Scripture Introduction
“There are one hundred and ninety-three living species of monkeys and apes. One hundred and ninety-two of them are covered with hair. The exception is the naked ape…homo sapiens.” So wrote Zoologist Desmond Morris in his effort to analyze human behavior through the actions of primates.
A few years ago the Associated Press reported on the new exhibit at the London Zoo: “The captives in the human zoo sunned themselves on a rock ledge, clad in bathing suits and pinned-on fig leaves. Some played with hula hoops while others waved. A signboard informed visitors of the species’ diet, habitat, worldwide distribution and threats.”
A child looking at the exhibit asked, “Why are there people in there?” Polly Wills, spokeswoman for the London Zoo, replied, “Seeing people in a different environment, among other animals… teaches members of the public that the human is just another primate.” The Zoo’s press release said, “We have set up this exhibit to highlight the spread of man as a plague species and to communicate the importance of man’s place in the ecosystem.”
Al Mohler (President of the Southern Baptist Seminary) writes: “The Human Zoo is a perfect illustration of our contemporary confusion…. The London Zoo may want its visitors to learn ‘that the human is just another primate,’ but… all this talk about human beings as mere animals… is undermined by a single second’s reflection on the fact that it is the humans who built the zoo, captured the animals, and came up with such a silly idea as ‘The Human Zoo’ in the first place. The humans were not captured and placed there by apes or elephants. The signs identifying the various creatures were not produced by the inhabitants of the reptile house….”
Dr. Douglas Kelly (Reformed Theological Seminary) reminds us: “The question of origins is one of the most significant that a person ever faces: where we came from is crucial to understanding who we are and where we are going…. The Biblical vision of man as God’s creature, whom he made in his own image, has had the most powerful effect on human dignity, on liberty, on the expansion of the rights of the individual, on political systems, on the development of medicine, and on every other area of culture….”
Genesis 1 and 2 explain how we came to be.
[Read: Genesis 1.26-31; 2.5-7. Pray.]
Introduction
Every day thousands of tons of concrete are broken and crushed as new construction demolishes the damaged and decayed structures of previous years; and no one cries. Last year, just over at Waycross and Hamilton, an old strip mall was razed, but no one complained. It was just concrete.
But if we form that same concrete more carefully, something almost magical happens. Shape it into a statue of, say Saddam Hussein and stand it downtown Baghdad. People cheer when it is destroyed. But form concrete into the likeness of Abraham Lincoln, place it in the center of Washington, D.C., and hundreds of thousands will travel to see it and many will weep with joy as the gaze on the concrete. Before we mix it with water, concrete is cheap, dirty, common; shape it correctly and it can touch our deepest emotions.
Of course, it is not actually the concrete which makes us shudder when standing in front of Hussein or weep before Lincoln. These are images, representations of something far greater than the sum of the parts. Hussein’s statute stands for oppression, hatred of God and humanity, and a reign of terror; Lincoln’s for freedom, love of all mankind, and opportunity for previously unknown happiness.
It is not only concrete which forms images, is it? I remember well the 2000 Olympics and the presentation of the gold to swimmer Lenny Krayzelburg. His parents fled Odessa because of anti-Semitism. When they arrived in the United States in 1989, they spoke not one word of English. It took nine months for Oleg to find work as a hospital cook; Yelena also eventually got a job there as a technician. They did not own a car, so Lenny rode a bus for 45 minutes, then walked the eight blocks from the bus stop to the Santa Monica swim club. He also worked to help with the family finances. It was so hard that he almost gave up swimming. Then Krayzelburg wins the gold, out national anthem plays, and we are moved as we watched our flag rise. We did not cry because of the flag – rather what represents – freedom bought at great price.
For millions of people, Mr. Obama’s election is an image of great power. Those who are not dark skinned tend to see only his policy decisions; but for a culture whose daughters and wives were arrested for sitting on a bus seat that a white man wanted, having an African American as the most powerful man in the world screams freedom and equality.
God made us to be much affected by images – pictures, flags, statues, even logos, quickly flood our minds and hearts with ideas and emotions. How critical it must be, therefore, that we are God’s image.
The world around us reveals the devastation wreaked from denying this truth. As evolution and technology have empowered the depravity of men’s hearts during the last 150 years, people are too often treated as pawns to be used and misused at will. Totalitarian regimes slaughter innocents, convinced racists practice ethnic cleansing and genocide, and modern warfare wastes millions. As if that were not enough, the Guttmacher [GOOT-mahk-ur] Institute reports that about 40 million children every year are killed by abortion.
