Lesson 13

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Bible Study 1 - Genesis 1

 

SERIES:       A WORLD IN A WEEK

LESSON 13: GENESIS 1.26-31 DAY 6 – IN THE IMAGE OF GOD YOU ARE AWSOME

 

Genesis 1.26-31  

26. “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. 27. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 29. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 30. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. 31. And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”

 

INTRODUCTION

 

We have been studying together the six days of creation given to us in Genesis chapter 1. It is the definitive account in all of literature of how the universe came into existence and how you and I came into existence. As we have been moving through these days of creation, we have been aware that we are moving toward some goal, that there is a purpose to everything that is being said. With each one of these days and the creative work which takes place there, we are astonished and we are astounded and we are filled with awe, but we are aware that we are moving somewhere.

 

When we come to the sixth day we have the account of the animals first of all. Glorious indeed is what the Bible tells us about the creation of the animals in verses 24 and 25. Then in verse 26 he says, "And God said, let us make man...” When that statement occurs in this picture we see the purpose of it all. Man is the zenith of God's creation. Man is the apex of God's creative work. Man is the capstone of everything that He intended to do. Someone has said that man is the supreme product off the assembly line of God's creative process.

 

Six times, in the creation account building up to the sixth day, we are told that God did a certain thing then the Bible says, "And it was good." However, when you come to the sixth day, the creation of man, verse 31 says that God saw everything that He had made and "Behold it was VERY good." The Living Bible paraphrases it, "Excellent in every way."

There is something special about man. Man is distinct from the animals. You are no mere animal. You are not some higher form of the animal world. Nevertheless, you are special. You are created by God in a unique and in a special way.

 

In Hamlet, Shakespeare says this, "What a piece of work is man. How noble in reason. How infinite in faculty. In form and moving, how express and admirable. In action, how like an angel. In apprehension, how like a God."

Then in Psalm 8, verses 5 and 6 it says, "What is man that thou are mindful of him or the son of man that you visit him. Thou has made him a little lower than the angels and crowned him with glory and honor." In Psalm 119, verse 70 and Psalm 139, verse 14 it says, "I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well.” “I am fearfully and wonderfully made!” Our teenagers would put it this way, "I'm awesome."

I want us to study together about how awesome you are. I want us to study together about the uniqueness of a person. I want to say that you are awesome in several ways.

 

 

INTERPRETATION

 

I.             YOU ARE AWESOME BECAUSE OF YOUR PHYSICAL NATURE. Verse 26 says that God said “let us make man.” In the second chapter you will notice in verse 7 it says, "And the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground." The picture there is of a potter who is putting something together with great skill and great artistry. It is a picture of the creation of the physical nature of man.

 

Psalm 119, verse 73 says "Thou hands have made me and fashioned me." On the wall of the Library of Congress there is this inscription. "There is but one temple in the universe and that is the body of man.” Carlisle, the literary man said, "Who layeth his hand on a human body touches heaven?"

 

EXPLANATION

 

A.            THINK ABOUT THE MAKING OF A BODY. You are awesome in your physical nature. The Bible says that man was made from the dust of the ground. That is a reference to his physical makeup. In terms of your physical makeup you have been made from the dust of the ground. We do know that in the sense of the chemical components of man's body and the body of animals, there is very little difference. In fact, about 98% of your DNA is similar to that of an animal. We know that our physical bodies are composed of the components of the earth. We get the chemicals and the minerals of our bodies from the earth. We get the oxygen and the nitrogen and the potassium, the calcium and the sodium from the earth. We are of the dust of the ground. Therefore, we are similar to the animals in that sense, yet we are vastly superior to animals in the complexity of the organization of our physical makeup.

 

You don't have to go back to creation to find that. You can see that in the birth of a little baby and the formation of a little baby in its mother's womb. We know more about the physical makeup of human beings than we have ever known before. We know so much about how the human body is constructed in the womb of a mother.

 

You might compare the body of that little baby that is being formed to a vast city with an incredible number of inhabitants. We call those inhabitants cells. Before the process is over the human body will have about 300 trillion cells. In one drop of your blood there are 5 million cells. Every cell has a wall. It has substance called cytoplasm. It has a nucleus. That cell is an amazingly complex entity. That cell is like a central memory bank. It is capable of storing vast amounts of information or dispensing amounts of information. It's like a high tech factory. It has its own languages. It has its own decoding system. It is like a chemical factory with the glands sending out secretions to every part of your body. Each one of these cells has a unique purpose and unique function.

