Christmas Plan Series

CHRISTMAS PLAN

Text: Gen. 1:26-28; 2:15-17; 3:1-7, 15

Introduction

1. Illustration: In the opening pages of his autobiography, An American Life, Ronald Reagan writes, I was raised to believe that God had a plan for everyone and that seemingly random twists of fate are all a part of His plan.

My mother - a small woman with auburn hair and a sense of optimism that ran as deep as the cosmos - told me that everything in life happened for a purpose. She said all things were part of God's plan, even the most disheartening setbacks, and in the end, everything worked out for the best. If something went wrong, she said, you didn't let it get you down: You stepped away from it, stepped over it, and moved on. Later on, she added, something good will happen and you'll find yourself thinking - "If I hadn't had that problem back then, then this better thing that did happen wouldn't have happened to me."

After I lost the job at Montgomery Ward, I left home again in search of work. Although I didn't know it then, I was beginning a journey that would take me a long way from Dixon and fulfill all my dreams and then some.

My mother, as usual, was right. It is a very comforting thought that God always has a plan. He had a plan for my life, and that plan is still unfolding. However, the greatest plan that God ever came up with happened in the Garden.

2. Adam and Eve took God's original plan for the human race and blew it up! But, thankfully, God had a plan. Let's call it the Christmas plan.

3. First, let's go all the way back to the beginning and discover why God needed a plan. He needed a plan because even though He...

A. Created Us In His Image

B. Gave Us Everything

C. It Wasn't Enough

4. Stand with me as we read Gen. 1:26-28

Proposition: Even though we messed everything up God had a plan to save us.

Transition: First, we need to understand that God...

I. Created Us In His Image (1:25-28).

A. In Our Image

1. From the very beginning humans were special, unique, and the pinnacle of God's creation.

2. We can see that in v. 26-27, "Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like ourselves. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” 27 So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them."

A. In these verses we read about the creation of human beings. Both man and woman are God's special creation and not products of evolution.

B. He gave special attention to the creation of the human race. The command was given to Himself, when He said, "Let us make man in our image (or pattern), after our likeness."

C. Â Some scholars believe that "Let us" was simply a plural of majesty. More likely, it is the earliest reflection of the Trinity.

D. Because the world in Moses' day was not ready to understand the Trinity, and because the unity of God needed to be emphasized in contrast to the many gods of the pagans, verse 27 immediately says, "So God created man in his own image." (Horton, Genesis, (Under: "Chapter 1").

E. For this reason, they possessed a moral likeness to God as sinless and holy creations, with wise minds, loving hearts and a desire to do what was right.

F. Their personal relationship to God involved a moral obedience and a very intimate spiritual union.

G. They had a natural likeness to God. They were created as personal beings with spirit, mind, emotions, self-awareness, and power of choice.

H. Humans also reflect God's image in a physical way that is not true of animals.

I. In fact God gave them the same appearance to which He would eventually appear to them in the person of Jesus.

J. Now we need to ask ourselves why the author of Genesis singles out human beings in this part of the creation account.

K. The simple answer to that question is that we are special, in fact, so special that we are separated from the rest of God work.

L. We are God's creation, but we are a special creation and made in His very image.

3. Not only did God create humans in his image but he also blessed us. In v, 28 it says, "Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”