Genesis 2:4-25

Genesis 2:4-17

All of humanity has inherent value and moral responsibility as image bearers of God.

Jesus’ ministry was building steam, gaining traction, and increasing followers. He was healing the sick, teaching with authority, and stumping the religious scholars. Everyone wanted a piece of Him. To be close.

Matthew 19:13–15 “Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, [14] but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” [15] And he laid his hands on them and went away.” (ESV)

Those that the disciples thought unworthy of Jesus are the ones to whom the kingdom of heaven belongs. They receive their blessing.

It wasn’t just the children that would be received this way. It was of course the average Jew. But it was women. Shepherds. Lepers. The physically broken. Samaritans. Romans.

Those thought to be less than, unworthy, undignified.

But Jesus sees them for who they are and calls them to life. Real life, what they were meant for.

In a similar way, a whole people, a nation, for generations enslaved, told they were good for nothing but hard labor, finally freed. Wandering toward a new home, they are given this account that tells them who they are, and how they should live to thrive.

No longer less than. Something greater, given dignity. Responsibility.

In this account of the heavens and the earth when they were created we might gain some perspective on who we are and how we should live to thrive… and trust me, it’s good.

Imago Dei, coram Deo.

All of humanity has inherent value and moral responsibility as image bearers of God.

Imago Dei

Chapter 2 of Genesis is loaded, in fact I cut it in two! Really starts at verse 4 with “this is the account.” All complementary to what we saw in chapter 1, this is the creation of humanity.

Genesis 1:26–27 “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.”

[27] So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.” (ESV)

As those that would have dominion over the fish of the seas and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

Not the same as the other creatures, unique, with a different mandate.

Genesis 2:7 “then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. (ESV)

The work of the Lord in creating human life involved both fashioning from the dust and inbreathing. The word formed (from yāṣar, 2:7) describes the work of an artist. Like a potter shaping an earthen vessel from clay, so God formed man from mud. Man was made by divine plan; also he was made from the earth. He is “earthy”...

“God’s breathing the breath of life into man transformed his form into a living being (lit., “a living soul”). This made man a spiritual being, with a capacity for serving and fellowshiping with God.” Allen P. Ross

Reserved only for humanity.

In his Systematic Theology, Louis Berkhof writes, “According to Scripture the essence of man consists in this, that he is the image of God. As such he is distinguished from all other creatures and stands supreme as the head and crown of the entire creation.”

We hear these words for ourselves. Our value given by God, made to worship him, from dust, what he says is what matters.

“Here the metaphor of shared “breath” suggests a correspondence between Adam and his Maker that was expressed in Genesis 1:27 in the language of “image.” This man of dust is in the image of God! Only he of all creation can hear the word of God. Under God, he is to rule creation itself.” Hughes

Barista - saying we are just the universe experiencing itself.  ‘Oh no, you are so much more than that!’

It’s not only for the individual though.

Why make us in his image? To show himself.

“Images are created to image. If you create an image, if you make a sculpture of someone, you do it to display something about that someone. You put it in the square in the middle of town, and you want people to look at it, notice it, think about that person, think something about them — that they were noble or strong or wise or courageous or something.

Now what would it mean if you created seven billion statues of yourself and put them all over the world? It would mean you would want people to notice you. God created us in his image so that we would display or reflect or communicate who he is, how great he is, and what he is like. Here’s the picture in my mind. I was created like a mirror. And a mirror that was supposed to be 45 degrees with the clear reflective side pointing upward so that as God shone on it at the 45 degree angle, it would bounce off, and it would make a 90 degree turn and be reflected out into the world.” John Piper (Ask Pastor John)

Now, for animals, who cares! But for Israel in the wilderness, for us. To be reminded of who we are, of who God is. Yes, sin would deface the image of God but still each has dignity, worth, and is invited to see Jesus reilluminate the image to its intended brilliance!

This changes what we see in the mirror each morning. This changes what we see in the streets. Might it bring us to cherish humanity? Imaging the God who so loved image bearers that he would take on flesh himself to redeem us from sin and death.

