Made in His Image: Understanding Our Unique Role in Creation

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk

about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Good morning, good morning.

We talked the whole night through. Good morning, Good morning to you.

I missed it, well, no, no, I missed it. I

did the little reprice you did it arise, Okay, so yeah, you

you went and did like a cool version. Well you know, actually ending

of it. No, it's the second. It's the second sung by the

girl. What's her name? Come on, Kerry Fisher's mom? Uh,

missus Fisher. I don't know. Is it Donna Reid? I don't mean

Kelly. And no Kathy, No, Kathy Sheldon was her name in the

movie Goofball. Yeah, it's gonna bother me. It's super important. People.

People are looking up right now. People are looking it up right now.

Important whatsoever. But I'm doing it anyway, Go ahead, continue talking.

I can't yeah, I will function. No, this is riveting now.

I can't hardly look away. So if you can find it right away,

if only there was a little box you could carry in your pocket,

they had all of the knowledge of the universe. Yes, wouldn't it be

cool? Yes? And I good gravy. Oh there's another singing in the

rain. What's happening? I didn't know that? Is this real life?

Okay, so it's Gene Kelly Debbie Reynolds. Debbie Reynolds almost said that she's

dead. Okay, yep, she's dead in the ground. Okay, hard

of belief. Way to start this message, by the way, Yeah thanks,

Okay, Hey, we're gonna start off with a segment and well,

I think you should explain why you sang that for our new listeners who are

going like, really, is this the best that's gonna get? Oh?

Yeah, Well, so we have a suitet listener who wrote in and said,

I like when you've seen good morning and h and Chris does what the

listeners tell him to do, and said, I would appreciate you doing that

at least once a week. Now. I haven't done in several weeks because

I did it for weeks and weeks and weeks, probably like eight or ten

weeks in ago, and then I missed a few weeks. So I just

thought, hey, i'll sing it here. We are well, thank you,

Chris, Yeah, you're thank you. You've made our day. Yeah,

well, welcome. What is her? What is our Joe competition.

Yes, so we love this. We have not read these, and so

we have five each and I will go first. Okay, you do it

all right, Here we go, did Jodiye you didn't read through them because

you just said we haven't read through these. I haven't read through mind yet.

Here we go. Okay. I was really struggling to get my wife's

attention, so I sat down on the sofa and looked comfortable. That did

the trick. What what I was really struggling to oh saying she bugs me

when I when I'm on the count, I think so. Yeah, I

was really struggling to get my wife's attention. So I down sat down the

sofa and look comfortable, And that did the trick. Yeah, that's when

she nags him. Yeah, as soon as he says down he gets comfortable,

that's when she If you have to use that much work to understand a

joke, it was not fun. Well, the complexity of a dad joke

for you. Sometimes you got to work through a little bit. Yeah,

here we go. I'm over here with my crayons. Where where what you

at? Okay, I've been banned from the Secret Cooking Society. I kept

spilling the beans. Oh, get clever. We'll give it a clever sna.

God, I would like it. Yep, all right. How about

this one? I heard that you should always look into a mirror before making

a big decision. It helps you reflect. That's not bad. Okay.

I had a happy childhood. My dad used to put me in tires and

roll being downhills. Those were good years. I like that one. That's

pretty good. I used to do that, but did you. Yeah?

That explains a lot where where you at. That's good. Okay, here

we go. Light travels faster than sound. That's why some people appear bright

until you hear them speak. Life travels faster than the speed of sound.

It's a it's a science joke. Yeah. Wow, light faster than sound.

That's why some people appear bright until you hear them speak. Yeah,

that's right. That's good. Yeah. Again, it's not a mystery as

to she gave that to you? Oh wow, didn't she? You know

what, Jeff, it's random. Okay, sure there's randomness in this one.

Doesn't give any thought as to who reads which one. I'm sure she

just gave that to you. Correct, Okay, two slices of bread got

married. The wedding was amazing until someone decided to toast the bride and groom.

Oh my goodness. Now that's a good one. I really like that.

