The Maker's Image

The Hand of God

Genesis 1:20–25 (NIV)

And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis reminds us of the disparaging gap between ultimate reality and our perceived reality. The word for great creatures of the sea is tanninim. To the Canaanites, this is an ominous word used to describe the powers of chaos confronting Baal in the beginning. They were gods who rivaled the powers of the known gods of the land, but the Scriptures remind us that every beast finds its origins in the good hands of the Lord. The most feared entity is the One to whom all other creatures find their beginning. In God’s kingdom, there are rebels but no rivals. We can be certain that our pursuit of the Lord is the pursuit of the One who is in control.

The Image of God

Genesis 1:26–31 NIV

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.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 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.” 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. 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. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

God culminates His creation by breathing life into a portion of His creation that has been endowed with His image. Humanity is to be an image bearer of the Lord.

Image bearer comes with the assumption of relationship. Your children are image bearers and come into the world with the assumption and expectation of relationship.

How do we bear the image of the Lord? From the text, some say dominion as we are charged with ruling over the rest of creation. Some say that we bear a physical resemblance to the Lord as Jesus looked like a man and our other references to image bearer are seen in some sort of physical quality. Others focus on the relational aspects as the means by which we bear the image of the Lord. I believe that we bear the image of God in our capacity to reproduce His attributes within ourselves and convey those attributes to others.

In His Image

Genesis 2:1–3 NIV

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

We are made in the image of the Lord and thus are made for His glory. We have been created with the need to pause and rest and reconnect with the One to whom our image finds its source.