Essentials #3: Humanity (Genesis 1:26-3:21) | 9/26/2021
Genesis 1:26-3:21 | 9/26/21 | Will DuVal
What does it mean to be HUMAN? This is one of the most fascinating, weighty questions that we all, AS humans, must ask and answer for ourselves.
In his recent book, “The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self”, Dr. Carl Trueman traces the evolution of our understanding of the human “self” in the Western world throughout time:
For most of human history, our self-perception as a species could perhaps best be characterized as the “tribal self”. Who we were was defined in relationship to others, specifically, those closest to us, in our tribe.
Equally foundational was the concept of the “worshipping self”; we found our identity vertically in relationship to God or “the gods”, whoever or whatever we worshipped.
But with the dawn of the discipline of philosophy in ancient Greece in the 5th c. BC, we begin to see a new concept of self emerge: the “thinking self”, the introspective self; who I AM is NOW far less defined by anything external to me - whether it be my community or the god I worship - than what is INTERNAL.
This was most epitomized, skipping WAY ahead in history for the sake of time, by the French philosopher Rene Descartes in the mid-17th c., who famously said, “I think therefore I am”; he identified being WITH thinking. With self-reflection.
18th c Empiricism emphasized the “discovering self”.
19th c. Idealism emphasized the “subjective self”.
The Industrial Revolution gave us the “working self”.
Karl Marx: the “communal self”. Darwin: the “animal self”. Freud and Jung: the “psychoanalyzed self”. Postmodernism: the “skeptical self”. The Sexual Revolution: the “liberated, autonomous self”
Such that today, we’ve arrived at concept of self that could fairly be described as the “Sovereign Self”. It’s considered a basic human right, in our society, to define one’s OWN self, even to the exclusion of all science and reason. As Trueman explains in his preface: “The origins of this book lie in my curiosity about how and why a particular statement has come to be regarded as coherent and meaningful today: “I am a woman trapped in a man’s body.” ...Less than thirty years ago… [nearly anyone who heard such a statement] would have burst out laughing and considered it incoherent gibberish. And yet today is it a sentence that many in our society regard as not only meaningful but so significant that to deny it or question it in some way is to reveal oneself as stupid and immoral.” (Trueman, 19)
That’s because in today’s world, self is king. “NO ONE ELSE gets to tell me who I am; not even GENETICS!”
But, “there’s nothing new under the sun” (Ecc 1:9); Over 3 millennia ago, the Book of Judges described the people of Israel in much the same way: “In those days there was NO king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” When we have no king, when we reject GOD as our king, we inevitably become gods unto ourselves - this is the “rise and triumph of the modern”… and the NOT-so-modern… self. The Sovereign self.
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So praise God for Sundays! That in a world that constantly seeks to indoctrinate us into its OWN governing worldview Monday-thru-Saturday:
“You are an inherently GOOD person.
Therefore you deserve happiness, to live your life however you want.
Follow your heart, your desires, trust your gut.
And surround yourself with people who will AFFIRM your sense of self, whoever you decide you are”...
Thank GOD for this weekly, re-centering reminder of the TRUTH: that…
You are, in fact, an inherently SINFUL person.
You deserve HELL.
You CAN’T trust your heart; but you CAN trust Jesus.
And you need to surround yourself with people who will regularly remind you OF your sin, and of your need for the SAVIOR.”
Man! - when you juxtapose the two worldviews like that, it’s really not HARD to see why so few people are Christians, is it?
Sometimes the truth hurts. But BOY do we need it!
We’re in week 3 of our fall sermon series “The Essentials: Foundations of the Christian Faith”. So far we’ve examined the first two foundations: The Bible, and GOD. And it is BASED upon both of those two bedrocks that we will continue to build this morning, pillar #3, “Humanity” - what DOES it mean, to be human. And of course, we will turn for answers NOT to society, or human reason, or our libidos, but to God’s WORD.
