Genesis 1:26-27 • God's Reflection

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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)

Our text is Genesis 1, verses 26 and 27.



 In our Through the Bible in a Year series, we began last week with Genesis 1-1 in which God looks across the cosmos and He says, "In the beginning I created the heavens and the earth."



 But now He looks at us and He says, "How did you begin?



 What is valuable and unique about you in my creation?"



 Let's read together Genesis 1, verses 26 and 27. I'll ask that you stand as we read where God, having made everything else and declared it good, now turns to humanity.



 Genesis 1, 26, "Then God said, "Let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."



 So God created man in His own image. In the image of God, He created Him.



 Male and female, He created them.



 Let's pray together.



 Heavenly Father, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our rock and our Redeemer.



 For we pray in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.



 Please be seated.



 I hate to bring up bad memories, but it was the double-doink that ended a season and enraged sports talk radio. You remember Cody Parkey of the Bears, the kicker who had set an NFL record for rookie scoring in a previous year who had already kicked three field goals in the game with last year's Super Bowl champs, nonetheless missed the game-winning field goal at the end of the playoff game.



 It would have won the playoff, it would have propelled them much further than they'd been in a long time, and nonetheless.



 Cody Parker was not dismayed by the loss, even by what was said about him. When he was asked after the game, "Why didn't you dodge the press? You knew the questions were going to be so hard.



 Why did you go home and have a holiday with your family? Why were you not so messed up that you couldn't do that? Why did you handle all of this with such serenity?"



 Parkey answered on the Today Show with these words, "Football is what I do.



 It is not who I am."



 Now you might have think that when the media found out that the football had missed, striking first the left upright and then doinking off of it and hitting the crossbar and then doinking back on to the field of play so that the game was lost, that people might have had a little understanding when they found out that an Eagles player had actually deflected the ball. They might have had some understanding, except for that phrase that Parkey just said, "Football is what I do. It's not what I am." Sports talk radio erupted in rage. How dare you say that football is only what you do and not what you are? While the Today Show host was a little bit kind, you're the classiest of acts. You really showed what you're made of. Sports talk radio and I quote, "The game is your gig.



 How you play determines your career, and your career determines whether you are a success or a failure. Let's say that football doesn't define you. Either you can play or you can't, and that is what defines you." Whoo!



 Pretty harsh.



 I wonder if you agree or disagree. Is what you do defining you? Your success and career in relationships, your family, what your kids do, is what you do. Others' opinions of what you do and how well you have done defining you, or is something deeper, more soul deep in who you are that actually gives you recourse when circumstances and success fail you.



 I know these words. You know them too. You are made in the image of God.



 But they right here in the very first chapter of the Bible become absolutely essential for our soul health. And I'm not just saying that because as a preacher I can tell you that it helps you when you've got a sermon to preach. I will tell you at the hardest moments of personal life and career when there are people who thought I was foolish, wrong, or evil, who were willing to throw me out of positions for me to say with my wife, "My identity is not in my job. It is in Jesus Christ." I believe profoundly that when success has abandoned me, that when opinions are assaulting me, that I am made in God's image regardless of what anybody else says or thinks.



 And that ultimately is my hope.



 And that ultimately is the value that I believe God is giving him meat to you and to everyone else. I am made in the image of God.



 What does that mean?



 It means if you are human, the image of God is inseparable from you. Verse 26 of the very first chapter of the Bible. God said, "Let us make man in our image after our likeness." Isn't it interesting that God here is referring to Himself in Hebrew? What are royal terms? So He refers to Himself in the plural. "Let us make man in our image according to our likeness."



 But at the same time, it's important that you recognize that humanity itself is being indicated as a collective. Did you catch that? God said, "Let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and every creeping thing." Let them. Wait.



 Let us make Adam. That's actually the word in Hebrew. Let us make man, Adam, in our own image. But you should recognize that unless the word Adam is pointed at a particular person, it means all humanity.



 And that's so much clear not only when God uses the plural, but you get to verse 27. So God created Adam, humanity, in His own image. In the image of God He created him, male and female, He created them.



