The Divine Blueprint: God’s Original Design for Family

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Yesterday Eli had his first basketball tournament. Knowing this was his first ever and that he had never played basketball before and that he does not have an aggressive bone in his body. Apart from having fun, it wasn’t a very productive day for him.

But something I noticed about yesterday, you could tell the teams that had a plan to win. They had a blueprint for victory, and it started long before the kids got out on the court.

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Just like in 4th grade basketball, if you want your family to be victorious, you need to have a blueprint.

God has given us a divine blueprint for family, his original design for victorious family life!

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I am starting a new series today entitled, “Family Matters, Finding wholeness in a broken world.”

In this series we will be looking at how and why we should be investing in a godly blueprint for our family.

It is not by accident that people’s biggest regret when they die is not making more money, spending more time at work, or expanding their portfolio more.

In all my research I found there were a couple common regrets that ran through all the articles.

Expressing Love,

Not letting Fear determine decisions,

Spending Time with those they love,

living a life of Meaning and purpose.

Living a life that you don’t regret revolves around living the life you were designed to live.

The Bible give us some instructions on what our lives were designed to be like and how we are suppose to live.

Genesis 1:26–28

“26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” 27 So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.””

God’s divine blueprint for man leads us to live as his Image Bearers!

One way to understand how we bear god’s image is to see how we don’t bear God’s image.

It is not male or female, while the word for God is masculine, we are not made in his image as male or female.

vs 27 says “in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.” Notice they are both made in the image of God!

It is not because of any physical aspect we have.

John 4:24 “24 For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.””

If God is spirit then our image of him can not be because of any physical aspect we have.

It is not because we are without sin.

Consider Genesis 9:6 “6 If anyone takes a human life, that person’s life will also be taken by human hands. For God made human beings in his own image.” After the fall, sinful man is still said to be in the image of God.

We also see this in James 3:8–9 “8 but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison. 9 Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God.”

James is using being in the likeness of the image of God in our present condition as an argument for why we shouldn’t curse each other. We were created in God’s image and we stay in God’s image.

So if we are not made in God’s image in any of these ways how are we made in God’s image?

I think we find part of the answer in the next chapter of Genesis, chapter 2 in vs 7.

Genesis 2:7 “7 Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.”

We find here that God did something with man he did not do with anything else. He breathed the breath of life into the man.

When God breathed into man it wasn’t just breath he gave him, for he gave that to all the animals also, but when God breathed into man the breath of life, he also breathed into man an eternal spirit.

The thing that separates us from the animals is our eternal state. But God gives man something else he didn’t give to any of his other creation, a responsibility.

Genesis 1:28 “28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.””

God gave man the responsibility to be fruitful and multiply fill the earth. But also to govern it, to reign over the other created order.

God didn’t tell other creation to be fruitful and multiply or fill the earth or govern it or reign over other animals.

In doing this he is telling man to make independent decisions.

Genesis 2:18–25

“18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” 19 So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. 20 He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man. 23 “At last!” the man exclaimed. “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’ ” 24 This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. 25 Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.”

Psalm 70:5 “But as for me, I am poor and needy; please hurry to my aid, O God. You are my helper and my savior; O Lord, do not delay.”

Psalm 146:5 “But joyful are those who have the God of Israel* as their helper, whose hope is in the Lord their God.”

Hosea 13:9 ““You are about to be destroyed, O Israel— yes, by me, your only helper.”

Ephesians 5:31–33

“31 As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” 32 This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. 33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”

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