Imago Dei: I am Special

Ask Students about thier top 5 lists.

Oceans

Waterfalls

Hippos

Stars

Humans

1. God made Countless Creations

If we Recall all the many things God created in Genesis Chapter 1. The list is long. In fact God created everything we see, smell, hear, taiste, and touch. Now people might do some modifying to his creation. But only God creates ex nihilo. Out of nothing.

And its not just that God made countless types of things, He also made each of those things.

Genesis 15:5 ESV

And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

Its crazy to think about how vast God’s creation is. The billions of stars, each having different colors and sizes, most with planets orbiting them.

Or to think of the oceans teeming with fishes. Thousands of spcies with millions of individuals. From the largest star to the smallest Ameba. God created all of that. Yet none of them are his favorites. Not even the angels living in Heaven.

2. God made us to stand out from the rest.

Genesis 1:26–27 ESV

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

We are different from the rest of creation. God put us in charge or dominion of his creation. But why would he put us in charge of it? Why humanity and not some apex preditor. If the world evolved, how could we have ended up on top? Answer: because we didn’t evolve. God made everything and in his creation he made us to be like him.

3. God made us in His Image

Genesis 1:26 (a)(ESV)

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

The Key word of the day is Imago Dei which again is Latin for “Image of God”

What do you think it means to be made in the image of God?

imago dei is universal within the entirty of the human race. Meaning that even though we come in different colors, sizes, genders we all are made in the image of God. No one has more image than another.

Even though we all sin and do not live up to God’s glory. Sin does not remove the image of God.

Imago dei is primarily substantive. meaning that there is something special about how God made us that is the image of God. We can’t narrow it down to any one aspect of what makes people, imago dei. As a whole we are made that way and it isn’t dependant on anything else.

Our actions can reveal Gods image within us. The question becomes how well do we reveal it.

Application:

So what if we are made in the image of God right? How does that information affect your life anyway?

All people are intrinsically valuable. That means it isn’t your brains, or skills that determine your value. You are valuable simply because of imago dei.

If all people have this value, do you treat them like it? Today there was a school shooting here in GA. God doesn’t want us to murder anyone because they are imago dei. But it doesn’t even have to be that severe. God doesn’t want us bullying for the same reason.

What are some ways you can show others that they are made in the image of God?

Who can you show that they are loved by thier creator this week? How can you show them that love?