We just finished our sermon series in the Gospel of John.
Steve hopefully wrapped that up last week in my absence.
I miss being with you guys.
I'm glad to be back to be able to bring God's word to you.
We'll be going through the book of Genesis.
We'll finish the book in the fall sometime,
and just in time for the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.
We'll probably have a different series lined up for that.
And Genesis has 50 chapters.
It's divided into three major sections.
Chapters 1 to 11 are about the primeval history.
12 to 36 is about the patriarchs, the time of the patriarchs, starting with Abraham.
And then 37 to 50 is about the times of Joseph.
And this book is written not just to recount the beginning of the universe,
but the beginning of God's redemptive history.
That's really its focus.
of how God began this process of, through Israel, bringing about the Messiah,
bringing about his redemptive plan to save and to bless all nations.
But before we dive into it, we need to first address the elephant in the room.
Because in the aftermath of the fundamentalist, kind of modernist controversy in the 20th century,
where the fundamentalists were saying that, you know,
where the modernists were arguing that some of these antiquated doctrines in scripture
need to be modified or dismissed altogether.
And the fundamentalist dug their heels in and then fired back and said
that those liberal elites in academia are conspiring to engage in a smear campaign of the Bible and Bible-believing Christians.
So because of this kind of conflict, now we're at a time where evolution kind of functions as a litmus test
for Christian or scientific orthodoxy.
So if you believe it, then you're with them, the irreverent atheists.
And if you deny it, then you're with them, right?
The fundamentalistic ignoramuses, right?
So the unfortunate result of this is that every reader of Genesis 1 comes to the book with Darwin's Origin of Species in mind
when the book that was written 3,500 years ago clearly did not have that at the forefront of its mind.
So let me point out first that science and religion do not have to be.
They're not necessarily mutually exclusive.
Let me begin with that.
A scientific explanation for something doesn't mean that there can't be religious or supernatural explanation for it.
I've used the example before of the analogy used by geologist Frank Rhodes
when you asked the question, why is the kettle boiling?
There's two proper answers to that question.
The first answer is PV equals NRT, the laws of thermodynamics.
You apply energy to the matter and it heats up and then it comes to a boiling point.
And another appropriate and legitimate answer is that someone just wanted to boil some tea, right?
Those are both correct answers.
And this is why the Bible describes in Psalm 139 that he formed the inward parts and knits us together in the mother's womb, right?
God does that.
But we also know scientifically of the process of fertilization, of embryogenesis.
So those things should teach us that first of all principle.
On principle, those two things are not mutually exclusive necessarily.
And then secondly, I want to point out to you that evolution does not purport to explain the origin of life.
Book of Genesis does, or origin of species doesn't.
It's called the origin of species for a reason.
It's not called the origin of life.
And Darwin readily admitted this, his profound ignorance of the subject in the book, by using the word created.
And because he used such terms, he was criticized by his peers, his academic peers, because they called it this.
He said Darwin resorted to Pentateuchal terms.
Pentateuch is the first five books of the Bible.
As the primordial form into which life was first breathed.
And Darwin responded to his critics in this way in one of his papers.
Let us face the problem boldly.
He who believes that organic beings have been produced during each geological period from dead matter must believe that the first being thus arose.
There must have been a time when inorganic elements alone existed on our planet.
Let any assumptions be made such as that the reeking atmosphere was charged with carbonic acid, nitrogenized compounds, phosphorus, and company.
Now is there a fact or a shadow of a fact supporting the belief that these elements, without the presence of any organic compounds,
and acted on only by known forces, could produce a living creature?
At present, it is to us a result absolutely inconceivable.
Your reviewer sneers with justice at my use of the Pentateuchal terms of one primordial form into which life was first breathed.
In a purely scientific work, I ought perhaps not to have used such terms,
but they well serve to confess that our ignorance is as profound on the origin of life as on the origin of force or matter.
With that said, I'm not saying that there's no point of tension between science and religion,
and between creation and evolution, and we will see some of those as we go through this chapter.
However, it is important to note that they're not on principle necessarily mutually exclusive.
With that said, what should be the proper posture of Christians towards scientific findings that seem to contradict Scripture?
On the one hand, if I think we have both of these, and I could go one side or another as well.
