Made In God's Image

Genesis 1:26–27 NIV

26 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.” 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

I want to begin by talking about this idea of being made in the image of God from what you might call a purely worldly perspective. Pretend for a moment that none of us here were religious in any sense, that we were just material creatures that had evolved over many many thousands of centuries. And let’s ask ourselves about this very strange idea that in some sense our whole Western civilization is based on, this very strange idea that human being are made in the image of God....and what we mean by that…even as pure materialists is that each human being, no matter what their skin colour, their gender, their socio-economic status, their tribe, or nationality, each and every human being has intrinsic worth and dignity. Like where on earth did this idea come from?

Think about what Bertrand Russell wrote just over a century ago (British mathematician / philosopher):

“We are the product of causes that had no prevision of the end they were achieving. The hopes, fears, loves, and beliefs of our minds are just the outcome of the accidental collocation of atoms.” (Bertrand Russell, On Free Man’s Worship, 1903)

Or think about these words from Oliver Wendell Holmes, a chief justice in the US back in the early 20th century:

“Scientifically, I see no reason for attributing to a man a significance different in kind from that which belongs to a baboon or a grain of sand.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.)

…not a particularly high view of humanity....

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And you know, if you understand reality from a purely material perspective as these two individuals do, then of course the significance of a human being is no different than the significance of a baboon or a piece of wood.

But here is the fact of the matter: neither of the two gentleman that I mentioned, Bertrand Russell or Oliver Wendell Holmes IN PRACTICE treated other people like baboons or grains of sand....or like an accidental collocation of atoms.

And in an attempt to make my point, consider the topic of whether human beings actually have free will. True materialists deny the existence of “free will”. Human beings are not able to freely choose this or that behavior or outcome, because they are simply a conglomeration of water, and tissue, and organs, and bones, all controlled by chemically generated electrical impulses that flow back and forth to the brain. We are just biochemical machines, and machines do not have free will.

Listen to this quote from Francis Crick, who back in the 1990’s wrote a book called, The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul :

“You, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules. Who you are is nothing but a pack of neurons.” (Francis Crick)

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But here’s the thing, in practice we don’t treat people as if they don’t have free will. Try treating your spouse as if they don’t have free will and see how that works out, or your best friend. You won’t have a spouse or a friend for very long.

In practice we treat most everybody as though they are free, and a very good case can be made that says if people are doing that in practice than it’s because they are acting out what they believe to be true....that is they believe people are FREE.

So while it is true people may say people do not have free will, for most, their behaviour contradicts it.

And the reason why in practice most people we know treat others as though they have free will…and more than that, the reason why in practice most people believe every human being has intrinsic value, and because of that, basic human rights, the reason why is because of Genesis 1:26-27.

Mankind is created in the image of God.

In a book that was written 5 years ago by a British historian named Tom Holland, a book called, Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind, I book that I believe maybe one of the most important books written in recent history, Holland writes about the profound impact that a person named Jesus and a disciple of his named Paul had on Western civilization.

Listen to what he writes,

“That we are all of us possessed of certain fundamental rights, simply by virtue of being human, and of a dignity that embraces our entire species, are doctrines so widely accepted in contemporary Britain [and America] that many of us barely recognise them as doctrines at all.” (Tom Holland) (cf. Nancy Pearcey essay, https://evolutionnews.org/2023/09/the-meaning-of-the-image-of-god/)

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Another British historian named Larry Siedentop wrote a book called, Inventing the Individual: The Origins of Western Liberalism, and in it he writes this:

"Christian moral beliefs, particularly the idea that human beings are created in the image of God, provided the foundation for the emergence of the concept of individual rights. It was a belief that granted each person a unique moral worth and encouraged the development of ideas like equality before the law and personal freedom." (Larry Siedentop)

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That we in the West accept this understanding of the human species is because it is in the cultural air we breath…we don’t even recognize it.

The fact of the matter is, for much of human history, and for many cultures in the world, it wasn’t and isn’t always that way. Through most of human history people didn’t think that way about others. Why shouldn’t the stronger make use of the weaker? Why shouldn’t the smarter exercise control over those who are less intelligent?

Think about Israel’s own experience in Egypt. The Egyptians had no problem perceiving themselves as a superior people and using the Hebrews as slave labour to built their cities. Pharaoh had no problem issuing an order to kill all the male Hebrew babies that were born, because in his worldview, HE was made in the image of God....and the Hebrews were a growing threat for his empire.

Remember how last week briefly I talked about how the religions of the nations surrounding Israel described the creation of humankind? According to the Babylonian origin accounts, the god Marduk fashioned the heaven’s and the earth by splitting in half a dragon’s corpse. He said, ““I will make man, who shall inhabit the world, that the service of the gods may be established, and their shrines built.” And the story goes that instead of having his lesser gods be committed to perpetual work, he had created humanity out of a sticky compound of dust and blood in order that they might serve the gods as slaves.

