“Image & Dominion”
[Genesis 1:1-2:3]
August 31, 2008 Second Reformed Church
Have you every heard someone say, “She’s the spitting image of her mother”? Or, “He’s the spitting image of his father”? People have told me that I look just like my mother and just like my father. What do we mean by saying someone is the “image” of someone else? The Bible says God created humans in His Image. Does that mean we look like God? If we put a picture of everyone who every lived in a computer and created a composite picture, would that be what God actually looks like? What does it mean to say that God created us in His Image?
If the Lord is willing, we are going to spend the next several weeks looking at the first four chapters of Genesis, examining several of the key teachings – doctrines – that we find in these chapters. We won’t cover everything; for example, we looked at the fact of creation as good by God’s Word over several weeks earlier this year. We will be looking at the condition in which we were created and what happened because of the Fall – because Adam and Eve chose to sin against God.
This morning, let’s focus in on chapter one, verses twenty-six through twenty-nine as we consider what it means to say that we are created in the Image of God.
Verse twenty-six begins, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...’” (ESV). And notice verse twenty-seven: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (ESV).
Let’s notice, right away, something I hope we would find obvious: whatever being created in the Image of God means, both men and women – both Adam and Eve, were created with it. In this world of gender confusion, we need to state here that Adam and Eve were both, equally, created in the same Image of God.
Let us also understand that if humans were created in the Image of God, there is a sense in which humans are like God. Don’t get nervous about that Humans, in some way or ways, are like God. Even Satan acknowledged that – he used that truth to seduce Eve into sinning. He told her that God was denying her something she ought to have in the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5, ESV).
The devil likes to tell us almost the truth – yes, it was true, if they sinned against God, their eyes would be “opened” in the sense that they would “know” good and evil – and the word “know” here is the same word that is used in chapter four when we’re told that “Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain” (Genesis 4:1a, ESV). Yes, if they sinned against God, they would have a passionate, intimate knowledge of evil. But – and here’s the lie – they were already like God – they were created in the Image of God. And “knowing” sin would not make them any more like God, because God cannot “know” sin in the way that humans “know” sin, because God cannot sin.
So, Adam and Eve were created in the Image of God, and, in some way or ways, that means they were created like God. What, then does it mean to be created in the Image of God?
When people say I am the “spitting image” of my mother and/or father, I believe what they essentially mean is that I have the same physical characteristics as my mother and/or father – that I look like them. But that can’t be what we mean when we talk about being created in the Image of God, can it? It can’t for a very simple reason: God is a Spirit; God does not have a body (cf. John 4:24). So, being created in the Image of God cannot have to do with the way we look – it must have something to do with something else.
What we find in the Scripture is that being created in the Image of God has something to do with holiness, with reason, and with exercising dominion. We find these in seeing that through our first parent’s sin, the Image of God was destroyed in us, we became sinners, we were given over to a depraved mind, and the creation, itself, was punished for our sake. We also find that each of these – the Image of God – is restored in us through Salvation in Jesus Alone, which begins with conversion and concludes in the restoration, when we are brought into Glory.
First, the Image of God has something to do with holiness: Adam and Eve were created sinless and holy. In that way, they were like God, but after choosing to sin, they lost that part of the Image, and, as humanity’s representatives, passed it down, so every human being is born a sinner (except for Jesus).
Paul wrote, “None is righteous, no not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God” (Romans 3:10b-11, ESV). And again, “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection from the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (I Corinthians 15:21-22, ESV). “...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” (Colossians 3:9b-10, ESV).
Part of what it means to be created in the Image of God is that humans were created to be holy, like God. We were not created to be sinners. But we chose to sin in Adam and Eve, so all humans (except Jesus) are born, having lost that part of the Image of God. Yet, in Christ, through His Salvation, we can begin to recover it in this life and fully recover it in the next.