On the one hand, if your response to such findings, if your response is immediately embarrassment, apology,
and a frantic exegetical acrobatics to explain away everything that's in the Bible,
or to disbelieve the Bible altogether, then you need to grow in your faith,
and you need to grow a backbone, right, and in your trust in God's Word as the inspired Word of God.
So 2 Timothy 3, 16, 17,
It's sufficient for us, and it is all wholly inspired.
So if you have a flimsy, just nominal commitment to the authority of Scripture,
then you're merely following the latest fads in pop science.
Then the functional authority of your life is not God, but man.
And you're going to be tossed to and fro by the ways of changing doctrine in the world.
Scientific discoveries don't happen in a vacuum.
They are always influenced and sometimes motivated by the ever-changing spirit of the times.
And it takes decades, sometimes even centuries, to test and establish hypotheses.
It took 1,500 years to overturn the Aristotelian geocentric model of the universe.
On the other hand, if your response is to apparent contradictions between science and Scripture is fear,
rigid opposition, and a frantic Google search to find every obscurantist fact to undermine the scientific findings,
then you need to grow in your humility and develop some nimbleness.
Because God's Word is truth, and His Spirit is a spirit of truth,
so we do not need to be apprehensive of honest investigations of the truth in all spheres of life.
And we need to remember that the divine inspiration of Scripture does not preclude human interpretation of Scripture.
The Scripture itself is infallible, but that doesn't mean our interpretation of it is infallible.
So then we should be ready and willing to prayerfully search and research the Scriptures,
to reexamine our interpretive traditions.
If not, we may become like the Pharisees whom Jesus indicted of making void the Word of God by their tradition that they have handed down.
And I bring to mind also, recall how the Roman Catholic Church once condemned heliocentrism as a heresy that contradicts Scripture.
It condemned Galileo Galilei, forced him to recant his views.
And then in 1992, Pope John Paul II apologized and formally expressed regret for that finding.
So then a proper posture as we encounter such contradictions is both unyielding theological convictions about the authority of Scripture
and both also a humility about our own interpretation of it
and a commitment to search and research the Scriptures with a judicious listening ear to the findings of science.
Now with that said, I don't mean to say that they're equal authorities.
Scripture is the prior and more fundamental authority.
And so it's not a circle where you keep going back and forth between two competing authorities.
Rather, what grounds us is Scripture and you dialogue back and forth with the goal that you spiral down to the true meaning of the text,
what God's Word teaches in the end.
And far from being preoccupied with the age of the earth
and the geological, chemical, and biological processes implied by God's creation,
Moses is preoccupied with asserting a more foundational truth.
He's frying for a bigger fish with the book of Genesis.
And that's this, that God is the sole creator and ruler of the heavens and the earth
who appoints man to represent and resemble him on earth.
That's the main point of Genesis 1.
And we'll find out first about God's creation and rule,
and then secondly about man's call to represent and resemble him.
So God's creation and rule.
So Moses' first order of business is to establish the truth of God's creation and rule.
So he begins in verse 1, perhaps the most famous passage in all of literature.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
In the beginning was not some primordial soup or inorganic ooze.
In the beginning was God.
God is before all things.
And the word and the context suggests absolute beginning,
before anything existed, before time itself, from before eternity passed.
This is the beginning that God established.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
And it says God created.
In the Bible, the word here translated as created is never used of anyone else.
No one else in the Bible creates.
Only God is said to create in the Bible.
And in this context, it implies not just any kind of creation.
It implies unique, absolute creation.
Creation out of nothing.
Right?
So, of course, we also create things.
We make things.
We can rearrange matter.
We can make things react with each other.
We can even clone matter.
But we can't create out of nothing.
That's a uniquely divine prerogative.
And here, God creates.
And whether you believe that God created the world in six days or six ages
or through the process of evolution,
you have to reckon with the fact that it is God who created.
He is the author of creation.
He is the designer.
And as such, there is purpose, meaning.
The world is not an accidental collocation of atoms.
It was created by God, designed by him for a purpose.
And what did God create?
It says the heavens and the earth.
The heaven denotes God's figurative abode,
and earth denotes man's abode.
And this is a literary device called merism,
where you refer to two ends of an extreme,
two extremes,
to refer to everything that's in between.
So, for example, when we say young and old,
we don't just mean young and old people,
but we mean everyone, people of all ages.
So when he says heavens and the earth,
he means God created everything.
There's nothing that exists that was not created by God himself.
In verse 2 and the following,
he describes the details of his creation.