So I would invite you to do that with me now, and stand with me as you’re able… Genesis 1:26 - 3:21 (excerpts); If you don’t HAVE a Bible…
And if you’re a believer this morning - if you’re NOT, btw, we are SO glad you are here, exploring the Christian worldview for yourself! - but for all who ARE Christians, I’d invite you after the Scripture reading to respond with me, out loud, by affirming your faith in the Bible’s definition of who we are as human beings. Okay?
First, hear the word of the Lord, from Genesis 1-3:
Ch1, v26: “Then God said, “Let us make man[h] 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 livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “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…
Ch2, v15: The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat[d] of it you shall surely die.”
Ch3, v4: But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise,[b] she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths….
V21: And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.””
Your Response? We believe: “God created human beings in his own image or likeness, male and female, to care for, manage, and govern creation, and to live in fellowship with and obedience to their Creator. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
When Adam fell from his original sinless state through Satan’s temptation, all humanity participated in the Fall, and are thus alienated from God, corrupt in every aspect of their being, under God’s righteous condemnation, and in supreme need of being reconciled to God. Man’s only hope is the undeserved love of this same God, who alone can rescue and restore us to himself.” (WHC STATEMENT #3 & 4) Amen. Let’s pray...
Christianity offers us FOUR answers to the question - “what does it mean to be HUMAN?” And speaking of “the Essentials”, all four of these answers - or affirmations, as I’ll refer to them - all 4 are absolutely essential to a comprehensive understanding of the human person, of OURSELVES! That’s what we’re trying to do this morning: understand OURSELVES rightly, biblically. And we’ll conclude today with the acknowledgement that these four affirmations about what it means to be human actually retell the story of the GOSPEL; the most central of ALL truths in the Christian faith.
So: “What IS a HUMAN?”
Well, for starters, #1 - We are INVALUABLE IMAGE-BEARERS.
As we just affirmed from our statement of faith: “God created human beings in his own image or likeness”. Now, what does it MEAN to be made in God’s own IMAGE? This is a good opportunity to remind you of one of my favorite sources for biblical answers to important questions like this: gotquestions.org. Here’s how they answer it:
“Having the “image” of God means, in the simplest terms, that we were made to resemble God. Adam did not resemble God in the sense of having flesh and blood. Scripture says that “God is spirit” (John 4:24)... [Rather,] the image of God refers to the immaterial part of humanity [OUR spirit]. It sets human beings apart from the animal world, fits them for the dominion God intended [us] to have over the earth (Genesis 1:28), and enables them to commune with their Maker. It is a likeness mentally, morally, and socially.
Mentally, humanity was created as a rational, volitional agent... Human beings can reason and choose. This is a reflection of God’s intellect and freedom. Anytime someone invents a machine, writes a book, paints a landscape, enjoys a symphony, calculates a sum, or names a pet, he or she is proclaiming the fact that we are made in God’s image.
Morally, humanity was created in righteousness and perfect innocence, a reflection of God’s holiness. God saw all He had made (humanity included) and called it “very good” (Genesis 1:31). Our conscience or “moral compass” is a vestige of that original state. Whenever someone writes a law, recoils from evil, praises good behavior, or feels guilty, he or she is confirming the fact that we are made in God’s own image.
Socially, humanity was created for fellowship. This reflects God’s triune nature and His love. In Eden, humanity’s primary relationship was with God (Genesis 3:8 implies fellowship with God...), and God made the first woman because “it was not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18). Every time someone marries, makes a friend, hugs a child, or attends church, he or she is demonstrating the fact that we are made in the likeness of God.”
And we should add at least two ADDITIONAL, important ways that we are like God, according to both our statement of faith AND Genesis 1: vocationally, and taxonomically. Let me explain:
Vocationally, humans were created, at least in part, to WORK. “To care for, manage, and govern creation”. To “subdue the earth, and have dominion over it… to work [the garden] and keep it.” Even God’s command, to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth,” is a reflection of God’s image in us: God is both a productive and a RE-productive God; he works to create the earth, and then He KEEPS ON working, multiplying creatures, to FILL it. And God declares, “Humans should TOO,” as his image bearers. So God’s first 2 commands are: “Make babies” and “do work”. And whenever we procreate or CULTIVATE, we display the image of God in which we’ve been made.
