Beginnings:  Genesis in an Age of Science

An Introduction to Us, Part 1

Genesis 1:26-31; 2:15

     I have lived in a lot of places and have loved each one of them.  They’ve been very different from one another – but I’ve seen beauty in each place. Of course, I have also seen a lot of things in each one that are not beautiful.  Let me show you pictures of what I mean:

     I grew up in the beautiful Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia.  Here’s a shot of the beauty of the New River Gorge near my boyhood home:      But, in recent decades, decisions have been made to get at the coal in the hills by simply blowing the tops of mountains off and taking the coal more cheaply gathered that way.  It has left the mountains scarred and looking like this:     Right after I graduated from Bluefield High School, I moved to Chicago to go to college.  And, I fell in love with the city of Chicago: its architecture, its parks, its Lake

     But, climate change has been affecting Chicago so that Lake Michigan seems to be drying up.  That and pollution leave it looking like this:    But now I live here in the LA area and get to experience the remarkable beauty of the San Gabriel Mountains:      All of us who live here also know that we have huge challenges here in southern CA too:     All this brings us to Genesis 1.  Last week, I told you how much I love the creation account in the Bible’s opening chapter.  When I read it, I feel almost like God finished each day by taking a snapshot, looking at it and telling us, “This is what I’ve done today. It’s good.  I made it.”

     Today, I want us to focus on the 2^nd half of what God did on the 6^th day.  That’s when he created human life.  The way the Bible describes human creation lets us know that God made human beings to be very special.

What Does the Bible Teach about Us? God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them (Gen 1:27).

     Here at LAC, we often talk about human life being sacred in some way.  This is rooted in Gen 1:26-31.  I want you never to forget the way that God made you.  It’s different from the way he created anything else:

• The cadence in the language changes markedly in v.26.  In the first 5 ½ days, the Bible uses a set cadence and rhythm to talk about creation.  It says, “And God said… let there be… and there was… and it was good.  There was evening and there was morning…” 

     When we first come to v. 26, we read, “And God said’’’ and we think it will be just like what has gone on before.  But, it isn’t.  God’s Word is written so that we will stop and take note that something new and different will take place.  It says, “Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our own image, in our likeness!!”  This change is a signal that God is going to do something very special.

• What is special is so special that God says it twice so that we won’t miss it.  God declares that he made us “in our own image” and “in our likeness”.  This is emphasized both in v.26 and v.27.  Nothing else in creation is like these human beings. That’s what God’s Word is saying. 

What Does the Bible Mean by “Image of God”?

     There have been thousands of pages and hours of lectures and sermons about this topic – so please know that, in one sermon during a family service here at LAC, we will not be able to delve deeply into this.  A good friend of mine, Dr. John Kilner, has recently published a 414-page book that I recommend highly to you about the image of God, Dignity and Destiny: Humanity in the Image of God. I won’t read it all to you today.  But, let me tell you that “image of God” usually is understood by three related descriptions: 1) To reflect to the world what God is like, 2) to represent God in the world he has made, and 3) to relate to God, one another and the rest of creation as God does:

1. To reflect to the world what God is like – When kings would conquer another nation, they would often leave statues in the occupied nation to remind people that the king exists and that he is in control. But, not the God of the Bible.  God has made people to reflect his presence and ways in this world.  God is not to be imaged in anything that is fixed but through living human beings.  It’s striking when you think about it. We as human beings have been created to reflect something about God to rest of creation, i.e., human beings are meant to glorify God.
2. To represent God in the world he has made – Kings would also send their people into geographical areas and empower them fully to represent them wherever they had been placed.  They were called “shaliachs”, representatives of the one who is in power.  Shaliachs were chosen because they were deemed to have the wisdom and the giftedness necessary to make decisions about things that matter. That’s what we are to be in the world.  Everything else in creation should see us and know that we have been made by God specifically to represent him in this world and to further his purposes in creation.
3. To relate to God, one another and the rest of creation as God does – There have been unceasing debates about what the Bible means when God says, “Let Us make humankind in our image…” I’ll only say this:  Whatever else that phrase means, it at least reveals to us that God is a relational God.  God is one but has eternally existed in an intrapersonal relationship. Later in the Bible, God lets us know he has always existed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  In Gen 2, when God sees that Adam is alone, he declares that this is not good – because people are made in God’s image and are not meant to exist alone – but always in relationship. We’ll talk about that next week.

     When we put these three points together, we can make sense out of vv. 26-28, i.e., that God has given us the responsibility and the blessed privilege to take care of everything else in this world that he has made.

What Does God Mean When He Says We Should Rule? Let us make mankind in our image... so that they may rule (1:26).

     The Hebrew word for “rule” is “radah” and was used for the authority and responsibility a king gave to his “shaliach”.  That representative was to care for the people and for the land the king had sent him to in ways consistent with the king’s own character and ways.  So, when we are created by God to rule in his place, it means we are to care for the world in the way God cares for the world, in the ways God cares for us!  When God says we are to rule over the rest of creation, he does not mean that we are to be domineering. God is saying that he has placed us in this world to care for it and make it even more beautiful. We who represent God are to use our lives to bring blessing to what is under our care.  That’s what God does.  That’s what we should do! 