He says,
The earth was without form and void,
and darkness was over the face of the deep,
and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Now, this doesn't mean that earth and water existed before God's creative work.
Rather, this is the first stage of that creative work
that verse 1 told us about.
Without form and void,
it sounds like what it means in Hebrew.
It literally sounds like tohu bohu.
It's like topsy-turvy.
That's the kind of way we might translate it.
It means that it was wasted and uninhabited.
Or we could call it uninhabitable and uninhabited.
It's a chaotic wasteland at first,
and then God subsequently imposes his will,
his order on this earth.
And like a ray of sunlight pierces darkness,
out of the darkness,
God speaks in verses 3 to 5,
Let there be light.
And there was light.
And God saw that the light was good,
and God separated the light from the darkness.
God called the light day,
and the darkness he called night.
There was evening,
and there was morning the first day.
Now, we know,
having gone through John,
that scripture writers often use the metaphor of light and darkness
to refer to spiritual light and darkness.
And so here,
there's a distinct preference for light expressed,
because God doesn't say that the darkness was good.
He says the light was good.
He separates the light from the darkness.
Now, here in verse 3,
verses 3 to 5,
really,
we find the standard kind of creation formula
that you see over and over again,
that repeat throughout the book,
throughout the chapter 1.
So first,
there's the announcement of God's speech,
and it was really helpful to have Sarah and Will read that together,
because you could really see those patterns.
And the first is the announcement of God's speech.
God said.
That's the first formula.
And that occurs a total of 10 times,
but if you count only his creative speech,
it occurs 7 times.
And that's intentional.
Secondly,
there's the command itself,
Let there be so and so.
That occurs 8 times.
But once again,
if you count only his creative speech,
and not the time when he says,
talks,
and says,
Let us make God in his image,
that's 7 times also.
Now, third,
there's the fulfillment,
and there was so and so.
So God said,
Let there be so,
and now there was so and so,
or and it was so.
That occurs 7 times.
And then there is,
fourth,
there's the observation or description of God's creative act,
and God made something,
something.
That occurs 7 times.
Fifth,
there is God's delight,
in his creation.
God saw that it was good.
That also occurs 7 times.
And sixth,
there is a subsequent naming or blessing.
God called it so and so,
or God blessed them.
That also occurs 7 times,
as you can guess.
And seventh part of the formula,
there is an observation of the number of day.
The first day,
the second day,
and so on.
And that also occurs 7 times.
And usually,
it's preceded by,
and there was evening,
and there was morning.
There is an intentional symmetry at work here.
Right?
The purposeful groupings of 7.
Well,
you might say,
well,
of course,
there's going to be groups of 7,
because the creation happens in 7 days.
Well,
that's actually not exactly what's going on,
because there's only 6 days of creation.
There's some parts of the formula that's missing in other parts,
but it's supplemented in other parts to make,
still make,
fulfill the number 7.
So,
seventh paradigm is intentional.
And why does Moses,
whom we believe is the author of the book,
write it this way?
Because,
we know from Exodus 20,
8 to 11,
remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
6 days you shall labor,
and do all your work,
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God,
on it you shall not do any work.
And the reason given for it,
for in 6 days the Lord made heavens and earth,
the sea and all that is in them,
and he rested on the seventh day.
You have to remember that the original intended audience of the book of Genesis,
of course,
is intended for us in the future as well,
were the Israelites in the wilderness.
And so,
this paradigm of 7 days of creation,
or 6 days of creation,
and 7th day of rest,
is the paradigm,
the pattern that the Israelites are invited to follow.
So,
these days represent God's working days,
and the 7th day represents God's rest,
day of rest.
He chooses this intentionally.
And if you think about it,
the 7,
the week that we observe,
the 7 days in the week,
is very unusual,
and it's very unnatural,
actually,
right?
It's,
there's only cultures in the world that have a word,
for the word week,
are cultures that have had some contact with Christianity,
with the book of Genesis.
Like,
a year makes sense,
right?
Astronomically,
because that's how long it takes for the earth to make one orbit around the sun.
A month makes sense,
because it makes,
it's,
it refers to lunar cycle,
the moon cycle.
A day makes sense,
because it's how long the earth takes to rotate on its axis.
All of these make sense,
astronomically,
except for a week.
Why would we have a week?
It doesn't make sense,
astronomically,
but because God intended,
as a pattern for us,
who work,
to rest on the 7th day,
that's why we have a week.