That's a good one. Excuse me. Okay, just bought a book

called one hundred and one Ways to Get Glue Off your Hands. It's dreadful,

but I can't put it down. That's a good one. Okay.

For her birthday, I took my wife to an orchard and we stood there

looking at the trees for half an hour. Not the apple watch she was

expecting. Apparently. I literally felt the physical disappointment in that one. Sometimes

that's one of the benefits. I mean, that's what you're going for.

Is either you're going for such a great surprise that makes you laugh until you

cry, or it has to be like massive disappointment where you've just grown almost

out of It's almost a physical pain you feel. It's the it's the other

direction. Yes, Okay, how about this one. I walked down the

street dressed as a screwdriver. I turned a few heads. Okay, here's

my last one. I've just invented the first thought controlled air air freshener.

It makes sense when you think about it. Oh wow, sense it's a

great play on words. That really a good one. Okay, not bad,

thank you. Those were good ones. Desire, Yeah, those are

good. They weren't bad. They were like, you know, either Sometimes

you get like a phenomenal one and then a really growner. I feel like

this was sort of in the middle. In the middle. Yeah, it's

skating between. I thought they got better as we went on. Yeah,

they skatered between like a seven and a four. But there was no two's

and there was no tens. Okay, so there you go. Thank you

for rating those. WHI should gets you like cards, number cards to rate

the jokes. Well, for the only the viewers, the listeners won't be

for my benefit. I wasn't even thinking about them. But yes, I

was just thinking it'd be great for you to have you hold up a number

that was a solid six. Okay, we could do that. We could.

Hey, we're about to launch into the second week of our brand new

series, which is second day. What did I say week? Yeah,

the second you're way out ahead of yourself. Well, it's a week for

creation, That's what I was thinking. Good safe, Yeah, And so

it's the second day of our new series and we are covering milestones of the

Old Testament. Oh, that's a pretty good day. Milestones. Yeah,

important. These are the highlights. Yeah yeah, highlights of the Old Testament.

Yeah. So yesterday, if you missed our first episode in the series,

we just talked about the first verse in the first chapter of the Bible,

Genesis chapter one, Verse one, about the fact that there's a creator,

right, and then it unpacks the rest of Genesis chapter one unpacks the

first day of creation, he created light, and then then the second day

he created sky and water, and the third day created the land and the

seas. The fourth day he created sun, moon and stars, and then

on the fifth day created the fish and the bird. On the sixth day

he created animals, and then he created a man and a woman to care

for everything that he had made. On the seventh day he rested chilled.

That's right, that's my favorite day. So today we're going to just establish

the fact that God created humanity. So again we're only reading just a couple

verses here, but i'd encourage you go read Genesis chapter one. It's interesting

for sure. And then if you have a life application study Bible, there's

probably fifteen notes, right, Pa that we're about to read from is all

commentary. There's so much to unpack for sure. Anyways, Genesis chapter one,

verse twenty six, it says, then God said, let us make

human beings in our image to be like us, and they will rain over

the fish in the sea, and the birds in the sky, and the

live stock, and all the wild animals on the earth, and the small

animals that scurry along the ground. So God created human beings in his own

image, in the image of God. He created them male and female.

He created them. Then God blessed them and said, be fruitful and multiply

fill the earth and govern it. Rain over the fish in the sea,

the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.

Then God said, look, I've given you every seed bearing plant throughout

the earth, and all the fruit trees for your food. And I've given

every green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds in the

sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground, everything that has

life. And that is what happened. Then God looked over all that he

had made, and he saw that it was very good. The evening passed

and morning came, marking the sixth day. There it is now. I

think I was only supposed to read through verse twenty eight. Yes, I

just to say that, But then I thought maybe I shouldn't. You know

what, I just decided I was going to throw in some bonus value for

our listener. I think it's three extra verses. I think you you got

six for the price of three. Sometimes you just can't help but to keep

reading. Oh, I love the Bible so much. That's it right right.

I don't know why desiree wants to. I saw forming above you as

you kept on reading. Can you hear the angels singing all down? Chris?

