02 | Genesis 2:18–25 | God’s Design for Humanity

Scripture Reading: Genesis 2:18–25.

CG QUESTIONS

Read 1 John 2:15–17. How are the flesh and the world a failed way to imagine the world? What are the dangers and consequences of following the desires of the flesh and the way of the world?

Read Genesis 1:27-28 and Genesis 2:5–7. What is humanity and what is our explicit purpose in the world?

Consider the poetic expression of the first man and the first woman in Genesis 2:23 and Genesis 4:1. What does these expressions tell us man and woman in relationship to their roles as husband and wife and mother and father.

The hope of this message was to encourage a “biblical imagination,” that as a congregation we would be carried along in our minds by the shades and hues of biblical reality. How does the description of the design of humanity in the first chapters of the bible shape our idea of ourselves and what questions does reflection of this reality create in you?

INTRODUCTION

I’ve been planning this message for weeks.

We have set aside this Sunday after Mother’s Day as child dedication and graduation Sunday for years.

Sometimes, world events give us an illustration that might make you think we planned it this way.

Well, we didn’t, but here we go :)

Harrison Butker of Kansas City Chiefs

There has been a great deal of controversy on social media and in mainstream media outlets …

… about a graduation speech by Harrison Butker of Kansas City Chiefs.

Here are two quotes that are being framed as shocking and controversial:

To the young women: How many of you are sitting here now about to cross this stage and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you are going to get in your career? Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.

An irate world has said that this is shocking and reprehensible.

But all he has said so far is that many of these woman are going to find incredible success in their careers for which their college education has prepared them well.

And yet, the majority, even of these highly educated graduates, having achieved great things in the world, are most excited about their future as wives and mothers.

To the young men: Be unapologetic in your masculinity, fighting against the cultural emasculation of men. Do hard things. Never settle for what is easy. You might have a talent that you don't necessarily enjoy, but if it glorifies God, maybe you should lean into that over something that you might think suits you better.

Again, various media platforms can’t get enough of condemning this statement.

But, what did he say?

Men, do hard things.

Do sacrificial things.

Don’t just do what satisfies your flesh.

Do what glorifies God.

Here are just a few of the more muted headlines.

"NFL Pushes Back on Harrison Butker's Bigoted Graduation Speech" - HuffPost

“Will Chiefs suspend or release Harrison Butker?” - The Sporting News

“Harrison Butker’s jersey sales rise …” - The Guardian

3:00

What did Harrison Butker dare to suggest in this graduation speech?

He holds out the honor of marriage, the goodness of family and the strength of a life of sacrifice.

This morning we will turn to the first chapters of Genesis …

… and find these very things flowing for God’s fundamental design for humanity.

PRAY

5:00

A BIBLICAL IMAGINATION

What do we need?

Our imaginations need to become engaged with biblical revelation.

We need to become captured by the shades and hues of creation design.

Before we consider our text in Genesis 1 and 2 this morning, let us consider 1 John and its warning against becoming captured by alternative imaginations.

1 John 2:15–17 (ESV) Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

The imagination of the flesh.

These are the desires of the flesh …

… with its lusts and its pride.

This is not from the Father.

The imagination of the world.

The world is passing away …

… and the powers of this world are drawing us into aspirations for things that themselves are passing away with the world.

Power and comfort and approval and control.

These are the things of this world.

And all these things will pass away.

I would summarize the way of the flesh and the world today …

… as becoming consumed with all manner of sin and debauchery and disordered humanity

… and becoming consumed with social popularity and career prosperity.

7:00

A Biblical Imagination.

A biblical imagination is a mind that does not seek to invent itself.

It is filled with the Word, and discovers what it means to be human …

… to be male and female, created in the image of God

… according to the revelation of our Maker.

It is the will of God that abides forever.

And it is the will of God that we discover in God’s own description of his design for humanity.

APPLY

So, as we turn to Genesis 1 and 2 let us fill our minds with the images of God’s design for humanity.

9:00

HUMANITY’S IMAGE AND LIFE IS A DIVINE GIFT

Read Genesis 1:27-28

Humanity is a male and female creature, created in the image of God.

What ever humanity is, it takes on a male and female shape.

And, together, this humanity bears God’s own image.

Mankind, men and women together, has a purpose in the earth to be God’s representative …

… as his image bearer, to bring that image to all the earth

… and demonstrate the rule of the Lord by his own rule wherever he goes.

