April 23, 2006
“Created in God’s Image”
Genesis 1:26-31

I. Humanity is represented in Genesis 1 as the masterpiece of God’s creation – we may in false humility, or in outright faithless rebellion, deny such a glorious designation as “masterpiece of God’s creation” atheists sure do, as they count us creatures of chance and nothing more than lucky cosmic dust, and YET …

1. God creates mankind last, and devotes another chapter 2, to discussing man’s creation –
2. The Godhead consults about making man, Genesis 1:26, while other creatures are merely spoken into existence – 1:3; 1:9; 1:11; 1:14; 1:20; 1:24
3. God creates human beings, male and female, in His own image and likeness – Genesis 1:26-27 (it makes us special, defendable –Genesis 9:6)
4. Along with the rest of creation man is pronounced as “very good” – Genesis 1:31

II. The Image of God in man consists (at least) in these things –

1. Knowledge – brain capacity, spiritual knowledge – Colossians 3:10
2. Righteousness – morality, originally upright, inclined toward good – Ephesians 4:24
3. True Holiness – devoted wholeheartedly to God and His will – Ephesians 4:24
4. Dominion over the other creatures – Genesis 1:26 & :28

III. It is important to realize how we have fallen from these things by our sin –

1. Knowledge has given way to ignorance and while brain capacity still excels the animals, often our lack of wisdom excels them too – Romans 3:10-11; Job 39:13-17; Romans 1:28
2. Righteousness has given way to sin, even great sin – Matthew 15:19; we now have a knowledge of both good and evil – Genesis 2:17, we were originally created “upright” and yet we have sought out many schemes – Ecclesiastes 7:29
3. Originally, Adam was created with true holiness, a capacity to love and serve God with a right and single heart – Deuteronomy 6:4-5 yet now men bow down to every sort of false god – Exodus 20:3 and give themselves wholeheartedly to a enumerable number of amusements – Genesis 4:16-24

IV. Our society in the U.S.A. is in grave danger because it is losing (lost?) its grasp on this important truth, that God created us in His image!

1. The denial of God takes away all dignity of man and makes us into merely the most successful animal – Monkey DNA
2. If we take away this dignity, the result is no sanctity of human life: abortion, euthanasia, suicide, cannibalism (maybe even murder) all become legal, okay – Genesis 9:6
3. We are moving more and more to a “quality of life ethic”

V. Where does Christ fit in all this?

1. As the “Christ” (anointed One) Christ’s great mission is to restore us to the image of God – Colossians 3:10; Ephesians 4:24
2. The office of Christ, rolled three Old Testament anointed offices into ONE, Christ is our Prophet, Priest and King
3. These offices correspond to our needs in relation to being created in God’s image:
A. Prophet corresponds to our need for knowledge (knowledge of God’s word / Word – John 1:18)
B. Priest corresponds to our need for righteousness (Christ’s righteousness – Romans 3:21-26)
C. King corresponds to our need for holiness – 1 Peter 1:15 D. We see Christ’s devotion to our restoration in His death on the cross (next week we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. One great focus of self-examination would be our bearing God’s image how much is that a part of us?)
E. Do we desire knowledge, righteousness and holiness or are other things, money, health, status, more important to us? Christ shows us what a life lived in the image of God is all about! Hebrews 12:1-2; Jeremiah 9:23-24