Contact the author Duncan Heaster
Living with Alcoholism
1. Understanding The Alcoholic|| 1.1 Introduction|| 1.2 Denial || Deeper Study Box 1: Implications Of Believing That God Sees And Knows All Things || 1.3 Some Medical Aspects || Deeper Study Box 2: Implications Of Believing Human Beings Were Created By God || 1.4 Guilt || 1.5 The Nature Of Sin And Temptation || 2. Understanding Your Response || 2.1 Introduction || 2.2 Denial || 2.3 Helping or Enabling? || 2.4 Detachment ||  2.5 Patience And Forgiveness || Deeper Study Box 3: Repentance And Forgiveness ||  3. The Biblical Answer || 3.1 Introduction || 3.2 Transparency And Conviction || Deeper Study Box 4: Truth: A Biblical Analysis || 3.3 Repentance || 3.4 The New Life ||  4. After The Victory

Deeper Study Box 2


Implications Of Believing Human Beings Were Created By God

Because we are created in God’s image, the structure of our very bodies is an imperative to give ourselves totally to His cause (Mt. 22:19-21). Whatever bears God’s image- i.e. our very bodies- must be given to Him. “It is he that hath made us, and [therefore] we are his” (Ps. 100:3 RV). We must be His in practice because He is our creator. So it is not that we merely believe in creation rather than evolution; more than this, such belief in creation must elicit a life given over to that creator. God created man in His own image; and therefore we shouldn’t curse men (James 3:9). By reason of the image they bear, we are to act to all men as we would to God Himself; we are not to treat some men as we would animals, who are not in the image of God. Because we are made in God’s image, we should therefore not kill other humans (Gen. 9:6). James says the same, in essence, in teaching that because we are in God’s image, we shouldn’t curse others. To curse a man is to kill him. That’s the point of James’ allusion to Genesis. Quite simply, respect for the person of others is inculcated by sustained reflection on the way that they too are created in God’s image. It's one of the many implications of creationism.

Watch Our Behaviour

Ps. 94:8,9 tells the fools to be wise and watch their behaviour, because “He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall he not see?”. Reflection on the fact that God truly is our personal designer and creator will lead to an awareness that He therefore sees and knows all things. These first principles powerfully link up, to exhort us to live life and speak our words knowing we are in the very presence of our creator. And remember that it was reflection upon the extent and nature of God’s creative power which lead to Job’s repentance; it isn’t something we can passively reflect upon. Just because “Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: [therefore] give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments” (Ps. 119:73). David realized that because he had been made in God’s physical image he had a duty to desire to be spiritually reformed in His moral image; and thus he sought strength to be obedient to God’s will.

Labour

It is often forgotten that work is a consequence of creation, not the fall. It is intended by God as a means to partnership with Him and self-fulfilment as He intended. This is what is so wrong with the spirit of laziness which is inculcated by alcohol culture. There is almost an ambition to obtain as much time as possible for ‘relaxation’ with the bottle; whereas labour in whatever form was intended by God from creation.

The Value Of Persons

Only those who believe that we were created by God and have the possibility of eternal redemption can truly perceive the value of persons. Only they can grasp the worth of human beings, that we are not mere animals, but there is a wonder to human life which inspires us to seek to save humans through the preaching of the Gospel. John Stott has powerfully commented: “When human beings are devalued, everything in society goes sour. Women and children are despised; the sick are regarded as a nuisance, and the elderly as a burden; ethnic minorities are discriminated against; capitalism displays its ugliest face; labour is exploited in the mines and factories; criminals are brutalized in prison; opposition opinions are stifled; Belsen is invented by the extreme right and Gulag by the extreme left; unbelievers are left to die in their lostness; there is no freedom, dignity, or carefree joy; human life seems not worth living, because it is scarcely human any longer. But when human beings are valued, because of their intrinsic worth, everything changes: women and children are honoured; the sick are cared for and the elderly allowed to live and die with dignity; dissidents are listened to; prisoners rehabilitated, and minorities protected; workers are given a fair wage, decent working conditions, and a measure of participation in the enterprise; and the gospel is taken to the ends of the earth. Why? Because people matter, because every man, woman, and child has significance as a human person made in the image of God”.

 


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