Taxonomically, humans were created in two different “classifications”, or “ordered categories” - “male and female”. The parallelism in the 3 lines of Genesis 1:27 make it clear that this is PART of what it means to be made in the image of GOD -
“God created man [‘adam, mankind, collectively...] in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them [plural]”
In other words, while God is not a MAN (OR a woman), we must affirm that both masculinity AND femininity are derived from, equally derived from... separately but equally derived from who God IS. And complementarily so as well (in other words, we would have an INcomplete picture of who God is, had he JUST created men, or JUST created women).
So while God is not male, the fact that I AM male is a really significant part of what it means for ME, personally, to be made in the image of God. God’s not female, but for those of you who ARE, you wouldn’t reflect the image of God in the beautiful way you do, without your femininity.
In contrast to what our society tells us, then, it really DOES mean something to be a man, or a woman. Male, or female. They are NOT the same thing. At a linguistic level, we wouldn’t have 2 different WORDS for them if they were identical. At an anatomical level, there wouldn’t be penises and vaginas if we were identical. And at an ontological level, men and women are different.
The word of God is not unclear: “Male and female he created them”.
God created Adam to work the garden - Genesis 2:15. He created Eve to be a “suitable helper” for Adam, Genesis 2:20. Elsewhere in Scripture (see esp Eph 5; 1 Pet 3; 1 Tim 2 & 3; Titus 1 & 2; Prov 31, and many others) God calls men to protect, provide for, and lead their families (including the church family); he calls women to please, serve, and submit to their husbands. While it is true that there are biblical examples of and exhortations to women, in certain contexts, to protect, provide, and lead… as well as to men, to please, serve and submit, on the whole, those are our separate-but-equal, God-appointed, gendered roles. And if you think that somehow that makes women INFERIOR to men, then you’re thinking with a WORLDLY mind, not a GODLY mind: God both leads AND serves us. Jesus both protects us AND he submitted, all the way unto death, for us (in fact, Jesus eternally protects us, BY submitting to the Father’s plan on the cross!). Submission is only a bad word in the world; in HERE, in the CHURCH, in God’s WORD - it’s a BEAUTIFUL thing. A GODLY thing. And IMAGE of God thing.
So that’s WHAT it means to be made in the image of God - to resemble Him, mentally, morally, socially, vocationally, and taxonomically. But perhaps the most important thing of ALL to say about ‘the image of God’ is not the WHAT, but the WHY? WHY did God make us in His image?
According to our statement of faith, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” And according to God’s WORD, He “created [us] for [His] glory” (Isa 43:7). When we think, feel, behave, work, and relate as reflections of God’s own nature, we bring him glory. My daughter brings me glory. In part, because I see myself IN her - her intelligence, her inquisitiveness, her determination, her competitiveness, and of course, her physical attractiveness. I see myself in my SON, too, by the way - I joke that he got my receding hairline. Jokes aside, even though he’s adopted, nature is only half the picture; NURTURE plays a big role too, doesn’t it? If I do my job right, by God’s grace, my son will more and more over time begin to IMAGE me - because like the apostle Paul, in 1 Cor 11:1, I’m encouraging him to “Imitate me, as I imitate Christ ; I’m a reflection of Christ TO my son.
Speaking of nature vs. nurture, Ephesians 2 says that you and I were “by NATURE children of wrath”. But now we’ve been ADOPTED into a new family. So Paul says: “ACT like it”. IMAGE it. Live in such a way as to reflect your father God’s glory for all the world to see.
You know, it’s true what they say: “You may be the only Bible that MOST of the people around you will ever read.” I don’t know if you noticed, but it’s becoming an increasingly UNpopular book. That means it is increasingly important for US to show the world what God is like in the way that WE represent him. Do they see God IN us? That’s WHY he created us: to be mirrors, reflecting his glory to the world; to me mannequins, imaging Him. How clear of a mirror, how accurate of a mannequin, are you?
Last point here, SUPER quick but SO important: because we are all made in God’s image - not just Christians; but EVERY person - that means we are ALL invaluable, in God’s eyes. Every single human being has infinite dignity and worth, simply because we’ve been made in the image of God.