11:00

Read Genesis 2:5–7

The man was dust. Even after he was formed, he was dust.

Life is given to him by the breath of the LORD himself.

The man is not just a created thing.

The man is not just a living thing.

The man is filled with the image and breath of God.

Let that capture your imaginations about what it means to be human!

12:30

APPLY

We just don’t get to invent ourselves.

We were invented.

We were designed.

And, we were made.

The Lord has a purpose in creation.

And the Lord has a purpose in the design of humanity.

We can attempt to imagine ourselves into being …

… but without the breath of the Lord we are just dust.

13:30

If we continue forward, letting our imaginations, our conception of what we are to be shaped by God’s Word, we see …

THE DESIGN OF HUMANITY IS A GOOD FIT

In the two scriptures we consider now are two of the most poetic, powerful and deeply human statements known to human emotion.

Note the context: Read Genesis 2:18.

The Lord had made every beast …

… animals and livestock, fish and birds

… but the man was alone.

He gave them all names, but none bore his name.

The man was from dust.

But the Lord fashioned a woman out of the bone of the man.

The Lord brought the woman to the man …

… just as he had done with all the other creatures.

But the man, for the first time sees with his eyes that he is not alone.

Read Genesis 2:23.

This! At last!

The man had been waiting, had been longing for this moment.

God had given to the man a holy aspiration even before he had made the woman!

The man had a biblical imagination.

And when he saw that God had designed humanity, male and female, the fit was perfect and his imagination was satisfied.

16:00

Read Genesis 2:24.

What will be true of humanity from this day forward?

The man will leave everything for this woman.

He will hold fast to her.

They are, together, fully known by one another, sharing together in this one image.

They are naked and not ashamed.

Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.

This is the preeminent wedding vow.

And it is full of biblical imagination.

Read Genesis 4:1.

I have gotten a man!

I don’t think there is a more God-like thing a human can do than what Eve exclaims at the birth of her first son.

She made a man with the help of the LORD!

God made man!

And in God’s design, he made male and female to beget that very image.

And throughout creation history, men and women …

… husbands and wives, mothers and fathers

… have brought that image to the ends of the earth.

18:00

APPLY

The man and the woman …

… take on the role of husband and wife

… and with the help of the Lord become father and mother.

And all of this flows from God’s holy and glorious design to make man in his own image, male and female he created them.

What I want us to see so far is this.

God designed and fashioned man and gave life to him.

And, God designed and fashioned woman and gave life to her.

It is as a man and as a woman, already fully human, fully alive and image-bearer …

… that Adam and Eve take on the role and function of husband and wife and father and mother.

A biblical image and conception of human reality …

… is that the realities of husband and wife and father and mother

… do not require a fundamental change in what it means to be man or woman.

They are roles and functions that, by God’s good design in creation …

… the man and the woman are already fit to step into.

A biblical imagination conceives of humanity in this way …

… that the role of husband and wife

… are most natural for our creation design as male and female.

21:00

A FAILED IMAGINATION

Let us go back to the matter of imagination.

There are two ways that we have gone radically off course in our understanding of what it is to be what we are …

… what it is to be human.

1) We have listened to our flesh.

And we have imagined ourselves as the sum of our desires.

Since desires are what we are, the desires of the flesh …

… the good life is to seek to satisfy these desires at all costs and against every constraint.

2) What have listened to the world.

And we have imaged ourselves as social and economic units.

We exist for popularity and career.

22:30

What is a man? What is a woman?

A man is the male human, designed and made by God, bearing his own image, in the fashion of Adam, our first father.

A woman is the female human, designed and made by God, bearing his own image, in the fashion of Eve, our mother.

Man and woman, male and female created in the image of God is what we are.

And as men and women, we step in faith into these roles of husband and father of wife and mother.

23:30

Imagine with me …

Man, Husband, Father — Woman, Wife, Mother

God formed with man the design and features of potential husband and father.

Much like God fashioned women with the design and features of potential wife and mother.

A man does not suddenly appropriate this design of husband and father upon becoming a husband.

He does not become a different thing.

Nor a woman become wife-like suddenly when she is married.

The design features of manhood and and womanhood are from creation already present in the man and woman.

And so, the design features of husband and wife …

… and father and mother are also present.

The thing that remains is to be installed in these roles …

… and to take up their unique responsibilities.

What remains is to mature into that design by the exercise of manhood and womanhood according to a biblical imagination.

So, what does a young man or a young woman do?