 This image of God that we possess is a reflection of God's image that is inseparable from simply what it means to be human.



 Now that's confusing to us at times because if we say, "Wait, if you are made in God's likeness in His image, are you claiming that you are God?"



 No.



 Separating us from other religions, we are not claiming that we are little gods. If you're an image of God, you're the reflection. There are aspects of who God is that reflect, but you're not God.



 You're a reflection and image of who God is. Still we're confused because if I look at my reflection in a mirror, I have nose and eyes and ears and a body, and God is Spirit and has no body like a man, say the children in their children's catechism. After all, we are told that God is Spirit and we are to worship Him in Spirit and in truth. So if not my physical characteristics that are reflecting who God is, what is reflecting who God is?



 What's being reflected is how we are not only having God's image in a way that cannot be separated from our humanity, but the way that God's image is separating us from all other creatures.



 After all, other creatures have noses and ears and eyes. That's not what separates us. What separates us? We're actually told in verse 26, "God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, over the livestock and everything that creeps on the earth." It's the dominion feature that's different than all the other creatures. No other creature is declared to be made in God's image because no other creature has dominion over the rest of the creatures of creation. You think, why is that important to you? We may have forgotten.



 After all, who wrote this book of Genesis? That was Moses for the people of Israel who are just coming out of slavery in Egypt. And because they've been slaves in Egypt, they have adopted a lot of the practices and the perspectives of the people in Egypt, which means what? They think of some animals as their gods.



 You've seen it, you know, in the pictures of the mummies and you see the cats and the crocodiles and the ibises or the birds that are around it, and these become their gods.



 And when God is saying, "I made them, I come before them," He is giving Himself preeminence, dominion over the creatures of the earth. And by the way, it's not just that because the main God of the Egyptians was the sun God, Ra, and in the biblical account of creation, the sun does not occur until the fourth day.



 Creation is over half over and Ra hasn't appeared yet. What is God saying?



 I am superior to every other created thing. I have dominion over it. We Christians begin to debate. What does that mean for the length of days? Are they 24-hour creation days or 12-hour creation days with gaps betweens or indeterminate? How do you know if the sun isn't up yet?



 Not really the point. God is saying, "I have dominion over all created things." And then He looks at you and me, all humanity from which His image is inseparable, and He says, "And humanity is to have dominion over other created things as well." Now, we're not used to thinking in this way, but what God is communicating from the very first chapter of the Bible is our rights and our responsibilities and our relationships.



 What are our rights? We have rights over the creatures because we are God's image bearers with dominion over other things. We forget how important that is. We grieve at times in a world that's collapsing by communication and transportation to get familiar with other cultures where sometimes sacred cows or cats or animals have priority over people or their children.



 And God is saying right from the beginning, "These other things, as important as they are, are for my people." Now, do they have a right, responsibility to exploit or be cruel to them because they have dominion? No. God is saying at the very same time, "I am loving toward all that I have made."



 So cruelty to aspects of His creation, exploitation of aspects of His creation is itself ruled out. Why? Because we have been given dominion with the responsibility for stewardship. That's actually verses 28 through 31 of this very first chapter of the Bible as God is reminding us that because we are made in His image, we are to be taking care of His creation. Yes, we have priority over the things of creation, but we cannot abuse.



 We cannot exploit because we have responsibilities that ultimately will determine our relationships as well. How?



 Because if you are made in God's image and that God has dominion over all things, then the God who is to be respected above all, preeminent above all, having dominion over all, if that person is reflected in you, then I'm supposed to have regard for you too, to respect you, to give you dignity, to care for you as God has put His image in you. You're not somebody I can disregard or abuse or trash or ridicule or make fun of. Why? Because you are made in God's image. Ultimately, the Bible is going to say just a few chapters down, "Why can't you not just kill people if you don't like them because they're made in God's image? Why can you not ridicule people if they have done it because they are made in God's image? Why can't you be sarcastic about other people because they are made in God's image?



 Why do you have to care for people who have hurt you because they are made in God's image?"



