Created In the Image of God
Gen 1:26-31
Gen. 1:26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
Gen. 1:27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
Gen. 1:28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
Gen. 1:29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground-everything that has the breath of life in it-I give every green plant for food." And it was so.
Gen. 1:31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning-the sixth day.
The Bible begins and ends with a revelation of God that gives redemption it's basis. From the first verse of Genesis - the book of origins - we encounter a God of personality, character, purpose and activity with His creation and humanity. Only in the light of what He shows us of himself as the Creator of our world and the Interactor with human history does the salvation story assume it's proper context. Genesis sets things in order: God first, then us.
In that order and context we discover:
We were created in Relationship
With Purpose, Dignity & Responsibility
For Relationship
Everything the God of the Bible does is in relationship and it is part of his very nature. He never acts in independence.
Jesus was in constant relationship with the Father, and even now is interceding with the Fahter on our behalf.
The Holy Spirit says and does nothing on his own, but only that which points to the Father and Son
The Father loves His Son and is showing Him & giving Him all things, involving His Son in His work
God does not exist by neither desire or nature independently
An amazing thing occurs in the creation story when we arrive at verse 26 - God becomes plural.
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness,
This short phrase has initiated much theological conversation over the centuries.
Let us make man-The early church Fathers believed this to be the three persons of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
More contemporary commentators have suggested other alternatives, perhaps a reference to the ‘court' of heaven, of angels and other heavenly beings that God would consult
The fact that in the first two verses of the bible references to distinct roles:
Gen. 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
And that Colossians says of Jesus
Col. 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created:
I believe that when God says "Let us make man in our own image" He is referring to the collective relationship of himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and it is in the culmination of this relationship humanity comes into existence.
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness,
The image of God is an important concept for us to understand, because this is who we are - who we are designed to be - to be made in the image of God defines us and this has some crucial truth regarding our purpose and value as women and men today. This sets in place the importance and value that would motivate God the Father to send God His Son to break into humanity to redeem it, to return it to it's original state and value.
The Hebrew word ‘selem' ("image") is a representative in physical form, not a representation of the physical appearance. It is not that we look like God physically or that God looks like us. But we are the ongoing representative who acts, works, lives, regards, rules, on behalf of God.
Like our Governour General who looks nothing like the Queen, but acts, works, lives, regards, rules on the Queens behalf.
We live with both purpose and value as men and women created in God's image.
We live in an increasing atheistic society that is unable to fathom a creation with purpose.
People today are more likely to agree with Hemingway's assessment that life "was all a nothing and man was nothing too" and that people are, therefore, no more than an accident suspended between two accidents (birth & death). Limited by material, with no sense of the eternal.
Being made in the image of God confers on us DIGNITY, entrusts us with RESPONSIBILITY, and infuses us with potential - namely the CAPACITY to mirror our creator.
PURPOSE - our purpose / capacity is to be God-Like. This impacts the way we view ourselves, how we live and desire to be in a relationship with God. While ethical systems that are above reproach should typify a Christian, it can not represent the sum total or our faith. When it comes down to it, our faith can not be defined by a set of rules that we live by, for our aspiration is to be Godlike and in that we find our purpose
We live in a goal oriented society that attempts to delineate everything, reducing it to a list so we can assess the achievement of our goals. Employees want to know precisely what the criteria they will be assessed in their job performance. Education is enamered with outcome assessments and setting and meeting measurable objectives. Students want to know what they will be tested on so they can study to pass the test. Teachers know that principals are evaluating them on the basis of the scores of their students so they teach to the tests. Politicians seek to know the issues important to their constituents so they can speak to those concerns inorder to get elected. This is the reductionism that drives our society, to reduce as many aspects of our life down to a list of important criteria so we know when we have succeeded. This has impacted Christianty too, but the good news is we are free from the law and it's potential for reductionism.
Being Christian means more than acquiring information or living to a set of rules or standards.