THIS IS THE POINT: He and she …

(Imagining Humanity)

… imagines, according to biblical reality … he conceives of himself in his mind as a man …

… designed with the real and growing potential of a husband and father.

The woman does the same.

26:30

There was a silly and fear-mongering article written at Politico in late April this year with the headline:

The Far Right’s Campaign to Explode the Population

It starts with these words: The threat, we are told here … is existential, biological, epoch-defining. Economies will fail, civilizations will fall, and it will all happen because people aren’t having enough babies.

I don’t really have any interest in talking about this article.

I just want to get to a specific quote in the article, but I’m trying to give you some context.

The article is about the reality that the birthrate in the US has fallen to 1.66 per female?

That is far below the fundamental replacement rate of 2.1 per female.

Some nations in the Western world, such as Germany and Spain, are as low as 1.4-1.5.

Japan is at 1.26. China is 1.09. South Korea is 0.72!

South Korea is expected to have well less than half the population of today by the end of the century.

My point is this.

Something has happened in the modern, industrialized world …

… that men and woman are not imagining themselves as husbands and wives

… and certainly not as fathers and mothers.

28:00

So here is the quote from the article, which is referencing a statement by a man named Kevin Dolan:

… declining birth rates are primarily the fault of the “default middle-class ‘life path’ offered by our educational system and corporate employers,” which Dolan says is “in obvious competition with starting a family.”

Save 2 minutes from above

Let us consider the imagination of the world.

What is this default life path of the society in which we participate?

Educational and social environments in mainstream culture are almost entirely focused on a combination of the individual self and our economic productivity.

What are the main aspirations held out to children?

One, that they would “get ahead” in education to prepare for college, so that they can save money with scholarships, AP courses, early AA degrees and dual enrollment.

Then, use college as a means to get ahead in the workforce.

The goal is personal achievement with as little friction as possible in the economic system.

The parallel aspiration held out to children and young people is athletics and other extra curricular organized events.

Again, these are pressed younger and younger to get the child to participate in a program (that is often highly monetized).

The idea is that the child will get ahead athletically and again, will achieve both accolades, popularity and scholarships which can be used to secure a better college experience which can be leveraged for a better career.

Cynically, I ask, where are these better careers all these kids for a generation or more have been funneled into?

I talk to young adult career types and they don’t seem to bear a testimony that the whole “get ahead” thing got them anywhere.

28:00

In the meantime, there has been almost no preparation done for where a majority of these persons will end up in life, no matter their career path.

There has been almost no educational or social environments that have intentionally prepared …

… young men and young women

… to become young husbands and young wives

… or to become young fathers and young mothers.

I would suggest that all of us, no matter …

… whether each individually become a husband or wife or father or mother or not

… that we all ought to hold these things in honor.

And that means we ought to desire that they be reflected on as a congregation together, and taught and held in honor as a body together, no matter our particular circumstance.

Hebrews 13:4 (ESV) Let marriage be held in honor among all

Men and women, becoming husbands and wives and fathers and mother …

… needs to become again the launching point of our biblical imagination.

And we need to recognize and admit that the absolute thrust of contemporary society …

… would have us give almost no attention to marriage or children

… in our preparation of young men and women for their future.

Perhaps, we ought to reconsider some of the common activities and conventional wisdom of the world …

… for sports and activities and education and career

… according to a biblical imagination

… or we may drift along unwittingly loving the world or the things in the world.

… all because of a failed biblical imagination.

30:00

What of Singleness?

I am not among those who tries to set singleness alongside marriage as a simple choice between two options.

I would contend that marriage is what is normatively set out before all of us …

… because we are made male and female

… and so marriage ought to be the presumptive aspiration, honor and pursuit of all of young people.

Singleness, on the other hand, is something that becomes an aspiration and pursuit …

… only if the Lord makes clear a move from this human norm into particular ministry and mission that is affirmed by wise counselors around you.

Singleness may be, and at times in scripture is held out as a most godly and righteous sacrifice.

What I am saying is this, the thrust of the culture that pretty much prepares men and women for singleness and childlessness out of a pursuit of career and individual fulfilment and pleasure …

… is simply not the normative biblical future for young men and women.

It is not a biblical imagination that should dominate our sense of honor and aspiration.

32:00

But what of those who aspire and pursue marriage and are still single.

You are not alone!

There are many things that the Lord has made good and to which the believer ought aspire …

… that for reasons, some known to us and some known only to sovereign providence

… the Lord withholds from those who faithfully aspire to it.