God corrects the distortion by telling us where we came from, and, therefore, who we are.
1. We Are Careful Because We Are Created Male and Female (Genesis 1.26-28)
A commonly held idea which promotes gender confusion is that equality of persons equals interchangeability. Men and woman must do the same jobs, enjoy the same things, act the same ways. And if mindless evolution were how life came to be, then such a view might be understood. Lord willing, we will devote at least one study in this series just to creation as male and female. But because misunderstanding abounds, please note well some things God says.
First, when God refers to man’s rule in verse 26, he says, “Let them have dominion….” Maleness does not rule creation, but image-bearing. God does not say, “Let men have dominion.” He says, “These who are like me shall rule and protect as I do.”
Second, God blesses them for multiplication and filling of the earth. From their first day, male and female are to live together and reproduce a family under the blessing and headship of God. We must never despise nor disparage those of the opposite sex. We must also honor the marriage bed and remember that obeying God’s first command requires man and woman together.
Third, the image of God requires both male and female. There is something of the image of God contained in what is uniquely male; there is something of the image of God contained in what is uniquely female. Maleness is good; femaleness is good. Men are not women; women are not men.
Men: we must be careful to honor women as equals in the plans and purposes of God. Yes, in future messages, we will consider how in the church and in the home, there are ways in which men must carry the burden of leadership. But my sinful heart tends to make headship look like dictatorship, and I need to be reminded that those whom I would rule have the rights of daughters of the King of kings! I must treat them as such.
Ladies: you must be careful to disdain men. Many cultural forces suggest that men are unnecessary or even inferior. Many women believe they do not need men, and the world would be better without us. Certainly there are sins more commonly male, sins which our society strongly condemns – we call men to renounce those; but we also recognize that there are also sins more characteristic to women, which our society may choose to ignore or treat as relatively insignificant. These we challenge women to flee as we do the men to flee theirs.
“But which is superior, a man or a woman?” someone asked Dr. James Boice. He answered: “A man is absolutely superior to a woman – at being a man; a woman is absolutely superior to a man – at being a woman. But it is a monstrosity for a woman to try to be a man, or a man a woman.”
Matthew Henry wisely wrote: “She was not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.”
In the image of God we are created; male and female he created us.
2. We Are Humbled Because We Are Mere Images
An image is not the real thing, is it? We are models, symbols, icons. We are clay pots, “knock offs” of the original. We are not divine; we are not extensions of God; we cannot judge as God, think like God, nor understand God or his ways. We are not equal to God and certainly not to imagine ourselves in the place of God.
When our kids were really little, we spoke often of the glory of creation and the value and usefulness of all God’s creatures. Occasionally our plan would backfire and our kids were distraught when we killed ants, and spiders, and other critters. They assume that the usefulness of bugs should ensure them a place at the dining room table! I appreciate what worms do with compost in the garden. I am thankful that spiders keep other insects in check. I know ants clean up after us. But they are not welcome in our home; we are not running an insect motel. They are not that valuable!
Likewise we may over-estimate our inherent value. But before we get too uppity as the culmination of creation, we remember that our greatness consists only in reflecting. There are good and bad morrors – but the best show us something other than the mirror itself – they show the original as accurately and gloriously as possible.
I like to imagine little baby Abel asking his mom why she called daddy, “Adam.” “That is the name God gave your daddy; why do you ask?” “Because it sounds like dirt.”
That is what Genesis 2.7 says. Genesis 2.7a: “Then the LORD God formed the man ((Hebrew word)adam) of dust from the ground ((Hebrew word) adamah)….”
Please note that this is before the fall! God scratches the surface of the earth to scoop together mud for the first man. We are not gold statues like the images which the Pharaohs had cast of themselves. We are fully disposable, completely biodegradable: “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.” This is a humbling picture.
This week Michael sent me the video, “Indescribable.” In it Louis Giglio speaks of the wonder of the stars and the awesome God who creates such magnificence. The teenagers to whom Giglio was speaking interrupted often with cheers. Then he came to a part of the speech where he said, “Now this means that we are really small and unimportant.” Then he paused, but the rowdy crowd was silent. Giglio asked why they did not cheer. Prompted by him, they responded, but their hearts were betrayed. We are not happiest when humbled, are we?