When I turn from staring out the window thinking of God long enough, and see the people around me, I begin to gain a clearer picture of those he loves, those that bear his image.

In an age where devaluing our neighbors, and certainly strangers, is a sport, Genesis 2 brings us back to something more pure, more Christlike.

“If all human life bears God’s thumbprint, the way we view and treat any life we come in contact with should be radically transformed. When the imago Dei is forgotten, our communities, our nations, and our world fall to pieces. In fact, there can be no communion with another if we act or speak as though he or she was somehow created with less than God’s full enterprise.” Tony Beard on repenting for viewing “people of Walmart”

C.S. Lewis in his sermon on Christian glory – to be delighted in by God – as the only match for our deepest desire, said this:

“It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbor.

“The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken.

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.

“All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations.

“It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.

“There are no ordinary people.

“You have never talked to a mere mortal.

“Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat.

“But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.

“This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn.

“We must play.

“But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.

“And our charity must be real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment.

“Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.” —The Weight of Glory (HarperOne, 2001), pp. 45-46.

This shapes how we see, how we treat those around us, how we speak of them near and far. How we compel them to come to the table. How we welcome. Who we deem worthwhile.

Rendering to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s begins with seeing his image in those he has made.

May we see it more and more.

Coram Deo

We not only carry an image, we do so before God.

Image bearers tend. Adam is put in the garden, a place of abundance and beauty, fertility and vibrancy.

We don’t know where it was - we’ve been kicked out. I used to live on the banks of the Tigris, and trust me, it was no Eden!

Adam was to work it and keep it. Subduing the earth. Creative like our Creator.

In creation God is bringing order, then places man in the garden and tells him to bring order.

As we talked about a couple of weeks ago, In the garden God establishes the dignity of all work. We are workers, thinkers, rebuilders, bringing order to the gardens where he places us. All of it images the Creator.

Toil is part of the experience since the fall, but it won’t always be. Reclaiming a Genesis, Biblical view of work will change our perspective too.

Watching some of the recovery of the LA wildfires (always at the end of the newscast), neighbors serving each other, reveals what it is supposed to look like.

[Dorothy Sayers, during World War II, came to understand … She said an entire culture had the biblical view of work forced on them, and everybody was happier during World War II in Britain than they were before or after: “The habit of thinking about work as something one does to make money and to get a position in society is so ingrained in us that we can scarcely imagine what a revolutionary change it would be to think otherwise.

“So often people become doctors not primarily to relieve suffering, but because they want to bring themselves and their families up in the world. People become lawyers not because they have a passion for justice, but just to bring themselves and their families up in the world. During World War II, one of the great surprises many had in the army was they found themselves, for the very first time in their lives, happy. Why?

“For the first time in their lives, they found themselves doing something not for the pay, because it was miserable, and not for the social standing, because everybody was thrown in together, but for the sake of getting something done that needed doing.” “Work is the gracious expression of creative energy in the service of others.” Dorothy Sayers

Work is a burden, we provide, we have responsibility, but in Christ now it need not define us, and following both the Genesis 2 and New Testament framework we increasingly use it to reflect the glory of God to other image bearers. It is how we hold the mirror.

Bringing shalom wherever we are.

The image lived under God’s rule.

“To live coram Deo is to live one’s entire life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, to the glory of God.” R.C. Sproul

From breathing life, to giving purpose, then comes moral responsibility. There is an order established by God, authority that is to be followed for life, for flourishing.

Genesis 2:16–17 “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, [17] but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (ESV)

There are a number of opinions of what this knowledge really was about. Related to God’s authority.

“The knowledge of good and evil means the ability and power to determine what is good and what is evil. Of course, this is God’s prerogative alone. He has never delegated moral autonomy to any of his creatures.” Victor P. Hamilton

The temptation to eat from “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” was to seek wisdom without reference to the word of God. It was a claim of moral autonomy deciding what is right without reference to God’s revealed will.

Autonomy humanity does not have.

This tree of the knowledge of good and evil is about me deciding what is right and wrong, seizing Yahweh’s authority.

