Sermon Tone Analysis

In answering the question of creation and purpose there is a fundamental question that we must ask.

We often ask the question, “What on earth am I here for?” and while it’s a valid and important question, it’s not the first question that must be answered.

To understand our purpose, we must first understand the purpose our creator had in creation.

In our text, the reason is not explored.

God simply says, “Let us” an indication of God’s triune nature.

Using the Majestic plural, showing God’s greatness and grandeur, the writer of Genesis proclaim’s God’s desire to create beings .

But why?

So why are we here?

Why did God create us?

The answer to this question can be found in how we were created.

Well the answer to this question can be found in how we were created.

God Created us In His Image

The first thing about man that we find in scripture is the fact that God created us in His image, the imago dei.

IMAGES REFLECT

God Created Us For His Glory

One aspect of being in God’s image is that an image reflects

IMAGES REPRESENT

Have you ever been told that you were the “spitting image” of your father?

I have.

Often people have told me that I am a copy, though taller and much more good looking, of my father.

What that means is that some of my features are similar to my father, but it goes much deeper.

It always makes me laugh when my wife says something that reminds me of her mother.

Kristy and her mother are very similar in some ways and extremely different in others, but there are times when she says something that sounds just like her mom.

She’ll say, “I reckon” or “It’s differernt” and it makes me think of my mother in law.

In both of these ways, physical looks and personality affectations we reflect our parents to the world.

Little things we say, little ways we look all remind those who know both us and our parents that we are sons and daughters of our earthly parents.

IMAGES

The same is true of our heavenly father: Humans were made to reflect God.

Mankind was appointed in Genesis as God’s Royal representatives to rule the earth in his place.

This is what is meant by sonship.

You and I are crown princes and princesses of our heavenly Father.

IMAGES REFLECT

Another aspect of images is that they reflect something.

And image is not the thing itself.

The Mona Lisa is perhaps the most famous painting in the world.

You and I have probably seen thousands of pictures of Leonardo Da Vinci’s seminal painting our whole lives.

But it’s not the same as seeing the painting, or any painting.

When we see art in person we can see the brush stokes and the lines, for those skilled in art analysis the pigments used and the strokes made by the artist can help them identify who the artist is that created the painting.

Like a picture of a painting, you and I are images of God, and thus we were created to reflect him in the world.

We were made to uniquely reflect the nature and character of God.

When we think about man, we find some truths about God.

God’s creativity is reflected in our own creative.

We are communicative and this shows our God communicates.

We see this clearly in God speaking to Adam.

We are relational, just as our God is.

We love because HE loved.

God Created Us For His Glory

In answering the question of creation and purpose there is a fundamental question that we must ask.

We often ask the question, “What on earth am I here for?” and while it’s a valid and important question, it’s not the first question that must be answered.

To understand our purpose, we must first understand the purpose our creator had in creation.

In our text, the reason is not explored.

God simply says, “Let us” an indication of God’s triune nature.

Using the Majestic plural, showing God’s greatness and grandeur, the writer of Genesis proclaim’s God’s desire to create beings in his image.

But why?

So why are we here?

Why did God create us?

Simply put, we were created for God’s Glory and to reflect God’s Glory.

​ ESVBut now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.

For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you.

Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life.

Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you.

I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

“You made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.” - St. Augustine

God’s purpose in all creation was to reveal his glorious grace and love through all creation.

“Man was created from the beginning in God’s image that he might image forth God’s glory.”

John Piper

This is why we were created.

We were created to love God and to be loved by him.

“Man was created from the beginning in God’s image that he might image forth God’s glory.”

John Piper