Wednesday: The Creation of Humanity
The creation of humans is God’s last act of Creation, at least in the Genesis account. Humans are the culmination of the whole earthly creation, the purpose for which the earth was made.
Read Genesis 1:26-29 and Genesis 2:7. What is the connection between these two different versions in regard to the creation of humanity?
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That God has created humans in His image is one of the boldest statements of the Bible. Only humans have been created in the image of God. Though “God made the beast of the earth according to its kind” (Genesis 1:25, NKJV), “God created man in His own image” (Genesis 1:27, NKJV). This formula has often been limited to the spiritual nature of humans, which is interpreted to mean that the “image of God” is understood to signify only the administrative function of representing God, or the spiritual function of relationship with God or with each other.
While these understandings are correct, they fail to include the important physical reality of this creation. Both dimensions are, indeed, included in the two words “image” and “likeness” describing this process in Genesis 1:26. While the Hebrew word tselem, “image,” refers to the concrete shape of the physical body, the word demut, “likeness,” refers to abstract qualities that are comparable to the divine Person.
Therefore, the Hebrew notion of the “image of God” should be understood in the wholistic sense of the biblical view of the human nature. The biblical text affirms that human individuals (men and women) have been created in God’s image physically, as well as spiritually. As Ellen G. White clearly comments: “When Adam came from the Creator’s hand, he bore, in his physical, mental, and spiritual nature, a likeness to his Maker.” — Education, p. 15.
In fact, this wholistic understanding of the image of God, including the physical body, is reaffirmed in the other Creation account, which says that “man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7, NKJV), literally, “a living soul” (nefesh), as the result of two divine operations: God “formed” and God “breathed.” Note that the “breath” often refers to the spiritual dimension, but it is also closely tied to the biological capacity of breathing, the part of the man that was “formed … of the dust of the ground.” It is the “breath of life”; that is, breath (spiritual) and life (physical).
God will later perform a third operation, this time to create the woman from the body of the man (Genesis 2:21-22), a way to emphasize that she is of the same nature as the man.
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This is what the Bible says:
There are a couple of things that are important:
1. Man is made in God's image, not the other way around. In our abstract theology, we sometimes get it back-to-front and construct God in our image.
2. Dominion does not mean "exploit", but rather "have responsibility for". That is something to remember when we use the natural resources of this world.
3. The "man in God's image" bit is followed immediately by the creation of male and female - no gender differentiation.
Dear Maurice,
While I agree with most of the cointent of your discussion, I want tyo excpress my disagreement with the last sentence of yours. In my opinion, in "God's immage" means we are created in his likeness. Gender remains unchange because there is a man and a woman.
Thank you
What I meant that there was no differentiation in terms of treatment or value. Both were created in the image of God. Hope that helps.
God created this world, in the perfect condition it originally was before sin messed with it, specifically for nothing but the benefit of us humans. Furthermore, God created us in His image and likeness (Genesis 1:26,27). And as Jesus stated in John 10:10 that He came that we might have abundant life (zoe) - with zoe conveying the idea of having the same quality of life that God Himself experiences.
Putting all of these together, we have a picture of a God who put absolutely everything possible, to the fullest extent possible*, of what He Himself experiences into each human being. While sin has really messed this up temporarily, God is setting about to restore all who are willing back to this original design intention. This is not a God who wants to be separate and distant from us - but a God who is passionately and compassionately wanting to be up close and personal with us: Yahweh, Immanuel. How does this compare with your picture of God?
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* The only things that we don't share in common with God are those that are not actually possible to share in common with God. The created can never become self-existent like the Creator and therefore have unlimited capacity and capacities. But other than that, God shared everything possible of what He Himself has with us - holding nothing back.
Sir Phil,
I quote you "but a God who is passionately and compassionately wanting to be up close and personal with us" is my summary for todays lesson.
Thanks.
Mankind have all the functions of an animal, eyes, nose, blood as life support, digestive system etc ... This is not the image of God.
The image of God in the first Adam was his cognetive mind wherein had a spiritual dimension for fellowship with God, and godly qualities would be imbedded. He was a living temple of God in an earthly environment, to be perfected as a mature Son in his motivation, and by his own will/choice be led by God to immortality as an inherentence.
Psalm 8, Hebrews 2:5-18
Shalom 🙏
Where have you heard: “all men are created equal” (and are) “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?”
America’s birth certificate, the Declaration of Independence, uses words and phrases that indicate that a belief in God and Creation shaped our early government.
Those phrases are as follows:
1. The Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God
2. Created and Creator
3. The Supreme Judge of the World
4. Divine Providence
I just read an article in the magazine Scientific American: “Denial of Evolution Is a Form of White Supremacy” that says:
At the heart of white evangelical creationism is the mythology of an unbroken white lineage that stretches back to a light-skinned Adam and Eve. In literal interpretations of the Christian Bible, white skin was created in God's image. Dark skin has a different, more problematic origin. As the biblical story goes, the curse or mark of Cain for killing his brother was a darkening of his descendants' skin. Historically, many congregations in the U.S. pointed to this story of Cain as evidence that Black skin was created as a punishment….
…The global scientific community overwhelmingly accepts that all living humans are of African descent. Most scientific articles about our African origins focus on genetics. The part of the story that is not widely shared is about the creation of human culture. We are all descended genetically, and also culturally, from dark-skinned ancestors.…“
33 years ago as an 18-year-old anthropology major in a state university, I cringed to profess my Christian and Creationist beliefs because of the historical record. Too often Christians say those things that the founding fathers did in the Declaration of Independence, and then they propagate hatred in the form of slavery, genocide, killing of indigenous peoples, picketing against groups of peoples.
I have reconciled it now within myself, grateful to the Holy Spirit. I once again believe in creation week and the authority of Scripture. I also recognize that: Adam and Eve were probably not light-skinned if the Garden of Eden was in the Middle East; the Bible does not mark melanin-rich people as inferior or criminal by inheritance; Jesus’ request to spread the gospel to all the world did not include subjugating peoples to cultural biases that have naught to do with God’s commands (and even when lifestyle changes are illuminated by God’s commands, God never forces or bullies or manipulates). God’s passionate love for each Spirit-breathed individual never means or looks like hate, prejudice, superiority, or condemnation of each other.
I appreciate my Country’s foundations in the Bible. We ARE created and loved equally, male and female, every skin tone. Where would we be today if throughout history we sought out the wisdom found within the Bible and followed our Creator’s example of deep love for every person?
Thank you so much for sharing, Esther! It's good to see you commenting again. 🙂
I just love your reference to "melanin-rich people"! I'll have to remember that one. I'm unfortunately melanin-poor.
It does remind me of how my husband explained the reason for "How come you are white and we are black?" to a melanin-rich member of a Baptist congregation where he preached as a student preacher. He explained it this way, "Adam and Eve were probably a nice warm brown. But after the Tower of Babel, people spread out to all parts of the world, and people in some parts of the world got baked black and people in other parts of the world got bleached white." She seemed to think that was very funny. I think maybe she had heard the explanation of Cain's curse before and was wondering whether my husband believed that.
Thank you, Inge, I appreciate your feedback and this place to discuss our Sabbath School lesson! I fall more into the “bleached” category myself and look forward to Spring’s advances towards the sun and heat.