On Sunday, we left off with the creation of light on the first day in Genesis 1. God went on to create everything else including Adam and Eve. We won’t walk through the developments on each day, but I want to point something out in verses 11-13. He commanded the land to produce vegetation including seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit. Here are the verses:
11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.
The phrase, “according to its kind” appears ten times in Genesis one. Why the repetition of that phrase all throughout Genesis 1? I believe it’s a not-so-subtle way of God telling us He designed things to work a certain way. Certain “kinds” of things would only produce its own “kind.” In other words, you couldn’t get a lavender plant from an apple seed. And you couldn’t get oranges from corn stalks.
In so many words, God’s telling us evolution had no part of Creation. It didn’t happen. Not macroevolution anyway. Yes, there are variations of things within their kind, but they don’t change from one kind to a completely other kind. A dog is a dog is a dog even though the teacup poodle is very different from the Great Dane. Neither will become a mouse no matter how much breeding is done.
Evolutionists often give convincing examples of microevolution, which is the variation of a kind within its kind as something adapts for its environment. For example, the ratio of black to white peppered moths may increase when pollution makes it easier for dark moths to escape detection or finches may develop different beaks in response to their distinctive environment. But the moths are still moths, and the finches are still finches. There has been no change outside of the kind. Microevolution does NOT prove macroevolution. Small adaptations don’t prove evolution in any way, shape, form, or fashion.
God wants us to know He made everything on purpose so that what He created would work the way He wanted it to work. He said He did things on purpose and that His design was good.
Another thing this repetition of “after its kind” tells me is that God’s design is dependable. We can know that if we plant corn seeds, bean seeds, and tomatoes…we’re going be able to get corn, beans, and tomatoes at harvest time. We don’t have to fret and wonder what’s going to pop up in a few months.
It’s a small thing, but it’s huge because these simple words, written thousands of years ago, clearly illustrate what we see in nature. The plants, the animals, and we as humans still procreate…each according to its kind.
Before we get away from verses 1-25 and all that God created can we just all agree that Creation also speaks to God’s creativity and humor? Any being who makes the giraffe, the platypus, and the peacock is a God of joy and humor! Just saying.
Verse 26: Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
There is the plural “us” word again. Our God is three in one. As we said Sunday, each part of the Trinity was on the scene of Creation.
Note the repetition of the two similar phrases, “in our image,” and “in our likeness.” We are different from every other facet of Creation because God’s image is stamped on us.
We have moral, intellectual, spiritual, and creative capabilities that the rest of Creation does not possess. Not even the angels are made in the image of God. They cannot have the same kind of love relationship, the same kind of fellowship with God that we can have. Although deity and humanity are not the same, there is a compatibility between the two that enables us to have fellowship with God in a way the animal kingdom cannot.
Perhaps the whole climax of this chapter isn’t that God made mankind, but that He created mankind in His image. I believe that our understanding of who we are begins with knowing that we were created in the image of God. What does it mean that we’re made in the image of God? When God had Moses write the Creation account down, he was writing to a culture that was very used to statues, to images of gods. When you went to a temple there would be a statue or a carving that would represent the god to be worshiped. Put yourself in the mind of an ancient person. To those people, to see the statue was to see the god. It represented the god. The image represented the god.
The reason the images were made into the likeness of an animal, for example, was to try to communicate what the god was like. The image was supposed to reflect an aspect of the god being worshiped. A lion or a bull image, for instance, was created to communicate the strength of the god. Other images were created to try to communicate they believed their god could impact fertility, and so on.
Israel was told explicitly that they were never to do that. They were never to try to create an image, a statue to try to capture the essence, the characteristics of God. That is the second commandment. Exodus 20:4-“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them…”
If you remember, when they conquered the Promised Land, they were told to destroy all of the images used in worship by the pagan nations. That is Numbers 33:52. Those images were forbidden, but Church, there is one endorsed image of God that He allows and that is YOU and ME! Now we are not to be worshiped for the image of God we are called to reflect, but how cool is it that God announces WHO He is, His characteristics and qualities, to the world through us?
The Fruit of the Spirit, displayed in us, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, they all reflect who God is to the world. We have the capacity, because we have been redeemed and because we are being changed to think like Christ, we have the capacity to demonstrate His qualities to the world! What an incredible opportunity!
