.
John Calvin, on the very first page of his magisterial Institutes, wrote, “..no man can survey himself without forthwith turning his thoughts towards the God in whom he lives and moves; because it is perfectly obvious that the endowments which we possess cannot possibly be from ourselves; nay that our very being is nothing else than subsistence in God alone.” (Institutes, Book First, 1.1) His point was, that for a man to know himself is to immediately know his Creator as well. The knowledge of the One is inextricably linked to the other. Why is this? Because of all God’s works only we are made in His image. We are walking mirrors, constantly reflecting the One who made us. As such, we are constant reminders of our Creator and we cannot escape the inference. “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence,” the suppressing sinner asks. (Ps. 139:7) “Nowhere” comes the reply as he recognizes that he himself is “fearfully and wonderfully made.” “Marvelous are Your works, and that MY SOUL KNOWS VERY WELL.” (Ps. 139:14) His very being declares God’s existence and he can never escape himself.
And this is why I think the current trend toward transgenderism is so strong. As we have sought to erase the knowledge of God from every other vestige of our cultural public life, the unbeliever still finds God close in the solitude with his or her self. Is he male? He wants to emasculate that marker of His Maker. Is she female? She wants to mutilate her body to escape its reference to her God. But every remaining cell, however misshapen by the surgeon’s blade, still bears the image of God. “Data indicate that 82% of transgender individuals have considered killing themselves and 40% have attempted suicide, with suicidality highest among transgender youth.” (Taken from a 2020 report on PubMed) But even death would not deliver the unbeliever from His presence. “…if I make my bed in Sheol, behold You are there.” (Ps. 139:8)
Atheistic experts have tried to convince us that we are the interpreters of reality, we are the ones who bring meaning to the stuff of nature, that nature is malleable to our whims. But our Creator has already infused every atom of creation with goodness – His goodness, the morality that bears Him witness, and never more so than that place on which He has etched His very image – humanity. While “the heavens declare the glory of God” (Ps. 19:1) and “His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made…” (Rom. 1:20), we see Him clearest in our very natures, and we know it. Woe to those who would affirm the ones seeking to destroy that imprint. How could it be love to help one mar the image in ourselves of Him who is love? It would be better for one to have a millstone hung about one’s neck and be cast into the sea (Luke 17:2) than support another in their attempt to destroy the that lovely image! And the suicide numbers clearly indicate it isn’t really helping at all. We should help them, rather, to see what the world has worked so hard to veil, the goodness of the image of God in them, and pray that God would grant them repentance to return home to where that image came from, their heavenly Father.
