Of God and Man Part 1
Notes
Transcript
Today, we will begin our journey through the book of Genesis. It is the foundation for everything else the Bible says. The more we understand Genesis, the more we can understand the rest of the Bible. The book’s authorship is traditionally attributed to Moses. We hold that Moses is the author of the first five books of the Bible. Genesis tells the story of creation, the fall, and the beginning of God’s covenant relationship with Israel. It also tells the story of God’s faithfulness to his promises.
The book of Genesis starts where every good story starts: in the beginning. The Bible establishes in the first verse that all that is has come to be through a God who created it. God, by his nature, is outside of space, time, and matter because all things came into being through him. So if in a moment there was nothing and then there was something, God created those things.
The Genesis account spells out a six day creation process. On the first day, light is created and the concepts of day and night are invented. Each day’s work ends with a repeated phrase: There was evening and there was morning the first day, second day, third, day, and so on. The evening coming first is no mistake. The audience of this book is Jewish and that is how they reckon time. The day begins in the evening rather than ending like we see it. The second day the sky is formed. The third day seas and land are formed, and every plant on the ground is made. At this point, the earth is formed.
On day four all the stars, the moon, and the sun are formed and placed in the heavens. They exist for signs, seasons, for days and years. The placement of stars in the sky are so precise that we can track time with them, they are used in navigation, and they mark seasonal changes. There are models that have been developed that can track a star’s placement in the sky at virtually any point in history. They move at such a precise pattern that this is calculable. It’s not chance, it is design.
On days five and six, God fills the earth with creatures to occupy the spaces previously created. On day five, he creates birds and sea creatures. On day six he creates every creature that lives on land. This completes his creative process, and on day seven he rests, which we will get to in a moment.
There are a million questions we could ask about God, about creation, about reconciling Genesis with scientific data, and so many other things. Those are conversations we can have on Wednesdays, where we will go deeper in discussion after the sermon is preached each week.
The purpose of the first two chapters in Genesis are to introduce the reader to his Creator. So today, we are going to look at what the first chapter has to say about God, and what it then has to say about us. This is our origin story. Understanding this helps us have an immense appreciation for God and an appreciation for how he has made us.
From the outset, God is a creator. The beauty of the natural world is no accident or a product of chance. It is an intentional design from a creator God. But I want to focus not on the fact that he is a creator, but how he creates. At the outset of every day, it reads, “Then God said.” Nine times in this chapter, God is speaking something into existence or issuing a command to creatures that had been created. Then once that happened, there is another repeated phrase, “and it was so.” God is a speaking God and his words have power. He speaks and things happen.
The climax of God’s creative activity is day six when he creates man. God does something on this day that he doesn’t do any other day. He creates a creature in his own image, which is the subject for today’s sermon. Genesis 1:26-27 says,
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Now, Jesus says in John 4:24 that God is spirit. God does not have a physical body. He may appear physically to people throughout history, but strictly speaking, God is not physical like we are. God has no physical body, a nose, hands, feet, etc. So the image of God is not that we physically resemble God like our children physically resemble us. Rather, the image of God is deeper than that.
Being created in the image of God, we humans have some things in common with God, but don’t make us gods ourselves. First, we have been talking about God as creator. As image bearers of God, we are also given the capacity to create. This capacity is expressed through art, music, architecture, tech, and so many other things.
Now, it is true that we do not have the power to speak physical things into existence the way God spoke the universe into existence. But we do have the power to shape realities with our words. We can use words to build up or tear down. We can use our words to speak life or crush it. Our words can shape reality.
God has personhood. He is a living entity with a mind and a will of his own. He chooses freely to create. He has a design and a purpose in mind. He knows how far apart to set the stars. He knows the right makeup of our atmosphere to let us breathe. He rules over the earth as an authority and he has passed on that responsibility to us. Through the creation process, look at his intent. “Let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Other translations say that man has dominion over the earth. Part of being made in the image of God is the responsibility to exercise dominion over the whole earth.
