Genesis 1 – January 2

Genesis is so named because it is the book of beginnings. Here, at the very outset of Scripture, the Bible provides us with the riveting facts of God’s work in Creation. This chapter takes us through the entirety of creation, and the next chapter will rewind and take a closer look at the sixth day in more detail. Just consider the many beginnings we find in this single chapter. It is the beginning of the universe, nature, physics, plants, animals, humans, commandments, authority structures, human responsibility, marriage, and much more. And God’s response to all of His creation was to say that it was “very good.” 

            One of the most degrading philosophies being peddled by modern society is that humans are nothing more than “highly evolved animals.” By undermining the true origins of mankind and eliminating the genuine distinction between man and animal, these concepts also undermine the value that God intends for us to place on all other people. Deep down, every human being intrinsically knows that the evil religion of Darwinian evolution is patently false in this regard. If there was a dog and a child both hanging from a cliff and it was only possible to save one of them, even the most ardent evolutionist would intuitively rush to protect the child. God made mankind differently from all of the other creatures.

Tomorrow we will see that the process of creation was different. Today I simply want to consider what it means that, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” First, it we must not consider this to mean a physical reflection of God. “God is spirit” and has no corporeal image. (John 1:18; 4:12; 4:24) Being made in the image of God is not a biological similarity, which is why both men and women can both be understood to be in God’s image. This is significant when it comes to understanding gender issues. Unlike most historic religions, Biblical Christianity does not teach that men are of greater value than women. An extreme example can be seen in historic Hinduism devalued women to the point that it taught that a widow must be burned on her husband’s funeral pyre. (This practice was banned by the British in 1850 during their rule of India, but it does still occur on rare occasions, the most recent being recorded in 2015.) In reality, men and women are equal in value, both reflecting God’s image.

The doctrine is typically referred to by its Latin term, imago Dei, and it has far-reaching implications. Evolution encourages racism as people debate about who is more highly evolved. The imago Dei destroys the viability of racism because every person bears God’s image. In matters of life and pregnancy, the imago Dei reveals that every life that God creates is His alone to take. (When we reach Genesis 9, we will learn more about how the image of God demands justice for those who destroy image bearers.)

Even after the fall, all of us are still made in the image of God. Every single person is worthy of your respect and kindness. In James 3:9, we read about the hypocrisy of saying we love God and then hating one another. "With it (our tongue) we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.” Over the next couple of days, we are going to see how the image of God is marred by sin. The rest of the story arc of Scripture is the epic of God’s incredible plan to restore us to an undefiled imago Dei. If you are in Christ, you are actually commanded to work toward this restoration every day. “Put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Eph. 4:24) “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” (Col. 3:9-10)