Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.”God said, “Let’s make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
18 sermons cite this verse
… The glorious reason that murder is prohibited. then God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. Our image. Let us make man in our image. This defines man's unique relation to God. John MacArthur said that man is a living being capable of embodying God's communable attributes. You see, the unique value of each of us here tonight, regardless of our color, regardless of our intelligence, regardless of our age, regardless of our health, is found in those words, God made man in his own image. You know what that says to us? That says that human life is invaluable. irreplaceable, and matchless. When we think of men and women as anything less than the image of God, we devalue life. …
… our understanding of sexuality, marriage, fatherhood, and motherhood, and our culture. All of which Scripture clearly speaks to in Genesis chapter 1, I'm sorry, Genesis chapter 1, verse 26 through 28, God's creation of man and woman in his image to Genesis chapter 2, verse 24, God's institution of marriage between a man and a woman for the purpose, Ephesians chapter 5, verses 22 through 33 of displaying the gospel and a husband's selfless sacrificial love for his wife, a wife's submissive respect and love for her husband, which leads to Ephesians chapter 6, verses 1 through 4, and a father and a mother loving their child in a way that reflects the love of God for that child. There's so much we could talk about here, but just to bring the data on to bear on why this is so important, do you know what percentage of women seeking abortions are unmarried in our country. Approximately 86%. So almost nine out of 10 women in our country who seek abortions are unmarried. …
… It's that he's also showing us who we are in the context of who he is. In Genesis 1, verses 26 through 27, it says, Then God said, let us make man in our image. Let us make humanity, that word man means humanity, in our image. Not just royalty. Not just people who are of a certain wealth, of a certain class. This is a God who says every single being has been made in our image. That is a revolutionary concept for this time. That every person, regardless of their station in life, regardless of their gender, regardless of who they were born or their ethnicity, is made in the image of God. Our God says, I'm not like the other gods where only certain people can be made in my image. I'm not like the other gods where only certain people can look like me. I made every single person a resemblance of who I am. each of us are image bearers of God that's why we can't allow culture and we can't allow the different systems to make us believe that some people get to bear the image of God and others don't as a matter of fact in order for oppression to even work there has to be a certain level of dehumanization. Oppression hinges on dehumanization because I cannot see you as fully human and treat you any kind of way. …
… debate concerning abortion is what is going on in the womb, and God is clear in his word. The womb contains a person formed in the image of God. That's clear. Psalm 139, other texts, Genesis chapter 1 verse 26 through 28. God is creating, forming a person in his image unlike anything else in all creation. He's knitting together a human being. Now people have argued and will argue, well what is full personhood? When does an embryo or a fetus become a person? And this really is the most important question. Virtually every argument in the entire abortion controversy comes back to this one question. What is the unborn? What or who is in the womb? Because once that question is answered, every other question comes into perspective. The reality is, if the unborn is not human, then no justification for abortion is even necessary. Some people say, well, the human is not, or the unborn is not a human person. It's just some non-viable tissue mass. Just a part of a woman's body. …
… Okay. Genesis chapter 1, verse 26. Let's start there and hear God's word. And God said, So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, And be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. And have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth. And every tree with seed in its fruit, you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and every bird of the heavens and everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food. And it was so. and God saw everything that he had made and behold, it was very good. …
… And God saw that it was good. Then God said, Let us make humankind in our own image and after our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens and over the beasts and over all the earth and all the creeping things that creep on the earth. So God created humankind in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. And God blessed them and said, Be fruitful and increase in number. Fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens and all the living creatures that move on the earth? Then God said, Look, I give to you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree bearing fruit with the seed in it. They shall be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and the birds of the heavens, to all the creatures that move on the earth, to everything that has the breath of life, I give every green plant for food. …
… is our actions identify with the reality of who we are all those other hours of the week. The Bible tells us in Genesis chapter 1 verse 26 and 7, it says, then God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness is speaking there's no doubt as genesis 1 1 says that god created the hebrew word god is god in plural a plural singular god that god is one hero israel the Lord our God is what? One, but he's manifested in the Elohim. E-L-O-H-I-M is a singular Godhead manifested in the plurality. That's why the Bible here in Genesis chapter 1 verse 26 says, our image, our likeness, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Man, that must have been awesome. Verse 27, so God created man in his own image and the image of God, he created him, that's mankind, male and female, he created them. …
… or even more noticeable. Now, you can see in English the word image, icon in the Greek. Greek, think of Genesis 1 26, let us make man in our own image and in our likeness. Now, this is a perfectly fine translation, but if you could see the Greek, that word translated resembling is the exact same Greek word that's used in the Greek translation of Genesis 1 26 for likeness. Now, why doesn't it translate as likeness? Because we don't have a word that works that way. glory of the immortal God for images likeness is seeing mortal man. That's what it is. But we use resembling. But it's the same word right there. He has the word image and likeness. So we are put in the conceptual universe of Genesis chapter one because the ongoing sin and exchange in the world is the same foolish exchange that Adam and Eve made in the garden. And here it's described in verse 23 as is making the invisible God visible. …
… And that Hebrew term is death shadow. death shadow in Hebrew means image it is the same Hebrew term used in Genesis 1 26 and 27 as the word image when God said let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and yada yada yada so God created man in his own image. So in the original text the valley of the shadow of death was known as the valley of images. So whether in a moment of reflection or in a literal running away from the danger of his own son, David is postured between two images. The house of the Lord in Jerusalem and the place of man-made idols in Jericho. and he declares his position and he says the Lord is my shepherd make no mistake about it I may be walking through strange places but I know who my God is I may be between Jerusalem and Jericho but I'm not confused the Lord is my shepherd and everything I need is in him even in the valley My sister and my brother, right now we are walking through strange places in the earth, dark times, unfamiliar territory. …
