Introduction
God made man on the sixth day of creation. The first chapter of Genesis is a general creation narrative. The second chapter of Genesis gives a more detailed narrative of how God created man and woman and what He did with them.
Genesis 2:7
“Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and man became a living being.”
Genesis 2:21-23
“So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to come over the man, and he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place. Then the Lord God made the rib that he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man. And the man said: This one, at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called “woman,” for she was taken from man.”
Adam and Eve: Perfect Compliments
It’s interesting that God made Eve from Adam’s rib instead of forming her separately from the dust of the earth. What are we to make of this? First, making Eve from part of Adam means that she also bears the image of God in a way that is equivalent to Adam. Second, taking Eve from Adams side symbolized her being the complement for him and he for her. “Complement“ can be defined as: a thing that completes or brings to perfection.
Notice that the creation of woman began with God’s first declaration that something that He made wasn’t good. He declared that it wasn’t good for the man to be alone. That is, to be without a partner. We shouldn’t mistake God’s statement of “not good” to imply that God made something bad. It just meant that His creation wasn’t complete yet. The name given to her “Woman” (`ishshah) implied equality as the feminine compliment to man (`ish).
Finally, this arrangement meant that Adam retained headship of the human race. Therefore, all humans, including Eve, originate from Adam. Since there is one lineage, Adam’s sin cursed the entire lineage. However, this is also why Jesus was able to become a human being within the lineage of Adam and redeem the entire lineage of the human race in a way that satisfied the perfect justice of God.
Romans 5:12
“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death though sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned.
IMAGE OF GOD
Although the animals are said to have the breath of life in them, humans are the only life brought into existence at creation made in the image of God.
Genesis 7:15, CSB
“Two of every creature that has the breath of life in it came to Noah and entered the ark.”
Genesis 1:26a
“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness.”
Genesis 1:27, CSB
“So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female.”
God made our bodies of the same substance and from the same place that He made the plants and animals from. Humans and animals are similar in that we both have souls. We are, however, unique from all of creation in that we are the only ones who are the image bearers of God. Therefore, we are the only ones who seek out and find God.
Man as the Image of God
Man as the image of God is the intersection of what man was created to be and man’s purpose on earth. To bear God’s image is to display His attributes in this world. We have the capacity for reason, to write and record history, and for abstract thinking and creativity. We have the capacity to manipulate our environment in increasingly complex ways, and we have the capacity and inherent desire to be connected to our creator through relationship and worship. It is God Himself who proclaims that human life has intrinsic dignity and value having been made in His image.
Genesis 9:6, CSB
“Whoever sheds human blood, by humans his blood will be shed, for God made humans in his image.”
God gave us purpose in this world. By bearing His image and obeying His commands we glorify God in the world that He created. Humans are the only ones who feel a moral “ought” that presses down on us. To the lion and the gazelle, morality isn’t part of the equation.
OUR PURPOSE
God commanded us to reproduce, fill the earth, and to exercise dominion over it according to His moral principles. Notice here that one of God’s first commandments was to reproduce. Therefore, we should view children as special gifts from God who we should rededicate to Him rather than a burden to be sacrificed to the god of our own selfishness. It’s in this way that we glorify God as His image bearers. So, God made human beings in a specific way for a specific purpose. He, as creator and sustainer of life, has full authority over that life.
Genesis 1:28a, CSB
“God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it…””
Genesis 1:28b, CSB
“…“Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky and every creature that crawls on the earth.””
The Family Unit
Notice how God created us socially in the beginning. There is much debate today between individualism and collectivism. Neither by itself can stabilize and perpetuate a society. Of course, the individual is the smallest building block of humanity. However, the smallest FUNCTIONAL building block of a healthy society is the family. When God was creating, the only thing that wasn’t good was the solitude of the man. Also, God didn’t initially create neighborhoods or communities. He first created the family.
Genesis 2:24, CSB
“This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh.”
Genesis 1:28a, CSB
“God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it…””
The building blocks of societies are family units. We see in our culture that most of the chaos and breakdown of our society correlates directly with the breakdown of the God created family unit. History has shown us that if we desire to be a healthy society, we should incentivize healthy two parent family units as our creator intended rather than incentivizing dysfunctional broken families.
Failure of Evolutionary Theory
Evolutionary theory fails to give human beings purpose or value. The premise of this worldview is that we are just stardust here for a while and then gone. This means we have no purpose or meaning and ultimately nothing we do matters. If this were true, we would live in an a-moral world. Stardust is morally neutral and cannot tell us what we ought and ought not do. One human killing another would be no more immoral than one star colliding with another.
However, this is not what we see. Deep down we know the world is not this way. The world we live in is thick with morality. Even those who reject the existence of God still speak, act, and interact with others in this world as if there is a moral “ought” pressing down on them from above. Humans inherently know right from wrong. We all know that virtue is better than vice.
C.S. Lewis states, “These, then, are the two points I wanted to make. First, that human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. Secondly, that they do not in fact behave in that way. They know the Law of Nature; they break it.”
Romans 1:18-20, CSB
“For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse.”
We can reject God and His commands, and we can deny that He exists, but we still must live in the world that was created by Him. Even when we plug our ears and close our eyes, we still all eventually run face first into the reality of God.
Conclusion
Loss of the creation narrative in Genesis is loss of the foundation of the Christian faith. Without the creation and fall of man, we have no explanation for the cross of Christ. God created us to behave and function in a particular way for a particular purpose as a reflection of His attributes and according to His sovereign design and kingdom rule. We are God’s representatives here on Earth. When we sin, that is act against His will, character, and creation order, we cease to fulfill the purpose for which we were created. This soils our very souls and drives a wedge between the Holy and Righteous God of the universe and sinful man.
The divide is insurmountable from the human side. However, our loving God who is rich in mercy has made a way for us to traverse the chasm of sin through the person and work of His Son, Jesus Christ.
2 Cor. 5:21, NKJV
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Romans 5:8, NIV
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 10:9-10, CSB
“If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.”
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