The author says that we do not function as the image of God we were made to be because of sin, citing Romans 3:23 ("All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God") and then quoting Sinclair Ferguson:
Paul's language here is loaded with the biblical motif of the divine image. In Scripture, image and glory are interrelated ideas. As the image of God, man was created to reflect, express, and participate in the glory of God, in miniature, creaturely form.
As I began to read the very next section, where Chester points to Jesus Christ as the true image, I could see in one of the verses this relationship between image and glory. This is Hebrews 1:3:
He [Jesus] is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.
It's worth considering how sin is not just breaking God's laws, and the damage of sin is not just the "natural" consequences of breaking those laws. It goes much further than that! I sin when I do not reflect the glory of God, and my sinful actions keep me from being a faithful representation of his glorious character.
How becoming it is when I am godly! How unbecoming it is when I am not! I fail to point to God, and I become disfigured myself.
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