God says Lev 19:2 ‘Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.
Paul writes Phil. 2:5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
And
Eph 4: 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Eph. 5:1 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children
We aspire to attain the Godlikeness that the image of God has give us the capacity and made possible in us
DIGNITY - Human dignity impacts who we treat other people. Since all people are made in the image of God, all deserve to be treated with dignity that image affords
This was said of Mother Teresa as she received the Nobel Peace Prize: (Presentation Speech by Professor John Sanness, Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee)
"The hallmark of her work has been respect for the individual and the individual's worth and dignity. The loneliest and the most wretched, the dying destitute, the abandoned lepers, have been received by her and her Sisters with warm compassion devoid of condescension, based on this reverence for Christ in Man."
Mother Teresa knew that each person had dignity because they were made in the image of God himself.
We live in a society that reduces the value and dignity of the person, As Christians we can and should seek to shape society around us in ways that will preserve human dignity, but that will not always be possible in Western society. It is sometimes difficult to identify the path that upholds human dignity in a society that values rights above all else and formulates everything in those terms. We long to be accepted, respected, included and we believe the path to that is in establishing our rights.
We have the right to life, right to choose, the right to be employed regardless of race or sexuality, the right to equal treatment and equal pay for equal work - the list goes on.
John Walton rightly askes "How can dignity be preserved in the stampeed of rights?
When rights are granted on principle or coerced through demand - dignity is lost in the equation. If we truly believe in dignity for all, rights and their protection will follow automatically. The protection of rights is inevitable if the preservation of dignity is valued, but it doesn't work the other way, preservation of dignity is not an inevitable result of protection of rights.
If minority ethnic groups are treated with dignity, they will not have to wonder if they have been give a job only because of the rights issue. When women are treated with dignity in the workplace they will not suffer degrading harassment. When children are treated with dignity at home, they will never feel unwanted and grow up with the physical and emotional scars of abuse.
Walton writes:
"We live in a world of rights that has no sense of purpose; we live in a world of tolerance that has no sense of dignity for those tolerated or conscience concerning what is to be tolerated, we live in a world of leisure and squander it on empty pursuit, we live in a world of comfort and convenience where we can accumulate anything we want except that which matters most."
Therefore, dignity has been displaced in our society by cheap imitations that masquerade as rights. When we place more attention and effort in protecting rights over the dignity of the person who has been made in the image of God we cheat them from that which will truly bring them hope and restore their true value.
In our church, our chief motive is to Love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind; and love our neighbor as ourselves. In doing this we restore the dignity in others around us and in the process live in the dignity the image of God has bestowed upon us.
The Image of God also impacts how we live in this world and the RESPONSIBILITY entrusted to us. God reinforces this directive by twice in verse 26 & 28 God entrusts humanity with work and responsibility, to rule over and make sure everything in this physical world works and is cared for.
This effects the sense of stewardship for our environment. This world is not ours to use and dispose of at our will, but God has put it under our charge to manage for it's owner - God. This management is not with our won benefit in mind, but for the mindset that this is God's world and we are to care for it.
This responsibility is to remind us of our connection and accountability to God the creator of all he has place before us, all the people he has placed around us and our own creator who has bestowed us with the dignity and capacity to carry out this responsibility.
We are created in the Image of God:
For we were created in relationship, by God who is continually, eternally in relationship as Father, Son & Holy Spirit
We are created with purpose and dignity to reflect and represent the nature and character of this relational God = have intrinsic worth not just useful for what we can do but who we are; because I am made in the image of God, I am a person of intrinsic worth and i will treat you as a person of intrinsic worth; not ignored but noticed and loved. I will not reduce you to a stereotype or number
We are created for relationship. The responsibility he has entrusted to us keeps us accountable to that relationship. Just like who he is, we are also in an ongoing conversation in God, where no person whether in the trinity or in the creation, we do not act independently. We can not presue to go it alone, we need him and we need each other to live out the image that we are made in