God’s image in us also gives us intrinsic value. To be alive is to have received a sacred, holy gift. A loving and holy God expressed His power, His authority and His intent by breathing life into us. The giving of life is a holy act. We see the Divine miracle that took place when God formed Adam from the dust of the ground. No one who accepts what the Bible says can deny THAT was a miracle and that Adam’s life was valuable and precious as a result. The same can be said of the creation of Eve as she was formed out of Adam’s side during the first-ever recorded surgery. We see this beautiful gift in not only that she was created from Adam, but we see a picture of how life is meant to be shared with one another.
Being created in God’s image is something that should drive all of our moral actions due to the dignity and infinite value of every person. Our dignity is not based on our abilities, gifts, or even perceived usefulness to society. It comes from the fact that God gives us life. God said that the creation of life was good, very good, in fact. That is why we must hold life in high regard. That is why we must protect and preserve life from the womb to the tomb. That is why the subject of life should be a high priority for a Christ-followed. I am a pro-life believer. I am a pro-life Pastor. This is a pro-life Church. Our understanding of what is right and true on this issue isn’t the result of an emotional response to cultural chaos, but it is deeply rooted in the Scriptures. Ours is a God of life.
While it is unclear when in the human journey from conception to birth, that a person’s valuable status becomes its full reality, there are multiple times in Scripture when it is clear that God declares the unborn child as “you” (e.g., Jeremiah 1:5; cf. Psalm 139:13-16) implying that there is no disconnect between the “you” prior to birth and the “you” post-birth. You are you at conception! You are a person at conception! The Bible does not identify the pre-birth “you” with the mother—but rather with the later fully formed “you.” While the Bible does not describe this scientific detail, we know that the fertilized egg inside the mother is more than just a part of her body. This fertilized egg has a genetic makeup different from the mother. The fertilized egg will soon have a beating heart separate from the heart of the mother. The fertilized egg is not the mother nor is it the father. It is a new entity separate and distinct from both. Conception happens by God’s power, authority, and intention. Who are we to undermine God’s power, authority, and intention?
What a special privilege to be created in the image of God. If God deems someone worthy of life, who are we to determine otherwise?
We have a personality which includes our ability to gain knowledge, to express feelings and to exert our will. That also sets us apart from animals and plants. We possess the capacity for morality, the ability to make moral judgments and to have a conscience. We also possess a spirituality which enables us to have communion with God. We communicate with God on that spiritual level. God doesn’t have a physical body. He is Spirit, John 4:24, so we communicate with Him through the spiritual capacities with which we have been created. So much is wrapped up in being created in the image of God.
Do you also see here that before Adam was ever created, God declared that men and women would have dominion? Look at Genesis 1:26 again: 26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, SO THAT they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
We were created to have dominion over the earth. This is not an accidental part of God’s plan, but He intentionally created us with the capacity to rule. If you contemplate that, and you embrace that we were made to occupy, to have authority, to be responsible moral agents in this world, you can easily make the case that if you don’t occupy and don’t rule and reign and don’t exert moral authority, you are sinning against the stewardship on this earth that you were meant to execute.
Verse 27: So, God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
This language is plain. We didn’t evolve from a lower life form. Humanity was the Creation of a hands-on God, and it happened on day six of Creation.
And we are told that God created them male and female. What we see here is a condensed version of what we can read in chapter two which explains exactly how God created the two sexes. God created the two sexes on purpose just like He created everything else on purpose. It pleased Him to make men and to make women. Imagine the heart and mind of God over the gender confusion and attempts to mutilate the body in an attempt to alter the design He was very purposeful to create.
The fact that there are differences between men and women was called “good” by God. The differences were good. They were and are meaningful. I’m personally thankful that men and women are different. I never question who is superior or spend much time considering what it means that Adam was created first. Let’s just leave it where one commentator put it: “A man is absolutely superior at being a man. A woman is absolutely superior at being a woman. But when a man tries to be a woman or a woman tries to be a man, you have something inferior.”
There is dignity and honor in being who God created you to be whether male or female. Don’t let Satan tell you otherwise.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
No one could convince me God isn’t good, that He isn’t a God of blessing. It was the first thing He did. He didn’t set Adam and Eve down and go over the rules first. He didn’t outline the boundaries first. He blessed them first! They didn’t ask for position. They didn’t work to impress God as if to work their way into having some kind of authority. No, God just blessed them to possess it.