And that rest,
also points to God's eternal rest,
which he talks about in Hebrews 4.
That God blessed the 7th day,
and made it holy,
because on it,
God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
In fact,
the Sabbath day,
the 7th day,
is the first thing in the Bible that is called holy.
It's made holy.
It's hallowed.
So there's a God-ordained rhythm of work and rest,
and there's a blessing and consecration promised to us in observing that.
Especially in our urban and career-driven context in Boston and Cambridge,
and especially in the fast-paced culture of New England,
the temptation to gloss over this and neglect it is formidable.
But we neglect it to our detriment.
And in flaunting it,
his vision for order,
his vision for rhythm and rest in our lives,
we invite disorder and dysfunction to our lives.
So in light of these realities,
if we're only asking ourselves,
is it 7 literal 24-hour days,
or 7 ages,
or eons,
how long did the creative process take place?
And we're missing the main literary point,
the theological point of Genesis 1.
I don't think that's the concern here.
And I think it's shown in several ways.
Because if you take the days to be literal 24-hour days,
first we have to make sense of why the sun is not created until the fourth day.
How do you account for days,
the evening and morning,
without the sun on the fourth day?
I don't think that means that God didn't necessarily create it
during that period of time,
but I just don't think that's the concern of the book of Genesis.
Or look ahead to chapter 2,
verses 5 to 7,
which says that there was no plant in the field
because it had not rained,
and there was no man to work the field.
Well, the plants were created on day 3,
man was created on day 6,
so how does this work out?
If man had to be created for the plants to come about.
Or if there were no plants when man was created.
So, what's the point then,
that the author of Genesis is trying to make,
if it's not about the age of the earth?
If you examine the six days of creation more carefully,
you notice a pattern.
The days 1, 2, 3 of creation
correspond to days 4, 5, and 6 of creation, respectively.
On the first day,
God creates light
and separates light from the darkness.
And then on the fourth day,
God creates the luminaries,
the sun, moon, and the stars,
to populate the day and night that he created.
On day 2,
he creates the heavens
by separating the waters from above,
the waters above,
the clouds,
from the waters below,
the seas.
And then on the fifth day,
the corresponding day,
God creates the birds
to populate the heavens above
and fish to populate the oceans,
the waters below.
And on the third day,
God creates dry land and vegetation.
And then on the corresponding sixth day,
God creates land animals,
classified into three categories,
livestock and creeping things
and beasts of the earth,
which refers to domestic animals
and small creeping animals
and wild animals.
And then as the culminating act
of his creation,
on the sixth day,
he creates man
to populate the dry land
and consume the vegetation
he created on the third day for food.
So then the pattern is this.
On days 1, 2, 3,
God forms habitats.
And then days 4, 5, 6,
God forms the inhabitants
to occupy those habitats.
This pattern then witnesses
to God's remedy
of the formless void
that was on earth
in its initial state in verse 2.
The earth was uninhabitable
and uninhabited.
And in the first three days,
he makes it inhabitable
and the next three days,
he makes it inhabited.
He first fills,
I mean forms the earth
and then he fills the earth.
That's the pattern.
That's the theological point.
That he's trying to make.
And God does this
in spectacular,
ordered,
and beautiful way.
And what the book of Genesis
has in mind are,
are not what we have in mind
when we come to the book.
He's thinking about
the other ancient
Near Eastern cosmogonies,
their origins of the universe,
and what they taught
about how the world came to be.
So in Rival Cosmogonies,
they wrote about sea monsters,
dragons,
and gods
that the Canaanite gods
have to conquer
before they can create the world.
So the Babylonian epic,
Enuma Elish,
writes about the god of chaos
and sea,
Tiamat,
wreaking havoc
and reducing other gods
to cowardice and submission.
And then Marduk,
the chief god
of the Babylonians,
comes and takes charge
of the gods,
defeats Tiamat,
and out of his carcass
creates the heavens
and the earth.
In Genesis,
there is no such conflict.
Instead,
we see God alone
in sovereign control.
There's no contest
to his authority.
And God doesn't have to
reuse the carcass
of a god
to create.
He creates out of nothing.
And even the sea creatures
that these engineers
and cultures feared
is just another one
of God's creatures,
it says in Genesis 1.26.
The other engineers
and cosmogonies
also describe
a struggle among the gods
to separate the lower waters
from the higher waters.
