Created in God's Image

Now, I dare say, we have all had that judgemental person in our life. The one where it’s not just a perceived thought that they don’t like us… they’ve made it quite clear.

And it’s often because of those experiences of people judging us in the past, that now we’re constantly thinking that everyone is judging us with every little thing we do.

I wonder if you’ve even had that imaginary argument in your head. You assume someone does not approve of something you’ve done. They don’t actually say it, but you’re pretty confident they think it.

And in your mind, you think of the perfect come back to the complaint you’re sure they’re going to make. You even think how they’ll respond, and then how you’ll respond in return.

Now, have you noticed what’s happened. We might blame those judgmental people that started us down this path, but really, we’ve lost sight of something within us. We’ve lost sight of who we are.

Now, it’s actually possible that the opposite has happened.

You actually assume that you are the only competent one. If people are judging you, it must be because they are jealous. People need you to make things happen.

Human sized

Lately, I’ve been listening to a podcast by Steve Cuss, and Australian but who has done almost all of his training and ministry in America. His podcast is called Being Human.

One of the concepts that he loves to talk about is being human sized.

To be human sized, is to understand how God has created us.

You see, it’s partly what I was just talking about.

On one hand, we can make ourselves too small. Fold ourselves up into this insignificant being that has to constantly prove themselves. Where we fight for our worth. That is to be smaller than human sized.

On the other hand, we make ourselves out to be little gods.

To be smaller than human sized, or to make ourselves larger than human sized is going to become deeply problematic.

This is why today’s passage is going to become so important - because it will help us understand what it is to be human sized - to understand who God has made us to be.

Creation

So, let’s get ourselves back into Genesis 1.

Last week, I explored the first 25 verses of Genesis 1. It was the beginning of everything.

Starting with nothing, we got matter. We got a formless earth.

This formless earth began to take shape. Light appeared. The sky took its place. Dry land appeared among the waters, and on that land were plants of every kind. The sun, moon and stars took pride of place in the sky, marking the days and seasons. Life began to appear. Birds in the sky, fish in the sea. Creatures on the ground.

After each period of creative work, that is to say, after each day of creation, God looked at what he had done, and he saw that it was good.

This is a good creation. It is beautiful. It is extravagent. It is teeming with life.

But there was something missing. This creation displays the glory of God, but it’s almost as if it’s missing a signature. It misses the mark which is going to represent God.

And so, while at the end of verse 25, we get the familiar marks which make you think that the creation day is about to end. That is to say, we get the words: “And God saw that it was good”.

But it doesn’t end.

In the Image of God

Verse 26 then starts with the words that are the most significant words you will ever hear with regards to understanding who you are.

God says: “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness”.

Now that sentence begs a whole bunch of questions.

Who is the “us”?

What does it mean to be in image of God?

Is being in the likeness the same as being in the image?

Well, let me start with the question of who is the “us”.

Many of you will be quick to say that it refers to the Trinity, that is, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

But if I pause on that idea just briefly, it’s interesting to think how this would have been understood before the time of the New Testament, particularly given that this idea of the trinity would have been a very foreign concept when they had it drilled into them that the Lord is One.

So, the way this would have been originally understood, would be different to how we understand it. But that being said, even though it would not have been fully understood then, with the witness of the New Testament, we know that Jesus was involved in Creation, and so was the Spirit. Therefore, even though we are reading the New Testament back into the Old Testament, on this occasion, that is justified.

What does it mean to be in the image of God?

But this brings us to the far trickier question of what it means to be made in the image of God.

It’s worth noting that this question has been thought about, and discussed a lot over the course of history. With many different suggestions being made.

Now, before we look at some of these suggestions, we need to recognise that this designation of being made in the image of God is something that makes us humans unique from the rest of creation.

So, first suggestion could be that image refers to the physical appearance.

But I’m going to suggest that this is not the way we should understand this. While it might be true that there is a physical likeness between Jesus and the rest of humanity, this was actually more of the case of God making himself one of us, rather than this being his true form.

The truth is, the Bible says God is Spirit. God is not a man sitting up in the clouds with a long beard, and white hair. So I’m going to rule out the idea that it relates to physical appearance.

But this then moves us to various characteristics of God. Being in the image of God can mean that we are similar to Him.

Various suggestions have been made in this regard. Some have suggested the ability to have emotions, although, emotions are not unique to humans. Anyone with a pet will know that animal certainly do have emotions.

A better suggestion is the ability to think rationally. We can think of God’s ability to think has been bestowed upon us. There is some merit to this suggestion but it’s not the full picture. You see, to varying degrees, animals are able to be rational creatures. Certainly, if you look at humans compared with animals, and you look at the technological advancements we have made, you could perhaps say this is something that sets us apart from the animals.

And while we might be starting to get close, I actually believe that the fact that we are made in the image of God is even more than this.

You see, I’m going to argue that being made in the image of God… it’s not about a physical image… it’s also not about a characteristic or another kind of attribute… it’s actually about a function.

You see, if we keep on reading, that’s what we find.

Let me read all of verse 26:

Genesis 1:26 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.”

I want to suggest that there is a link between being made in the image of God, and the command to rule over creation.

Now, we can get caught up on the ruling part, thinking somehow that this gives us power - actually I think it’s perhaps worth thinking of it as being God’s representative.

If you think, for instance, the Prime Minister might nominate someone, or perhaps a group of people, to represent him at a different function. The power doesn’t reside with that representative, but yet it the Prime Minister’s power has been entrusted to that person.

