As God created, I think it is extremely significant that of all the creatures, all the things that He created, only one is in His image. That is mankind. This has very much to do with the purpose God is working out.
I also think it is significant that of all the creatures God created only mankind is given dominion over anything else, over things both animate and inanimate as well. If we would quickly review this chapter, we would find in verse 12 we are given dominion over the plant life. In verse 20, it is birds. In verse 21, it is the sea creatures. In verse 24, it is the land creatures.
It is in verses 26 and 28 that we have the very first inkling of man's awesome potential. We are in His likeness. We are in His image. And we have been given dominion in order to carry that out. In His image - that is an awesome statement. Let him have dominion.
If you would care to look this word image up in the Hebrew, I do not think that you would find it to be very satisfying in terms of its definition, the kind of definition you would find in a dictionary. It merely means, a shadowing forth, a phantom, a sketch, an outline. It gives the impression of a mere shape, almost like a stickman - if I can use that kind of analogy. It also has a definition, though, that means whatever makes a man remarkable or procures respect. That is kind of interesting.
The word likeness, for those who deal in the meanings and applications of words, seem to feel that this word means nothing more than to be an intensification of the word image. Even though it is a different word, its meaning is very similar.
I think, just putting those two together, we would have to agree that the Hebrew shows very clearly that we are remarkable! Especially in comparison to plant life, to birds, to animal life, to insects, and to land animals. And it is because we are in the image of God that we are remarkable.
I am sure there is no argument from anyone who is within the sound of my voice that even though we are remarkable, we are merely an outline, a shadow, a mere copy or representation, a shadowing forth. We are illusory compared to God because He is the reality.
In Hebrew, this word that is translated image is not a deceptive illusion. Image here means the likeness of one subject expressed in another. That is important. It means, the likeness of one subject [God] expressed in the other [man]. He is saying here, without saying it directly, that man is very much like God.
We use this meaning - the Hebrew meaning - frequently in the English in reference to family resemblance or characteristics. We say that a child is the spitting image of his father or his mother. What we are referring to might be facial features. It might be mannerisms of speech. It might be inflections. It might be posture, the way a person holds himself. It might be the way a person walks, a smile. It might be a gesture that is unconsciously expressed the way the family does it.
It is no illusion. It is the reality. It is the family trait. It is the essence of reality.
In what way is man in God's image? Our first tendency is to think of man in terms of form and shape as being in God's image. I do not feel that this is wrong. But I also do not feel that it addresses the right issue.
He is different because he is in the likeness of God. God had to do something. He did something to that man that actually made man into the image of God - because while he was lying there on the ground breathing, he was still yet a creature. He had animal life. He had a brain. But he did not have the spirit in man.
I believe when God knelt down and breathed into that man it was the infusion of the spirit in man. That is what made man in the image of God! That is what gives man the power to have dominion. That is what gives man the intellect he needs in order to rule the things that God has created.
Man had creature life, but man became a living being with intelligence, one who has the power … . . .
From the very beginning (you can turn now if you would to Genesis 1 with me) God made it clear that He wanted man and woman to join together, to come together. For what? To form a family.
The physical family unit is an example of that pattern and it is a huge part, a vital part of God's plan on three different levels.
First, marriage and the love between husband and wife gives us a glimpse of Jesus Christ's passionate love and devotion to His bride, the church.
Second, brotherhood or sisterhood gives us the opportunity to learn God's agape love to bond together in God's love through encouragement, patience, forbearance, forgiveness, and loving kindness. We just heard all about this from Richard.)
Third, parenthood provides us an incredible life lesson, a life lesson of God's parental love, His loving kindness, His tenderness, and patience towards us, His children.
Now our physical and spiritual family relationships here on earth are indeed a gift from God. They teach us how to become just like Him. It does not matter if you are single or married, we are all part of God's future Family, learning how to love and grow in oneness with the spiritual Family of God through the upcoming marriage with Jesus Christ. You can jot down Revelation 19:7. So God the Father is indeed creating a family and in the end, after the 1,000-year reign of Jesus Christ with His firstfruits, we see New Jerusalem brought down to a renewed earth and Jesus Christ presents all the many billions of saved children of God to the Father of all. That is when all who are willing to submit will be together in unity.
So knowing the ultimate purpose of our family relationships here on earth, this should really help us appreciate them more. That family unit is critical. It is vital to us becoming like God. Is it any wonder why we see Satan attacking the physical family so ferociously? Is it any wonder why we see Satan attacking the spiritual Family, the Body of Christ? God's pattern of physical and spiritual family units in the church are all critical to our growth. So in our remaining time today we are going to explore some key attributes that we can learn from the family construct, attributes of becoming Godlike and might I say, childlike.