You see no such struggle here.
It happens by simple,
divine fight.
He says,
let the waters be separated
and it's done.
And other religions
at the time
worshiped the sun
and moon.
And intentionally,
the author of Genesis
does not even deign
to name them
as sun and moon.
He just says,
greater light,
the big light,
and lesser light,
small light.
That's what he calls them.
These things you worship,
God created them.
They're just creatures.
It's a pointed critique
of the surrounding
nations' idolatry.
In Mesopotamia,
also the seventh interval
of the month
was considered unlucky.
But here,
Genesis teaches,
no,
it's not unlucky.
It's consecrated for God.
And finally,
in the Babylonian tradition,
the creation of man
is an afterthought.
Marduk creates the world
from the carcass of Tiamat
and then the other gods
complain.
Like,
what are you doing?
You know how much work
it's going to be
to keep this up?
Can you imagine
that God's creating something
and then being worried
about being able
to keep it up?
Right?
And then Marduk,
this is his solution.
I will bring together
blood from Tiamat
to form bone.
I will bring into being
a lowly primitive creature
whose name shall be man,
on whom the toil of the gods
will be laid
that they may rest.
The creation of man
is an afterthought.
They're created to do,
to bring food to the gods.
That's their purpose.
How radically different
from the Bible's portrait
of the creation of man.
In Genesis,
man is not an afterthought.
Man is the pinnacle
of all creation.
And that brings us
to our second point.
Man's call to represent
and resemble him.
Verses 26 to 27
of chapter 1.
Read it with me.
Then God said,
Let us make man
in our image
after our likeness
and let them have dominion
over the fish of the sea
and over the birds
of the heavens
and over the livestock
and over all the earth
and over every creeping thing
that creeps on the earth.
So God created man
in his own image.
In the image of God,
he created him.
Male and female,
he created them.
So verse 27
is a piece of Hebrew poetry
in this prose section.
It has three lines
with identical meter
and each line
has the word create in it.
And as I mentioned before,
creating is something
that only God does
in the Bible.
And it's used
at strategic junctures
throughout the first chapter
of Genesis
to refer to God's creation.
creation.
First,
in verse 1,
it indicates God
creating something
out of nothing, right?
So there's nothing in existence,
but now there is existence.
And in verse 21,
God creates conscious beings,
animals,
which is separated,
distinguished,
from unconscious creation.
And then finally,
in verse 27,
to distinguish humanity
from the rest of creation,
the word create
is used three times,
once in each line,
to emphasize
and highlight
the special attention
that God gives
to a creation.
And now,
this highlights both,
this emphasis on the fact
that man was created by God
highlights both
the creatureliness of man
and the personhood of man,
right?
First,
the creatureliness
refers to our lowliness
before God.
We're just creatures.
We're not the creator.
We're not the masters
of our own fate.
This is a sobering
and humbling reality
that we need to keep
in our heads.
Psalm 8,
3 to 4,
talks about this beautifully.
When I look at your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars
which you have set in place,
what is man
that you are mindful of him
and the son of man
that you care for him?
We are creatures,
not autonomous,
unaccountable masters
of our own fate.
God is the creator
of the heavens and the earth
and we are one of his creatures.
And how small are we
in light of the universe?
Do we realize,
live with the recognition
of our relative insignificance
before God?
The creatures are meant
to do the creator's work.
Right?
Humans,
when we make things,
produce things,
we don't worship them,
do we?
We don't serve the things
that we make,
do we?
That's why it's considered
the height of ignorance
that in the Bible,
people craft gods
in their own image,
make things,
and then bow down to them
to worship them.
As creatures,
we ought to trust in God
as our gracious
and good creator.
His plan for us is good.
Right?
And remember that pattern
throughout the book,
the first chapter,
God saw that it was good
after each act of creation.
And at the conclusion
of it all,
in verse 31,
God says,
Behold,
he wants to showcase
his work.
Behold,
it was very good.
Right?
The goodness of creation
suggests its quality
and fitness
for the purpose
for which God created it,
but also it reflects
the goodness of God
because the Bible describes
that God,
that goodness is a unique
attribute of God.
That's why Jesus says
in Mark 10, 18,
No one is good
except God alone.
So then the goodness
of creation reflects
the goodness of God,
its creator.
And that's connected
to the fact that God
also blesses
all of his creation
after he creates them.
