What Is Man?
Lesson 3. Genesis 1:26-31
Audio PlayerTwo weeks ago we started our study of Genesis by looking at God as the creator of all things. Last time we dealt with the six days of creation in Genesis 1 in a very general way. Today in our third lesson I want to focus on the later part of day six, God’s creation of mankind. What is man? Humans have pondered that question since the beginning of history. Every philosophy and religion has its own answer. Shakespeare’s Hamlet reflecting at first admirably then despairingly on humanity said,
“What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world. The paragon of animals. And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me.”
When Stephen Hawking was asked why he was so resistant to the conclusion—suggested by so many converging lines of evidence—that man may well be the only intelligent life in the universe. He replied:
“The human race is just a chemical scum on a moderate-sized planet, orbiting around a very average star in the outer suburb of one among a hundred billion galaxies. We are so insignificant that I can’t believe the whole universe exists for our benefit.”
Genesis tells a whole different story. Mankind is the crown of God’s creation. We have already seen that God made many wonders in His creation: light from darkness; the expanse of the sky from the waters; dry land and vegetation in all its awe-inspiring variety; the sun, moon, and stars in their vast array; the seas teeming with all kinds of fish and the air filled with birds; the multitude of animals that move over the earth. All of it is so spectacular, so immense, so intricate, so complex, so beautiful, so diverse that we simply cannot even fathom it all. David in Psalm 8 ponders the wonders of the cosmos singing (Ps. 8:3), “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained.” Then having considered the vast starry host of the heavens David asks (Ps. 8:4), “What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?”
“What is man?” Someone has said there are three great questions we all must answer if life is to have any meaning: Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going? The first question is the most fundamental. How you answer it determines how you will answer the other two. Genesis 1 begins to tell the answer to all three. Listen to our text: Genesis 1:26-31,
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, 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. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
29 And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. 30 Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. 31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
On this sixth day God made the land animals in Genesis 1:24-25 then God created mankind in the same day. Man shares some things in common with the animals. The word “man” here is adam and is related to the word adamah, meaning ground. It can mean a man or all mankind, both male and female. It will become the personal name of the first man in the following chapters. Later in Genesis 2:7 we read that “God formed man of the dust of the ground” like God did the other creatures in Genesis 1:24 saying, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature…” The same Hebrew word, nephesh, meaning a breathing creature or living being is used of man (Gen. 2:7) and the other animals as well (Gen. 1:20,24,30). God provided vegetation for food for both animals and man (Gen. 1:29-30). Humans share these biological things in common with the animals because God created them and us both to dwell in the environment of the earth.
Yet Genesis also shows a significant difference when God creates man. God creates mankind separate from the animals. Man is the apex of God’s creative work. Genesis shows this in several ways (Dr. Robert S. Rayburn). First, God creates man as the final act of this creation week. Everything else seems to set the stage for man. Second, man’s creation gets more attention than any other creative work. Not only is the account longer here in Genesis 1, but God will give more detail about it in Genesis 2. Third, it is the only creative act about which God deliberates (Gen. 1:26), “Let us make man.” Fourth, only mankind, male and female, are created in God’s image and likeness. Moses uses the word “created” three times in Genesis 1:27 emphasizing God’s special creation of man as male and female. Fifth, God gives man dominion over the rest of creation on the earth. And sixth, God speaks directly to them, not just about them, when He blesses them (Gen. 1:28-29). So mankind is unique in God’s creation.
Yet we come back to the question: What is man? Our text teaches us that man is created in the image and likeness of God. This defines man’s origin, his worth, his purpose and his destiny. Man’s dignity and worth are not assigned by man, but they are intrinsic to man because he has been created in the image of God. Man’s worth is directly related to his origin. We are created to reflect the image of God.
In this passage there is first a:
1. Divine deliberation
Genesis 1:26 records, “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” Like the rest of God’s creative actions this verse begins with God speaking. But immediately we notice a striking difference in what God says. All the other times Genesis 1 God said, “Let there be” or an equivalent impersonal command. Here God speaks in the first person plural form, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” What are we to understand from this? Jewish scholars usually explain this as God talking to the angelic host. But Scripture is clear that God did not take counsel with the angels when He created (Isa. 40:12-26; 44:24), and besides, God didn’t create man in the image of Himself along with the angels. Genesis 1:27 says He creates us in “His image” and “the image of God.” The bible never says that angels are in God’s image or that man is in the image of the angels (Heb. 1). Is this a “royal we” like when Queen Victoria famously said, “We are not amused”? No, here God seems to be taking deliberate counsel with Himself.
