Before getting too far into this subject, it is necessary to consider whether it is appropriate to use the word man to refer to the entire human race (as is the title of this weeks’ blog). Some people today object to ever using the word “man” to refer to the human race in general. Those who make this objection would prefer that we only use “gender neutral” terms such as “humanity,” “humankind,” “human beings,” or “persons” to refer to the human race.
After some consideration, I decided to continue to use the word “man” to refer to the human race. I think there is a theological issue at stake. In Genesis 5:1 – 2 we read, “When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he create them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. The Hebrew term translated “Man” is ‘adam, the same term used for the name Adam, and the same term that is sometimes used of man in distinction from woman (Genesis 2:22, 25, and Genesis 3:13). Therefore, the practice of using the same term to refer (1) to male human beings and (2) to the human race generally is a practice that originated with God himself, and we should not find it objectionable or insensitive.
The theological issue is whether there is a suggestion of male leadership or headship in the family from the beginning of creation. The fact that God did not choose to call the human race “woman” but “man” probably has some significance for understanding God’s original plan for men and women.
Why did God create man? God did not need to create man, yet he created us for his own glory (Isaiah 43:7). Since there was perfect fellowship among the members of the Trinity for all eternity (John 17:5, 24), God did not create us because he was lonely or because he needed fellowship with other persons; God does not need us for any reason. Nevertheless, God created us for his own glory.
This fact guarantees that our lives are significant. When we first realize that God did not need to create us and does not need anything from us, we could conclude that our lives have no importance at all. But Scripture tells us that we were created to glorify God, indicating that we are important to God himself. If we are truly important to God, then what greater measure of importance could we want?
So then, what is our purpose in life? The fact that God created us for his own glory determines the correct answer to the question, “What is our purpose in life?” Our purpose must be to fulfill the reason that God created us: to glorify him. When we are speaking with respect to God himself, that is a good summary of our purpose. But when we think of our own interests, we make the happy discovery that we are to enjoy God and take delight in him and in our relationship to him. Jesus says, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). David tells God, “In your presence there is fullness of joy, in your right hand are pleasures for evermore” (Psalm 16:11).
As we glorify God and enjoy him, Scripture tells us that he rejoices in us. We read, “As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you” (Isaiah 62:5), and Zephaniah prophesies that the Lord “will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult you with loud singing as on a day of festival” (Zephaniah 3:17 – 18).
The understanding of the doctrine of the creation of man has very practical results. When we realize that God created us to glorify him, and when we start to act in ways that fulfill that purpose, then we begin to experience an intensity of joy in the Lord that we have never known before. When we add to the realization that God himself is rejoicing in our fellowship with him, our joy becomes “inexpressible and filled with heavenly glory” (1 Peter 1:8).
Scripture tells us also that man was created in the “image of God.” What is the meaning of “image of God”? Out of all the creation God made, only one creature, man, is said to be made “in the image of God.” When God says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26), the meaning is that God plans to make a creature similar to himself. Both the Hebrew word for “image” (tselem) and the Hebrew word for “likeness” (demut) refer to something that is similar but not identical to the thing it represents or is an “image” of. The word image can also be used of something that represents something else.
Theologians have spent much time attempting to specify one characteristic of man, or a very few, in which the image of God is primarily seen. Some have thought that the image of God consists in man’s intellectual abilities, others in his power to make moral decisions and willing choices. Others have thought that the image of God referred to man’s original purity, or his creation as male and female, or his dominion over the earth.
That man is created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26), where God declares his intensions to create man in his image and likeness is similar to Genesis 5:3: “When Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own (likeness (demut), after his image (tselem), and named him Seth.” Seth was not identical to Adam, but he was like him in many ways, as a son is like his father. The text simply means that Seth was like Adam. It does not specify any specific number of ways that Seth was like Adam, and it would be overly restrictive for us to asset that one or another characteristic determined the way in which Seth was in Adam’s image and likeness.
We might wonder whether man could still be thought to be like God after we sinned. The question is answered quite early in Genesis where God gives Noah the authority to establish the death penalty for murder among human beings just after the flood: God says “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image” (Genesis 9:6). Even though men are sinful, there is still enough likeness to God remaining in them that to murder another person is to attack the part of creation that most resembles God, and it betrays an attempt or desire (if one were able) to attack God himself. Man is still in God’s image. The New Testament gives confirmation to this when James 3:9 says that men generally, not just believers, “are made in the likeness of God.”
However, since man has sinned, he is certainly not as fully like God as he was before. His moral purity has been lost and his sinful character certainly does not reflect God’s holiness. His intellect is corrupted by falsehood and misunderstanding; his speech no longer continually glorifies God; his relationships are often governed by selfishness rather than love, and so forth. Though man is still in the image of God, in every aspect of life some parts of that image have been distorted or lost. In short, “God made man upright, but they have sought out many devices” (Ecclesiastes 7:29). After the fall, then, we are still in God’s image; we are still like God and we represent God, but the image of God in us is distorted; we are less fully like God than we were before the entrance of sin.
Nevertheless, it is encouraging to turn to the New Testament and see that our redemption in Christ means that we can, even in this life, progressively grow into more and more likeness to God. For example, Paul says as Christians we have a new nature that is “being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Colossians 3:10). As we gain in true understanding of God, his Word, and his world, we begin to think more and more of the thoughts that God himself thinks. In this way, we are “renewed in knowledge” and we become more like God in our thinking. This is a description of the ordinary course of the Christian life. So Paul also can say that we “are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Throughout this life, as we grow in Christian maturity we grow in greater likeness of God. More particularly, we grow in likeness to Christ in our lives and in our character. In fact, the goal for which God has redeemed us is that we might be “conformed to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29) and be exactly like Christ in our moral character.
The amazing promise of the New Testament is that just as we have been like Adam (subject to death and sin), we shall also be like Christ (morally pure, never subject to death again); “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:49). The full measure of our creation in the image of God is not seen in the life of Adam who sinned, nor is it seen in our lives now, for we are imperfect. But the New Testament emphasizes that god’s purpose in creating man in his image was completely realized in the person of Jesus Christ. He himself “is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4); “He is the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). In Jesus, we see human likeness to God as it was intended to be, and it should cause us to rejoice that God has predestined us “to be conformed to the image of his son” (Romans 8:29): “When he appears we shall be like him” (1 John 3:2).
If would be good for us to reflect on our likeness to God more often. It will probably amaze us to realize that when the Creator of the universe wanted to create something “in his image,” something more like himself that all the rest of creation, he made us. This realization will give us a profound sense of dignity and significance as we reflect on the excellence of all the rest of God’s creation: the starry universe, the abundant earth, the world of plants and animals, and the angelic kingdoms are remarkable, even magnificent. But we are more like our Creator than any of these things. We are the culmination of God’s infinitely wise and skillful work of creation. Even though sin has greatly marred that likeness, we nonetheless now reflect much of it and shall even more as we grow in likeness to Christ.
Yet we must remember that even fallen, sinful man has the status of being in God’s image. Every single human being, no matter how much the image is marred by sin, or illness, or weakness, or age or any other disability, still has the status of being in God’s image and therefore must be treated with the dignity and respect that is due to God’s image-bearers. This has profound implications for our conduct towards others. It means that people of every race deserve equal dignity and rights. It means that elderly people, those seriously ill, the mentally retarded, and children yet unborn, deserve full protection and honor as human beings. If we ever deny our unique status in creation as God’s only image-bearers, we will soon begin to depreciate the value of human life, will tend to see humans as merely a higher form of animal, and will begin to treat others as such. We will also lose much of our sense of meaning in life.