Let us make mankind in our image
Genesis 1:26 - It should be humbling, yet exhilarating to realize that you are created in God’s image! This is all the more reason to give Him your praise!
Image generated by ChatGPT (OpenAI) using the DALL·E model.
“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.””
Genesis 1:26 NIV
Genesis, the first book of the 66 that make up the Christian Bible, is the foundation of faith for believers and often a stumbling block for those who will not believe. When Barb and I were in our desert years and thought we “knew it all,” we scoffed at the thought of God creating everything “in the beginning”. After all, there’s all of this scientific proof of evolution, a fossil record, etc…, etc… ad nauseum.
Yeah, right.
The more I study the Bible and observe the universe around me, the more certain I am that God did create “the heavens and the earth” and all things in them. It now makes perfect sense to me that a being with infinite power, wisdom, and love created this universe rather than thinking that we are just the products of random chance over billions of years.
David Guzik of Enduring Word says this about Genesis and the description of the creation of everything by God:
This is an example of the teleological argument for the existence of God. It is the understanding that there must be a purposeful intelligence that created this world because the world shows both purpose and intelligence. In the view of many (including the author), this argument from purpose and design remains unanswered by the atheist or the agnostic.
I’d add one more thing to Guzik’s description — a purposeful, beautiful intelligence. Why? Our world can display some ugly things, but there is also beauty in much of what we see. How do we know some things (flowers, people, animals, crystalline structures, rainbows, etc…) are beautiful? Because God designed us in His image, and He found His creation to be beautiful. As humans, we may perceive other things as ugly or abhorrent, but who is to say that on an atomic or quantum level that they don’t exhibit beauty?
In this verse, God is telling us that He is going to “make mankind in our image” (note the plural “our” there, even at this early point in the Bible alluding to the God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit). I’m going to focus on this phrase — “in our image” — for the remainder of this devotional, and let Guzik expound on this since he does it so well:
b. In Our image: An understanding of who man is begins with knowing we are made in the image of God. Man is different from every other order of created being because He has a created consistency with God.
i. This means there is an unbridgeable gap between human life and animal life. Though we are biologically similar to certain animals, we are distinct in our moral, intellectual, and spiritual capabilities.
ii. This means there is also an unbridgeable gap between human life and angelic life. Nowhere are we told the angels are made in the image of God. Angels cannot have the same kind of relationship of love and fellowship with God we can have.
iii. This means the incarnation was truly possible. God (in the second Person of the Trinity) could really become man because although deity and humanity are not the same, they are compatible.
iv. This means human life has intrinsic value, quite apart from the “quality of life” experienced by any individual, because human life is made in the image of God.
c. In Our image: There are several specific things in man that show him to be made in the image of God.
· Mankind alone has a natural countenance looking upward.
· Mankind alone has such a variety of facial expressions.
· Mankind alone has a sense of shame expressing itself in a blush.
· Mankind alone speaks.
· Mankind alone possesses personality, morality, and spirituality.
d. In Our image: There are at least three aspects to the idea that we are made in the image of God.
· It means humans possess personality: knowledge, feelings, and a will. This sets man apart from all animals and plants.
· It means humans possess morality: we are able to make moral judgments and have a conscience.
· It means humans possess spirituality: man is made for communion with God. It is on the level of spirit we communicate with God.
e. In Our image: This does not mean that God has a physical or human body. God is Spirit (John 4:24). Though God does not have a physical body, He designed man so his physical body could do many of the things God does: see, hear, smell, touch, speak, think, plan, and so forth.
i. “It will hardly be safe to say that the body of man is patterned after God, because God, being an incorporeal spirit, cannot have what we term a material body. Yet the body of man must at least be regarded as the fittest receptacle for the man’s spirit and so must bear at least an analogy that is so close that God and His angels choose to appear in human form when they appear to men.” (Leupold)
f. In Our image, according to Our likeness: The terms for image and likeness are slightly different. Image has more to do with appearance, and likeness has more to do with an abstract similarity, but they both essentially mean the same thing here in this context.
g. Let them have dominion: Before God ever created man, He decreed that man would have dominion over the earth. Man’s pre-eminence of the created order and his ability to affect his environment is no accident; it is part of God’s plan for man and the earth.
i. In this sense, it is sin if man does not use this dominion responsibly, in the sense of a proper regard for stewardship on this earth.
It should be humbling, yet exhilarating to realize that you are created in God’s image! This is all the more reason to give Him your praise!
Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:
Father in Heaven, I live in awe of Your infinite grace and wisdom. Thank You for creating me, saving me, and preparing me for the glories of your universe in the eternal ages to come. All glory to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! AMEN.
Scripture quotations taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica US, Inc.®. Used by permission.
Commentary quotations from Enduring Word are used with the written permission of the author