We might not use this language, but you might say that that representative carries the image of the Prime Minister. They’ve got his seal.

We, as the human race, are God’s representatives here on earth.

Now, remember God says here both “in our image” and “in our likeness”.

Some have suggested that the two phrases carry different connotations. I’m more convinced that the two phrases are used as a means to really emphasise the point that links God and humanity in this very unique situation.

We see it again being emphasized in verse 27 where the one phrase is stated in a slightly revised form three times. It is very clear, the creation of humanity is unlike any other part of his creation.

Now, before I move on, it’s worth noting that being made in the image of God is actually a really deep concept and one that is worth really digging deep on. I’ve offered some comments, but I’d encourage you to use this as a spring board to keep digging deeper rather than just seeing it as a simple answer that explains it all.

Made to rule

Well, if we’re to be God’s representatives, what does that mean.

As I read a moment ago, it involves ruling over creation. We get this mentioned twice. First in verse 26, and then an almost identical repeat of it in verse 28.

The only difference is that verse 26 suggests we can rule over livestock, which is sometimes more literally translated as the cattle or cows… and the wild animals.

Now we could think - well this is great - we’ve got the power so we can do whatever we want to these creatures that are beneath us.

Well… actually… if we take my point from a moment ago that as image bearers we are representatives of God, then we are ruling over them as a representative of God.

And if God thinks these creatures are part of his good creation, and if he cares for them, then so do we.

We have a mandate to be good stewards of all of God creation. Rather than thinking of all of the power we have over them, we should be thinking about the responsibilities that we have.

Every human

Now, as we think about how to apply this, there is something that we need to come to terms with before we can go any further.

We’ve got a question before us - who is an image bearer of God?

The answer is - absolutely everyone on the face of this planet. You see, this image is bestowed on humanity, and it is passed on from generation to generation.

But this answer can prove somewhat problematic. We’re probably mostly happy to consider this designation to most people we know, but we also know that there are some very wicked people out there. Are we to suggest that those people who do abhorrent things are also image bearers of God?

Well, we’ll get into this more when we explore chapter 3, but I want to suggest that the event that we call the fall has marred our ability to truly carry out our image bearer status. It might have been marred, but I also want to suggest that it still exists in every human.

For this reason, we treat every single person with dignity and respect. Yes it’s true that we need to be careful of some people because some people are not safe, but when we think of them as a fellow image bearer, it should change how we see them.

Now, because every human is an image bearer, it means that the discrimination of people based on race, gender, sexuality, religion, age, wealth, class or whatever… it should never occur.

You know, there really is only one race. Yes there are different cultural groups, and those cultural grouping have different physical features, but we’re all human and we’re all image bearers of God.

Male and female are also both made in the image of God - so both should be treated with the same respect.

It’s so easy to treat people differently because they are different. But when we bring this back to the story of creation - we should feel the rebuke.

If we start seeing everyone as an image bearer of God, then I want to suggest that we’ll start treating others much better than we currently do.

Being Human Sized

Now, let me come back to this idea I suggested earlier about being human sized.

You see, I just argued that it should change the way that we relate to other people. But I want to come back to the idea that it should also fundamentally change the way that we look at ourselves.

You see - you are an image bearer of the King of this world.

Being human-sized means taking hold of that image bearer status.

As I mentioned, we can either make ourselves too small, or too large.

Now, I’m going to talk about being too large more when I look at Genesis 3, because this is when we’re not content with just being an image of God, we want to be our own little god. So I’m going to mostly skip over this for now.

And instead spend a bit more time thinking about when we make ourselves too small - something which I think many of us are prone to do.

The problem is, we are essentially taught to think that we need to earn our sense of worth.

We highlight the rich, the powerful, the strong, the smart. Unless you stand out, we think we don’t amount to much.

But let me tell you very clearly - being an image bearer of God is not something you earn - it is something you inherently have because you are human. You can cherish it, or you can trash it, but you still have it.

You can struggle with every thing in life. You might be going from pay cheque to pay cheque, or possibly even one centrelink payment to the next… you might have made some really bad choices… but you are an image bearer of God.

You are human - and for that reason you are part of those who represent God on this earth. You are his image bearer.

So be human sized. Remind yourself - I am made in the image of God.

You are enough - not because of anything you’ve done, but because God made you enough.

Yes you’ve made mistakes - and as this series moves on, we’ll see how we should look at this mistakes, but these mistakes do not take away from your status as an image bearer of God.

Now, if you are really struggling with self-confidence, then I’d encourage you to seek the help of others who are in a position to help. Even if you need help - this does not stop you from people a person of immense worth.

Conclusion

A special blessing has been placed on the entire human race. It says so at the start of verse 28.

The blessing is realised in that we have been given all we need. God has given us the plants to eat. Later, he’ll give us animals to eat as well.

We have the blessings we need.

And what’s more, when it’s all done, we’re told that God saw all that he had made - and whereas previously he declared it good - now with humanity in his creation, it is now declared very good.

You make God’s creation very good.

Remember that.

Humans are different from every other creature on this planet. Yes, there are some absolutely amazing animals. But you rank above them. Because you have the image of God inside you.

So what does this mean.

Well, as we’ve gone through this, we’ve seen a few things.

First, as God’s representatives, we need to care for his creation. We have a mandate to look after it.

Second, because all humans have the image of God in them, we treat all people with dignity and respect. There is no place for discrimination.

But third, because you are an image bearer - you need to be human-sized. Don’t make yourself smaller than God really made you.

You are a person of great worth, not because you earned that status, but because God has given it to you.