Remember last week I mentioned there are numerous points of contact between the stories in Genesis and other origin stories.... here we have the mention of dust. In the Babylonian account, it’s dust mixed with blood…in Genesis it’s dust animated by the very breath of God!…to create his image bearer...

Well you’re saying, “Andrew no one today believes in the ancient origin accounts of Babylon and Egypt! [Your right!....but the origin account described in the Bible, held by the Judeo-Christian tradition has lasted to this very day…and that should say something to us..... like maybe its because it is true!]

But I digress...

Now think about this with me: Yes the ancient stories of human beings being the product of the gods taking dust and blood and creating them to serve as slaves is long gone....Human beings have no dignity or intrinsic value according to that view..... But how different is that than what contemporary scientists say today, that we are “an accidental collocation of atoms” and that we have no more significance than a baboon or a grain of sand.” It would seem to me that those statements give human beings even less dignity than the ancient Egyptians or Babylonians!

And yet here we live in a culture that for the most part continues to believe in the intrinsic worth and dignity of each and every human being. Why?

Well, because God, through his prophet named Moses, revealed to a people rescued from slavery, that he had created them and all humankind, male and female in his own image.

So what does Genesis mean by claiming that all people are made in the image of God.

What I’d like to do is take the remainder of the sermon to describe that—being made in the image of God--in four different but related ways:

1. Man’s Uniqueness

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The uniqueness of humankind.

We see that in the instructions given to mankind..... the other animals were called to multiply and fill the earth....but we are called to “subdue” it....which includes in it the idea of having authority over it....

Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament 951 כָבַשׁ

Therefore “subdue” in Gen 1:28 implies that creation will not do man’s bidding gladly or easily and that man must now bring creation into submission by main strength. It is not to rule man.

…and also the idea of having ruling or having dominion over all the other creatures…an expression of that is the naming of the animals in Gen. 2..... mankind is carrying out a godlike task in naming.

And of course we see that uniqueness in countless different ways..... think about our capacity for artistic expression in the broadest sense of the word.... Marianne’s painting… music, literature, construction, landscaping,....

LANGUAGE!!

…Man’s uniqueness....that’s one way of describing what it means to be created in the image of God....

[Maybe talk about actual Adam and Eve in an actual garden.... how could this be??? Mitichondrial-Eve and Y-Chromosonal Adam]

2. Signet Ring Image

[Picture of a signet ring]

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King / Pharaoh stamps his image on edicts…puts his image on buildings, columns, special / significant markers to indicate that the all these edicts and geographical places fall under the realm of his authority or his dominion.

Some believe that the author intends to evoke that image for us..... we are God’s signet ring so to speak.....all human beings are stamps of the divine that indicate how God’s authority and rule is to go out into all the earth....such that the whole of the earth is filled with the GLORY of God.... remember that word GLORY.....it too is an important idea for us to think about when describing what it means to be made in the image of God.

3. Angled Mirror Image

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Being made in the image of God is like an angled mirror. I first heard this image from NT scholar Tom Wright. We are those creatures that reflect the character, the goodness, the beauty, the purpose, the will....we might say, THE GLORY, of God into the world....explain.....

4. Reflecting / Refracting the Character of God

[Elaborating on pt. 3]

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[Moses in Tent of Meeting after the Golden Calf incident]

Exodus 33:12–13 NIV

12 Moses said to the Lord, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ 13 If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”

[God tells Moses to cut new stone tablets....and take them with him up the mountain a second time.

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Exodus 34:6–7 NIV

6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”

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So question might be, what is the GLORY of God..... compassion, grace, patience, love, faithfulness, justice.....

[Very important text in the OT....often is referenced....

Under Moses Israel experienced a veiled glory..... but in the age of the Spirit it is an unveiled glory...

2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV

18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

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Language of being transformed from one degree of glory to the next is not unlike the language of putting on the new self....

Colossians 3:10 NIV

10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

Colossians 3:12 NIV

12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

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We are called to put on the very qualities and characteristics of God....

So being made in the image of God means we have been given the task and calling to display the character of God in the way that we live our lives. What an extraordinarily high view of human beings!!

Think about that as we consider our daily lives.....

We know we fail to do that in so many ways....are not able to

We, because of our sin, reflect a distorted image of God into the world..... we need that image to be healed and renewed in us, so God came to us in the Person of His own Son....

Colossians 1:15 NIV

15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

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Christ has come to forgive us our sin....to remove the barrier between us and God....and it fill us with his own Presence....so that more and more....with ever increasingly glory we can display the radiance of God...