Bearing his image

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

BEARING HIS IMAGE

Luke 20:20-26

20 Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be honest. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. 21 So the spies questioned him: "Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. 22 Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?" 23 He saw through their duplicity and said to them, 24 "Show me a denarius. Whose portrait and inscription are on it?"  25 "Caesar's," they replied. He said to them, "Then give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."  26 They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent.

NIV

There is a massive truth, which of course all of the scripture is, but here we have a distinction between the two worlds. There is the kingdom of this earth and the kingdom of heaven. In the time of Christ it was the custom for a ruler to have coins stamped with his image. If a king conquered another land using their own currency he would order them to re-coin all their currency with his image thus denoting him as the king of that land and all taxes and obedience were due him. Jesus explains that if the coin has the image of the king, Caesar in this case, then that coin and all it represents belongs to Caesar. But what belongs to God should be given to God. We know of course that we humans bear the image of God on us. We were created in the image of God, therefore we owe God what his image is on, ourselves. The question which arises is what we owe the civil government. Surely Jesus was implying we owe the government our taxes, as well as our civil obedience. The laws of a land are based on protecting the rights of people from those who would violate those rights.  Laws are for the common good of the people, at least that is the way it is supposed to be. Nevertheless we should give the government what it is due. Although the truth Jesus was making is that we bear his image and thus we should be giving him our soul, our spirit, our mind and our strength, for they all belong to him. The fact the government has no rights over that which belongs to God should imply the government has no rights over spiritual matters at all. We could get into a whole discussion about separation of church and state, but that is not the real matter here.  God should have ultimate authority over us. If we acknowledge him as our Lord and Savior then we are in essence saying we bear his image, we are his image. If that is the case then we should also acknowledge his sovereign rule over us. We owe God our very being, all that we are, all who we are. Must we live in this world, of course, and he has told us that if we acknowledge him as our Lord and Savior first and foremost, he would as our king, provide for our earthly needs. So if we are his image, if we bear the image of God, than the world should also know that we belong to God. Our current currency bears the image of men, some are the founders of our country, and some are simply various leaders in our government. They might even create some with images of people who they consider doing good things, at least liberal man centered things. But we all know that money was created by the government and it in essence belongs to the government. So should the case be that all men know we belong to God. If we hide ourselves within the confines of Christianity, either within the church, or within fellowship, than how can the world see us to know we belong to God? If we bear his image, just like currency that flows throughout society, we should be flowing throughout society as well. All mankind bears the image of God, some just do not know it, or are ready to acknowledge it, but if they are told, many will see that truth and acknowledge who their true ruler is. But if we hide his image within us, covering it up with our humanity, no one will know we belong to him. We need to bear his image boldly.