 

For instance, some of the cells are supervisor cells and they just supervise the whole process of the making of a human body. Some of the cells are plumber cells and they lay all the pipes of your body. Other cells are the electrician cells. They string all the nerves of your body. Every cell has a unique and a particular purpose. In the DNA which stores all of those vast amounts of information there is a written code that determines everything about your human body. For nine months that process of the making of a human body goes on. Then one day the rush is made to the hospital. The mother goes there and the doctor attends her. In a moment they hear a cry and a little baby is born. From a physical perspective you are awesome when it comes to the making of a body.

 

B.            THINK ABOUT THE MATURING OF A BODY. You are awesome when it comes to the maturing of the body. Have you ever thought about how the body grows and what makes that body grow? All of a sudden those little arms begin to grow. Those little legs begin to grow. That torso begins to grow. Who causes that body to grow? You look at that little boy running and jumping and leaping. You say he's just growing like a weed. We can't keep clothes on him. You look at that little girl and she is playing and cheering and jumping up and down. You say she going to be grown before we know it. What causes that human body to grow like it does?

 

All of a sudden the day comes and that body stops growing. That head gets to a certain size and it stops growing. That heart gets to a certain size and it stops growing. What causes that body to stop growing? Who makes that body stop growing?

 

C.            THINK ABOUT THE MEMBERS OF A BODY. Have you ever thought about the members of your body? You are awesome in your physical nature, in the making of your body, in the maturing of your body. However, think about the different members of your body. Let me touch on a few things.

 

  1. THINK ABOUT YOUR SKELETON. Approximately 200 bones are in the skeleton of your body. They are made up of crystallite calcium phosphate. They are organized in an unbelievable way. They have joints and they have balls and they have sockets. They make it possible for the muscles to function. Think about how awesome is the skeleton.

 

  1. THINK ABOUT THE HUMAN EYE. There are some creatures who have 20 eyes. No creature with 20 eyes is equal to the two eyes you have. They tell me that a water beetle has four eyes. It has two eyes that function above the water and two eyes that function below the water. Nevertheless, those four eyes of the water beetle are not even beginning to be as complex as your eyes are. The retina in your eye has about 30 million cells to it. So powerful is your eye that you are able to see with the naked eye stars that are 24 trillion miles away. Your eye can speak. Your eye can flash with indignation. Your eye can twinkle with excitement. Your eye can be soft with love. Your eye can drop with disappointment. Think about your awesome eye.

 

  1. THINK ABOUT YOUR HEART. Your heart is a muscle. The heart is about the size of your fist. It has four chambers on the inside of it. In the course of a day your heart will pump about 18 hundred gallons of blood. You have two kinds of blood vessels. You have the veins that bring blood into your system. Then you have the other vessels that pump the blood out of your system. You have a system of valves to keep the blood from backing up. Your heart pumps blood to all of the parts of the body. It goes to the cells of your body, providing food for those cells, but extracting poison from the cells also. It goes to your lungs providing oxygen to make it possible for you to breath. You are awesome!

 

Here is a little poem I ran across I thought was kind of cute that is about the problems of the anatomy.

 

"Where can a man buy a cap for his knee? Or a key to the lock of his hair?

Can his eyes be called an academy because there are pupils there?

What gems are found in the crown of his head? Who crosses the bridge of his nose?

Can he use when shingling the roof of his house the nails on the end of his toes?

Can the crook of his elbow be sent to jail? If so what can he do?

How does he sharpen his shoulder blades? I don't know, do you?

Can he sit in the shade of the palms of his hands or beat on the drums of his ear?

Does the calf of his leg eat the corn on his toes? If so why not grow corn on the ear?"

 

I.             YOU ARE AWESOME BECAUSE OF YOUR PHYSICAL NATURE. God said, "Let us make man."

 

INTERPRETATION

 

II.            YOU ARE AWESOME BECAUSE OF YOUR MENTAL NATURE. Think about the mental capacity of man. Think how superior man is in his mental capacity to the animals. You can train animals but you can't teach animals. You can't teach geology to an elephant. You can't teach astronomy to an eagle. You can't teach theology to a dog. Animals operate on the basis of instinct. However, man has mental capacity which means that man has rationality. Man is able to reason. Man is able to think.