While it would go too far to say that the plural pronoun teaches the doctrine of the Trinity, the seeds of this truth are planted here. The full teaching of one God in three persons does not unfold until Christ comes in the New Testament and the Holy Spirit is given at Pentecost. But this divine deliberation lays a foundation for the later revelation of that truth. I believe what we have here is a consultation among the persons of the Godhead prior to the creation of man.
Why is that important? Because when God creates mankind, for the first time in the creation story we see God in relationship. Prior to this God speaks and creates alone. But now He speaks and creates in a relationship. God is a person. He exists the relationship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And this gives us a clue to the meaning of the image of God in man. When God made mankind in His image, He created us in the context of relationship. God made us as persons, He made us for relationship.
That brings us to the,
2. Divine Image
What is the image and likeness of God? Image comes from a word that means to shape. It means a representative figure. This word is often used in the Old Testament for an idol, something made to represent a god. Likeness means resemblance or having similar attributes. Image and likeness are probably meant to be synonyms; the one phrase clarifies and emphasizes the other.
What does it mean? First, the image and likeness of God cannot mean that we physically resemble God. We know from the rest of scripture that God is not a corporeal being, God is spirit (Gen. 1:2; John 4:24; 2 Cor. 3:17; 1 Tim. 1:17). Although the bible often uses anthropomorphic language when speaking of God (cf. God’s hand, Exo. 7:5; face, Num. 6:25; arm, Ps. 89.10; eyes, Deut. 11:12; ear Neh. 1:6), we should not take that to mean God has a body like ours. It is clear that God made us biologically and physically similar to the animals because we all live in earth’s environment. Maybe we can understand it this way (Henry Morris, The Genesis Record): although God Himself has no physical body, He designed and formed man’s body to enable it to function physically in ways in which God Himself functions without a body. In other words, God fashioned our bodies to be suited for man to bear the image of God in His personal attributes. God knew, of course, that in the fullness of time, even He would become a man (Gal. 4:5; John 1:14). And in that day, He would prepare a human body for His Son (Heb. 10:5), and it would be made in the likeness of sinful men (Rom. 8:3; Phil. 2:7), even as man had been made originally in the likeness of God (Morris).
So, what does the image of God mean? As I have already alluded to, I believe the image of God describes the truth that humanity is uniquely designed to relate to God. There are probably many facets of God’s image in man but let me just mention these that I find in Genesis.
A. We are created to communicate with God.
Immediately after God had created man and woman in His image, He spoke directly to them: “Then God blessed them. And God said to them . . .” (Gen. 1:28). God speaks and we speak. We listen, understand and converse. This means that as image-bearers we can hear and receive God’s word, His commandments, His revelation, His truth. No other creature can do that. Because God communicates with us we are responsible, moral, spiritual beings.
James 3:9 says that with our tongue “we bless our God and Father” but then often out of the same mouth “we curse men, who have been made in the similitude (or likeness) of God.” He goes on to say (James 3:10), “My brethren, these things ought not to be so.” In other words, because people are made in the image of God, we should never use our words to put down or curse any human being. Every person, regardless of ability, age, race, gender, or sin is an image-bearer of God.
We are created in the image of God to communicate with God—to bless Him, praise Him, listen to Him, pray to Him, fellowship with Him, worship Him, love Him.
Also,
B. We are created to rule with God.
God calls his image-bearers to rule over the earth in Genesis 1:26, 28. God views his image-bearers as royal figures, His viceregents over creation. This is what astonished David in Psalm 8:
4 What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?
5 For You have made him a little lower than the angels,
And You have crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
7 All sheep and oxen–Even the beasts of the field,
8 The birds of the air, And the fish of the sea
That pass through the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth!
We are crowned with glory and honor. We have dignity and worth as rulers under God. God created man to rule over creation. “Let them have dominion” (Gen. 1:26) is the consequence of “Let Us make man in Our image.” God gave the authority of dominion over all living things to man. The command to “subdue it” (Gen. 1:28) implies that there was work involved. In Genesis 2 man is put in the perfect setting of the Garden of Eden “to tend and keep it” (Gen. 2:15).
When God says (Gen. 1:26), “Let them have dominion” them refers to mankind, both male and female. While Adam has the function of headship as evidenced by his priority in creation (1 Tim. 2:13), his being the source of his wife (1 Cor. 11:8,12), and his naming of Eve (Gen. 2:23), Eve’s task was to be an equal helper to her husband. In this sense both male and female are to rule over God’s creation.
