26 Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’
27 So God created
mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
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 in the sea and the birds in the sky 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 in the sky and all the creatures
that move along 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.
21 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 Then God blessed the seventh day and made
it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
Made in God’s Image.
Gen. 1: 26 -
27 give us a most wonderful statement of who we are and why were are here. We
are made in the image of God, in his likeness. Why are we here? To rule over
all creation – which means taking care of God’s handiwork, not exploiting it,
being cruel to animals and destroying what God has made. In addition we are
here to have a relationship with God.
“So God
created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them,
male and female he created them.”
If we are in
the image of God, what does that mean? Does God have a human body? Well, yes,
Jesus, God the Son, has a human body. But God is Spirit, and I don’t think God
is talking about his physical appearance here in this passage. When God says
that he made human beings in his image, it is that we share some of his
attributes. God is a creator God, and he made us to be creative too. He is a
loving God, and he made us to love one another too. God is peaceful and just,
and we also, love peace and justice. Or, at least, when God created us in
perfection we were certainly all loving, full of peace and justice, showing
kindness to others and grace. Sadly, as we know, sin entered our lives, and all
of those attributes are tainted. They are hard to see, and they get swamped.
They are still there, because we are made in God’s image; but sin distorts and
obscures them.
The part of
us that reflects God’s image is like a beautiful painting, which, over the
years has got dusty, dirty, discoloured, sooty, so that the picture is hard to
see. Works of art which deteriorate like that can be restored by experts, so that they
colours return and the picture is once again clear. In our case, the expert is
Jesus, who came to restore us. He slowly and painstakingly removes the layers
of dirt and dust that comes from sin. When we trust in Jesus, following him,
turning away from sin and selfishness, Jesus removes the layers of sin that
obscure the image of God in us. He restores the beautiful image that was there
originally.
Finally,
after all the work of creation, which took six days, God rested. He set aside
the seventh day, he blessed it and made it holy. This is the basis of the one
day in seven in which we rest from all the normal activities, and allow the day
to be free in which to spend time with God and worship him. The Sabbath rest is
built in to us – it is a part of God’s image in us.
Prayer
Heavenly
Father, please help me to remember that you made me in your image. May those
divine attributes shine through in my life. And please help me to remember that
everyone else is made in God’s image too, so help me to love them as you
love them. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment