Sermon Tone Analysis

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I don’t know if you experienced this when you were growing up, but I had several childhood rivals.
My pride is so ingrained that I would categorize the people in my life.
There were the cool kids, the ones that I wanted to be like and wanted to like me, so I would do whatever was necessary to please them and win their “friendship.”
There were the insignificant kids, that I just ignored pretending like they didn’t exist because no one else paid attention to them either, and then there were the rivals.
These were the kids whom I had determined were not worthy of being liked by anyone because the people that I wanted to pay attention to me also paid attention to them.
I wanted the cool kids to like me, not them, so I would do whatever I could to discredit and dismiss these rivals.
There was one kid named Dan that I had determined was the worst of all of them.
He definitely wasn’t cool, but somehow was able to connect with the cool kids, so every chance I got, I used to show how much better I was than him.
We even got sent to the principles office once for fighting (he punched me because I was holding his jersey in a game of flag football).
When it came to Dan, I was convinced that I was better than him, and that I needed to prove it.
Unfortunately, I still have times where these kinds of attitudes plague my thinking.
As we have walked through the creation week narrative in , we have seen the glory and majesty of God on full display as God spoke and created all that is.
Through the creation of light, sky, earth, seas, plants, sources of light, fish, birds, and animals, God has shown His omnipotence, His sovereignty, His benevolence, and His transcendence.
But the creation week turns slightly in the middle of day six.
It isn’t that God becomes a spectator or unimportant to the narrative, but the focus turns more toward what He creates on day six than on any other day as God creates humanity.
The special creation of humanity is emphasized by God dignifying humanity in a way that He didn’t do with the rest of creation, as God turns our attention to this day of the week.
Do you notice that the commentary on the various days of creation gets longer with each passing day?
Day one is the shortest commentary, and the descriptions grow as the week moves on, emphasizing that day six was a special day in the creation week.
When we see this special focus on humanity, we are forced to ask why God would focus on humanity as He does.
And I believe the answer comes right away in v26, God created humanity in His image.
When I act like I did toward Dan and those like him, I was rejecting them as divine image bearers.
But God dignifies all of humanity by creating us in His image; therefore, we must dignify humanity as well.
That is the point of .
God created humanity in His image; therefore, we must dignify humanity
How?
When we consider the events surrounding the creation of humanity, we see four recognitions that are necessary to dignify humanity
Recognize humanity’s unique creation (v26-27)
I’ve already alluded to humanity’s unique creation but we can see it in more detail in v26.
There are two aspects of our creation that bring out this uniqueness:
There are two aspects of our creation that bring out this uniqueness:
First, notice that God speaks to Himself.
This is a stark change from previous verses where we can see a distinct pattern: Then God said, “Let there be . . .
something.”
After having read the account for each day starting off with, “Then God said, ‘Let there be,’” we expect that here, and yet the wording changes.
Instead of speaking to creation or what He is creating, God speaks to Himself here.
He says, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.”
This contrast is emphatic.
God is making a point by changing the words to draw attention to what He is doing next: the creation of humanity.
In addition to this, we note that God creates in His image.
This further emphasizes the uniqueness of humanity’s creation, for no other aspect of creation is connected so closely to its divine Creator.
But what does this mean, that humanity was created in the image of God?
Let me first note that the two phrases here are appositional, that is, the second phrase is explaining the first, they are not saying two different things: “According to Our likeness” rewords “In our image” to clarify its meaning.
So we aren’t dealing with two different ideas here, just the one.
Concerning the meaning, the phrase is undefined in , so we must look elsewhere for assistance in understanding.
The absence of this phrase anywhere else in the creation week indicates that this is a category in which only humanity belongs.
Animals are never said to be made in the image of God nor are angels.
However, in looking elsewhere in Scripture we find that this concept is exceedingly rare.
There are only a couple of other passage that mention humanity being in God’s image, which explains why theories on its meaning are frequently debated.
The most significant passage is .
In as Paul talks about the reasoning behind women needing a sign of authority in worship, He connects the idea of image to God’s glory in v7
But what does this mean that humanity is the image and glory of God? Perhaps the best explanation we can give is that humanity was created to represent God in His glory here on earth.