The unborn baby and the abortionist who murdered her.
The white nationalist and the Black Lives Matter rioter.
The wife-beating, male chauvinist and the non-binary, lesbian, feminist activist.
Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
Who’s the HARDEST person in the WORLD for you to value? For you to even think of AS a person; if you’re honest, they’re LESS than a person - The Taliban? Your BOSS?
Every single one of them has INFINITE value and worth, in God’s eyes, because He’s made them in His own image. No matter how poorly they reflect it, how badly they have MARRED the image of God, inside them. And that’s a great segue way to...
Affirmation #2 concerning what it means to be human - We are CORRUPTED SINNERS. We are CORRUPTED SINNERS.
Though we were MADE to image, to reflect, God, (*quote*) “When Adam fell from his original sinless state through Satan’s temptation, all humanity participated in the Fall, and are thus alienated from God, corrupt in every aspect of their being, under God’s righteous condemnation”.
Now hold on, we know ADAM sinned. HE tainted, marred, corrupted the image of God that he was made to reflect. We read that together from Genesis 3. But our statement of faith just made a pretty big JUMP there, from ADAM sinning, to “all of HUMANITY participating in the Fall, and thus, being alienated from God, corrupt in every way”. That seems pretty extreme, doesn’t it? Even UNFAIR? But the REAL question isn’t whether it’s harsh, or even unfair, but whether or not it’s BIBLICAL; is it TRUE?
Romans 5:12-19 “just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men[e] because all sinned… many died through one man's trespass… the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation… because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man… one trespass[f] led to condemnation for ALL men… by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners.”
You and I aren’t just sinful because we sin; we SIN because we are sinful. And we’re sinful, because of our father Adam. Ephesians 2, v3 again: “by NATURE, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” We are ALL born with a sinful nature. David confessed it in Psalm 51:5 “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.”
David wasn’t the product of some illicit sexual affair; he’s just a HUMAN. Which means - like you, like me, like EVERYONE who has EVER been born, ever been CONCEIVED (except for JESUS - that’s why his virgin BIRTH is so important), but other than Jesus - every human who has ever been conceived was a child of ADAM. A corrupted sinner, by nature.
In Christianity, we sometimes call this “original sin”. And every single PARENT in the room said, “AMEN!” I don’t have to CONVINCE any of YOU. Anyone crazy enough to believe that people are all basically GOOD deep down hasn’t spent much time around a toddler… or a teenager… or PEOPLE! Christianity’s anthropology, our explanation of who man IS - that we are EQUALLY invaluable and insidious, EQUALLY precious and pernicious - it’s one of the strongest arguments for the truth of our worldview. It just makes so much better SENSE, of the evidence. We are all sinful to our core.
You don’t have to teach a kid to sin. To care about herself more than others. To follow his OWN heart instead of God’s heart. That just comes NATURALLY to us. Because as Romans 3 diagnoses: “All are under sin.” Sin is a CURSE, a generational curse, that we’ve ALL inherited. “Thanks a lot, Adam.”
But we miss the point if we wag our fingers at Adam. Adam and Eve were simply representatives of all humanity. In other words, put me and you in the garden, and we’d have done the EXACT same thing! Because not only are all “UNDER sin”, but all HAVE sinned as well, Romans 3:23, and fallen short of the glory of God. We’ve FAILED to bring God the glory, to reflect His glory, in the way we were CREATED to. The fact is, we’re ALL broken mirrors, marred mannequins. Romans 3 goes on:
““None is righteous, no, not one...
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good, not even one.””
So 1 John 1:8 summarizes “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
So... what? Is that it? We had our shot - God made us in His image, his “VERY good”, wholly good, image, to reflect His glory - but we fell short, dropped the ball, broke the mirror, and now we’re doomed forever, corrupted, under the curse of sin, and its rightful consequence: our condemnation?
NO! Praise God, for Affirmation #3: That though we are all corrupted sinners, we are ALSO UNDESERVING BENEFICIARIES. We are UNDESERVING BENEFICIARIES.