 

EXPLANATION

 

A.            WE HAVE MENTAL ABILITY. We have the ability to memorize. Man has tremendous powers of memory. There were Jewish rabbis in Bible days who memorized sometimes the entire Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. I read about a young Muslim boy who had memorized the entire Koran. He can quote the Koran not only forward, but also he can quote it backwards. I think about the tremendous power of memory and how wonderful it is that you and I can memorize Scripture. The psalmist said, "Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee." I would encourage you in the memorization of Scripture. We use such a very small portion of our brain and yet we have mental abilities.

 

B.            WE HAVE MENTAL RATIONALITY. We have the ability to speak. When God created Adam he was not a crunching, belching, snarling beast. He had the ability to talk. He could use language and communicate by means of words. We have the ability to speak with shades of meaning because man is capable of rationality.

 

C.            WE HAVE MENTAL CREATIVITY... Animals can use tools. We know that a wasp can take a stone in its jaws and pack down dirt in its house. Though animals have the ability to use tools, man has the ability to invent tools and manufacture tools. Man has creativity. Man is able to compose. The animals may have a song, but man can compose and can sing a song. In the course of evolution, if evolution be true, if evolution is just simply man as a higher form of the animal life, at what point in the evolutionary process was man able to compose? On the other hand, when did man have an appreciation for beauty of great music and great literature?

 

D.            WE HAVE MENTAL SENSITIVITY. You have the mental ability of man to feel and to love and to hate. You have the mental ability to hurt and to long and to desire. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are not an animal. You are special. You are awesome. You have a mental nature.

 

INTERPRETATION

 

III.          YOU ARE AWESOME BECAUSE OF YOUR SPIRITUAL NATURE. Verse 26 says, "And God said, Let us make man in our image.” Then in the 27th verse it struck me again as never before as I was studying this. It says, "God created man in the image of God and in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them." Three times he says "God created." It is never said of an animal that an animal was created in the image or in the likeness of God. You have a physical nature. That is your body. You have a mental nature. That is your mind. You have a spiritual nature. It is that part of you that is made in the image and in the likeness of God.

 

EXPLANATION

 

A.            HAVING BEEN MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD YOU HAVE A GODLIKENESS. You are like God. It is never said of animal that he is like God. However, the Bible says you are made in the image and in the likeness of God. What does that mean?

  1. YOU HAVE A PERSONALITY. Personality means that you have a mind to think. You have emotions to feel. You have a will to act. God is a person. It is not a reference here to some kind of physical manifestation because God is a spirit. When God says that we are made in the likeness and in the image of God, that simply means that we have personality like God. We have mind. We have emotion. We have will. We can do things. We can think things. We can decide things. God has given you moral agency. You have the ability to make decisions.

 

  1. YOU HAVE A MORALITY. You never see animals wrestling with moral issues. We wrestle, as human beings, with great moral issues. We are wrestling today with the issue of stem cell research. I want to go on record as opposing any form of stem cell research that brings life into creation and then kills that life for the purpose of research. I do not think that we should tamper with the issues of life. Therefore, we wrestle with the great moral problems. We wrestle with the abortion issue. Destroying a fetus at any stage after conception is murder because that is a developing, growing life of a human being. It is not just tissue, it is not a lifeless nothing, it is a person, created by God with a heavenly plan and destiny that only God knows and no one has a right to thwart the plan and purpose of God for that life. Animals do not wrestle with the great moral problems. We have a moral nature. We have a sense of right and a sense of wrong. We grapple with our moral nature.

 

B.            HAVING BEEN MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD YOU HAVE A GOD CONSCIOUSNESS. 

 

  1. YOU ARE CAPABLE OF SPIRITUALITY. There is something about us that is conscious of God, conscious of the existence of God. There is no such thing on the earth as a born Atheist. Nobody is born an Atheist. If you are an Atheist, that means somebody has been messing with your mind and heart. There was a day when you became an Atheist. Atheism is as unnatural to the human mind and soul as whistling is to a turtle. You are not born an Atheist. You decide to be an Atheist through a sad experience or tragedy in your life. You make up your mind that you do not believe that there is a God. However, ladies and gentlemen, down deep in your soul, you have a God consciousness. You are made in the image and in the likeness of God and you know down in your heart of hearts that there is a God in heaven. You know that you can relate to Him. You know that you can worship Him.

