Made In His Image

One of the most well-known names associated with the study of the cosmos is someone probably all of you are familiar with at least in some respect it's the late Stephen Hawking.

! Hawking was a brilliant theoretical physicist, studied cosmologist, also an avowed atheist.

He earned a PhD in doing research on black holes in outer space which provided for him and for others who appreciated his work a further fascination not only with the beauty of the universe but the mystery of the universe.

In 1990 on a BBC program called Master of the Universe Stephen Hawking had this to say about the cosmos and its relationship to the existence of God and the existence and relative insignificance of human life.

Here's what he said.

We are such insignificant creatures on a minor planet of a very average star in the outer suburbs of one of 100,000 million galaxies.

So it is difficult to believe in a God who would care about us or would even notice our existence.

Hawking with a brilliant mind looked at the vastness of the cosmos and came to the conclusion that there couldn't possibly be a God who would care very much about us at all.

And what's fascinating to me about his answer, that particular answer, is that Hawking seemed to automatically focus the question of God's existence not especially on the cosmos itself but on the relationship between God and human beings relative to that cosmos.

It's interesting, isn't it?

He would simply be too immense to actually care anything about creatures like us.

I want to offer a different perspective from another stargazer.

This one wasn't equipped with the same measure of detail as Hawking and his brilliance.

But he did still understand the vastness of the universe and the relative insignificance of human life.

And his conclusion was actually the opposite of Hawking's.

Here's what he says.

When I look at your heavens and the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful of him?

And yet you have made him a little lower than the angels and the heavenly beings and you have crowned him with glory and honor,

giving him dominion over the works of your hands and having put all things under his feet.

Of course, those are the words of King David in Psalm 8.

David wrote from the perspective of one who is fully convinced that Genesis 1 is divine revelation,

that it records for us the real history of how God created all that exists.

But he also wrote as one who understood that Moses' arrangement of the material in Genesis 1

set the creation of humanity as the climax, the apex, the pinnacle of God's creative work.

Human beings are not insignificant creatures in the midst of a vast universe.

Rather, they are the crowning achievement of God's glorious design.

And opposite of Hawking, when David considered that, he was overwhelmed that relative insignificance

as we are in relationship to the vastness of the cosmos.

Yet there is a God who creates it all and cares intimately and personally about each one of us.

And what's the basis of David's presuppositions that lead him to the conclusion that he comes up with?

It's our text for this morning.

It's Genesis 1, 26 to 31.

Let's read it together.

Then God said,

Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,

and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,

over the birds of the heavens, over the livestock,

over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created man in his own image.

In the image of God, he created him.

Male and female, he created them.

And God blessed them.

And God said to them,

And God said,

And it was so.

And God saw everything that he had made.

And behold, it was very good.

And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.

Now much of what we're going to consider over the next few weeks,

and in this next series of studies,

really boils down to what it means to be human.

God's good design for human flourishing is going to be expounded upon all through Genesis 2.

And then we're going to get to Genesis 3,

after seeing this glorious design for human flourishing,

and we're going to see how it all went wrong.

But our text for today lays an essential foundation for what comes next.

And the emphasis here is on the uniqueness of humanity in God's design.

The purpose statement maybe would go something like this.

That we are made in the image of God is fundamental to understanding what it means to be human.

And it must be celebrated and honored as God's very good design.

Notice first with me, God uniquely made humanity.

God uniquely made humanity.

Look again at 26 and 27.

Then 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 birds of the heavens,

and over the livestock,

and over all the earth,

and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created man in his own image.

In the image of God, he created him.

Male and female, he created them.

The first sign here that humanity is uniquely made is this divine deliberation that we note here in verse 26.

Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

It's a striking change in the text as we work through the chapter, isn't it?

Why the sudden change in plural pronouns here?

The traditional answer for Christians has always been that this is the divine,

intra-Trinitarian deliberation of the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit active at this moment in creation.

Of course, we can't build a full theology on the Trinity here.

It's not quite ready for that.

That's a later development, right?

But it's nonetheless present, isn't it?

We've already seen in verse 2, there is the Spirit of God hovering over the waters,

indicating that there is already a co-participant in creation.

And then we get to the New Testament, and we see the full meaning of this begin to be expounded upon

and fleshed out with the emphasis of the role of Jesus Christ,

the second person of the Trinity, and his work in creation.