The word bless
and create
are very similar.
They both have three letters
and the first two letters
are identical.
And when they're written
right next to each other
like this,
it's very,
it pops out at you
and it suggests
that when God creates
something,
he blesses it.
He gives,
endows it with blessing.
He does what is intense
for its good.
And his goodness
is reflected
in the orderliness
of creation.
Look at all
the separations,
right?
God separates life
from darkness,
the water,
in the dry land.
God separates things
and orders things
and this prepares the way
for the rest of the Pentateuch
where after sin
we become disordered,
the world becomes
dysfunctional,
right?
And God gives
painstakingly detailed
instructions throughout
the rest of the Pentateuch
to separate
what is unclean
from what is clean,
what is profane
from what is sacred
in order to preserve
the sense of orderliness
of God's creation,
that there is beauty
and intention
in God's plan for us.
we live with the recognition
that his design
and purposes for us
is good,
for this world
is very good.
I don't know about you,
but occasionally
I have a stroke
of genius
and I try
to jury-rig
something
for a purpose
for which it was not
originally designed.
And for me at least,
the experiment
invariably goes awry
and I either break it
or I can't use it
for anything
afterward.
The original maker,
right,
the product designer
knows best
how the product
ought to be used.
Perhaps you're more
mechanically inclined
than I am,
but I can guarantee you
that no one knows
better than God
the creator himself
of what the design
and purpose
of this universe
and of your life
was supposed to be.
Do you aspire
to fit into that plan
for your life?
Or are you
ever flailing your arms
in resistance,
railing against
God's plan for you,
his design for your life?
When you find teaching
in scripture
that you find
disagreeable
with your spirit,
are you striving
to discover
the goodness of it,
the goodness
of God's creation,
or are you prone
to assuming
that you know better?
We are creatures
that belong to you
and are accountable
to our creator.
And until we submit
ourselves to his plan,
we will never find rest
and true fulfillment.
So this threefold repetition
of the word create
emphasizes our creatureliness,
our relative lowliness
as human beings,
but it also emphasizes
our personhood,
that we are special creatures.
Verse 26,
God says,
let us make men
in our image,
after our likeness.
Right?
Verse 11 said
that the vegetation,
plants,
and trees
were created each
according to its kind.
Verse 21 said
that all the fish
and the birds
were created
according to its kind.
Verse 24 says
the livestock,
all the animals
were created
according to their kinds,
but not so with humanity.
We're not created
according to our own kinds.
We're created
in the image of God
after his likeness.
It is no wonder
that man is the only creature
with whom God
deigns to speak
in this passage.
and to initiate
a relationship with.
Verses 28 to 39,
it says,
God said to them,
he speaks to us
personally,
and he provides
food for us
personally.
We're creatures,
but we're not
merely creatures.
We're persons
created for relationship
with God.
And the words,
image,
and likeness
are related.
When used together,
they build on each other
and convey the unique
call of humanity
on earth.
The word image
refers to representation.
Something that stands
for something.
In particular,
Egyptian and Assyrian
texts written
around the same time
as Genesis
describe kings
as the image
of God.
God.
And they believe
that the idols
or images,
statues of their gods
placed in temples
were indwelled
by the gods
themselves.
And this idea
is behind the creation
man in God's image.
Humanity is endowed
with rationality,
morality,
will,
and aesthetic
sensitivity,
the ability to
communicate
and form fellowship,
and all of this
so that we can
rule over creation
as God's representative.
We're supposed
to represent him.
And we too
were intended
to be eventually
indwelled by the
spirit of God.
But even here,
there's a polemic
against other
ancient Near Eastern
philosophies
and perspectives
because Egyptians
and Assyrians
believed that only kings
were made
in God's image.
Only the rulers.
But this,
here,
that philosophy
pays away for
human domination
of others,
one another.
Exploitation
of one another.
But according to
God's word,
every human being
is created
in the image
of God
and endowed
with the capacity
to represent
God himself.
And the word
man here
is the same word
as the word
Adam,
but because it's
used with the
definite article,
we know that it's
referring to humanity
in general.
And we know
from the context
because it says
later,
so God created
man in his own
image.
In the image
of God,
he created him.
Male and female,
he created them.
Both genders
are created
in the image
of God.
And when he says
man,
it means he's
referring to
humanity
in general.
And the staggering
implications
of this truth,
this idea
was without
precedent
when it was
first written.