God’s creation of us is functional. We were given an assignment, a job. Our first ancestors, Adam and Eve, were tasked with exercising representation on behalf of God to the rest of creation. This is not just about being in charge or being at the top of the food chain. But there is a stark difference between us and every other creature that roams the earth. We are light years ahead of every other creature. This is not an accident. This is part of a design.
Also part of his design is Sabbath, which is introduced to us in the beginning of chapter two. God completes his creation, and then rests. He rests not because he needs to, or is tired, but because there was nothing left to be done. It doesn’t mean God didn’t do anything, he just didn’t add anything new to the creation. The word rest in Hebrew is similar not to sleeping, but that of a rest in music. A rest in music is a pause in the playing of notes. No new notes are played, yet there is still activity. Rest here represents the perfection of creation, whereas after the Fall, it became a goal to be sought. Rest is important for us and included in God’s design.
But here is what I want you to see. Like God, we are capable of things like rational thought, exercising a will, love, compassion, justice, mercy, wrath, and so many other attributes. Much of what makes us human makes us made in the image of God. These attributes, though not exactly the same as God’s are a reflection of God in us. The most important aspect is that of representing God to the rest of creation. This is what Jesus did perfectly in the 33 years he lived on this earth.
The primary mission of man is to represent God to the rest of creation. Jesus, as God in flesh, did this perfectly. Where Adam failed, Christ succeeded. Adam’s sin was a departure from God’s design and purpose to embrace a different purpose. Christ submitted himself perfectly to God’s will, making him a perfect substitute for us. He offered himself on a cross to take the punishment of our sin so that we could be reunited with him in relationship, but it is through that relationship that we learn to live out our God-given purpose all the way back in Genesis 1 — represent God to the rest of creation.
We just finished a sermon series on church membership and in that series we talked about our responsibilities as members of the church. Every Christian belongs to the family of God. Every Christian is a representative of that family. Galatians 4:4-5 says,
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,
so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
We have received adoption. Just as an adopted child receives full status as a child of the adoptive parents, so you and I are just as much sons and daughters as Christ is. This doesn’t mean we are Christs; this simply means we are just as much heirs as Christ is.
Romans 8:16-17 says,
The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,
and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
Everything that Christ has is something we share in. Part of our eternal hope is not just eternal life, but a quality of life that shares in the riches of our Father. As we wait for the culmination of things, we have been given a mission. Just as Jesus has represented God the Father on earth, so are we to represent our Father to the rest of creation. This was man’s intended purpose. To have dominion over the earth is to exercise our representative status from God to the rest of the earth.
Paul tells the Corinthian church in 2 Corinthians 5:17-21,
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,
namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
We are new creatures, and part of being a new creature is to accurately represent our Father who has adopted us. In our mission to represent him is the task of inviting other people to experience family life. We want to introduce them to our Dad. We want them to experience what living life as a part of his family is like. Then we want to offer them an opportunity to join the family. The good news is God is always looking to add more children to his family. He created you. He created you for a purpose, and while life remains difficult and messy, when we are living out the purpose God has for us as children, there is nothing more satisfying on the face of the earth.
Your origin story is that God created the heavens and the earth. Then he created you. But he created you with a purpose that has been tainted by the sin in your life. We are all born into it, but Christ came to free us from it. The Bible says if we will turn from our sins and believe in Jesus, we will be saved. We will be brought into his family. Is there anyone here today that needs to put their trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins?
For those of us who already believe, this is your moment to get right before the Lord. Have you been representing your Father well? Or have you compartmentalized your Christian walk from the rest of your life? Everywhere you go, you are called to represent Jesus through ethics, through relationships, through your work, and every facet of life. Where did you fall short this week? Have you and God had a conversation about that? During the invitation, you will have the opportunity to do that. Let’s pray together.