And we see it all over the place there, and we bring all of that together,

and we begin to see there is something unique about this God and the Godhead here.

One God, three persons.

But why the shift here?

Why does Moses care to do it at this point?

Has it done it anywhere else in all of Genesis 1?

We've gone through five and a half days of creation now, and not one time has he done this.

Why is he now doing it here?

And the point is to heighten the significance of humanity in the creation narrative.

It's a striking difference that demands our focus and our attention.

Something is coming here that is meant to be understood by us as significant.

And of course, the most obvious assertion of the text then becomes that human beings, humanity,

are created beings.

It's equally clear that God carefully and deliberately created them.

This intra-Trinitarian deliberation is meant to convey the uniqueness of humanity

in God's creative design and order.

I don't know who needs to hear this this morning,

but don't you want to listen closely to me.

You and I are not here by accident or by fate.

You exist because God meant for you to be here.

Your creation was not haphazard in any way.

It was carefully and meticulously planned and executed by the same God who hung the sun and the moon

and the stars in their place.

The same God who spoke the light into the darkness.

The same God who separated the waters that are below the earth or on the earth

from the waters that are above the heavens and above the firmament.

The same God that creates earth and causes vegetation to spring out of it

so that there are cycles of life for us to enjoy.

The same God who creates the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea

and the beasts that roam on the land.

The same God carefully, meticulously creates you.

It says David again in Psalm 139,

You formed me in my inward parts.

You knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

It would be arrogant to possess a high view of self that is rooted in some kind of contribution

that you believe that you have made to your significance on this earth.

That would be arrogant.

It would be prideful.

But to recognize that your value, your intrinsic value as a human being

is the result of God's good and careful purpose.

That is worship.

And that's who you are.

Whoever of you is so discouraged this morning

that you wonder if your existence matters

or if it should continue,

I want you to know God has carefully crafted you for his glory.

It doesn't matter if anyone else sees the value of your life.

There is no higher value than that.

You don't have to live for the recognition

and the hope of acceptance from any other person.

You live for the glory for which you were created

by a God who loves you.

And cares for you.

And brought you here on purpose.

You live for that glory.

Of course, the driving emphasis of the text

is that humanity was uniquely made

in the image of God.

Which is why David says in Psalm 139,

he's fearfully and wonderfully made.

There is something about our existence

in the way that God has made us.

That demands awe and reverence and honor.

27, so God created man in his own image.

In the image of God, he created him.

Male and female, he created them.

What exactly does that mean?

There's so many ways we could answer that.

More ways than what we have time to answer this morning.

I want you to consider it this way.

I want you to think,

how would the ancient Israelites

wandering in the wilderness of Sinai,

how would they have understood this?

And Moses' reading of Genesis 1,

the image of God,

what would they have thought about?

What would they have understood?

To them, an image was a lifeless object

fashioned out of wood or metal

to represent some pagan deity.

It was not the God itself,

but it was fashioned in the likeness

of the supposed God.

And here Moses comes along in Genesis 1

and he tells us that human beings themselves

are the image of the one true God,

not lifeless blocks of wood or metal or stone.

Living beings.

Why?

Because God is a living being.

They're not little gods,

but they are created in such a way

as to communicate the knowledge of God,

the one whom they image.

And if you'll notice this

in relation to the rest of Genesis 1,

this is unique.

This is distinct from everything else

in God's creation.

Bruce Waltke said this,

I found this really helpful.

It is often said that the Bible

represents God anthropomorphically.

That is, we take human attributes

and we assign them to God

in order that we might better understand God.

Right?

You see that all over the place in the Bible.

But he says more accurately,

we ought to say that a human being is theomorphic.

Made like God so that God can communicate himself to people.

Now I find that immensely helpful.

It's not that I'm taking who I am

and applying it to God

in order that I can understand who he is.

It's no, he's taking who he is

and he's putting it in me

so that I can understand him

and understand myself in relationship to him.

In other words, there is a sense in which,

just to simplify that thought,

there's a sense in which God fashioned us with ears

to teach us that he hears

and with eyes to demonstrate that he sees,

with hands to indicate his sovereign activity.

But beyond the physical,

we see that our rationality

and our affection and our volition,

they're all part of the image of God

that we bear to the world.