And to this
day,
it's without
paralleling
its ability
to promote
human flourishing.
From the least
to the greatest,
from the weakest
to the strongest,
from the least
educated
to the most
educated,
from the youngest
to the oldest,
from white
to black,
everyone
is created
in the image
of God.
So we don't care
if someone is
the most powerful
human being
on earth
or the most
beautiful human being
on earth
or the wealthiest
human being
on earth,
he or she
still has no
claim for
superiority
over any
other man
or woman.
And if you
don't believe
that we were
created in God's
image,
then what is
the foundation
for your
concept of
social justice,
for equality?
If the world
really is just
an accidental
collocation
of atoms,
if there's
no purpose,
if there's
no design
in what God
has done,
then why
not exploit,
abuse,
use other
human beings
for our
advancement?
Why not?
What gives
us the right
to consume,
harvest other
animals for
our consumption?
What gives
us the right
to use animals
to test for
advancement of
human medicine
to care for
humanity?
What gives
us that right?
Nothing does
unless God
created us in
his image and
gave us the
commission to
rule over the
world.
If it's a
dog-eat-dog
world, if
might makes
right, then
you can't have
social justice.
You have no
basis for the
equality and the
community you
seek unless
God created us
in his image.
And in
order to
represent God
well, we
must resemble
him.
So to this
end, it says
God created us
in his likeness.
Now, there's
something amazing
going on in
here.
Look carefully
at verse 26.
God says,
let us make
man in our
image after our
likeness.
But isn't
there only one
God?
Isn't this
before the
creation of the
world?
So who is
God addressing
here?
Some people
think that God
is talking to
the heavenly
court, that
God created
angels before
this time, that
he's now
addressing the
angels.
Let us go
create in
our own
image.
But this
runs into
two insurmountable
problems.
First is
Isaiah 40,
14, which
teaches clearly
that God did
not consult
with anyone
else in his
creation.
It says,
whom did he
consult and
who made
him understand?
No one.
And secondly,
the verb
create throughout
this passage is
used in the
singular, not
in the plural.
So there's
only one
creative agent.
What then
can this
mean?
Notice how
God speaks
everything into
being in this
passage.
God said,
and it was
so.
God's word,
unlike our
words, is
efficacious.
And for
us, you
could say,
let there
be light,
but nothing
will happen
unless you
walk over
and do
something about
it.
For us, we
have phrases
like, walk
the talk,
because it's
possible for
us to walk
one way and
talk another.
But for God,
this is impossible
because every
word that
proceeds from
his mouth is
efficacious,
it's effective,
it's powerful.
What he speaks
comes into
being.
So he
says, let
there be
light, and
there is
light.
And you
know why
that's the
case?
It's because
God's word
is a person.
It's the
word of
God, Jesus
Christ, that
John 1 talks
about.
He says, the
word was
with God, and
the word was
God.
And he
was in the
beginning with
God.
All things
were made
through him,
and without
him was not
anything that
was made.
And that's
true.
If you look
at Genesis
1, there's
nothing that
is made
without God's
word, his
speaking.
So that's
the second
person of
the Trinity,
the Son
of God.
And also
recall how
in verse 2,
the Spirit
of God is
hovering over
the face of
the waters.
The Spirit
also means
breath, the
breath of
God, the
breath that
carries the
word of
God.
And the
word hover
is avian
language.
It's a
language that
is used to
describe a
bird hovering
in protection
over the
eggs that
are about
to hatch.
That kind
of hovering
presence,
getting ready
for birth,
new birth.
And this
word is
used only
one other
time in
the whole
Bible, and
it's used
at the
end of the
Pentateuch.
So it's
used here at
the beginning
of the
Pentateuch, and
at the end
of the
Pentateuch, in
Deuteronomy
32, 10
to 11,
where after
delivering Israel
from Egypt,
it says of
God here,
that he
found him
in a desert
land, and
in the
howling waste
of the
wilderness.
Again, the
waste,
wilderness, that
sounds similar
to the
creation
account.
And then he
encircled him,
he cared for
him, he
kept him as
the apple of
his eye, like
an eagle that
stirs up its
nest, that
flutters or
hovers over
its young,
spreading out
its wings,
catching them,
bearing them on
its pinions.
So the
Spirit of God
is the
manifestation of
the presence of
God that
accompanies his
people.
