The Doctrine Of Creation: Imago Dei Series

IN THE BEGINNING

GENESIS PART 1 – ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY

THE DOCTRINE OF CREATION: IMAGO DEI

GENESIS 1:26-31

INTRODUCTION

- As we begin our second look at Genesis 1 today I want to revisit a few of the things we talked about last time in order to clarify some things and to bring up some things that I failed to mention. I talked about the fact that the Creation week, for the most part, is not subject to scientific scrutiny because it is not natural, repeatable, or testable. And someone mentioned to me after the service that the same is true with evolution. I thought this was a good point, so I wanted to bring it to your attention before we move on. The theory of evolution is not subject to scientific testing on many levels either. In fact, that’s why it’s called evolutionary theory, because it will never be able to be called a scientific law; at least based upon the scientific method. There are so many problems with evolutionary theory that some scientists are now suggesting that life did not evolve on this planet but came to this planet from outer space. That’s not a joke. Some are truly suggesting this.

- So again, keep in mind that although we would be ridiculed by many in the scientific community for believing in Creation ex nihilo by a sovereign Creator, we actually have the most plausible explanation for things being as they are. That’s why some have cleverly stated that they don’t have enough faith to be an evolutionist or an atheist; because the things some of these scientists theorize are absolutely astonishing. There is no scientific shame in being a creationist.

- I also want to remind you that I think that both the Day-Age Theory and the Young Earth Theory are acceptable interpretations of the Genesis 1 text. Honestly, as I did even more reading and studying this week my appreciation for the Day-Age Theory grew enormously. I still lean towards a Young Earth position, but I’m willing to change my mind on that. So in reevaluating some of these positions, I also reevaluated how I wanted to present this week’s information to you. I’m going to focus on the big ideas in the text rather than the particulars such as the length of the Genesis days – not because the particulars are not important, but because I want to provide an overview and leave the details to a discussion another time.

- Last time we talked about creation in general. Our purpose was to emphasize the fact that God created everything we see in this physical universe out of nothing. Remember, the theological Latin term is ex nihilo. Today, we are going to focus in on the creation of man and woman. There is another Latin theological term to describe what we are going to be discussing, and it is imago Dei. Imago Dei, as you might guess, means “image of God.” What do we mean when we say that man and woman were created in the image of God? That’s our topic today.

- In order to answer that question, we are going to start from the very beginning. What we are going to notice is that each day leads up to the pinnacle of God’s creation on day 6: mankind. Then, once we arrive at that pinnacle, we’ll take a look at how Moses, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, describes the creation of man. Let’s start by reading Genesis 1:26-31, and we will reference other verses in the chapter as appropriate.

[READ GENESIS 1:26-31]

- As we look at what it means to be made in the image of God, I want to answer a few preliminary questions first. The first question is: why did God create anything in the first place? The reason I want to address this first is because the answer to this question informs our understanding of what it means to be made in God’s likeness. The second is: what did he create and how did he create it? We know from last time that God created everything ex nihilo, now our purpose will be to look at what he created on each day and how that relates to day 6. Some of the “how” questions will be addressed on each day as well. So here is the answer to that first question (Why did God create anything?). It has a simple aspect and a profound aspect.

GOD CREATED THE UNIVERSE BECAUSE HE WANTED TO DO SO, IN ORDER THAT HE MIGHT RECEIVE GLORY FROM HIS CREATION

- There is a well known passage in Psalm 19 that illustrates this beautifully: The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.