It's amazing.

And this image bearing reality we find here

in verse 27 is not limited

to a certain subset of human beings.

It belongs to all human beings.

Note in verse 27,

man at this point is not a particular individual.

It is a reference to humanity as a whole.

So God created mankind, we might say.

God created humanity in his own image.

Therefore, all human beings,

without exception,

bear the glorious image of God

and therefore possess a dignity

that is unique and distinct

from the rest of the created world.

That's who you are.

That's who we are.

And it's further attested in verse 27

by the mention of both male and female

being made in God's image.

This isn't about a man.

This is about humanity

so that our human dignity

is not based on sex.

It's not based on ethnicity.

It's not based on age

or stage of development

or intellectual capacity.

It is rooted in the very fact

that we are all image bearers

of the almighty God

specially created

to communicate his likeness

to the world

that he has created

for us to enjoy.

But it's impossible to consider this

apart from humanity's fall.

Sin didn't destroy God's image in us.

But it certainly marred it,

distorted it,

that righteous and good

and holy part of God

is not imaged in us any longer.

And yet,

in God's personal love and care

and concern for humanity,

which David wrote about in Psalm 8,

what is man that you are mindful of him

and the son of man that you care for him.

Of course, we see echoes of Christ in that,

but he's also speaking about humanity.

This is revealed supremely

in the fact that God determined

a way to restore the image

that we have marred.

He sent a second Adam,

Jesus Christ,

the Word made flesh,

who was the true and perfect image bearer.

We've read it every week

in this study so far.

In Hebrews chapter 1,

Hebrews 1 · chapter mention

he is the radiance,

the exact imprint

of the nature of God.

He is the true and ultimate image bearer.

He is God in the flesh.

And he succeeded where Adam failed.

There was no sin in him.

He perfectly fulfilled the divine law.

And then the great image bearer

became our great sin bearer.

Dying on a cross

to satisfy God's wrath against sinners

who have distorted and marred the image.

And of course,

then God raised him from the dead

to prove the efficacy of his sacrifice,

to give us true hope of forgiveness

and eternal life with him.

And here's what's so great about it.

Now,

those who repent

and trust in Jesus

are being remade.

The New Testament tells us

we're being remade

into the, quote,

image of his son.

Into the image of Jesus Christ,

says Paul to the Corinthians.

But when one turns to the Lord,

the veil is removed.

And we all,

with unveiled face,

beholding the glory of the Lord,

are being transformed

into the same image.

The image of God.

The image of Christ.

From one degree of glory

to another.

We are fearfully and wonderfully made.

We have made a complete wreck

of that image

that God created us to bear.

And then in his love

and his care,

he himself takes on humanity,

subjects himself to our suffering

and to our temptations

in order that he might then bear our sins

so that we could bear his image anew.

God uniquely made humanity in his image.

He is gloriously redeeming humanity,

remaking his people

into the image of his son.

You know why your life matters?

Your life matters

because Christ died for it.

Your husband may not think

that your life matters.

Your wife may not think

your life matters.

Your parents may not think

that your life matters that much.

The people you go to school with

and sit in class with every week,

they may not think

that your life matters.

Let me tell you,

your life matters.

It matters because

you're bearing God's image.

It matters because Christ died

to restore that image in you.

You do matter.

You're uniquely made.

Second,

God uniquely blessed humanity.

He uniquely made them

and then he uniquely blessed them.

We see this in 28 to 30.

Would you just look at it with me?

And God blessed them.

And here's the blessing.

He said to them,

Be fruitful and multiply.

Fill the earth and subdue it.

Have dominion over the fish of the sea

and over the birds of the heavens

and over every living thing

that moves on the earth.

And God said,

Behold, I have given you

every plant yielding seed

that is on the face of all the earth

and every tree with seed in its fruit.

You shall have them for food.

To every beast of the earth

and to every bird of the heavens

and to everything that creeps on the earth,

everything that has the breath of life,

I've given every green plant for food.

And it was so.

This exalted nature of the creation of humanity

is now furthered.

It begins with the image,

but then flowing out of that image

comes a unique blessing that God pronounces.

We might think of it this way.

In verses 26 and 27,

we have the form of humanity.

In 28 to 30, we have the function,

at least in seed form.

The function.

I think there's three components here.

The first would be procreation.

