SF749 - IN THE IMAGE OF GOD (Genesis 1 24-31)

Genesis 1:24-31

Introduction

Man and the animals were both created on the sixth day

Is man created in the image of God or is God created in the imagination of man?

Did God make man or did man make God.

Three possible answers…

Evolution - man came from animals

Ø Nothing x Nobody = Everything

Theistic Evolution - blend the two

Ø If God did it any way other than what Genesis 1 says then God is a liar and the Bible is untrue.

Creation - God created man

There is a Relationship between the Man and the Animals

1A. The Comparison of Man and the Animals

1B. We are similar in design with the animals

We share common traits

Ø Does not prove evolution

Similarities in design of buildings do not prove that the evolved.

Ø Doghouse to mansion does not prove that the mansion evolved from the doghouse.

We are similar design because we are designed to live in the same environment.

2B. We are similar in diet with the animals (1:29-30)

This does not prove evolution

Ø Eating the same things does not mean we evolved from each other.

A motorcycle and a car both use gasoline.

Ø This does not mean a car evolved from a motorcycle.

3B. We are similar in death with the animals

Genesis 2:17 (NASB) 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die."

Because of sin, death entered the world

Ø God made man with the capacity to live forever, when Adam sinned all of creation was cursed with death.

Ecclesiastes 3:19-20 (NASB) 19 For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies so dies the other; indeed, they all have the same breath and there is no advantage for man over beast, for all is vanity. 20 All go to the same place. All came from the dust and all return to the dust.

2A. The Contrast of Man and the Animals (1:26-27)

1B. Man has personality

Possesses knowledge, feelings, and will.

2B. Man has a desire to know God (1:26-27)

The image of God in not physical it is spiritual

Man has a mental likeness to God

Colossians 3:10 (ESV) 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

Ø We have a God-given ability to think and reason.

Man has a moral likeness to God

Ephesians 4:24 (NASB) 24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

Man has the ability to worship; animals never worship

Ø Man is never fulfilled without God

3B. Man has dominion over creation (1:26)

Animals do not have this ability

Man has corrupted his dominion

Jesus is the perfect example of man’s dominion

Ø The beasts, His triumphant entry He rode and unbroken donkey.

Ø The birds, the rooster crowed at the right time

Ø Fish, tax time

4B. Man is depraved because of the Fall

Animals cannot sin

The ability to sin sets us apart from the animals

5B. Man has a sense of his destiny

Animals do not know they are going to die

Man knows he is going to die and tries to forget it

Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NASB) 11 He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.

Ø Man does not believe in immortality because he has proven it. He desperately tries to prove it because he believes in it.

Ø He believes in it because God has put eternity in his heart.

Ø You cannot cease to exist anymore than God can cease to exist.

Animals do not live forever - Men do.

6B. Man is responsible to God

Because he is God’s creation

Because he has dominion over the rest of God’s creation

Revelation 20:12 (NASB) 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.

Application

You are made in God’s Image!

He created you in Adam.

Romans 5:12 (NASB) 12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—

Now, He will re-create you in Christ.

Romans 5:17 (NASB) 17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

Are you ready for death?

Genesis 1:24-31

1A. The Comparison of Man and the Animals

1B. We are similar in _______________ with the animals

2B. We are similar in _____________ with the animals (1:29-30)

3B. We are similar in ____________ with the animals (2:17)