 And though we recognize it may be an image that is damaged, it may be a mirror that's got a poor reflection. Nonetheless, God's basic character in them has not changed. They are still made in God's image, and therefore we are to respect them even when the double doink is not about a game, but terrible things that have been done to us by others as we are called to love our enemies and to pray for those who despitefully use us.



 Why?



 Because they are made in God's image.



 I'm going to tell you, it's easy to talk about in a sermon. It is so hard to live.



 This past week I had the opportunity to read a biography of a man that I actually know. That doesn't happen often.



 But this is a man who's a very well-known preacher, died just a few years ago, also a very amazing missionary.



 And because he's had such an impact upon evangelical culture, people are now exploring his life and in this modern biography not only discussing his work, but his warts.



 Late in his ministry, as his church had prospered so much, he had the opportunity to work internationally and international, to launch ministry that would go across nations. But it became very difficult to both support the church and also support the international ministry. And as a consequence, it became so much pressure it damaged his health, but it also damaged his priorities.



 His wife at one point wrote him a letter accusing him of having two mistresses, one black and one white, the church in Uganda and the church in the United States.



 I must tell you that when I first read her accusations, I wonder why would she do that? As the Lord is so powerfully using this man, as his responsibility is so great, as the pressure is so poor upon, why would she not be encouraging him, seeking to be a support to him? But then I began to read her examples of how he had neglected her and neglected their children



 in pursuit of ministry. In the letter of concern, she did not so much support him as to say, "Look at what you have done to not regard our children as you should, to value actually more other people, other ministries over your own family." When I first read her comments, I'll just be straight. Initially they angered me. I know the man, I know his ministry, I know his impact. How could she have done that?



 And then to read the examples and not so much feel anger as fright.



 I know how that can happen.



 God, let me hear, let me think, let me prioritize, let me remember the value that you have put on the people in my life as well.



 The answer to what was almost a point of their coming apart occurred as they began to argue.



 In one particular argument, he accused her of being like an orphan on the mud streets of Uganda, just complaining as though she had no care, no one to watch out for, just complaining.



 And she said, "Perhaps I'm sounding like an orphan on the streets. You have made our children orphans."



 So much anger, so much difficulty, so much conflict. And what rescued them was actually the orphan terminology as they recognized that God has said to all of us, "You are no longer orphans, but I have provided for you broken, sinful, damaged people, my own son." And the reason I did that was you were always made in my image. You were always able to receive my spiritual care and comfort. You were always the one that I was using to make my name known.



 And the two of them, in all of their anger, recognized that each was speaking truth.



 And just as when we make a piece of pottery, it reflects the nature of the one who's making it, so the one who was speaking to the other, each recognized was reflecting the voice, the word, the character, the priorities of God, even in their brokenness, even in their blame.



 God was saying, "I'm in this person.



 Listen to them.



 Remember what I have made and value the image of God in that person. I will tell you, it is the hardest thing for me in ministry to deal with a person who is being critical and sarcastic and bludgeoning me with things they do not understand and do not know and to say, image of God, image of God.



 And behind the accusing eyes, beneath the ugly words, the image of God that I am intended by God to regard and to respect and to treat the person with dignity, not because I like the words, not even because I think they are right, but because inseparable from being human is being made in the image of God.



 And God is in some manner or measure reflecting to me who He is and what I need to know. That's true in marriage. That is true in the church. That's true in our occupations. That's true in our neighborhoods. There are people that we would recognize there is no reason that I should be regarding them with anything in the nature of respect or care except for this one thing.



 Inseparable from their humanity is made in the image of God.



 It's not just something that is inseparable. It shows no discrimination in how it is distributed. This image of God in humanity.



 We see it first just in terms of gender.



 Verse 27, "So God created man in His own image. In the image of God He created him, male and female, He created them." Just quick. Image across genders.



 Not ever are we able to say that there is some gender that has more value or preciousness to God because God has said from the very beginning, male and female are made in His image. Equal in significance, equal in value. We treasure and we celebrate the differences of masculinity and femininity because we recognize they are representative as God intended of His image, of who He is in the different ways that God has designed.