God is a blesser still today! You want to have a good time with the Scriptures? Do a study on the ways God blesses His children. 1 Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. 2 Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—(all of His blessings)3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, 5 who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
How many of you have been blessed by God? How many have been healed? How many have been delivered from a dark place? How many have had prayers answered? How many have been rescued in some way and you knew it was God’s doing? How many have had a career advancement that you know was because God moved you to the front? How many have succeeded in some aspect because God gave you favor with people? How many of you have enjoyed moments in life because they were direct gifts from His hand? How many of you have had resources supplied that have helped you get through a rough patch? How many of you have found grace, have found resilience and strength in the midst of a difficult circumstance? How many of you have received hope in the darkest of times and have been encouraged to wait on the Lord and while you were waiting you received strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow? That’s the kind of God we serve! He is a blesser!
Listen, Adam and Eve could only do, could only accomplish what God expected them to do because He had blessed them. Men, you can be men because God has blessed you to be men. You can do whatever manly thing He puts into your heart because He has blessed you to do it. Whether you are a rough and tumble or you cry during Hallmark commercials like Thom Pratt, live out the image of God as a man! Be proud of that. Celebrate that. Make no apology for that. Reflect God to the world as men!
Women, you can do every girlie thing you want to do because God has blessed you to do it. Whether you are sporty or are wired like a CEO or whether you would rather be a helper and stay-at-home mom, live it up as a woman with dignity and pride in who God created you to be. Have dominion and exercise authority. It is your right as a woman created in the image of God. Reflect God to the world as a woman!
Y’all are blessed and highly favored! Live like it. Enjoy it! And for those of you who choose to marry, be fruitful and multiply as God allows. For those of you who don’t marry, be intentional about having spiritual children and investing in the well-being of others, as we all should, whether married or single.
Now, I don’t want to get ahead of myself here too much because we will discuss God’s plan for sex at some point soon. Not Sunday because our kids will be in the sanctuary, but soon. But I should say that populating the earth involves sex, (if you didn’t know…you’re welcome) and if there was no desire to have sex, it would be total drudgery to have sex for the procreation mandate. But because God is a blesser, He gave a mandate that is also meant to be enjoyable for those who choose to be married.
I’ll probably reiterate this later when I get to the sermon on “The Truth About Sex,” but I’ll just let you in on the ground floor of my soon-coming sermon…One of the major reasons God instituted sex and made it pleasurable was because it contributes to the bonding of a one-flesh relationship. I need to say this because I have highlighted the ways we are different from the animal kingdom up to this point, and here is another difference. Animals have sex only for reproduction, but human sex is intrinsic for building the kind of bond God has designed for marital partners to share.
Moving on to verse 29: 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.
What we understand here is that vegetation was specifically mentioned as being for food. Before the flood, humans were vegetarian, but after the flood, we were given permission to eat the flesh of animals (Genesis 9:3). (And my “meatatarian” husband said, “Amen.”)
30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
Creation was good, so good, very good. There was no death or decay, and everything was as it should be. All was literally “right with the world.”
I read one person’s work in prep for this message who said this: God lovingly created humanity in his image to display His glory through our enjoyment of Him. That statement packs a punch. Because of the image of God in me, and because I have been recreated in Christ Jesus, because God’s image has been restored in me because of what Christ has done for me, I have an opportunity to reflect His image in and through the ways I enjoy Him. What is the quality of my relationship with Jesus? How much do I enjoy spending time with Him, and how does the world see the ways I enjoy Jesus? Those are real questions we should consider because our degree of satisfaction with Jesus will serve as a barometer to others regarding whether they should check Him out or not.
Do you enjoy your relationship with God? Does anyone else know it? When I studied Genesis 1 and 2 again, I was reminded of the privilege we have to bear God’s image, to reflect His glory, and to live as intentional and invitational witnesses to the transforming power of God. If we aren’t winning people to Jesus or if they aren’t at least asking questions about what they see in us as we reflect Him, how can we say we are embracing our role as image bearers?
How are we doing with the proliferation of the image of God on this earth? May others see the power, authority and intention of God because they see Him in us.
Recent Comments