For those who obtain what they pursue in righteousness and faith, rejoice!

And with those who seek and do not find, mourn.

We live in the already and the not yet.

We live between it is finished and kingdom come.

We live in the age in which redemption has been revealed and yet the world is still broken.

And so, there are many who still cry.

I am sorry. I love you. We are with you.

And the Lord loves you.

He even loves your longing and faith-filled cry of desperation.

Whatever the Lord continues to withhold, be assured of this …

… you may lose your very life, but in Christ, he will surely keep you.

Mark 8:34–35 (ESV) If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.

The Lord is good. He made you. And, he has redeemed you.

The fullness of his design for your particular life has not been fully revealed.

But you can be deeply assured that your life is utterly secure in his deep love for you.

35:00

APPLY

Some would say that because we a sermon like this can be sensitive and perhaps even be difficult to hear …

… especially by those who have a biblical imagination and long for these very things

… but have not found that man, or that woman.

So, maybe we shouldn’t preach sermons like this …

… its not really fair.

It might hurt people.

But let me suggest, that part of the reason we have gotten to the place that we are is because …

… we have not faithfully preached sermons like this.

Because, we have not believed scriptures like this.

Because, as a whole, churches together, need to recover a biblical imagination.

36:00

There is something I have not said, because I don’t want you to misunderstand me …

… but I have to say it if I want to be honest as your pastor.

God made man in his own image …

… male and female he created them.

Then the Lord fashioned out of the bone, the rib of the man, the woman perfectly fitting for him.

Together, male and female, they bear the image of God.

I have said throughout this sermon that men and women need to recover a biblical imagination for God’s good design for humanity.

And that is true.

But I would hold out to you that it is men …

… with our design to cry out, bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh

… to marry and to lead, protect and provide for our wives

… that what has gone wrong and what must be recovered is first and foremost a matter for the men of the church.

As I look at this congregation, the reason I see it flourishing with a biblical imagination is two fold, but there is an order to it.

1) It is because the men of this church have laid down their lives for their wives.

By that I mean, they have laid down the pursuits of the flesh and of the world …

… each to pursue one woman

… to leave everything to cling to her.

2) And as these men have each found a woman, by design fit for him.

And she has built a home for them …

… as husband and wife, and even father and mother …

… that far exceeded anything that man ever imagined.

But again, it begins, with men recapturing a biblical imagination.

And leaving everything else to pursuit his wife, to lay down his life for her.

What do we need, we need the young men of the church …

… to become captured by the joy and hope and purpose and honor

… of God’s design for husbands and fathers.

And we need older men to set an example for those who come after them.

And I see, in the broader church …

… many faithful women waiting for the men of the church to lead out in this honorable pursuit.

38:00

APPLY

Genesis 1-3 is not the whole of a biblical imagination.

But it is the starting place that gives us the revelation of our design as humans, male and female, made in the image of God.

But our hope is not a recovery of husbands and wives and fathers and mothers.

If we were to look at Genesis 3 we would find that the problem it is the deadly power of sin.

The problem isn’t that we aren’t married.

The problem is that we are dead in sin.

We don’t need to just behave differently as men and women.

We need a Redeemer to save us from our sin.

We need, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross in the place of sinners …

… that all who trust in his name by faith

… will be forgiven of their sin

… and given new life in him.

We don’t need to be brought from man to husband or from woman to wife.

We need to be brought from lost to found, from death to life.

We don’t need better humans …

… we need the grace of God.

So turn to the Lord this morning.

Look to his grace for forgiveness of your sin.

And look to his grace for a recovery of what it means to be human.

42:00

—————

We know where the story begins.

We know how to fill up our minds and our hopes with God’s good design for our purpose in this world.

But what is God’s own purpose that he is working throughout history?

Where is he going with all of this?

Revelation 21:1–3 (ESV) Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

The Lord Jesus Christ is that great man and that great husband.

All of humanity, male and female, are not him.

But, we who are redeemed by his sacrificial blood and steadfast love are his bride.

He is that man who left heaven to secure his bride.

This is where the story is going.

This is the purpose of the Lord.

Let our imaginations, as men and women be full of the beauty of God’s good design.

Of men and husbands and fathers.

Of women and wives and mothers.

And as we fill the earth with the image of God that we bear …

… let us long for the LORD himself to again make his home with us in the new heaven and the new earth.

time