 We have to say at the same time, He just identifies that image as in male and female.



 In the issues of our day, you recognize He's not giving other options.



 You recognize right now the state of Oregon began in the United States by saying in people's driver's license they could indicate if they were male or female or other.



 That is a path that has no end.



 If you go to a nation like Thailand where sexual trafficking, the sexual trade is taken over so that all forms of gender distinction are falling away, you will actually see government approve something like 13 genders because people are simply being ruled by the moment, ruled by their passions, ruled by a momentary sexual identity. And what we have to say is that is not biology.



 That is ideology.



 A statement of 30,000 medical doctors in this country just back in the fall of this year who opposing the work of the psychologist, the APA, nonetheless said as doctors we have to say that trying to say that there are multiple genders that are fluid is not biology.



 The secular notion that masculinity and femininity are only social constructs imposed on our bodies where general orientation should actually be kept fluid and uninfluenced by parents or others.



 We have to say nothing in the Bible would support that and nothing is actually more damaging than young people than to actually say who you are before God and as God has made you is something you just can't determine or can redetermine over and over again.



 Recognize that what we recognize in this culture today is that indeterminacy is actually what is creating greater depression, greater wonder, greater dissatisfaction than anybody ever planned. God's plan, God's word says that his plan for pleasure and for purpose of sexual expression or gender identity or family formation is through genders that we are to value. We are believers so we got a chapter that's about to come that says we are in a fallen creation and it can mess up our wiring, it can mess up our genetics, it can mess up the ways that we think and we all acknowledge that. But where there are difficulties that we recognize, we treat people with love and respect in a fallen world, we don't redefine them as though God has no plan or purpose that is actually going to be helpful to them in the difficult choices that need to be made. God created male and female.



 When we say that, you have to recognize he is not discriminating value.



 But something else is happening here. God is not just identifying image before gender importance. He is also saying image comes before marriage or union because, listen, especially in the church, the evangelical church, we can so highlight the issues of marriage, celebrate the union that God intends between a man and a woman and the beauty of two being made one that at times we can give the impression to singles that you're not whole or you're not complete until you're married. And nothing could be more unbiblical.



 Image comes before union, which isn't until the next chapter when God is going to be much more specific about who we are and how we're put together and how we are made for each other. Nonetheless, here he is saying my image is in both male and female, married and single. One is a whole number.



 We never should imply that people are not whole or meeting God's design if they're not married yet or again or ever.



 You still are precious to God with a calling to live out as God's image bearer, particularly in the United States right now because of our changing cultural habits where almost half of all adults in the United States are single. More than half females, by the way, less than half men are single to say you are precious to God. You are whole in God's design. If He calls you into a union, bless God.



 But if He does not, bless God, for He has blessed you with the reality and the fullness of being made in His design. Not only does image come before marriage, image comes before weight.



 It comes before age. Did you ever think it interesting that we don't know how old Adam was? What was the perfect age that God made him?



 What was the perfect weight that God made him? What was the perfect complexion that God made him or Eve? Not sad. Why? So that we will begin to say it is not critical that you be of a certain age or size or weight or complexion in order to be valuable to God. If you're human, you are made in God's image. And that's beautiful and meant to be healthy. Now, are we supposed to have good, healthy habits? Of course. That's part of stewarding who we are as God has made us. But you recognize if you don't begin to value all people with their differences of age and weight and size and complexion, that people's judgments take over.



 Recent study of 25,000 young people has indicated that despite all the press about body shaming and bullying, social media is actually leading to higher incidents of self-destruction, self-loathing, and appearance manipulation.



 We have to have courage in this day to say, "God treasures who you are. You are made in God's image as you are. God has made you in His image." Nancy Piercey, an important book that I would hope lots of young people particularly will read, that book is entitled, "Love Thy Body," says this.



 The culture with its secular sexual revolution says, "Fate, not God, has given us this flesh.



 And so we may do with it as we see fit," which sounds very freeing and choice-oriented. And what happens as a consequence is people have far more questioned about what's appropriate and who they are and their security and their identity, and they establish it by questioning who they are and comparing themselves with other people. Have I measured up? Am I okay?