He was there in
creation, and
he's there again
in redemption.
The triune
God works
together in
all ways to
bring about
this world, and
to bring about
a new creation
as well.
So the
plurality that
we find in
let us make
man our
image, I
think is
best seen as
a reference to
the Trinity,
which is kind
of a veiled
reference at
this time, but
becomes with
the fuller
sense that we
are able to
understand it when
Jesus comes to
reveal the
Trinity to
us.
Three God,
three persons in
one God,
three persons in
one God,
Trinity.
And there
is in us and
in all the
world a
profound,
unshakable
yearning to
be, to
fit into this
creation, to
represent him
well, to
resemble him, to
be like him.
And renowned
French philosopher
and Jewish
Christian Simone
Vey writes
about this
unfulfilled
longing with
regard to
creation.
She says,
at the present
time, the
beauty of the
world is almost
the only way by
which we can
allow God to
penetrate us.
A sense of
beauty, although
mutilated, is
present in all
the preoccupations
of secular
life.
The soul's
natural inclination
to love beauty
is a trap God
most frequently
uses in order
to win it.
And the beauty
of the world is
the cooperation
of divine
wisdom in
creation.
The beauty
of the world
is Christ's
tender smile
for us,
coming through
the matter.
He is really
present in the
universal beauty.
The love we
feel for the
splendor of the
heavens, the
plains, the
sea, and the
mountains, for
the silence of
nature which is
born in upon us
its thousands of
tiny sounds, for
the breath of the
wind or the
warmth of the
sun, this love
of which every
human being has
at least an
inkling, is an
incomplete, painful
love, because the
beauty of the
world makes us
yearn for some
universal beauty
that does not
seem to respond
to us.
we see the
beauty and
order in the
world and long
to be a part
of it, to
become one
with it.
This is the
basis for all
the misguided
practices of the
new age movement,
but we are
incapable of it,
because something
about us and our
relationship with
creation and the
rest of the
world is
fundamentally
misplaced,
because our
relationship with
God has become
disoriented.
Yet there's hope
for us.
C.S. Lewis hints
at this hope in his
essay, Weight of
Glory.
At present, we are
on the outside of
the world, the
wrong side of the
door.
We discern the
freshness and purity
of the morning, but
they do not make us
fresh and pure.
We cannot mingle with
the splendors we see,
but all the leaves of
the New Testament are
rustling with the
rumor that it will
not always be so.
Someday, God
willing, we shall
get in.
There's another
place in the Bible
that begins with the
famous word, in the
beginning.
It's John 1.
In the beginning was
the Word, and the
Word was with God, and
the Word was God.
He was in the
beginning with God.
All things were made
through him, and
without him was not
anything made that was
made.
In him was life, and
the life was the
light of man.
The light shines in
the darkness, and the
darkness has not
overcome it.
What is God's plan
to bring us back into
that relationship with
him?
It's through Jesus,
his Word.
Genesis 2, at the
end of it, it says,
the heavens and the
earth were finished,
and all the rest of
them, and on the
seventh day, God
finished his work that
he had done, and he
rested.
You know another
place in the Bible
where God says it is
finished?
finished.
The end of the
Gospel of John, chapter
19, verse 30, where
Jesus is dying on the
cross as the atoning
sacrifice for our sins
to satisfy the Father's
wrath, and to make a way
for us to once again fit
into God's plan, to be
redeemed again, and to be
a part of that new
creation.
And Jesus says it is
finished.
It's finished.
And it's only through
him, by believing that
Jesus died and rose
again for our salvation,
to lead us to victory
from sin and death, that
we can be reconciled to
our creator once again.
We can fit into his
creation plan once again.
We can partake in the
beauty, the harmony, and
the order of the
creation once again.
I pray God draws you all
to that beautiful,
beautiful harmony.
Let's pray together.
God, that is our prayer
this morning.
Lord, we don't want to be
just convinced
rationally, logically,
of your reality, and
that you are the
creator.
That is a woefully
inadequate way for us to
know you.
And to love you.
But we ask, not just
cognitively, but that you
would capture our
imaginations.
That you capture our
loves.
That you would draw us
irresistibly with your
beauty, with your love,
so that we can be
reconciled and be agents,
your ambassadors, your
representatives here on
earth, to bring our
neighbors, the rest of the
world, back into the
world, back into that
relationship that you
intended us for.
Help us now.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.