Manasseh and the Restored Birthright

Opening Witness#

The inheritance has been opened by priestly death and resurrection life. The high-priest death mechanism has answered the bloodguilt condition, and the testament has been put into force by the death of the Testator. Yet the inheritance is not merely a legal possession kept at a distance from the heirs. The inheritance reaches into the heirs themselves by the Spirit.

This is why the witness chain must move from possession to image-bearing. In Genesis, mankind is created in the image and likeness of God, blessed to be fruitful, to multiply, to fill the earth, and to rule under God. In the Law, Israel is forbidden to make rival images. In the Gospel, Christ is revealed as the image of the invisible God. In the apostles, the Spirit is given as the earnest of inheritance, and the heirs are conformed to the image of the Son.

The line is not accidental. The inheritance is not only land, title, or future reward. It is the restoration of the image-bearing vocation under the Firstborn Son. The heirs do not become God. They are restored in Christ, indwelt by the Spirit, sealed for inheritance, and brought toward glory as adopted sons in the Firstborn.

14.1 Humanity Created as God's Image#

The image-bearing witness begins before Israel, before the land, before the priesthood, and before the kingship. In the beginning, God creates mankind in His image and likeness. The first commission includes blessing, fruitfulness, multiplication, filling, subduing, and dominion. The image is therefore not an isolated doctrine. It stands at the front of the inheritance story.

Genesis 1:26-28

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

The first image-bearing commission already contains the vocabulary that later returns in the Joseph line: fruitfulness, multiplication, and dominion under God. Ephraim carries fruitfulness in the land of affliction, but the root of fruitfulness reaches back to the beginning. The end of the inheritance is not less than the beginning; it restores what God intended from the beginning.

Genesis repeats the image witness after Adam, showing that the question of image is also bound to sonship and generation.

Genesis 5:1-3

This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created. And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:

The image-bearing line moves through generation, but the human line is already marked by mortality, exile, and the need for restoration. The inheritance cannot be fully secured by fallen sonship alone. The true Son must come, and the adopted sons must be restored in Him.

After the flood, the image still carries legal force. Human blood is protected because mankind bears the image of God.

Genesis 9:6

Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.

14.2 The Law Forbids Rival Images#

The Law forbids Israel to make graven images. This command is not detached from Genesis. If mankind is already appointed as God’s living image-bearer, then rival images corrupt the vocation God gave. Israel is not to replace the living image-bearing calling with crafted images that cannot speak, breathe, obey, or bear God’s glory.

Exodus 20:4-6

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Deuteronomy adds the reason with special force. Israel saw no form at Sinai. Therefore Israel must not corrupt itself by making an image.

Deuteronomy 4:15-19

Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire: Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air, The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth: And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.

The prohibition creates an important witness. Israel is not given a visible form of God to carve. The people are called to hear, obey, worship, and walk before Him. The image-bearing vocation is relational and covenantal, not manufactured by human hands.

This is why the image theme must eventually pass through Christ. Fallen image-bearers cannot repair the vocation by making images. They must be restored by the true Image.

14.3 Christ Is the Image of the Invisible God#

The New Testament identifies Christ as the Image. This is not merely one title among many. It means the restoration of image-bearing does not come through an idol, a carved likeness, or human self-repair. It comes through the Son, who is Himself the image of the invisible God.

Colossians 1:15-18

Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

Colossians joins image, firstborn, creation, headship, and resurrection. This matters for the restored birthright. Inheritance comes through the firstborn, and Christ is not merely firstborn over creation; He is also firstborn from the dead. The inheritance opened by death is administered by the living Firstborn.

2 Corinthians 4:4-6

In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

The image of God in Christ is joined to light shining into darkness. This echoes the creation command and also the Galilee witness, where light rises in the region of darkness. The same God who commanded light at the beginning now shines the knowledge of glory in the face of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 1:1-3

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

Hebrews joins the same pieces from another angle: the Son is appointed heir of all things, He is the express image, He purges sins, and He sits at the right hand. Image, inheritance, priestly cleansing, and enthronement are held together in one Son.

14.4 The Spirit Restores the Heirs Toward the Image#

The Spirit is given to the heirs after Christ has opened the inheritance by death and resurrection. The Spirit does not make the heirs independent possessors apart from Christ. The Spirit joins the heirs to Christ, seals them, leads them, and conforms them to the image of the Son.

Romans 8:14-17

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ...

Romans joins Spirit, adoption, sonship, and inheritance. The heirs are not merely declared heirs from a distance; the Spirit bears witness with them. The inheritance is legally opened by Christ and personally sealed in the heirs by the Spirit.

Romans 8:28-30

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

The purpose is conformity to the image of the Son. Foreknowledge and predestination are therefore not abstract machinery separated from Christ. They are tied to God’s beforehand arrangement of the inheritance pathway and to His purpose that the heirs be conformed to the true Image.

2 Corinthians 3:18

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

The transformation is by the Spirit. The heirs are moved from glory to glory, not as rivals to God, but as restored image-bearers in union with Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:45-49

And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

14.5 The Earnest of Inheritance and the Future Glory#

Ephesians gives the inheritance language with direct clarity. The Spirit is the earnest, or pledge, of the inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. The opened inheritance is therefore already sealed, but not yet fully manifested in glory.

Ephesians 1:13-14

In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation... ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

The Spirit is the present seal of the future fullness. The heirs are already marked as belonging to Christ, yet they wait for the redemption of the purchased possession. This keeps the inheritance from being reduced to a present feeling or to a future abstraction. It is both sealed now and awaiting fullness.

Ephesians 4:24

And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Colossians 3:10

And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

The new man is created after God and renewed after the image of the Creator. The Spirit’s work restores the image-bearing vocation in righteousness, holiness, and knowledge. This reaches backward to Genesis and forward to glory.

The inheritance therefore remains grace. It is received through Christ, sealed by the Spirit, and brought to fullness in glory. The Father shares His blessing through the Son and by the Spirit, without erasing the Creator-creature distinction.

Closing Witness for Packet 14#

The inheritance opened by Christ does not end with a title written outside the heirs. The Spirit enters the witness chain as the earnest of inheritance and the restorer of image-bearing. Genesis begins with mankind created in God’s image, blessed to be fruitful, multiply, fill, and rule under God. The Law forbids rival images because the living image-bearing vocation must not be replaced by the works of human hands.

Christ is then revealed as the image of the invisible God, the express image of God’s person, the firstborn from the dead, and the heir of all things. In Him, image and inheritance are joined. Through Him, the heirs receive adoption. By the Spirit, they are sealed, led, transformed, and conformed to the image of the Son.

The lawful inheritance pathway therefore reaches beyond restored possession. It reaches the restoration of the image-bearer. The bloodguilty are released by priestly death, the heirs are sealed by the Spirit, and the adopted are carried toward glory in the Firstborn. The inheritance is not seized, fabricated, or earned. It is opened by Christ, sealed by the Spirit, and shared by grace to the praise of God’s glory.