Procreation.

Be fruitful and multiply

and fill the earth,

he says.

Of course, procreation is not itself unique,

but it does take on a greater weight

and significance with human beings, doesn't it?

We've already seen in verse 27

that human sexuality

in which God made humanity

in a sexual binary of male and female

is part and parcel of bearing his image.

It's critical.

It's crucial to that image-bearing quality

and essence that we have.

It's also essential

to fulfill God's mandate

to be fruitful and multiply

and fill the earth.

Flowing out of the image

is the blessing

and the first part of the blessing

is procreation.

Writes Kenneth Matthews,

there is no place in God's good order

for unisexuality

or for any diminishing

or confusion of sexual identity.

Human sexuality in Genesis

is a blessed function.

This is covenant blessing.

This is a blessed function

in the creative purposes of God

and it is essential

for carrying out God's mandate

for humanity.

There's so much we could say here.

Let's at least acknowledge

that if this is true

and we believe that it is,

your biological sex

is not simply something

that you can toss out or ignore.

Your embodiment matters.

It matters in bearing the image of God.

It matters in fulfilling the blessing

and the purpose and the function

for which God has created you.

And this unique blessing

of procreation for human beings at least

is that we are privileged

to multiply and fill the earth

with other image bearers.

that the whole earth is full of glory.

We heard that in the prayer of confession

last Sunday in Isaiah chapter 6.

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

The heavenly host is singing,

the whole earth is full of the glory of the Lord.

That takes on a whole new level

of significance and meaning

when you consider that

in light of the filling of the earth

with image bearers.

God wasn't content for one image.

He wants a world full of images

that communicate His glory.

And we get to participate in that.

But then there's also purpose.

There's procreation.

There's purpose here as well.

These image bearers are to subdue creation.

They're to have dominion over it.

We're to care for the created world

as God's unique image bearers.

Many will use this as an illustration

of perhaps a vice regency.

We are to care for His created world

as His representative

but also as His designated rulers of it.

Which is incredible.

Of course, this is going to be expounded upon

in chapter 2.

We'll say more about it there.

But it's at least worth considering here

the mandate given to humanity

to rule and to subdue and to care.

God blesses us to use the earth's resources.

There can be no question about that.

That's in the next verse.

But He also intends for us

to protect it.

To keep it.

And to care for it.

And Christians ought to understand

the Bible well enough to know

that we should care about the world

God has created for us to enjoy.

Third, there's provision.

It's part of the blessing, right?

There's blessing flowing out of the image.

Part of the blessing is procreation.

Perhaps that's the supreme one.

And then there's function, purpose,

care for the created world, subdue it.

Then there's provision.

Everything we need for human flourishing is here.

God gives the plant yielding seed,

the trees that have seed in their fruit.

And He says,

it's yours.

Enjoy.

Bon appetit.

This, of course, we learned last week

is corresponding to day three.

God gives mankind the produce of the earth for food.

Now, this doesn't necessarily mean

that all creatures were vegetarians before the fall.

I don't actually think that's what is intended

for us to understand here.

Neither does it mean

that every single plant was designed to be eaten.

Of course, we know that too.

So then what's the point?

I think the point is that God has created a world

in which everything that is necessary

for human life has been provided.

And in a very real sense,

God has taken this beautiful, glorious world

and He has given it to man as a gift.

And He has said,

here, it's yours.

Enjoy it.

Care for it.

It's part of the blessing.

Third, God not only uniquely made humanity,

He not only uniquely blessed it,

God uniquely honored it.

Verse 31.

And God saw everything that He had made

and behold, it was very good.

There was evening and there was morning,

the sixth day.

Now, we're accustomed to this language already, aren't we?

Throughout the creation days,

God provides His own evaluation

of the things created.

on each day except for day two.

Each time we're told that God saw that it was good,

meaning that what God made

and the way that He made it

was exactly how it should be.

And then we get to His evaluation

at the end of day six

and there's a slight variation.

Did you notice the variation?

And God saw in everything that He was made

and behold, it was very good.

Very good.

That doesn't mean that the rest of it

wasn't very good.

But there's a uniqueness to the evaluation

at this point.

Again, the language is intensified here.

And the difference in this case

is not merely that creation is completed.

Of course, this is a reference to everything.

He says it.