     We are God’s stewards in this world.  We don’t own the world –God does! God has placed us in the world not to dispose of as we will but to take care of for the “Owner”.  Do you know what it’s like?  Sometimes, when you go on vacation, you find someone to stay at your house.  Often, you give them the privilege of staying at your home and the freedom to use what’s there – the TV, the food, the water, etc.  But, they should care for it while you’re away – not abuse it.  They are to watch over the home, maintain things in the home, keep it tidy, care for the dog, etc. If you then get home and see that they’ve left food all over the house – so that it has spoiled so the place stinks, that’s not good.  You would be disappointed if the house stinks.  But, imagine how you’d feel if valuable things had been broken.  The plants destroyed.  And the dog is dead.

     The story of the Bible is that God made the world and it was good.  He made people and gave us the ability and the calling to take care of our world.  But, we have walked away from God.  One of the effects of that is that we human beings have not obeyed our mandate to maintain the beauty of our Father’s world. 

     The result has been ecological damage, pollution and natural disasters.  As the Apostle Paul put it in Romans 8:20-21, “The creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it (Adam), in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.”  Paul then went on to say that what God has created will be made completely right when God has completed his work.  Until then, we who follow the Bible’s teaching should recommit ourselves to being the best stewards of our Father’s world that we can be.

     So, when I read Genesis 1, I see that God has given us a beautiful world to live in – and he’s made us so that we may enjoy it.  And, he calls us to care for it.  God says that this calling is a “blessing”.  Yes, in v.28, human beings were given in the very beginning of creation a twofold blessing from God. The second of those blessings is unique to us as human beings.  We have been given the blessing and the calling to rule over everything else God has created.  In that calling, we find so much of our dignity and our reason for living.

     Scientist, Wally Rippel, says that this world is a love gift to those who have been made in his image. God gives us this opportunity to be his stewards as a gift, i.e., as a blessing of his grace.  “I give you everything on the face of the whole earth.  It is yours to eat.  It is yours to grow.  It is yours to name.”  But, in v. 31, he also says, “Remember that when I gave it to you, it was very good.  Make sure that it stays very good.”

     How do I want you to respond to this message from God’s Word today?  I hope the first is obvious: 1) I want you to love the world and its people as God loves the world and its people.  I see that love for the world radiating through Wally.  However, I think political debates about the environment have seeped into the church over the years so that we fail to see each day that everything we live in the midst of in this world was created by God.  When it is used as God intends it to be used, it is good, “very good”.

     I also want you to 2) embrace joyfully and obediently the blessing of creation care God has mandated.

One clear implication of God’s Word today is that God has given you and me, as his image bearers, the ability to have our lives make a difference in this world.  We often sing, “God makes beautiful things out of the dust.”  Well, he does that – but, he also does a lot of his remaking in this world through his image bearers.  You and I are human.  We can take what is broken and bring it back together.  We can make clean what has been made dirty by misuse and abuse.  But be sure of this:  The flip side of that is true also.  We human beings have the ability to take what is good and make it bad, to take what is beautiful and pollute it. 

     I promised Wally that I would tell you that we didn’t have time in the video to tell you how devastated he as a scientist sees our world is due to the fact that fallen human beings have not cared for the world.  All around us, we see the effects of our failure to be God’s image bearers. People inflict damage on our Father’s world rather than being good stewards of it. But it is our God-ordained calling – no, it is our “blessing” – to be able to live each day of our lives caring for and restoring what sin has damaged.

     Finally, 3) I want us all to commit ourselves to a way of life in which we daily take steps to care for the world our Father has given us.  You might say: “The problems are too big.  Who am I to make a difference in a world in which the pollution and damage is already so thoroughgoing and widespread?”  I tell you this:  You are made in the image of God.  You have been created to know him, to represent him and to reflect his love for the world by the way you live.  He’s given you the ability, in his image, to further the goodness and beauty of the world he’s put you in.

     So, I call each one of us today to living a life of small acts of faithfulness in caring for our world.  I’ve put in the worship folder a few of the things we are doing as a church family to care for our world.  Talk with your family and friends this week about what you might do to care for our Father’s world.  Do small acts of care every day.  It will be like planting seeds.  That’s the metaphor I see Jesus using in the New Testament (e.g., Mark 4).  Jesus called us to plant small seeds of God’s good news and of God’s kingdom in this world.  When we do, God gives growth to those seeds. When we are faithful in small ways, we will be faithful in greater ones.  He takes those small seeds planted out of obedience to him and do great things.

     Genesis 1 does not give us a prescribed program for caring for our world.  We can’t put together a comprehensive policy on the environment from these verses.  But, God’s Word gives us a God-directed worldview from which to operate.  As God so often does in his Word, he gives us the basis for guiding our behavior and directing our priorities with regard to the world we live in. 

     God blessed humankind and said to them…, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over what I have made… (Gen 1:28).”

     Let’s to it well – to His glory!