Can you hear the angels singing all the time? Like? Can you

hear? Or is it just when I'm around you? Did you say like

angelic chorus? What not? Everybody has that? Okay, we'd have to,

you know, question you there if that was the case, if that

was your claim. So so here God made people. Yeah, and let's

let's start off with we sort of referenced this yesterday. But he said let

us make human beings. It says, so actually it says then God said,

let us make human beings in our image to be like us. So

like us and so the word trinity is not in the Bible. A lot

of people they hear the word trinity and they think, oh, yeah,

that's in the Bible somewhere. That's a word that man invented to create,

basically, a word to piece together all the the fundamental doctrine that we are

told about God himself. So, in other words, God is talking about

himself, and he describes himself in various parts of the Bible, all the

way from the first book all the way through the last book, right,

and and he references the Father, he references the Son Jesus Christ, and

then the Holy Spirit, and it refers to that is one God. They

are God. Jesus himself said, if you've seen me, you've seen the

Father. I and the Father are one. He says, I am,

and everybody falls down. We read all of that. And so so anyway,

when he says, let us we understand the Trinity to be God,

one God in three persons, the trinitarian belief is it's a it's not polytheism.

It is it is monotheism. It's one God. And yet we have

trinitarians God who has three persons in one that's correct, Yeah, yeah,

and so the word, it uses that word. The word. And by

the way, this is in the notes for Genesis one twenty six Pone uses

the plural words. It's not definitive whether he's talking about the trinity, let

us the three of us one, or is this the majestic use of plural

like a king or a queen would say, we are so pleased. That

is true? Right, that is true. So it could be either way,

but it sure seems like God is establishing at the very beginning what we

know to be true throughout the whole rest of the Bible. So most of

the key elements of the entire Christian faith, most of the key elements of

what we believe about God and creation and humanity and all things, happen in

the first eleven chapters in the Book of Genesis, right, So everything else

is informed by those first eleven chapters. And so as we know that the

rest of the Bible begins to unpack the idea of a trinity, it's established

first here, right at the very beginning. So there's this law in you

know this in the in Bible study, they call it the law first mentioned.

So the rest of the Bible will never go against what God says the

first time about a thing. And so when you read Genesis chapter one,

it's not just or Genesis two or three, four, five, sixty seven,

eight, nine, ten, eleven. It's not just those are random

stories. What God is doing is using those as as anchors now for the

rest of the human story, anchors for the rest of what we can know

about God. He does it. He builds a you know, when we

talk about sin in a couple of days, that becomes the anchor as to

why everything else in the Bible has to happen. Right, So those first

eleven chapters established all of those anchors that God ties the entire human story into,

and it will never deviate from it. It may expand, but it'll

never actually go opposite of what you discover those first eleven chapters. So that's

why I would believe then that when He says let us, he's speaking about

the Trinity, not just in a royal way, but in a Yeah,

it would be very unusual and it would be inconsistent with if that was the

choice. That's right, right, And what we're going to see in this

series is the scarlet thread. You know, is Jesus even even through the

Old Testament, right, So the scarlet Thread of Jesus is the theme,

and you're right, it's one big story. And even though even though that

it's so random that you know, which, by the way, aren't all

of our lives random? You know, it feels like it all our lives

feel like they're just a crazy story after crazy story that are unrelated. And

yet there the scarlet thread is our life and our story and our journey.

And so what we're going to see is we're going to see that, yes,

everything launches back. Even the purpose of why Jesus came is anchored back

into these verses in Genesis. So the original word in Hebrew there let us

make human beings is the word adam, right, and it's translated as man,

so let us make man in our own image, let us. But

he's talking about humanity, not just the masculine, but humanity in general.

And so then the man is hot Adam, which is interesting, right,

So when he's talking about let us make man or let us make humanity,

he uses the word adam. That eventually the first guy, his name is

Adam, right, which is very clever name, which we name it.

It's a man, right, And then the man, it's what Adam did

when he when he saw and he's like fly, yeah, exactly, exactly.

So well, yeah, where is that? Does did it say in

this passage? I just read go name the animals isn't alive yet? Yeah?