Everything that He created

and He pronounces it very good.

But it's not just the completion of creation.

It's that it was completed and crowned

with God's own image bearers.

That's why it's very good.

God's evaluation of the created world

in which there is human life

to reflect His glory

was exalted and honored in a way

that it would not be

without the presence of His image.

For creation to be very good,

for it to be complete and perfect,

it needs the image.

It needs the image bearers.

And all of that is to say

that God's design for human life

and dignity with which He creates

every human being

is to be honored

and celebrated

by His image bearers.

We're to see His design

not only of the world,

but of human life

as good

and right

and exactly as it should be.

And how do we do that?

How do we celebrate that

and honor that?

All kinds of ways.

We do it by standing against

all kinds of evils

that diminish the dignity

inerrant in bearing God's image.

church.

This is why we walk

on October 3rd

with the Community Pregnancy Center

of Lake Norman.

Because we believe,

Genesis 1,

in that God's design

for His image bearers

is very good

and should be celebrated

and honored,

not destroyed.

We stand against racism

and bigotry

and any distortions

of human sexuality.

We honor God's design.

We celebrate the image

by honoring it

the way that God intended it.

We do it by caring

for those

who suffer.

Advocating for those

who are abused

and abandoned

and forgotten.

It's one of the reasons

I love so much

what some of you do

with your life.

We have Kristen Slaughter

on one hand

who every day

of her life

sees some of the worst

of humanity

in trying to help kids

find homes

that people

that will love them

and actually take care of them.

Why does she do that?

Because she understands

the image bearer significance

of Genesis 1.

And on the whole other

extreme of that

we see

Corey and Megan

and how now

they have given their lives

to helping people

with end of life care.

Now,

why do they do that?

Because they understand

Genesis 1.

That's why.

And all along that

is a spectrum of you

that are giving your lives

and what you do for work

and what you do

outside of work

because you recognize

the image.

You're honoring it.

You're celebrating it.

As you should.

It's to seek

the good of all people.

Even those

who reject our faith

and would outright

deny the very dignity

of human life

that we proclaim.

They still bear

the image of God.

So we stand

with those

who would seek

for reform

to criminal justice.

Those who would want

to stand

for those rights

of people

that relate to

them being human.

We celebrate

bearing God's image

by embracing

the function

that he has blessed

us to serve.

Namely,

the pursuit

of procreation

honorably

in the way

God intended.

One man

and one woman

in the covenant

of marriage.

Pursue that.

We honor

God's

blessing that way

by a commitment

to make use

of the earth's resources

while not

abusing it.

By living

with gratitude

to God

for the natural ways

he has provided

for human life

to flourish.

We honor

God's design

that way.

The bottom line

is this.

We ought to celebrate

what God celebrates

about humanity

because we're made

in his image.

Now scientific

investigation

and observation

can do a lot

of things for us.

A lot of really

helpful things.

We ought not

to believe

that it can do

everything

because of course

it can't.

It can't do everything.

It cannot give

empirical evidence

of how the universe

came into existence.

It can hypothesize.

It can attempt

to test.

It's never going

to be able

to give empirical

evidence of it.

In other words

Stephen Hawking

was never able

to produce

an old videotape

stick it in the VCR

and say look

here's where God

created everything

or in his world view

here's where

the bang

took place

in relationship

to the universe

so that all things

came.

You just can't

do that.

Science can't

produce that.

The question

about God's existence

and the origins

of the universe

and the relative

significance

or insignificance

of human life

then becomes

a matter of

probabilities right?

We have to

rationalize

and reason

through the evidence

that we do have

and what we find

is that there is

an incredible amount

of rational evidence

that all point

to a divine

designer

but of all

the evidence

we have

the greatest

evidence

is humanity

itself.

We may not

have

a video

shot

of God's

existence

but we do

have an image.

We have a whole

world full of them

so that written

into our very

existence

existence

is the knowledge

of the creator

God

whose image

we bear

and this image

is to be honored

and celebrated

in all people

but then for those

of us who are

in Christ

there's an even

more profound

way

that we can

understand this

because we're

reflecting the glory

of Jesus Christ

to the world

in the way

that he is

remaking us

as his people

as his church

and this

image bearing

privilege

ought also to be

celebrated and honored

certainly by his people

and all of those

who follow after

Christ