 Actually leading to greater, greater questioning. As Piercey, our bodies are not raw material that we may use or abuse or neglect as we see fit. God has a purpose, a plan, an order, a design, and we are actually healthier and happier when we live according to that design, understanding what God has designed us to be, made in His image to reflect who He is for others and for ourselves.



 I've mentioned to you before one of my favorite short stories is that by Flannery O'Connor where she deals with a group of girls in a parochial school where the nun has got concerned that the boys are paying too much attention to the girls. And so she tries to warn the girls, "Now girls, you remember your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.



 You are precious to God. Protect your purity.



 Your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit."



 And as the girls leave the classroom, they chortle and laugh and mock the nun.



 My body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Well, my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. And they tease and laugh and mock.



 But for one young woman who has already been used by the boys, and she walks apart from the others and with tears of joy says, "My body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. I have been designed by God to receive and to reflect His glory." That was the design from the beginning. We are made in God's image. He meant for us to reflect His character, His ways, and has made us special recipients of that care when He gave Christ for us. When He said, "I know the worst about you. I know the damage. I know the abuse. I know the wrong. I know the sin.



 But you are made in my image. And I'm going to keep refining and providing for that image as I provide Christ for you because you're the temple of the Holy Spirit."



 And that was the design all along. It was the design not just for us across gender, across marital status, not just young or old.



 God is giving us status of His image before jobs.



 It's just important you recognize the priorities here. I mean, God is establishing what is important, not just by image of God's stamp, but the order in which it occurs.



 We're being told that male and female are made in the image of God in chapter 1. The distinctions of careers and occupation and social status don't occur until chapter 4.



 As God is saying, "You may have different jobs, different talents, different statuses, but you're in my image so that we're never establishing who we are. My identity is based upon my job."



 Derek Thompson, the writer, says, "Work has evolved in our modern minds from material production to identity production. I establish who I am based upon what I do and what others think about me. Many pursue work," he says, "as a kind of religion.



 It establishes who I am, and it's what promises me hope and placement in my community."



 The Bible is saying exactly the opposite. Who God establishes you to be, who He treasures you to be takes precedence over job and position and size of home and size of salary. And what other people may think? You are precious to God.



 Image comes even before race and family and ethnicity and nationality.



 You all wonderfully heard a message on the same passage from Pastor Devereaux two weeks ago, and he really focused here. You need to hear it though. God is saying, "All humanity is made in my image," and He doesn't talk about the different nationalities and ethnicities until almost 10 chapters later.



 If being human makes us inseparable from the image of God, and race and nationality and ethnicity don't happen until chapters later, then you recognize what God is saying is, "My image is what establishes value rather than ethnicity."



 Translation, "All racism is sin."



 All thought, actions, or neglect that signal any human being is of less value or importance than any other human being is unbiblical bigotry.



 God is establishing His nature in people before our human distinctions occur. All peoples, all nations, when we gather around the throne at the end of the ages, what are we told? But they will come from every nation, language, people, culture, and they will all gather around the throne and sing, "Worthy is the Lamb who is slain," because with His blood He purchased humanity for God from a big tribe and language and people and nation, and He wasn't saying first, second, third.



 All made in the image of God, all to be loved, protected because of that. For us it means that we do not ignore nations or needs or refugees.



 In particular persecuted Christians are still our care as our brothers and sisters whether or not they're part of this nation.



 But so by the way are persecuted Muslims and Yazidis and Hindus, we say, "Well, they're not Christians." No, but they are made in the image of God. It's being human that establishes value in terms of God's image.



 Ultimately we are to understand that because simply being human is establishing value in terms of God's likeness in all humanity, that not only can we not discriminate on the basis of human distinctions because all who are human have the image of God, we are to understand we can't even distinguish value on the basis of damage.



 You're special needs.



 You're old.



 You're damaged. You're disadvantaged. You're disabled.



 You're human.



 And as a consequence you are made in the image of God and it is an image that is indestructible.



