Recognizing the Image of God. Part 1

Genesis 1:26-28

This was a message written for the 25^th Anniversary of Christian Reformed Disability Concerns by Rev. Mark Stephenson, Director of Disability Concerns. Feel free to use this message or adapt it as appropriate for your situation. For your own integrity, please acknowledge the source.

What makes a human life worth living?

Productivity – how much someone is accomplishing in life?

Potential – how much someone might accomplish if given the time and training?

Financial worth? Good looks? Independence?

Getting more personal, what makes your life worth living?

What you do? What you might accomplish some day? Your financial worth? Your looks? Your independence and freedom to choose . . . where you will live, whether you will marry, how many children you will have, what kind of job you will pursue?

The trouble with all of these is that they are so fragile.

Our work productivity can be trashed by a layoff.

Our potential declines as the years we have lived exceed the years we have yet to live.

Our financial worth is dependent on so many factors beyond our control.

Our looks and even a warm smile can be twisted by accident or stroke.

Our sense of independence is shattered when a loved one dies, and we realize how much we needed him or her.

What gives a human life value? What gives my life value? Ultimately, what we do or will do, how much money we have, how we look, or our freedom to make choices do not invest our lives with the greatest measure of our value. All of these can be taken away. But humans have an intrinsic value that nothing can remove. When God created people he made our inherent value layoff-proof, recession-proof, stroke-proof, accident-proof, even sin proof. Listen to Genesis 1:26-28:

Then God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

So God created human beings in his own image,

in the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground." (Genesis 1:26-28, TNIV)

A. Humans are made in the image of God.

1. People are different

The rest of creation has some likeness to God.

God exists; a rock exists.

God has life; a daffodil has life.

God created beetles; adult beetles create baby beetles.

God has emotions; a dog has emotions.

God thinks; chimpanzees can think.

Although every grain of sand and elm tree and elephant is a window through which we can glimpse God, Genesis does not tell us that any other creature is made in God's image and likeness; only human beings. People are different from the rest of creation.

2. Our most important difference is based on what we are.

Human beings, as a species, are better at creativity, self-awareness, thought, and taking action than any other species on earth. Yet, the Bible tells us that what we do is secondary to what we are. Being is more important than doing.

Genesis 1:26-28 first the we are made in God's image.

Then it tells us that God calls people to do certain things: to rule and to be fruitful.

Living out our calling comes second after being invested with the intrinsic worth of being God's image-bearers.

To illustrate this idea, think about the difference in value between old coins made of silver and today's coins that are made mostly from copper, nickel, and zinc. (Show a silver quarter and a modern quarter if you have them.) If I took a quarter minted today and bent and twisted it until it was no longer recognizable as a quarter, it would be a nearly worthless hunk of metal. But no matter how much I defaced a silver quarter, it would still be worth much more than its face value because the value of the metal itself is about $2.00. A silver quarter has intrinsic worth, not for what it does (its face value) but for what it is (silver). Same with humans. The value of every single human comes from what she is: a creature made in God's image. No matter how disabled her body or mind is, her value is the same as any other person's value.

3. Humans are special to God.

Genesis 1 and 2 tell us in three different ways that humans are more special to God than the rest of his creation: First, Genesis 1 tells us that humans were created last. This placement in the creation order is Scripture's way of saying that people are the pinnacle of creation. Once God made people, he was finished with his "very good" creation. Then God rested. Second, the term, "image of God," tells us that humans are special. When the Bible was first being written 3500 years ago, a human king was said to be the image of the gods. In his wisdom, God inspired the authors of the Bible to use language that at that time was only applied to royalty. In the Bible, all people are made in the image of God, the king of kings; therefore, all people are royalty. Third, In Genesis 2 we read that God formed all the parts of creation like an attentive and careful gardener. But only one part of the garden received the very breath of God to fill it with life: the man. All other creatures breathe air, but we human beings breathe the very breath of God.

These Scriptural ways of setting humans above the rest of creation led one author to write:

It is hard to overemphasize the revolutionary impact of the idea that humans are made in the "image of God." Human life is uniquely precious to God, and each person is infinitely valuable to him. This was a powerful idea that was behind the many differences between the humanitarian laws of the Torah compared to all other cultures of the time. Through the statement that "God created man from the dust and breathed the breath of life into him," we can see the amazing paradox that unlike the rest of creation, we are the direct work of God's own hand, and unlike animals, we receive our spirit from God himself. We are as insignificant as dust, and yet we bear the imprint of God himself! . . . Certainly we will treat each other with respect when we realize that we are looking at God's own handiwork, and a reflection of God himself. (Dr. Lois Tverberg, "Looking at the Creation Account Hebraically," from the email newsletter, En-Gedi Article, July 2006.)

Humans are different from the rest of creation. God sees his own reflection when he looks into the face of every human being on earth. Because God sees his image in people, we must too.

Rev. Mark Stephenson, Director of Disability Concerns