They were to be King and Queen of Creation. And what a world God made for them to rule. He filled it to overflowing with animals and birds and fish and plants and trees and rivers and streams and oceans and mountains and meadows. He crammed it full of colors and textures and shapes and aromas and tastes, and then he said to Adam and Eve, “It’s all yours. Take care of it. Rule over it. Study it. Learn from it. Develop it. Have a ball. Enjoy yourself. Go exploring. Take a cruise. Go rock-climbing. Go skiing in the Alps. Crack open a coconut. Plant a garden, grow some vegetables, play with the lions, go swimming with the otters, sing with the whippoorwill. (Ray Pritchard). What an amazing privilege and responsibility!
This dominion involves a stewardship of the earth and its resources under the sovereignty of God. Since the fall of man into sin, men have gone in two extremes when it comes to the earth and its resources. Either he has tended to spoil the creation, through pollution and other forms of wanton misuse; or he has made an idol of creation, through false worship of nature. The two extremes exist even today: some want to rape the land for their own profit or enjoyment; and others make nature their god. As the sovereign creator, God cares for and provides for His creation. As His image bearers we are called to do the same.
We are created to communicate with God, to rule with God and,
C. We are created to bear certain attributes of God.
These same words “image” and “likeness” are used again in Genesis 5. Moses reminds us in Genesis 5:1-2, “In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created.” Then in Genesis 5:3 we read that Adam “… begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.” From this analogy we see that as Seth was in the likeness and image of Adam, so we are in the likeness and image of God. Adam the father, passes on his attributes to his image, the son Seth. And although biological descent is in view with Adam and Seth and not with God and Adam, this passage links image and sonship. This idea is picked up in Luke’s Gospel, which calls Adam “the son of God” (Luke 3:38). Paul, preaching to the men of Athens quotes one of their poets and then says (Acts 17:29), “Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.” We are related to God.
Part of the grandeur of being a living human being created in the image of God is that you are either male or female. Both Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 5:2 stress the fact that God created mankind to be male and female. This is not to say that God is male or female, but that God is both unity and diversity. Nobody is a generic human being. There is no such thing. God never intended that there be. God creates male human beings and female human beings. God has done a grand thing in making us male and female in His image. Don’t diminish this. Delight in it. Glory in being alive as the male or female person you are (Piper).
There is equality here and also a crucial difference. Humanity is forever divided into two groups—male and female. Here we find the basic pattern of life established. This is what marriage is meant to be—one man with one woman for life. The details will be fleshed out later in Genesis 2 and the rest of the Bible, but the basic principle appears in this verse. Man and woman in marriage become one and yet they are distinct. Unity in diversity as reflected in man’s relationship with his wife reflects one facet of God’s personhood.
Genesis 1 shows man as the apex of a fully formed and filled creation made by God for them. Man and woman are glorious indeed. There they stood before the fall—viceregents of creation in a state of spiritual, social, and ecological perfection. God had given every seed-bearing plant and fruit-bearing tree for food (Gen. 1:29,30). They were at peace with God and nature. “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day” (Gen. 1:31).
Also the image of God means,
D. We are created to belong to God.
God created man in His image and His likeness. This not only tells us something about our origin and nature, it also tells us about our purpose and destiny. It means that we belong to God. One day Jesus was asked a question by some people who were trying to trap him. These Jews asked if they should pay taxes to Rome. They knew that if Jesus answered yes, then He would come across as being pro-Roman and anti-Israel. If Jesus answered no, then he would be accused of disloyalty to Caesar. It seemed like a no-win situation. But listen to what happened in Mark 12:15,
“Shall we pay, or shall we not pay?” But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why do you test Me? Bring Me a denarius that I may see it.” So they brought it. And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” And Jesus answered and said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marveled at Him. (Mark 12:15-17)
Jesus told them, “Coins are made in the image of Caesar, and therefore they belong to Caesar.” But He went even further. He also told us that we are responsible to give to God what belongs to God. That means that because we are made in the image of God, we belong to God. We are His. Giving Him all that we are, all that we have, is our purpose.
Finally,
E. We are created to glorify God.
The image of God in man also tells us about God’s purpose for us today and in the future. The image of God still remains in us even though mankind has fallen into sin (Gen. 9:6). But God’s image in us has been marred by sin and needs to be restored. Speaking to those of us who have been saved by faith in Jesus Christ, Paul writes in Colossians 3:10 that you “have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.” God is restoring His image in us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In 1 Cor. 11:7 Paul writes about head coverings says, “For a man … is the image and glory of God.” 2 Corinthians 3:18 says “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” Our destiny as children of God through Christ is to be conformed to His image for God’s glory. Romans 8:28-29 says,
“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”
Paul writes about our future resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:49, “And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.” John writes (1 John 3:2), “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” Following Jesus means that God begins the process of restoring His image in us until we are like His Son Jesus Christ. What God made very good in the beginning, and was then tarnished by sin, God is making perfect again so that we will be for His glory.
