The Fingerprints of God I went to a concert recently. As far as I know, the performer has never professed faith in Jesus, yet I was awestruck by his immense talent and creativity. He composed and arranged music, wrote brilliant lyrics, played multiple musical instruments with amazing ability, and sang for two hours. What is the source of this amazing talent? As I contemplated this question, I thought of someone else–Oskar Schindler. Although most know the movie Schindler’s List, few know the details about this Holocaust rescuer. Schindler was a cad, an opportunist, who was initially motivated only by profit and greed but came to show extraordinary initiative, tenacity, and dedication in order to save the lives of his Jewish employees. Where did this unexpected courage and valor come from? The answer comes from Scripture. Gen 1:26-28 says: Then God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth. So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female. The image of God in humanity is the source of creativity and talent, courage, compassion and nobility. All people have the image of God–it’s what makes humanity so valuable to God. My old professor here at Moody, Louis Goldberg, of blessed memory, used to call this the fingerprints of God on people. Some might object that all humanity is sinful. That’s true. But sin only defaced or marred the image of God–it didn’t eradicate it. It’s still in all people–giving them talents, strength, kindness. The Lord Jesus was referring to these fingerprints when he said, “If you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children . . . (Matt 7:11). Even sinful people can give good gifts; Even sinful people have received good gifts. But what about the doctrine of total sinfulness of humanity? Doesn’t that mean that people have lost the image of God? Not at all. Sinfulness is extensive, not intensive. That means it extends to all people, not that every person is as intensely evil as possible. Every person is not a monster, as bad as he or she can be, but a noble being, though desperately needing redemption. All these thoughts came to me at that concert. And, as I rode home, I could only think of David’s words in Psalm 8:4-5: “What is man that You remember him, the son of man that You look after him? You made him a little less than the angels and crowned him with glory and honor.”
Posted on: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 22:45:31 +0000
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