{"id":14472,"date":"2014-04-16T17:29:28","date_gmt":"2014-04-16T22:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/?p=14472"},"modified":"2014-04-15T18:22:08","modified_gmt":"2014-04-15T23:22:08","slug":"ben-witherington-on-the-imago-dei","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/ben-witherington-on-the-imago-dei\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Witherington on the Imago Dei"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from my last post<\/span><\/a><\/span>…this is Part II of summary of insights I gleaned from the Wesley Forum lecture at Evangelical Seminary, featuring Dr Ben Witherington. He gave us three presentations on the topic of the Imago Dei (image of God).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The 2nd lecture was about the Imago Dei in Jesus.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here are some snippets I enjoyed:<\/p>\n

“charakter<\/strong><\/em>” latin<\/em><\/p>\n

(Yes, it’s the original of our English word “character”).<\/p>\n

It refers to the impressionable wax seal used by a king to imprint his royal signet ring.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"signetOS.213\"<\/p>\n

God’s <\/strong>charakter<\/em>\u00a0is manifest in Jesus and includes these qualities:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Heir of God, the King<\/p>\n

2. Co-Creator<\/p>\n

3. Perfect Reflection<\/p>\n

4. Exact Imprint<\/p>\n

5. He sustains by his word (logos:<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Jesus was and is the word)<\/p>\n

6. Purifies sin<\/p>\n

7. Rules over all<\/p>\n

Witherington says that Romans 3:23 is better translated as this:<\/p>\n

“For all have sinned and lack the glory<\/em><\/strong> of God.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(This verse refers to the effaced but not erased Image of God<\/em> in humans.)<\/p>\n

SALVATION: the behavior & pattern of life.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was saved.<\/p>\n

I am being saved.<\/p>\n

I will be saved.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Church is not a collection of individuals.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s a family and an identity centered on community<\/strong>, not individuality. <\/em><\/p>\n

(In ancient times who your daddy was and who your clan was told everyone who you were. Only secondarily was your individual identity noticed (unlike how modern, North Americans experience identity).<\/em><\/p>\n

The Imago Dei is a royal seal.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We have the imprint.<\/p>\n

You embody the word; you become it.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Jesus gave us the “what” – Great Commandment<\/strong><\/p>\n

LOVE<\/strong><\/p>\n

(The chief imperative is forgiveness<\/strong><\/em> and is a Christian distinctive that breaks the cycle of bitterness and violence.)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Jesus gave us the “how” –\u00a0Great Commission<\/strong><\/p>\n

(go and tell, and make more like me\u2013 which is discipleship)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Jesus gave us the “goal” –\u00a0Great Doxology<\/strong><\/p>\n

(praise) Live in the wonder and love of God.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When we pray in Jesus’ name we must always consider this question:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Would I sign Jesus’ name to this?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

The next post will conclude my notes on the final lecture of Dr Witherington.<\/em><\/p>\n

You won’t want to miss it!<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Do you forget to visit this site\u00a0sometimes? No problem. Get posts sent straight to your inbox by signing up in the right sidebar (free from Feedburner. Change the setting anytime).<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Imago Dei is a royal seal and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,5626,76],"tags":[5348,205,4378,372,612,4764,649,4895,1157,1184,1222,28,1472,5668,5495,6425,1763,1774,4609,41,4652,6133,2077,6069,5651,2645,4079,2910,5723,2927,3711,3735,4641],"class_list":["post-14472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authors","category-spark-my-muse","category-spirituality","tag-americans","tag-ancient","tag-be","tag-behavior","tag-change","tag-chief","tag-christian","tag-daddy","tag-evangelical","tag-experience","tag-family","tag-forgiveness","tag-god","tag-identity","tag-image-of-god","tag-imago-dei","tag-in","tag-individual","tag-insights","tag-jesus","tag-king","tag-lecture","tag-love","tag-notes","tag-post","tag-pray","tag-right","tag-romans","tag-royal","tag-rules","tag-will","tag-wonder","tag-word"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14472"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14476,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14472\/revisions\/14476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}