Being only images rebukes us for thinking of ourselves too highly, doesn’t it? Nor is this some vestige of Old Testament religion. The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 12.3: “I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think….” The next time you are angry with your wife for not treating you as king in your own castle, or upset with your children for not honoring you as great lords, remember this – we are dirt. In fact, men, maybe remind yourself that you asked your wife to keep the house clean. Humbling, isn’t it?
Not only does being mere images rebuke our thinking too highly of ourselves, it also rebuke us for thinking of others as below us. Moses wrote Genesis to people disrespected and despised for decades! In Egyptian culture and politics, Pharaoh was divine, and the Israelites were dung! Yet God reminds his own that he created all people equal. Can you imagine a worm enslaving other worm? Of course not! No worm rises high enough to look down on another. We are the dirt of the earth; no one is below us.
I know it is unpleasant to dwell on our humility, but it is here that we come to love and understand the Lord Jesus Christ. So many remain far from the kingdom and of heaven because they persist in believing: God helps those who help themselves, God saves those who decide to follow Jesus, God loves those who obey his laws.
But there is a reason that the key word which the New Testament uses to describe Jesus is humble. The Jesus of the Bible helps those who cannot help themselves – the weak, the cast off, the despised and rejected, the hopeless. The Jesus of the Bible comes to earth and finds his clay images broken and lying in a cesspool. He does not wait on dry land for us to extricate ourselves from the mess and mire; he crawls in and submerges himself in the vile filth, in order to place himself under his people and lift us from the stench.
Philippians 2.5-8 (my translation): “Have this mind among yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the very nature of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a slave, being made in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Will you accept a God who must be enfleshed in dirt in order that he might reach low enough to save sinners? This is the God of Christianity. We are humbled because we are mere images, and those broken and defiled. But God, having brought us low, now exalts us far beyond all else in creation.
3. We Are Exalted Because We Are God’s Image
In all of creation, humans alone look like God. This is not primarily our outer form, or body, though even the body is honored when God was born as a person, taking human flesh. This image, however, refers mainly to our soul. Humans alone have emotional, moral, and intellectual resemblance to God.
Many voices today insist that we are one step up the evolutionary ladder from monkeys. Our one great hope is that we will evolve into a higher life. Only impersonal luck has brought us this far, but maybe luck will strike again and make us divine.
The Bible has a far more glorious answer. Not content to create from a distance, God comes to his earth. Like a potter would form with great skill a work of art, so God uses his own hands to mold the ground into art of such complexity and beauty that we are tempted to bow down before them. Then, as if he had not done enough, he blows the kiss of life, and with it part of his own nature, into this person he has made. Suddenly what was the dust of the earth is now delegated dominion in the stead of the King.
Probably everyone of us has some everyday china in our homes. The plates and bowls and cups and saucers we use often. We take care of them, because they serve fine; but if one is broken we probably would throw it away without much thought. But buried in the sands of the Egypt are plates and cups that are just as broken, yet people dedicate their lives to digging them up, cleaning and restoring them as much as possible. Some clay pots are worthy of great honor.
Maybe you have forgotten the mold from which you were made. Yes, the image is tarnished, broken, encrusted with layers of dirt. But you bear the image of the King! The original from which you were modeled is so wonderful, so worthy of praise and honor, that it is worth the gross humiliation and suffering of the Son of God to restore it! God is digging in the desert (as it were), unearthly treasures which he has determined to “conform to the image of his Son.” Do not think of yourself as unworthy of God’s grace and favor; you bear his image.
But also let us remember to exalt others. Jesus said that the second great commandment is: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12.31). God makes his sun rise on the evil and the good; he sends rain on the just and the unjust. Therefore, we love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, because the Father sends good gifts on his image bearers.
4. Conclusion
Jackson Lake lies at the base of the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. In the early morning on very calm days you can sometimes find the reflection of the mountains magnificently mirrored on the lake’s surface.
Suppose you hike there for vacation next year. You would not avoid the lake because you know that a blowing wind or a kid throwing rocks can disrupt the surface and eliminate the image. No, you go anyway, with the hope of seeing in person that beautiful scene. And if you arrive after a rock is thrown, you wait patiently for the lake surface to calm.
God’s image in us is marred. But Christ is cleaning and restoring what was damaged and defiled. Let us determine to be a people who look through the grime to see the glory.
As C. S. Lewis writes (The Weight of Glory): “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare…. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.”
