Beginnings: Our Idenity

Introduction

Good morning and welcome back!

If you will start turning in your Bibles back to .

If you recall from last week, we started in and started looking at the question of Who are We—and—What is our purpose?

And all of that really relates to our overall identity in God.

And this morning we are going to stay on that same topic, but we are going to push it forward just a little bit.

Now, last week, we primarily stayed in the first part of , in the period I would call “pre-human” or the time period before God created us.

But this morning we are going to be looking at the creation of humanity by God found in .

And just like we saw last week when we looked at the creation of the universe and the earth, in the creation of humanity, all three person’s of God are once again represented.

And while that is a small fact, it is a very important fact to remember.

When God does something, God is “all-in,” meaning that that all three persons (Father, Son, and Spirit) that make up our Holy Trinity are involved.

All three will play a very specific role in everything but you will never find the Father doing something absent of the Son and Spirit and the same holds true with the Son and the Spirit.

All are always involved.

And it has to be this way, otherwise, we wouldn’t have One God, but we would have three gods that we worship.

For instance look at the some of the ancient religions that were centered around Roman and Greek mythology.

They all had multiple gods doing all sorts of things and often times in conflict with one another.

Even some of our modern religions like Hinduism, they have hundreds of gods.

We have religions that say that we are all “little gods.”

Others say that we are possessed and controlled by little aliens who are our gods.

There is all sorts of crazy stuff out there, but the reality is, we believe in and worship the One True God, who is Three in One.

Again, we don’t understand it all, but we take it by faith because in our soul, we know it to be true.

So, like I pointed out last week, God took great care in the creation of everything—including us.

And we concluded with the fact that we are actually an expression of God’s love and we are also expected to extend that same expression of love toward others.

And that began to help establish our identity.

And this morning as we go forward, we are going to be exploring more about our identity and who we actually are and who we are meant to be.

So, if you have found in your Bibles, I’d invite you stand with me as we read, starting in verse 26 . . .

Scripture Focus

Genesis 1:26–2:3 NIV - Anglicised

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” 29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. 1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

Let Us Make Them In Our Image (vs 26-27)

So, again we start out with God and the creation of humanity.

And I am always careful to point out that God created Humanity because sometimes, even Christians are confused and dismiss the creation of woman by God.

They think because it says “Let us make man” that this means that God only created man and since God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep when Eve was created that somehow the creation of Eve was less than that of man.

Well, that is just wrong.

The literal translation here of “man” is “humanity” or “human-kind.” Also, later on when it does talk about how God created Eve from the rib of Adam, the term “help-mate” actually means, “co-equal partner.”

It doesn’t mean servant or less than.

Man and Woman were created to be in a partnership and a communion with each other, just like God and humans are supposed to be in partnership and communion with each other.

However, just like sin separates humans from God, sin also has caused division and issues between men and women.

And one last point on this before we move on, the idea that women have one less rib than men do is also wrong.

That is an old wives tale that came about before they started doing autopsies on people.

Men and women have the same number of ribs.

We all have 12 (six on each side).

And people will argue and say that’s not true because “that’s not what the Bible says.”

The truth is the Bible says nothing about how many ribs we have.

The Bible says that God took one of Adams ribs, not that God took a rib from all humanity.

In fact, think about it this way.

If you chopped off a finger when you were a kid, does that mean that your kids and grand-kids and every generation after you will only have 9 fingers?

No—And it’s no different that if God takes a rib from Adam.

Adam just went through life with one less rib.

Eve had all 12 of hers and so did all of their kids, grand-kids, and every generation since then.

And I know that this doesn’t have a lot to do with the sermon topic at hand, but it’s important because we need to always be Biblically literate.

The reason being is when we approach people wanting the share the gospel and we come to them with ideas and beliefs that are NOT true and NOT Biblically supported, then it takes away our credibility.

And if we cannot be trusted with those things, then we cannot be trusted to be able to share the truth about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In our modern day, we have got to know our Bibles.

But, back to the beginning and the creation of all of us.

It starts out there in verse 26 . . .

Genesis 1:26–27 NIV - Anglicised

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

First major point here, which we did cover a lot of last week, Then God said “Let US make man in our image, in our likeness...”

Key points from this God is saying, “Us” and “our” here.

Who is “us” and “our?”

We already know the answer, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit.

