The Creation of Man

- The word Man:

           - We typically start every discussion with a definition – a term of phrase used to define our topic of study on which we all can agree. Before we can start discussing this portion of the doctrine of man, we define the word man as a term used to describe the entire human race.  This is not a statement to be anti-feminist, but God’s original name for us.

- Gen. 5:1-2 - This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.² He created them male and female, and He blessed them and named them Man in the day when they were created.

                        * God named our species “man.” This is not insensitive;

                        it is original.

* This verse also shows God’s original design for male and female relationships. God designed men to lead and women to submit to their leadership.

- Why was man created?

- John 17:5 - Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

- There was prefect love and glory between the Trinity before the creation of man. God didn’t need man, but He chose to make us anyway.

- Is. 43:7 - Everyone who is called by My name, And whom I have created for My glory, Whom I have formed, even whom I have made.”

                        - God created man for His glory.

- 1 Cor. 10:31 - Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

** God didn’t have to create us. The fact that He chose to make us shows that we are important and significant to Him. One way to illustrate this is to look at the adoption process. Adoption involves years of working and waiting and hoping. Each parent goes through a strenuous ordeal that’s costly both financially and emotionally. They want their baby so badly that they’ll fight court systems and mounds of paperwork, spend thousands of dollars, and travel thousands of miles just to bring their new child home. Knowing how hard his parents had to work to adopt him shows just how much he is truly wanted. God didn’t have to make us. He knew, long before we were even created, that we would sin and cost the life is His only begotten Son. But He created us anyway. He knew we’d reject Him, but He battles hell and all of its fury just to bring us home with Him one day.

** Scripture tells us that God rejoices when we glorify and enjoy Him!

** The Westminster Catechism puts it this way:

- What is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God, [a] and to enjoy him forever. [b]

[a]. Ps. 86:9; Isa. 60:21; Rom. 11:36; I Cor. 6:20; 10:31; Rev. 4:11

[b]. Ps. 16:5-11; 144:15; Isa. 12:2; Luke 2:10; Phil. 4:4; Rev. 21:3-4

- Is. 62:5 - For as a young man marries a virgin, So your sons will marry you;
And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, So your God will rejoice over you.

            - God rejoices over us like a groom rejoicing over his bride.

- Zeph. 3:17-18 - “The Lord your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior.
He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy. ¹⁸ “I will gather those who grieve about the appointed feasts— They came from you, O Zion; The reproach of exile is a burden on them.

- Throughout Scripture, we see God rejoicing over the restoration of Israel.

- How are we made in the image of God?

            - “Made in the image” – man is like God and represents God

- Gen. 1:26 - Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

- Tselem (Hebrew for image) demut (Hebrew for likeness) – similar but not identical. Just like Adam’s son Seth would have had similar characteristics with Adam, but they would not be identical.

- We don’t know all of the things that make us like God.

                        - Things we know are like God: inner sense of right and wrong,

                        immortality of spirit, ability to think logically and learn, relational

                        abilities, and complexity of emotions.

- Although we cannot say that God has a physical body (john 4:24), we can note that our senses are similar. God sees, hears and speaks.  He created the senses of taste and smell for us to be able to enjoy creation as much as He does.

- Are we still in God’s image even though there is sin in the world?

            * Yes. The image may be distorted because of sin, but we have the ability to

            be redeemed and become more like God through sanctification.

            - Col. 3:10 - and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true

            knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.

- There is a great sense of dignity in being human – God’s image bearer. Out of all of creation, we are the most like God. Therefore, we must not look down on anyone – Christian or not. We must recognize that each person is made in the image of God. Every single person is part of God’s beautiful creation, and we must love them as such.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66zqQBxhUDA

           

“Every single human being, no matter how much the image of God is marred by sin, or illness, or weakness, or age, or any other disability, still has the statue of being in God’s image, and therefore must be treated with the dignity and respect that is due to God’s image bearer. This has profound implications for our conduct toward others. It means that people of every race deserve equal dignity and rights. It means that elderly people, those seriously ill, the mentally retarded, and children yet unborn, deserve full protection and honor as human brings. If we ever deny our unique status in creation as God’s only image-bearers, we will soon begin to depreciate the value of human life, will tend to see humans as merely a higher form of animal, and will begin to treat others as such. We will also lose much of our sense of meaning in life.”

Notes for this lesson were taken from Grudem’s Systematic Theology and Bible Doctrines and the NASB.