 Why is that important to know?



 Simply the husband of a well-known celebrity with Alzheimer's has made news by going public and bringing into his home video crew, video crews to film him with his mistress in the house because his wife is of a mental condition that she does not anymore recognize who this other woman is in her home.



 And this is being trumpeted as the new way of freedom, says a commentator with doctor's degrees supposedly to add credence.



 What are the boundaries for commitment and love when one partner can no longer remember the other? When dementia enters the equation, marriages change.



 There's no road map. There's not going to be one size fits all with a clear what's right and what's wrong. Depending on morals and faith backgrounds, choices will vary.



 Garbage.



 With hell's wrath deserved.



 To say that people, because their minds or bodies are damaged, can be treated with indignity, no longer with respect, no longer with marital fidelity. You think of where those hens will come home to roost. If you're damaged, if you're facing difficulty, if your mind or body no longer functions in the way that somebody else values, you can be disregarded and put on the trash heap of their lives. It is pure garbage that the Bible addresses from the very first moment by saying if you are human, you are made in God's image. And that is indestructible. That does not change. God looks at people who are damaged and he does not say, "My mistake."



 He says, "Mine, made in my image to be treated with dignity and respect as those made in God's image always are." Oh, but they're not all that they once were. I know that. But recognize all of us live in a damaged, fallen creation existence. Francis Schaeffer says of all of us, "We are glorious ruins."



 Isn't that amazing? I mean, you see the ruins. You go through an ancient Roman town, you see the colonnades and the Colosseum, and it's falling down and it's got grass and vines, but it's still beautiful.



 And God is saying to humanity, "I know the mistakes. I know the problems. I know the damage. I know the disease, but you're a glorious ruin." And as a result, we treat people with dignity and respect as beautiful to God. How do I know they're beautiful, God? Because they're not just a glorious ruin. They are destined for a glorious restoration.



 Damage does not mean done.



 God is saying, "I've got a plan." Yes, it's a corrupted world. Yes, it's a difficult world. But God has made clear what the end is for those who have trusted in Him. First Corinthians chapter 15, "Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven." What does that mean? "We shall bear the image of the man of heaven. What we shall be," says John, "has not been revealed."



 But this we know, "when Christ returns, we shall be like Him."



 Now all of His glory, He comes on the glory in the clouds, not only perfect in His redeemed body, but making us perfect so that when we look at ourselves, damaged and difficult, people with psychological illness, people with age illness, people with personal sin and hurt in their lives that even they cannot face, we say, "Damage does not mean done."



 You are still made in God's image. You are still precious to Him. And the greatest evidence of it all is that He sent Christ not only to redeem you now, but for eternity. So that what's in the moment is not the end of the story. God did not say to any other animal made in the image. He said it to God's people. He said, "You are mine. I know the worst. I know the difficulty. I know the danger. I know what may be the corruption of your future as your bodies get aged and decay. But you're still mine because my image is inseparable from your being human. My image cannot be discriminated out of any person group kind. In fact, it's actually indestructible because what I am doing is I have made you, is I have made glory to myself which shall have its fulfillment when Christ comes." For this reason, folks, regardless of what you think about, what's happened to you, what you have done, the decay of body or mind or morals, you must hear me. You are precious to God.



 And because you are precious to God, He not only assures you of His love for you, but His provision for you. This is not the final chapter.



 There is glory to come.



 And for a glorious ruin, that is a wonderful assurance and a compelling command.



 Treat them all.



 Treat them all that God puts in your life as made in the image of God they needed.



 So do you.



 And it was God's plan.



 Father, would you teach us of the goodness that you have provided in a world that was corrupted by human sin and still shows that corruption. You are working above and beyond, telling us from the very beginning how precious we were to you, arranging creation that it might serve not just physical purposes, but spiritual ones.



 And as you are showing us, remind us when our despair gets great, when our disappointment gets great, when our upset with others gets great, you have declared that person is made in my image precious to me, no mistake, mine.



 May it guide us, encourage us, strengthen us, give us courage for the culture we're in we pray. In Jesus name, Amen.