Creation

Gen 1:26–31

GOD CREATED EVERYTHING for his pleasure, but he created humanity in his own image and likeness. Speculative proposals for what this denotes multiply:

• Maybe it’s that we have a spirit (Heb. ruach) or a soul (Heb. nepesh); however, animals are also said to have both nephesh (Gen 1:20, 24, 30) and ruach (Gen 6:17; 7:15).
• Some suggest that it’s the degree of human intelligence that constitutes the image; however, that explanation seems a recipe for humanitarian disasters of a Nazi-like order if it means failing to identify the fetus, infant, or mentally handicapped as fully human.
• Some suggest that man’s use of tools constitutes the divine image in humanity; however, we now see that chimpanzees and even some sea creatures fashion and use what can fairly be called “tools.” And since I’m not very adept with tools myself, I’m not sure I like this explanation at all!*
• Others suggest the human desire and ability to create constitutes the image. If so, it’s a strange twist that this is the very aspect of human existence that’s turned so readily against God in the crafting of images to be used for idols!
• Others suggest that the desire for fellowship with God constitutes the image and likeness; however; however, it’s more likely that this is not what constitutes image and likeness, but hat it’s a result of our bearing the divine image.

All these suggestions ignore the fact that the creation account itself gives us the answer to the question. It defines image-bearing in the functional terms of divine appointment: “They will reign” over all creation as God’s representatives (Gen 1:26), to “govern it” (v. 28). Being God’s image and likeness has to do with being God’s royal representatives ruling over his earth on his behalf.

God also gave humanity a mandate to fill the earth. That involved more than just expanding human population but also extending paradise, so that the whole of the earth would be a paradise-like realm for God’s presence and rule.

Sadly, the Genesis account quickly turns to humanity’s fall into sin. But just as quickly, God’s note of gracious hope returns. Right after God’s judgment on Adam and Eve, condemning them to death for sin, we read a human note of hope: “Then the man—Adam—named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all who live” (Gen 3:20). And the very next verse we see a divine note of grace: “And the LORD God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife” (v. 21). The line of God’s image and likeness would continue after all—and with divine protection and provision.

Lest we think that humanity no longer bore God’s image and likeness after the judgment for sin, the next great judgment (the flood) is also followed by a note of divine commitment to man serving as the divine image and likeness: “If anyone takes a human life, that person’s life will also be taken by human hands. For God made human beings in his own image” (Gen 9:6). This condemns violence against the very image of God. But it also reaffirms the authority of human beings to rule—even in capital cases.

Adam and Eve were created as prototypes of divine rule through human rep-resentatives. Later this pattern came to a degree of fulfillment in David and his dynasty. Of course, all of this could only be a limited version of what will happen through the one who is “the visible image of the invisible God,” not as God’s creation, but as the one who “existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation” (Col 1:15).

“The Scriptures tell us, ‘The first man, Adam, became a living person.’ But the last Adam—that is, Christ—is a life-giving Spirit” (1 Cor 15:45). And when he comes forth from the grave, he will live and reign forever. God called on human beings to subdue the earth (Gen 1:28); and all things will be put under Jesus’ feet (1 Cor 15:27; Eph 1:22). And as renewed image of God (Col 3:10) the saints will share in that reign (2 Tim 2:12; Rev 20:6), for which humanity was created in the first place (Heb 2:8).

Questions, Reflections, and Commitments

• How might you and your family be more faithful to the mandate to live and reign over creation as God’s image and likeness? Remember that ruling, subduing, and filling was not just about making a paradise, it was about extending the realm of God’s presence and power in the earth through representative rule.
• Today when you pray, “May your Kingdom come son,” may you continue with the words of that prayer which constitute both an explicit request and an implied commitment: “May you will be done on earth, as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10). Make it a request, “O God, manifest your rule through my life.”

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*Depending upon the context, ruach means everything from “spirit” or “Spirit” to “wind” or “breath.” Similarly, nephesh, refers to means to the “soul,” the “self,” a “life,” or a “being/creature,” or even the “throat.”

In his image

For God's title, the Old Testament, regularly uses the plural noun 'Elohim instead of 'Eloah, the singular form. With singular verbs, 'Elohim clearly refers to the one God of Israel. But in Genesis 1:26, we have a plural verbs and pronoun too:

God (Heb. 'elohim, plural noun) said (singular verb), "Let us make (plural verb) man in our (plural pronoun) image, in our (plural pronoun) likeness. (Gen 1:26).

Interpreters suggest various explanations for this plural reference, but the clear choice is that God uses "us" and "our" when he speaks to the rest of the heavenly hosts. They form a ruling council, which both Daniel and John saw (Dan 7:9-10; Rev 20:4). Job and his friends never saw it, but that council debated his righteousness (Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7). God even permitted argument and counter-argument from Satan, who attended. When God set out the judge and destroy wicked king Ahab, he took angelic council. When one council member came up with a suggestion God liked, God told him "Go and do it" (1 Kgs 22:19-22). When God needed a messenger to deliver his message of judgment, he asked the heavenly council for volunteers: "Who will go for us?" And the prophet Isaiah volunteered, "Send me!" (Isa 6:8). This depicts prophets as members of the heavenly council, which is perhaps why Scripture says, "Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7). Even today, God charges his ministers not only before man, but also before the heavenly council (1 Tim 5:21).

God creating Adam, by Michalangelo in Sistine Chapel

In Genesis 1:26, God told the whole assembled host of heaven, "Let's make man in our image and likeness," "a little lower" than the 'Elohim that staff the heavenly council. Then God commissioned his earthly image and likeness to rule over creation (v. 28). When we're renewed in that image, we'll reign with Christ in the heavenly council, judging even angels (Dan 7:9, 22; 1 Cor 6:2-3; Rev 3:21; 20:4). And that's the whole point of being created in the image and likeness of the 'Elohim, who is judge of all.

Outside the "fabric" of space and time

The philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716, at right) wondered why there is something rather than nothing, then wondered why it is the way it is. He concluded that God had created the best world out of any that are logically possible. I won't argue the merits or problems with that conclusion, but it does make me think that modern physicists are sniffing around the door of the same issue.

Following string theory, modern physicists have also moved from the question of "how" to the question of "why." This is the necessary result of pushing up against the absolute boundaries of space and time, to ask what it was like "before" time and space existed and therefore "outside" of space. At the border between the non-existence of time and the absolute beginning of time, the "how" pushes me to the one who exists eternally outside of time. At boundary between the non-existence of space and the absolute beginning of even still-empty space, the "how" pushes me to the one who fills heaven and earth (Jer 23:24) so that there is nowhere isolated from his protective presence (Jer 23:23).

In turn, that makes me wonder at the grace that God shows by living among us, though the heavens and earth cannot contain him.

Genesis creation account

By the sound of some complaints about the biblical account of the origins of the universe, you would think it would have been more accurate if it would have been more scientific. But can you imagine a Bible full of formulas like the this one, which I guess would require study Bibles with extended explanatory notes on Planck mass, tension, and time and Planck's constant? How many notes on perturbation theory and space-tearing flop transition would it take to turn your heart to God's gracious provision of salvation in Christ?