Second, the Image of God has something to do with reason – with the ability to use our minds correctly. Humans were created with a mind that worked rightly, though it is finite. Humans were created, like God – in the Image of God, having the ability to reason – to think – to understand – rightly. God’s Mind, of course, is infinite, so our mind was not created the same as God’s, but our ability to reason – to process information – was like God’s. But since the Fall, we are born with depraved minds that don’t reason rightly.
Paul wrote, “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity to dishonoring their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever Amen. ... And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not be done” (Romans 1:21-25, 28, ESV).
Part of what it means to be created in the Image of God is that humans were created to be reasonable, rational, right-minded beings. But, as Paul explains, our first parents chose rather to sin and be born spiritually mentally ill – God called Adam and Eve to know Him and learn of Him and they chose rather to be futile and debased in their mind, so God let us have it.
Forgive me for using politicians as an example again, but they make the point so clearly. Have we not heard more than one politician say that he believes upon religious conviction that abortion is wrong, but he would never try to persuade another person of that view or to make it a law. To say that is to prove the depravity of the mind, because what he is saying is that such and such is an absolute moral law, but don’t worry about it, I would never hold you to it. A person who says that is either a liar, a hypocrite, or insane. Yet, in Christ, we can be restored.
Third, being created in the Image of God has something to do with exercising dominion. What does that mean? Look again at verses twenty-six and twenty-eight and twenty-nine: “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. ... And God blessed them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’ And God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food’” (ESV).
Dominion does not mean that we can do what we want with the creation. Dominion means that we are to rule over the creation, to govern the creation, to protect it and see that it is provided for. God gave humanity the ability, the authority, the responsibility, and the means to steward – to shepherd – the creation. God gave Adam and Eve the authority to steward the riches of the creation for the creation – just as God provides for all of our needs and governs over us. God made them His representatives over the rest of the creation. God made humans in His Image, as just governors. God made humans in His Image – holy, with a mind that reasons rightly, to be used to rule over the creation as God’s stewards.
But they chose to sin, and God responded by punishing, not just them and us, but the whole creation for the sin of our first parents: “cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread....” (Genesis 3:17b-19a, ESV). And Paul explained, “the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it.... For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now” (Romans 8:20a, 22, ESV).
So, we see that being created in the Image of God means that Adam and Eve were created holy – sinless, with the ability to reason rightly, and with the call on them to care for all that God created. Sin has corrupted that Image: we are sinners, our minds are depraved, and we have not been good stewards of and for the creation. But there is hope:
This is what Paul wrote about all those who believe in Jesus Alone for salvation: “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven” (I Corinthians 15:49, ESV). “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (II Corinthians 3:18, ESV). And again, “...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” (Colossians 3:9b-10, ESV).
In other words, that Image of God – holy, rational, exercising dominion – that God created Adam and Eve with – that was corrupted when they sinned – that Image of God is being restored in everyone who believes in Jesus Alone for Salvation. The Image of God is being restored in everyone who believes – and since it is God Who is doing the restoring – it will continue until it is fully restored, when He brings us into the Everlasting Kingdom. Day by day, we are being transformed into the image of our first parents, before they sinned – with the uncorrupted Image of God.
In these days between now and glory, as we are being changed by God Who lives in us, what shall we do?
Let us remind ourselves that Christ is restoring in us the Image of God. Wonderful, God-glorifying days are ahead of us
Let us strive to live after the Image of God, understanding that Christ enables us to live holy lives, to use our minds rightly, and to exercise dominion – to care for and provide for the creation. Let us strive against sin and to follow after all the commandments of God. Let us strive to learn to use our minds well – in a way that we show our love to God with our minds – which is part of the greatest commandment. Let us do everything we can not to harm the creation and to provide for its needs – to work with the creation and look forward to the day when it is restored and enters into the glory that we also are awaiting.
Let us pray:
Sovereign Lord, we thank You for creating humans in Your Image. We thank You for the understanding that we were created and we are being transformed into a truly holy people, who love You and live for You with all that we are, including our minds, which help us to have dominion over the creation. Teach us even now ways that we can better care for and provide for all that You have created. And may You receive all the glory. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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