Yeah, well he just made him. Well he hasn't breathed life into

it. And he said, look, I've given you everything. Yeah.

Oh yeah. So it tells the story twice. So tomorrow we're going to

do a different piece. Okay, there's there's a little layover. That's correct,

it's it's a little lay right. So this one he's talking about just

the fact that he made humanity and he made them in his image. It's

this idea being made in the image of God, I think is a really

important thing. It's what sets us apart from the rest of the animals.

Right, So, people who don't believe in a soul, people who don't

believe in a God, would say that we are just a higher evolved version

of the rest of the animals. But God says, no, I made

humanity separate, and I made humanity in my image. The Bible doesn't say

he made ard varks in his image, right, he made humanity in His

image, and so there's a lot of elements to that. A part of

that is that we're spiritual beings, as God is spiritual. We have self

determination in a lot of ways. We're not only driven by instinct, even

though we have instincts, but we have the ability to make choices, we

have the ability to make moral choices, and anyways, there's so many elements

along those lines of being made in the image of God. Did you ever

read McManus's book or Teasian Soul? Yeah, yeah, So it was an

interesting way. That was a reach back. Man, this how old is

that? Fifteen year at least? But the concept was interesting. I didn't

love the book, to be honest with you. Sorry, if Alex McManus

is listening or Irwin, I apologize, No, Alex, I knew Alex

personally, but uh, it's it's a good book. Let me let me,

let me let me say, Let me say that the concept of the

book is spectacular, which was he basically said, every time you and I

create, we are we are in the image of God because God created and

he made us in his image, and so he gave us the ability to

create. And he talked about how only humanity has the ability to create,

right. I mean, beavers can certainly build a damn, But I'm talking

about like the inception of saying, Okay, let's sit down and come up

with a brilliant, brand new idea and create it, you know. And

so every time you create artistically, which is why it's called the teas and

soul. Uh. You know that, then you are fulfilling a part of

you created the image of got right, which I thought was brilliant. Yeah,

there's several of those things. Reason is another one, yeah, right,

Especially complex reasoning is significant speech. There are animals that can communicate,

but there are any animals that they have speech, except you know, humanity.

We have speech, and speech being the ability to convey complex ideas.

So the ability to reason come on a complex level, and then to be

able to with speech convey complex ideas. The creativity component is a God element

as well, not that we are gods, but were made in God's image.

There and then, like as I mentioned, self determination, those would

be the really big ones. And then on top of that, God expected

us to reflect his character love and joy and peace and gentleness and kindness and

right self control, all those kinds of things, and God then elevated us

above the rest of creation and gave us responsibility to be stewards of it.

And then he also made us diverse. So where God made one human,

then we'll talk about this tomorrow. But then he makes them male and female.

The diversity of humanity, the complexity of God goes beyond either of the

genders. Right, but God made them male and female, So yeah,

that's great. And so then it goes on and it says, you know,

he made human beings, and then it says they will rain over the

fish of the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, and

everything else on the ground. So so then he gave us authority, didn't

he. So along with along with the creation and everything else, he gave

us a job to do. And so we have clearly assigned dominion over the

planet. And so and we're about to find out that, you know,

he gave Adam and even job a fruitful and multiplier. Was the first job,

yes, yes, And the second job was to tend the garden,

yes, and name the animals. So Adam was then, in essence the

first zoologist, right, yeah, the first gardener, yes, in the

first landscape architect, right, he was the first of a lot of things.

Yeah, yeah, wow, good good gravy. So there's a note

on verse thirty one, which thirty one says, then God looked over all

that he had made. This is after he made people, and he saw

that it was very good. And I love this note as we wrap up,

it says God saw that all he had created was excellent in every way.

You are a part of God's creation and He's pleased with how he made

you. If at times you feel worthless, remember that God made you for

a good reason and you're valuable to him, which leads totally into tomorrow's conversation.

Yeah, that's awesome, incredibly important. All right, Well, we

will pick up next time, and hopefully we will see you there on this

journey with us in this new, brand new series through Genesis. We'll see

you next time on the bubble. Guys,