Imago Dei Apologetics

Are we Man or Muppet…

Circa 2011 a song came out called “Man or Muppet”. The lyrics go as follows:

I reflect on my reflection
And I ask myself the question
What’s the right direction to go
I don’t know
Am I a man or am I a muppet
If I’m a muppet then I’m a very manly muppet
Am I a muppet or am I a man
If I’m a man that makes me a muppet of a man

I look into these eyes
And I don’t recognize
The one I see inside
It’s time for me to decide
Am I a man or am I a muppet?

So that leads the question are we man (with Free Will) or Muppet (manipulated by a higher power)? Who made us? Who did the creator make us into?

In the Garden, God created man. He made man in his image. WHat does that mean, His Image?

John Wesley’s Teachings Volume 1: God and Providence states:

Human beings were originally made in the image of God, able to distinguish truth from falsehood, able to perceive things as they were, able to judge justly and swiftly, able to name things congruently with sufficient understanding, “not arbitrarily, but expressive of their inward natures.” In these ways they resembled and refracted God’s own wisdom and justice.8

Along with clear understanding, human beings were originally given “a will equally perfect” so long as it “followed the dictates of such an understanding.” Hence all the affections of man and woman, under the conditions of original righteousness, were rationally ordered around a single affection: love. “Love filled the whole expansion of [man’s] soul; it possessed him without a rival. Every movement of his heart was love.”9

“What made his image yet plainer in his human offspring” was “the liberty he originally enjoyed; the perfect freedom implanted in his nature, and interwoven with all its parts.” He could either “keep or change his first estate: it was left to himself what he would do; his own choice was to determine him in all things. The balance did not incline to one side or the other unless by his own deed.”

As a result of an “unerring understanding, an uncorrupt will, and perfect freedom,” human beings were happy, for their “understanding was satisfied with truth,” their will with good, and they were “at full liberty to enjoy either the Creator or the creation; to indulge in rivers of pleasure, ever new, ever pure from any mixture of pain.”

In the beginning, man had complete freedom and was made in the complete Image of God.  They were happy.  Love filled all of man’s soul.  Going back to another lesson I had this week, what is the greatest commandment of all?  It’s to love the Lord God with all our heart, soul, and mind.  Initially stated by Moses in Deuteronomy 6 and again by Jesus in Matthew 22. 1 John 4:8 says, “…God is love”(ESV). Another verse with this sentiment is 1 John 4:16:” So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.“(ESV).  All this is to say that God made us in love, God is love, and when we keep the greatest commandment, we are abiding by God.  However, sin enters in, and we choose self.  “Each personal decision affects the succeeding flow of interpersonal and social sin. The wonderful capacity for imagination becomes distorted by pride and sensuality, continually turning the heart toward thinking and doing evil so that all flesh becomes adulterated. Total depravity does not mean there is nothing good in human creation, but that sin taints every corner and aspect of human choosing.”(Oden, Thomas. 2012, ch.9).

In conclusion, man is made in the image of God.  Sin makes us depraved. By God’s grace we can be reborn.

What can you do to be more like our creator?

Follow my page for more content on Image in Christ. A new blog will be posted soon with a follow up on Free Will and to conclude the question, Are we man or Muppet?