This ties into the old catechism answer to the question, “What is the chief end of man?” “To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”
Humanity was made to glorify God in a way that the rest of creation cannot, and we can gain more insight into this when we consider that Christ is said to be the image of God.
is the first place we run into this idea.
There Paul explains that Satan blinds the eyes of many so that they miss the gospel message.
He goes on to call the gospel, “the gospel of the glory of Christ,” and he mentions as well that Christ is “the image of God.”
So instead of emphasizing that all of humanity is made in the image of God; here we see that Christ is the image of God.
This same idea is repeated in .
There Paul begins his great Christological hymn of praise by saying . . .
We can also see the same concept in , which says that Christ is the “radiance of [God’s] glory and the exact representation of His nature.”
Both and connect the idea of image of God in Christ to glory, which further emphasizes the relationship between image and glory in us.
Now what are we to make of all this?
Perhaps most significantly, we must admit that Scripture is vague on what the image of God in humanity is.
While we must definitely affirm the truth of it, we can allow for variance on the issue as long as it is clear that the image of God is what makes humanity a unique part of creation.
I would also assert that God intended us to represent Him in a similar way that Christ ended up doing.
Christ is the quintessential human.
When we failed to glorify God in bearing His image, Christ came being the exact representation of His nature.
We can also say that the connection of image and glory in the New Testament helps us in some way recognize that at least some aspect of the image bearing that we do as humans ought to draw attention to the God who made us.
Let me also note that there is one other passage where the image of God in humanity is evoked.
We’ll come to it again here in our Origins series, but it bears mentioning now as well.
The fact that humanity is created in God’s image means that there is an inherent dignity in all humans that God regards as extremely important.
Murder is a sin against God’s image; it destroys an image bearer.
Therefore, we must stand against sins that destroy or disgrace image bearers: murder, abortion, racism, xenophobia, rape, sexual or physical abuse, pornography, and bullying are just a few of the ways in which we treat our fellow image bearers with contempt.
Being an image bearer of God is something that is true of every human being born on this planet, and we must dignify our fellow humans because they share this image.
Stop hating each other; stop looking down on those that are different than you; stop insulting people to make yourself look better.
Treat image bearers with the respect they deserve.
So we see that if we are to dignify humanity, we must recognize the unique creation, now let’s also see humanity’s ruling position.
Recognize humanity’s ruling position (v26b)
This ruling position is seen in v26b
It is also restated in the second half of v28
Humanity is given an ruling position as a sort of vice-regent under God over the rest of creation.
The wonder of how this could be is captured by the Psalmist in
ps 8
Considering the vastness and power of the heavens and the strength of the animals, it is a wonder than man is to rule over the work of God’s hands.
Humanity isn’t even close to the fastest, strongest, or hardiest of God’s creation, but we are given a ruling position over the rest of creation.
While it isn’t inherent in the words rule or subdue used in , God’s example and the rest of Scripture, particularly the law, indicate that this ruling is not a harsh rule, but one that uses creation to the fullest of what God created it to be.
This has implications when it comes to environmentalism and creation care.
If humanity has been given dominion over creation, then using coal, oil, wood, and natural gas for energy is not inherently sinful, nor is eating meat, or using animals to assist us with making work easier and more efficient; however, mistreating an animal for your own amusement or destroying creation for your entertainment is contrary to using creation as God intended it to be used.
God created the rest of creation to be beneficial for humanity; hence, the repetition of the fact that he saw that it was good.
So we must exercise our dominion by using creation, but not by misusing it.
We will dignify humanity when we recognize our unique creation and ruling position.
But we must also recognize humanity’s divine mandate.
Recognize humanity’s divine mandate (v28)
Humanity’s divine mandate is in v28
This mandate has two aspects to it:
Procreate: God commands them to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.
We saw this last week in God’s blessing of the birds and fish to fill the sea and the sky.
Here, God gives the same command to humanity that they might recognize that God has created them as creators of life.
God gave humanity the ability to procreate; therefore, we should.
Arguments about overpopulation not withstanding, humans should procreate.
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