There is a little aside here that we should get to before we go past it, but it will not take long. When these verses are combined with Genesis 1:28-29 and Genesis 4:1-5, it shows that this is not mankind's introduction into eating animal flesh. You can read verse 3 in chapter 9. But in Genesis 1, what God is doing is showing that all life, animal and human, ultimately depends on vegetation: I have given you all the green herbs to eat. And that is true.
Remember Genesis 4:1-5. Abel brought to God an animal sacrifice. That shows us that God had already showed them that their dominion over animals extended to the place that they were able to take an animal's life. God was well pleased with Abel's animal sacrifice. He was so well pleased that it is recorded back in Hebrews 11 that it still witnesses. So God was not overly concerned about the killing of an animal, but what we need to understand is that they understood about sacrificing, and some of the sacrifices had to be eaten. That was a requirement of God. The sin offering was to be eaten, part of it anyway, and the peace offering was to be eaten.
I think that these verses clearly establish that animals' well-being is directly tied to man's exercise of his free moral agency. If a man chooses to obey, God will bless both animals and man. As the animals are blessed, so is man; as man is blessed, so are the animals. If a man's livestock is not eating, then it is pretty certain that the wild things are not eating either.
It is interesting to note the sequence here, especially in verse 15. Much of man's sense of physical well-being is usually illustrated in the Bible by a full stomach. It is an illustration that God uses that if your stomach is full, you feel that things are all right in the world. What He is saying is this: if you look at the sequence, that the animals must first be blessed before the blessing accrues to man.
Now, if we were going to expand that, or amplify it in the English, it would read somewhat like this: The God, as to His nature, is love. What it means, then, is God is a loving God. Most of the gods in the ancient world, in Greek mythology, were wrathful, vengeful, angry, picky things who had the same foibles, the same weaknesses, as human beings. They were not 'loving' gods. But the God is a loving God. So it is not to be understood that loving is one of God's activities; but rather that every activity of God is 'loving'. Therefore, if He creates, He creates in love. If He rules, He rules in love. If He judges, He judges in love. All that He does is an expression of His nature.
Now, let us think about this in reference to man. We are still talking about how God is the source of this love, and man, by nature, does not have it. Man was made in the image and the likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-28). But, God is described as being spirit. God is Spirit (John 4:24). And we find here that God is love. Now contrast that to man. Man is flesh. You see, the image begins to change. We are not quite in the image of God, are we?
Not only that, but the Bible describes us as being carnal. In this case, I am using it in the sense of being fleshly or physical. We are self-centered, and we are deceitful. What this means in practical fact is that man cannot be what he is meant to be - in the image of God - until he loves as God loves. Until his nature is the same as God's, we will never really be in the image of God. This is the essential thing that must be changed in man. Of course, you understand that, because of receiving of the Spirit of God, we are now partakers of the divine nature, which Peter states there in one of his epistles.
So, if man is to achieve what he is meant to be, then we must love, but we must love with the love of God.
Which proves that man, at the beginning - the opening phrase of verse 27 - includes male and female. It is mankind. Both man and woman are made in the image of God. He created them.
In this verse we see God - the great Creator, the great Governor and Ruler of everything - now confers authority to govern to mankind. This also implies that God also gave the powers, or gifts, necessary to do this. A power, or gift, might be intelligence. It may be the power to communicate. It may be the power of being able to think and devise, to think spatially. It may be even the things that we call hands, because it takes a hand (working with a brain, a mind) to be able to create and to do things. God gave to mankind whatever was necessary, whatever powers were necessary, in order to enable them to govern the creation. So then, this implies that He gave the powers and gifts necessary to be able to carry out this function.
Now the words, dominion and subdue, might inject to us a sense of foreboding because those words have a tendency, among us English-speaking people, to think of negative uses of power. That is, abuses.
This has to be put together with dominion and subdue so that we understand that God is showing that His intent in giving mankind governing powers is only good and positive. Mankind is to use his governing powers to maintain. That is what the word keep means. To preserve from decay is another application of that same word.
To tend means to edify, to cultivate. It means to promote growth toward the perfection of beauty. So God's conferring governmental power and authority, and all the gifts that were necessary, were intended by God to be used in a positive way, not in any negative sense at all. The power was intended to be used in a positive way - for the good of creation, which God had just reformed and shaped.
God is working out a specific purpose for all of mankind to create us in His very image (Genesis 1:26). It began with the physical creation (Genesis 1:27-28) and will be accomplished fully when men are finally born into the very Family of God (Revelation 21:6-7).