… Look at how we were made. Genesis 1 verse 26 says, Then God said, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth. So God, who's God? The us. The image that they were made in. His likeness. God created man in his own image. He created him in the image of God. He created them male and female. So what's that mean? It means that we cannot image God properly until we exist in community. We were made in the image of God. Have you ever thought about what that word actually means? Like think about what an image is. If I were to show you an image of a tree, the image itself would not be a tree, but it would point to a real tree. And in the same way, God says we're made in his image, that when people look at us, we're meant to think of him. Not that we are God, but we lift others' attention up to God by how we exist and love one another. And so we cannot image him properly if we exist apart from community. That's why before sin even enters the picture, everything's perfect. …
… at Genesis 1, 26 and 27. Look at what the Bible says there. First book in the Bible, Genesis chapter 1, verse 26 and 27. It says, let us make man in our image and our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. So what we see in the very beginning of the Bible is God creating man in his image. In the image of God, we were created. But then we get to Genesis chapter 3, and sin enters the picture. I want you to look at Genesis chapter 3, verse 22. What you've got is Adam and Eve, man, experiencing the effects of sin. Verse 22 says, The Lord God said, The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. …
… Be fruitful and multiply. fill the earth and subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every creeping, every living thing that moves on the earth. When we continue on through that text, we see that what God is really saying is this is how I want you to show up in the world. I want you to be a people who are able to be fruitful and who can multiply, who can fill the earth and subdue it, let's think for a minute about the character traits required to fulfill that mandate, okay? In order for us to have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds over the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth, that means there is a certain level of authority, certain level of confidence, a certain level of focus and intentionality that was meant to be a part of our original nature. So this idea, and this isn't just you, this is me, where we experience insecurity, where we second get, that's not a part of our original nature. …
… Because on multiple occasions in this series We've now read Genesis chapter 1 verse 26 and 27 God said let us make man in our image after our likeness Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea Over the birds of the heavens Over the livestock and over all the earth And over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth So God created man in his own image In the image of God, he created them. Male and female, he created them. And I want to point out here what I hope is plain. Identity as a person made in the image of God does not hinge on your gender, your marital status, or your parental status, for that matter. You have intrinsic dignity from God regardless of whether you are a man or a woman, a wife or a husband, a mom or a dad, your marital status does not determine your identity or dignity before God. Now, what's interesting is right after this, we read in Genesis 1, 28, God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. So immediately, God starts talking about procreation, making babies. In Genesis 2, what we saw last week is God's design for how that happens. Marriage. Genesis 2.24. A man shall leave his father and his mother, hold fast to his wife, they shall become one flesh. And as man and woman come together as one flesh in marriage, they multiply. That's the whole picture that Genesis 1.28 is talking about. …
… And then after all that, jump to verse 26. We read, then God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. Now turn over to Genesis chapter 2. So starting in verse 5, we see a parallel account of how God created man. Eden in the east. And there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground, the Lord God made to spring up every tree that's pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden, which by the way, Eden means delight. So this garden of delight, a river flowed out of it to water the garden. And there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon is the one that flowed from the whole land of Havilah where there is gold. The gold of that land is good. Delium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It's the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris which …
… That's where it's coming from in Psalm 8. Have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. The first sense of call in Psalm 8 is to the original commission that God gave humanity at creation. Sometimes we call this the cultural mandate. Being in God's image, being His representatives in the created world, His vice regents over the created world, our calling as humanity is to grow our number and expand our borders. Or you would say, bring new humans into the world and raise them up and venture out into new territory and bring order to the uncultivated raw wilderness. Don't expand your borders to take the borders of other countries. It should probably be said. but expand the civilization to cultivate and do so consciously and carefully, preserving natural beauty and making it accessible for human flourishing. As humans increase and spread out across the earth, we learn to work together. …
And that background makes what we're about to read stunning because Genesis chapter one, verse 26, after everything else in the universe has been created, sun, moon, stars, skies, land, water, fish, birds, animals, everything. Then God said, let us make man in our what? Image. And that's the word that we just talked about. Sell him after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own what? Image. In the image of God, he created them. Male and female, he created them. Three times we see this Hebrew word. God, in his word, is saying that humans, that's what man is a reference to, humankind, people are images. They're representations of him. Almost like this world is a temple and the images or idols in this world that represent God are human beings. And not just some humans, like the elite or a particular ethnicity or gender. No, this is stunning. God is saying all humankind, without exception, including male and female, regardless of ethnicity, disability, anything, all humans are created in the image of God, or the likeness of God, which is a parallel concept here. And then read what happens next. And God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens, and over every …
… Look at chapter 1, beginning at verse 26. Then God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness, and then rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, over the cattle, over all the earth, over every creature that creeps on the earth. God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created a male and female, he created them. God blessed them. And God said to them, what's the first command out of God's mouth when he creates man? The first command is not, don't eat of the fruit from that tree in the middle of the garden. No, the first command is be fruitful and multiply. I don't write the mail, I just deliver it. That's the first command out of the mouth of God. to human beings. Be fruitful and multiply. Now by procreation, I don't just mean having babies, although that's kind of a very important part of the whole process of procreation, okay? …
… six days of creation wherein God on various days creates various elements of the universe. Then we read in verse 26 of the first chapter of Genesis these words, Then God said, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And so God created man in His own image. In the image of God He created him male and female. He created them. And then God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." We live in a world now that puts more value to fish eggs than to human embryos, more dignity to whales than to humanity, which is a reversal of the order of creation in which God creates mankind and mankind alone in His image. …