Now, our statement of faith won’t clear this up until NEXT week, in sermon #4 in the series: “God’s plan (of salvation)”. But it HINTS at it, foreshadows it this morning, and since it would make for a REALLY terrible end to the sermon TODAY if I left you with just the BAD news, the part about how sinful and in NEED of a savior we are, I’m gonna take the liberty of making explicit what our core doctrine #3 here leaves implicit, when it states that all humanity is… “in supreme need of being reconciled to God. Man’s only hope is the undeserved love of this same God, who alone can rescue and restore us to himself.”
And I want to make it absolutely CLEAR to you this morning, that God has DONE it. Reconciled us. Rescued us. Restored us. God’s DONE it. In the sacrificial death and the victorious resurrection of His son Jesus Christ, for YOU. God DID it!
As a corrupted sinner, you rightfully deserved the condemnation OF a holy God, separation FROM a perfect God, and an eternity in HELL. But the good news of the GOSPEL is that you are the undeserving beneficiary of Jesus’ substitutionary atoning death in your place - that means that on the cross, he willingly took the punishment that was owed you, in your sin, and instead gave YOU his righteousness, so that you might be reconciled… rescued… restored.
In fact, for all who are spiritually RE-BORN by grace through faith in Christ, He has actually RE-NEWED the image of God IN you now!
Your sin nature’s still there too, but now God exhorts us to “put off the old self[d] with its practices and put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” (Colossians 3:9-10)
Ephesians 4:24 - “Put on the new nature created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Because “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.[b] The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
Brothers and sisters: we’ve been made NEW! And inherited new LIFE, eternal life, as undeserving beneficiaries, in Christ.
Just listen to how all those passages I quoted for you under affirmation #2 END - I just read you the BAD part. But just listen to the REST of the story:
YES, it’s true, Ephesians 2, that “you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked… in the passions of your flesh, carrying out the desires of the body[a] and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.[b] 4 But [here’s the GOOD news][c] God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved”!
YES, it’s true, Romans 5, that “sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men[e] because all sinned… [that] many died through one man's trespass, [BUT, here’s the GOOD news: how] much more have the grace of God and the free gift by… that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. [YES…] the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. [Justification is a legal term meaning to be “declared righteous”]. For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ”!
YES, it’s true, Romans 3, that “all… are under sin… [that] “None is righteous, no, not one… for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God… [BUT, here’s the GOOD news: that we are] justified [declared RIGHTEOUS] by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation [an atoning sacrifice] by his blood, to be received by faith… so that [God] might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
And YES, it’s true, 1 John 1:8, that “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves”. But it’s ALSO true, v9: that “If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Simply on the basis of our faith in his son Jesus.
So if ALL that is true of us... and it IS… that we are invaluable image-bearers, created to glorify God, who instead pursued our OWN glory, in our sinful rebellion against God, and thus, corrupted the image of God within us, but who have nevertheless received undeserved grace, mercy, favor, forgiveness, LOVE… All the “RE”s: re-birth, re-newal, re-creation in God’s image, reconciliation, rescue, restoration... reSURRECTION. We’ve inherited it ALL, in Christ, then where does that LEAVE us?
Affirmation #4 - We are GRATEFUL CHILDREN.
John 1 tells us exactly who we are, or at least, who we CAN be, today: “to all who did receive [Jesus], who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”. What does it mean to be HUMAN? I’ll tell you what it CAN mean - it’s that beautiful truth we proclaimed together in SONG earlier: “I’m a child of GOD, yes I am!”
I am chosen, not forsaken. I’ve been set FREE!
And now I’ll live out the REST of my days as a grateful - eternally grateful - child of God.
Friends: the only other option is to be an UN-grateful REBEL. Here’s the thing: only affirmations #1 & 2 are universally true, for ALL humanity. Everyone is an invaluable image-bearer. Everyone is a corrupted sinner. But only a very FEW, Jesus says, will become undeserving beneficiaries of his eternal life, because only a FEW, are grateful children, who have received him by faith, faith like a CHILD, and been given the RIGHT to become children of God. Is that YOU, this morning?
You ARE an image-bearer. You ARE a sinner. But are you a child?