All three are involved in the creation process of humanity, but there is another point here.

“In our image and our likeness...”

Notice it did not say in the image and likeness of God the Father or in the image and likeness of God the Son or even the image and likeness of God the Spirit.

We are created in the image and likeness of all three.

From God the Father we receive our emotions and intellect.

From God the Son we receive our physical appearance and physical make-up.

From God the Spirit we receive our souls.

And it takes all three to be a complete human being.

You take even one away and you do not have a human being any more.

And again, remember we are created as an expression of God, who is Love—so we are the ultimate expression of God’s love and we are to express that love as well.

And we do so in a communal nature.

We are created to live in community and to interact with one another, with God, with all creation.

That is what we are built for.

Sin damages the quality of that interaction, but we long for it.

That is why social media is so popular.

We can be disconnected but connected at the same time.

But the ultimate interaction and commune is with God—which we all seek.

Also, God didn’t just put us here to twiddle our thumbs either.

Look at the last part of verse 26… “let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creations that move along the ground.”

Now the KJV translates “rule” as “dominion” which is closer to the actual meaning.

The actual meaning here is not to rule with an iron fist and do whatever we want with God’s creation.

It is more closely aligned with being God’s representative and steward over creation.

We are charged with caring for all creation, not to just do whatever we want whenever we want to whoever or whatever we want.

That is the definition of a tyrant.

And I am not a naturalist or environmentalist and understand that God gives us resources to use, but we MUST be responsible in how we use the resources that God gives us.

And all of the animals—some we eat, some we don’t, but even the ones we eat, our charge is to care for them, not treat them like possessions and trash.

Remember Christians are supposed to be an expression of God’s love in all things, not just toward other people.

So, it is actually a big job that God has given us—His representative.

Care For the Earth and All In It (vs 28-2:3)

Which brings us to the next part here.

In verse 28, it goes on . . . .

Genesis 1:28–30 NIV - Anglicised

28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” 29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

So we see here an extension of what we have already talked about.

First God tells Adam and Eve to be fruitful and increase in number—actually the KJV says it better, it says to “be fruitful and multiple, and replenish the earth.

One of humanity’s job is to fill the earth with God’s human beings.

And when you are killing babies through abortion, you are committing not just the sin of murder, but you are also violating God’s command to replenish the earth.

We are also supposed to “subdue” the earth, or better defined as “bring it under our control.”

And that control is one of order and not the chaos that we see going on around the world.

There was a time when even the wildest of animals would not mes with a human being because we were “the boss.”

But not now—and not for a long time.

And all of that was a result of sin corrupting and twisting the natural order of things.

We often think about Satan’s work as something that was just aimed toward human beings but it wasn’t.

Satan’s attack was not solely on Adam and Eve, it was against all creation.

He just used them as the avenue to hatch his plan.

And we continue to bear the scars of all of that today.

And the only way to fix what sin has broken is to have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

That is the only way possible.

And we need to realize that before it is too late.

But, finishing up the creation account . . .

It Was Good (vs 31-2:3)

Genesis 1:31–2:3 NIV - Anglicised

31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. 1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

Genesis 1:

Altar Call

And there is a whole other sermon in that but this is where God wants us to end this morning.

Verse 31— God saw all that he made, it was very good.

That’s what we need to hear this morning.

The message that what God has created is “very good.”

Even in the mess sin has made, God’s creation is “very good.”

And that means in God’s eyes, we—our soul—are “very good.”

Now that doesn’t mean the sin we carry and the ugliness it brings out is very good.

It means that God sees the good and the potential in all of His creation.

And God wants to fix the things that make us not so “very good.”

God wants us to find our identity in Him and not in all the other things in the world.

But the only way we can do that is if we give ourselves over to Him fully.

If we embrace Him and His ways.

If we accept Jesus Christ.

If we allow the Holy Spirit to mold and change us from the inside out.

If we can do that then we will find our identity and we will be change and it will be “very good.”

But we have to be willing.

So this morning, the real question is, are we willing?

Are we willing to come and lay everything on God’s altar?

Are we willing to let go of the sin that weighs us down and holds us back?

Even if we have accepted Christ and are a Christian, there are still things that hold us back.

Are we willing to come and let go of those things so that we can move closer to God?

What is it that we are looking for this morning?

We can find it if we are willing to look for it.

Are we willing this morning?