"The Image of God Glorified"

Order of Service

• Hymn — Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah, O My Soul
• Call to Worship — Psalm 146
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Faith — Heidelberg Catechism, Question 1
• Scripture Reading — Ezra 9:1-15
• Hymn — Great Is Thy Faithfulness
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Prayer of Dedication
• Hymn — Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah
• Sermon
• Prayer
• Hymn — The God of Abraham Praise
• Benediction — Numbers 6:24-26
• Doxology

---

Sermon Title: The Image of God Glorified

Scripture: Revelation 22:1-5

I. The Image of God Glorified Will Experience No Pain

A. In the fall, God pronounced pain as a consequence for both Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:16-17)

1. Pain affects the three primary spheres of human life: home and family, the workplace, and religious worship
2. Even redeemed image-bearers experience pain in sanctification — picking up the cross and dying to self

B. The new heavens and new earth bring the end of all pain

1. Revelation 21:4 — every tear wiped away; no more death, mourning, crying, or pain
2. In Revelation 22:2, the leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations — the medicine that takes away pain entirely
3. The servants of God (Revelation 22:3) work actively but with no pain, frustration, or discontentment

C. The river of life flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb, recalling the river flowing out of Eden (Genesis 2)

1. Adam was called to cultivate and expand the garden temple to the ends of the earth; in the last Adam, that mission is consummated
2. Ezekiel 47:12 anticipates this imagery — life-giving waters flowing from the sanctuary
3. G.K. Beale notes the "tree of life" may be taken collectively as a grove, echoing Ezekiel's vision of many trees lining the river

II. The Image of God Glorified Will Experience No Curse

A. The curse at the fall bound man and the ground together in death (Genesis 3:17-19)

1. The Hebrew wordplay between Adam (man) and adamah (ground) highlights this interplay
2. Thorns, thistles, and death — including the earth swallowing up man — are evidence of the curse
3. Korah's rebellion in Numbers 16 is a dramatic display of the cursed earth subduing man

B. Revelation 22:3 declares no longer will there be anything accursed, because the throne of God and of the Lamb are present

1. Cain brought an offering from the cursed ground; God had regard for Abel's lamb — pointing forward to the Lamb of God
2. Christ, crucified on a cursed tree (Deuteronomy 21:23; Galatians 3:13), becomes by faith the true tree of life
3. John 6:53 — the fruit of that true tree of life is the body and blood of the crucified Lamb

C. In the glorified state, creation itself is restored and uncursed — its fruitfulness flows entirely from the sanctuary of the Lamb

1. Even in glory, the nail-scarred Lamb will be a constant reminder of why redeemed image-bearers are there
2. All of creation will taste and be healed because the Lamb who died now rules and reigns in resurrected, glorified body

III. The Image of God Glorified Will Experience No Darkness

A. The light of day one in Genesis 1 precedes the creation of the sun and moon on day four

1. Ancient Jewish tradition (the Talmud) identified this first light as the effulgent splendor of the divine presence — the Shekinah glory
2. The sun and moon are called "greater and lesser lights" — a deliberate polemic against ancient Near Eastern sun and moon worship
3. The Shekinah glory was lost in the fall; God graciously restored a measure of it in the tabernacle and temple

B. The progressive unveiling of God's presence through redemptive history

1. In the Holy of Holies, only the high priest could enter, once a year, veiled by smoke and incense (Exodus 30)
2. God showed Moses only the "backside" of his glory — "No one can see my face and live"
3. In the incarnation, the light shines in the darkness — but the Shekinah glory remains veiled by Christ's humiliation
4. John 14:9 — "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father"

C. Revelation 22:4-5 — the glorified image of God sees his face and needs no lamp or sun

1. The name of God written on their foreheads is the sign of belonging fully to him
2. The restored image-bearer now beholds the Son of glory without remainder of sin, without veil, without dimness
3. Present experience: we know the warmth of the Son through the Spirit and the means of grace, but only "through a glass, dimly"
4. The glorified state: no more sunglasses, no more squinting — beholding the face of God face to face, forever