Biggest foreshadowing in all of Scripture…

Conversation with a dear friend about things of faith, where she said “my God would never be so restrictive…” and my response was “under what authority do you make that claim?!”

But I don’t even need to point the finger at my old friend. I can look at myself, and see all the ways I listen to the crafty little serpent and think I could be God myself. I could decide what I do is right, and what everyone else does is wrong…

It’s the human condition, we are convinced that our feelings, or desires should rule and lay claim on right and wrong. Or the only wrong that exists in our age is that which restricts the exercise of any urge or appetite, however greedy, lustful, murderous, or hateful.

Some of the most significant in our day relate to Genesis 1 and 2; did God really only create male and female… and in establishing marriage, is it really exclusively for one man and one woman.

[It was an act of moral autonomy — deciding what is right without reference to God’s revealed will. This is confirmed by Ezekiel 28 (the closest parallel to Genesis 2 — 3), which tells how the King of Tyre was expelled from Eden for his pride and for claiming that his heart was “like the heart of a god” (cf. 28:6, 15-17).22 Adam and Eve desired wisdom, but they sought it outside of the word and will of God. They usurped God’s role in determining what is right and wrong. So here we get to the very heart of original sin. It was to sidestep God and his word and will in order to become wise. Moral autonomy brings death. “I did it my way” is an autonomous dirge of death.]

“At the fall, Satan persuaded me that my image is more beautiful than God’s image, and so I flip the mirror over. Now the black back side is toward God. It doesn’t reflect anything. Instead, the mirror casts a shadow in the shape of itself on the ground, and I fell in love with the shadow. That is what happened. And we have been loving ourselves ever since.” Piper

Why even give us this moral responsibility? Just leave us in the garden naked and happy!

“Naked Adam lacked nothing. He was made in the image of God. God had kissed life into him. He was perfect. He was the human sovereign of creation. He had the blessing of God and the unparalleled presence of God. Adam “speaks and walks with God as if they belong to one another,” writes Bonhoeffer.

So why do it? Why give us the option?

Image bearers will have to surrender to his way, and it will eventually reveal the One who is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature.

The One who faithfully lives under God’s rule for us to be made morally right.

Because it forces the question that only Jesus can answer.

Mark 8:34–38 “And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. [35] For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. [36] For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? [37] For what can a man give in return for his soul? [38] For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” (ESV)

“In salvation, two things happen. The mirror gets turned around, and we see the glory of God again, and the defilement that had gone over the face of it gets wiped off gradually, and we begin to reflect God. So I think being created in the image of God means that we image God. We reflect God. We live in a way, we think in a way, we feel in a way, we speak in a way that calls attention to the brightness of the glory of God.” Piper

We come to the end of ourselves, turn from our attempts to rule, and say to our Creator, “your way is better.” That we would deny ourselves, our feelings, desires, flesh, to take up the cross to follow Jesus. Who gave his life to save ours from sin and death, and in his resurrection inaugurates a new humanity brightly bearing the image of God, bringing peace and good news, his kingdom to earth.

New inbreathing of His Spirit, a new “garden” to work and keep, a law of love to live under, surrendering our way to his.

It is where our ultimate value is found. A moral responsibility lived for us. So now we might live before him.

Like children, who gatekeepers said were unworthy, but to whom Jesus says the kingdom belongs.

All of humanity has inherent value and moral responsibility as image bearers of God.

Know your worth - You bear the image of God. Uniquely made for his glory. Made to be loved by him.

Live Before Him - Embrace Jesus’ redeeming work for you. That all the wrong is being made right in him. Surrender your way for his. It is where peace is found. Rest. Righteousness. Eternity. What you were made for.

Be and Find the Reflection - Let others see your awe of the glory of God in Christ. Love other image bearers appropriately! Find others reflecting God’s glory and shine brightly together. Commit to keeping your “mirrors” pointed in the right direction, come what may.

Maybe the church is meant to be a little community garden, soil to be worked and kept, until Jesus brings us to the new garden. A community garden that gives space to all those the elites say were unworthy or too far, all those who bear the image of God, who find freedom and real life in Jesus, who brilliantly reflect the glory of God.

May it be so in us.