In the Image of God

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Sean Couch

Christiansburg Baptist Church

Assorted Messages • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago • Presented 3 years ago • 31:19

Genesis 2:7

Genesis 1:26–31

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Every human life has unique value and significance because we are created in the image of God.

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Why do we support ministries like the Pregnancy Resource Center, and why do we pray and work for the end of abortion?

We don’t always do a great job of it, but why do we want to help anyone we can, of any race, socio-economic status, ability level, or who struggles with any kind of sin?

Because the Bible clearly teaches that human life is unique, unlike anything in all of creation.

As we will see this morning, that isn’t just true of humans in general, it is also true of humans individually.

It isn’t just that all human life has value collectively; the Bible teaches us that every human life is valuable, even those not yet born.

Why is that? Although we could look at several reasons this morning, I would challenge us to focus on one: every human life is valuable because every person is created in the image of God.

Go ahead and open your Bible to the very first chapter. We are going to briefly look at Genesis 1:26-31 over the reminder of our time together this morning.

We are coming up to the end of the account of how the world was created by God.

Thus far, God has been simply speaking things into existence. He says, “Let there be...” and it happens.

He has made the heavens and the earth, separated water from land, brought forth vegetation, created the sun and moon, and filled the seas, skies, and land with fish, birds, and animals.

He still has one more creature to make, though, and this one is going to be unique.

Look with me at verse 26-31.

There are some incredible statements in these verses that we want to unpack.

We are going to use three different words that start with “d” to help us see just how unique human life is (and the words aren’t “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives,” for the Triple D fans out there)

When it comes to making people, God has a unique design, development, and desire.

All of this comes back to the central idea that every human life is valuable because we are created in the image of God.

Let’s explain that a bit as we see that...

1) God’s design of humans is unique.

Look back at verse 26.

The way God designed people is dramatically different than the way he designed the rest of creation.

That isn’t to say that God didn’t use some of the same physical materials. We are made of the same proteins as other animals, we even share some similarities in our DNA and other physical characteristics.

However, there is something dramatically different about human beings that isn’t true of anything in creation, even including angels!

Nothing else in creation has the honor and distinction of being created in the image of God.

Although all of creation points to his handiwork, as we see in places like Psalm 19 and Romans 1, nothing in all of creation is created in God’s image like we are.

Scholars debate exactly what it means for us to be created in God’s image.

As Donald Fairbairn notes in his book Life in the Trinity, some have identified it with our will, others have said that we are body, soul, and spirit, like God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Others say that it is the fact that we have a spiritual nature at all. [1]

I lean towards that last view, but we have to acknowledge that the Bible doesn’t give us specific details on exactly what this means.

However, it is undeniable that the way God designed people was different than anything else in creation.

Look at the difference between the way God created animals and people. Read verse 24...

The animals were going to produce animals of their kind, which makes sense and is what we see today. A donkey gives birth to a donkey, a dog to a dog, etc.

However, notice what God says about people in verse 26. It is true that a person gives birth to another person, but those persons aren’t just in the image of their mother and father, but also created in the likeness, or image, of God.

This is why we believe that human life matters to God in ways that no other creation does. We are created in his image.

In case there was any question about it, look at how it is stated in verse 27...

So human life is unique because we have been designed by God to reflect his image.

That isn’t all that is unique, though. We also see that...

2) God’s development of humans is unique.

Flip the page and look at Genesis 2:7 with me for a minute.

This gives us greater detail about the way God actually went about forming us.

He didn’t simply speak Adam into existence, he actually formed Adam from the dust and breathed life into him.

God could have spoken us into being, just like he did the sun and the moon and the animals and birds and fish. Instead, he lovingly and tenderly shaped Adam.

He breathed life into him to make him live.

What an incredibly tender picture.

As beautiful as it is to picture the earth springing to life as God speaks, how much more beautiful is it to see God taking personal care to shape a human being from the dust and breath life into him.

When it came time to make a helper for Adam, look again at God’s tenderness:

Genesis 2:21–22 CSB

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to come over the man, and he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place. Then the Lord God made the rib he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man.

Do you see God’s tender care in shaping people?

Human life has unique value because God develops us uniquely.

Now, you could argue that those were special circumstances, because these were the first people to exist.

However, the Bible speaks several times of God’s concern for individual human lives before they were ever born.

God doesn’t say this about animals. When we read God talking about animals having children, he doesn’t describe it with same care. Passages like Job 39 show that.

When it comes to people, we see God’s hand present from the very beginning.

In Genesis 25:23, God explains to Isaac and Rebekah that the children fighting in her womb are going to be two great nations, showing that God knew them and had a plan for them before they were even born.

In Judges 13:5, Samson’s parents are told, while he is still in the womb, that God is going to use Samson to deliver his people Israel.

In Jeremiah 1:5, God explains to Jeremiah that he chose him and formed him in his mother’s womb, setting him apart before he was born.

In Luke 1, Zecharias and Elizabeth are told that John, their son, will be the great prophet who will prepare the way for the Messiah.

The greatest expression of this comes from David in Psalm 139:

Psalm 139:13–16 CSB

For it was you who created my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wondrously made. Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well. My bones were not hidden from you when I was made in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began.

When you put all of this together, you see that God didn’t stop with forming Adam and Eve. Instead, he is intimately involved in forming each individual life in the womb of their mother.

He has made it clear that he has a plan for every life, and that plan was set in motion before the child was even conceived.

So, not only is human life unique in its design, even the way God speaks of developing both the first humans and individual human lives is unique and different than anything else in creation.

This is why we believe that every human life, regardless of age, ability, race, or anything else, is uniquely valued and significant.

I want to draw your attention to one more aspect of humanity’s uniqueness, though.

Flip back to Genesis 1:28, where we see...

3) God’s desire for humans is unique.

God told Adam that people were to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.

He actually told sea creatures and birds to do the same.

However, he went further with us. Not only were we to fill the earth, we were also to rule over it.

Because of our sinful hearts, we have seen that term abused by people in positions of power.

The intention was not that we would exploit creation recklessly.

Rather, God’s design was for us to take care of the world he made, to cultivate the garden he placed Adam and Eve in.

Some refer to this as the “cultural mandate”, which was God’s instruction to us to go out and discover and develop what he had made.

In addition to that privilege of overseeing the world God made, he also gave us the privilege of walking with him.

Adam and Eve enjoyed a relationship with God that we can barely imagine—they could even hear him walking in the garden with him.

However, although God’s desire was that we would rule the earth, we rebelled against God’s plan and did what God told us not to.

Even though he created us so uniquely, we rejected him and decided to try to make ourselves into gods on our own.

Every human life is significant, yet we were not satisfied with all God had given us and done for us.

However, once again demonstrating to us his love and incredible goodness and mercy and grace, God desires to draw every human heart back into that right relationship with himself.

For that relationship to be restored, God’s Son, Jesus, would die in our place and be raised from the dead.

As he took on our humanity, he was able to become what Adam and Eve were not.

He was perfectly obedient to the Father, and now, he offers you his life in place of your death.

Would you trust him today?

Endnotes:

Fairbairn, Donald, Life in the Trinity. Downers Grove, Illinois (IVP Academic). 2009. p60.

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