This is the manuscript of the sermon for my assigned text candidacy sermon. Happy reading…
———————
So at this point we’re kind of in-between series; we just finished talking about our church vision for 2009, and in a couple weeks we’re going to start looking at some of the issues raised in the book The Shack.
As many of you know I intend to graduate this year from Calvin Seminary and become a full-fledged minister. But in order to get that point, there are a few things that I need to get out of the way. Today is one of those things. I’ve been assigned a passage that I needed to prepare a sermon on and preach, and since we’re in-between topics, we figured this would be a good time for me to get this done without breaking things up too much.
The text we’re looking at today comes from Genesis 1…
READ GENESIS 1:26-31
Before we get too far into the text, I want to “clear the air” about a few things. This is a popular passage. And because of its popularity, it’s a little tough to preach without boring everyone to sleep.
But this passage has also been used in a lot of different ways – some good, some not-so-good. For example: this passage has been used to prove that evolution is wrong. It’s been used to argue that birth control is wrong. It’s been used to argue that driving huge SUV’s that run on diesel and put out enormous amounts of CO2 is humanity’s God-given prerogative. This passage has been used as a starting point for explaining what it means to be “created in God’s image.” Within the past couple years, this passage has also been used defend the Christian environmentalist movement – or Creation Care as it’s sometimes called.
What I want to do this morning is try to avoid many of the typical interpretations and applications and present this passage in a more balanced way. While it’s possible to go off in a variety of different directions with these verses, I want to stick to our text as much as possible and trust that, over time, many of the questions and issues this text raises will be answered for you.
If you look at these verses, they basically split into two parts. The first part deals with the creation of human beings; the second part then talks about what our relationship to the rest of creation is like.
Let’s start with the first part – and for this, I want to focus on verse 27…
RE-READ 27
It says that God created us “in his own image.“ A lot of people have said a lot of things about what this means. Does this mean that we look like God? Does it mean that we act like God? Does it mean that we think like God? Does it mean that we possess certain characteristics – or attributes (the technical term) – of God? First, let’s take a look at the word “image.”
The Hebrew word is tselem. Typically, tselem is translated as “idol.” But that obviously doesn’t fit very well here. In a more technical sense, tselem refers to anything that is “a pattern or model of something else.” That’s an important distinction to make.
A few years ago I was attending a conference in which one of the speakers told everyone to stand in a circle. After we had settled into what vaguely resembled a circular pattern, he began talking about being created in God’s image and made the statement that when we look at each other, we’re looking at God.
But that’s not what the Hebrew says. Our text doesn’t say that God cloned himself and then put the clones on earth and called them people. It says that he created little models of himself – little representations.
But – there’s a problem with that, too. In John 4, Jesus tells the woman at the well that “God is spirit.“ In other words, God doesn’t have a physical body like we do. So when our text says that we are created in God’s image, it cannot mean that we look like God. Instead, it’s more of a spiritual image.
God has given us certain characteristics and abilities that make us reflections of Him. Just a few examples: we have the ability to know things, to make decisions, and to discern. No other creature has that ability. We love. In way, we even possess the ability to create life by having children. In case you didn’t notice, our text is at the tail end of the creation account in which God creates all life out of nothing.
What’s also interesting about our text is who reflects God image…
We often think of each individual person as being created in God’s image. To a certain extent that’s true. But look again at what verse 27 says: “male and female he created them.“ God didn’t just create one person in his image, he create the entire human race in his image. Men and women together reflect God’s image – not just one or the other. It’s no secret that men and women possess different traits and qualities. To use an example from earlier, if each one of us were perfectly create in God’s image by ourselves, then anyone here, male or female, would be able to have children without the involvement of anyone else. It’s probably a safe bet to say that nobody here has that ability.
This is a huge argument for equality: men are not better than women, nor are women better than men. Instead, together we reflect God’s perfect unity that exists within himself, independently of any outside factors.
And then there’s part 2: our relationship to creation itself.
READ VERSES 28-30
In some ways I really wish I could preach this sermon later in the spring – something closer to Earth Day. But then I’d be emphasizing the Creation Care aspect of these verses and neglecting the verses about God’s image.
Verse 28 is sometimes referred to as the “Cultural Mandate.” This is where God has finished creating people, he’s placed them in the Garden of Eden, and now he says, “This is what I want you to do – this is your job: make babies, and join Green Peace…“ Okay, okay…maybe that’s a bit of a stretch – I don’t know…
But see, this is closely related to how we were created – this created in God’s image thing. God is a life-giving God – the fact the he created anything at all shows that to be true. And us being created in God’s image means that we too have a desire and ability to create and maintain life.
I want to focus on two more Hebrew words – I know it’s a lot for one sermon, but these are really important words. The words are kavash and rada. In English they’re the words “subdue” and “rule.”
There have been a number of attempts recently to make these words say something they don’t really say. A lot of people have tried to make these words mean something like “care” or “protect.” But the reality is that these are military terms – they do imply dominion over something else. But not abuse; we are created in God’s image, after all.
Let me throw something else in the pot a second…
Genesis was written during the exodus. The exodus was a period of 40 years in which the Israelites – who had been enslaved in Egypt for 400 years – were granted their freedom and wandered around the Sinai Peninsula before defeating the Canaanites and taking possession of present-day Israel.
In addition to the Egyptians and the Canaanites, there other groups like the Philistines and Edomites who were living in the area as well. All these groups believed in multiple gods. The Israelites were a young nation who worshipped one God. The surrounding countries had gods like the sun god, the moon god, the river god, the mountain god – and so on. For all these other groups, nature was something to be afraid of – people had the responsibility of offering sacrifices to these gods and serving them instead subduing and ruling over nature.
In some ways the same thing is still happening today. In the Northwest, we have what are called “eco-terrorists.” I’m not kidding! Eco-terrorists are extremist environmentalists who go around blowing up logging trucks and drive VW Minibuses with peace signs on the front.
A little less extreme are those who associate with much of the New Age movement. Both groups see nature – not necessarily something to be afraid of – but as somewhat more important than people. Israel’s first neighbors, eco-terrorists, New Agers have all allowed themselves to become submissive to nature.
But when the Hebrews read Genesis 1, what they saw God doing was turning the conventional wisdom of the day on its head. What God is saying is, “That’s not the way it’s supposed to be. You’re created in my image which means that you are higher than the rest of creation. Creation should bow to you – not the other way around.“
As God’s image-bearers, we have been entrusted with the responsibility of ruling over, preserving, and maintaining nature. But this is all done as a reflection – we are vice-rulers – of God’s ultimate rule and authority over everything. Through us, God ensures that life continues to flourish on earth.
But now here’s the kicker: as I’ve already said, God is a life giver. And because we are created in God’s image, we too have the ability to create life. But our ability is limited to physical life. Only God can give spiritual life.
Shortly after God created the first man and woman – Adam and Eve – he gave them one rule to obey…which they didn’t. And as a result, everyone born after that inherited a sinful nature. This sinful nature brought spiritual death – separation from God.
But God is a life-giving God…
Through Jesus Christ, God has brought spiritual life back to humanity. God is restoring creation, fixing his image-bearers, to once again reflect his perfect image. Through Jesus we have been restored, made into a new creation.
And just as God pronounced in verse 31 that “it was very good,” so too on the cross the message was heard, “It is finished“… and “it was very good“…
Filed under: Bible Study, Christian Living, Church, Ministry, Preaching, Sermon, Theology
[...] Sermon on Genesis 1:26-31 (In His Image) « Under Construction [...]