 

Animals aren't capable of worship. Have you ever seen a cow down on its knees repenting of its sins and asking to be saved? Have you ever seen dogs getting together to form churches for the purpose of Bible study and prayer and witnessing? Have you ever seen hippos gathering down at the waterhole to have a baptismal service for all the converted hippos? No. Nevertheless, you, Ladies and Gentlemen, are capable of worship. There is something about you that longs for the heavens. There is something about you that longs for a relationship with God. 

 

I heard about an infidel who was on his deathbed. He began to say, "I want, I want." They didn't know what he wanted. They got a little closer to him and said, "What do you want?" he said, "I want, I want God." There is something in the heart of man that wants God. God has made you in His image and God has made you in His likeness.

 

  1. YOU ARE CAPABLE OF IMMORTALITY. When God created man and made man in the image and in the likeness of God, God is eternal. He is the eternal God. When you came into existences there is now something about you that is eternal. You have a physical nature. You have a mental nature, but you also have a spiritual nature. In other words, you have an eternal soul and your soul is going to be somewhere in eternity forever and forever. It is the teaching of the book we are studying, the Bible, that when people die they will either be in heaven forever and ever or they will be in hell forever and ever. That's why you are not an animal.

You are a human being and you are going to be somewhere in eternity forever and ever. One hundred years from now where are you going to be?

 

APPLICATION

 

The story of man can be told in three words.

  1. CREATION.

    We've been talking about creation and we have seen that science as well as Scripture agree that there is an intelligent creator who has brought things into existence. That's your story. You were created by God.

 

  1. DEGENERATION.

    The Bible does not teach evolution, but rather the Bible teaches devolution. The Bible doesn't teach that you evolve into a higher form of life. The Bible teaches that once upon a time man was higher than he is now. Man is a fallen creature. Though created in the image of God, when sin entered into the human existence, man became a shattered image. Man became a marred image of God so that man is now less than what God created him to be.

 

ILLUSTRATION:  Let's just suppose that you are walking out through the woods and you come across the wreckage of a plane. It is obvious to you that it is the wreckage of a jet plane. You are beginning to look over that wreckage and examining the broken pieces of that wreckage. About that time, you look overhead and hear the sound of a jet airplane just like the one you have found in the woods. That jet airplane is flying overhead in the air. What are you going to surmise? Are you going to say, "Once upon a time that jet was just like this broken jet down here? Somehow, through some accidental unexpected concourse of events, these broken pieces in the woods began to put themselves together and bind themselves. Then they took off and became a jet like you see flying in the air." Is that what you are going to suppose? No. Here's what you are going to suppose. When you look at the wreckage of the jet you are going to suppose that once upon a time that jet was flying up in the air just like that other jet and something tragic happened. A tragedy happened and the jet fell from the sky and the wreckage you see is the result of the falling of the jet from the sky.

 

When you see humanity, when you see man, when you see the world in which we live, you see a wreckage. You see a fallen creation. That doesn't mean that he is on the way up. It means that he is on the way down. Degeneration is the story of the human life.

 

  1. REGENERATION.

    In this process of the fall of man, God did something to intervene. Man, the fallen creation, needed someone to come and redeem him. That's what Christmas is all about. The Bible teaches that when God sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, He was made in the likeness of man (Philippians 2, verse 7). We were created in the likeness of God but have fallen. That image has been marred. Now, the Bible says that God came and was made in the likeness of man in order that through the new birth experience we could be made over again in the creation of God. The Bible says in Colossians 3, verse 10, "And have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him."

 

The good news of the gospel is that though sin has marred the image of God in us, through the new birth experience we can be made new creations. "If any man be in Christ he is a new creation." Through that work of regeneration the image of God, the likeness of God can be restored in our lives.

To find more help in receiving Jesus Christ as your personal Savior please go to the Bible Study Title Page “ETERNAL LIFE.” Please send me an email and respond to me about any decision for Christ you make so that I may pray for you. Feel free to send me any questions, comments, or responses you may have as well. For those who are already Christians I invite you to also please let me know of any decisions you make in your Christian life for Jesus. Feel free to send me any questions, comments, or responses you may have and let me know if the Bible Studies are helping you. [rfdenning1951@gmail.com]

 

ALWAYS REMEMBER!

The support of your local Church ministry and the ministry of your Pastor should be the first priority of your Christian life and your service to the Lord. Be faithful to prayerfully prepare and attend Sunday School and Worship Service this Sunday and participate in worship as your Pastor preaches the Word. Do not forget to give the Lord at least your TITHE through your local church from your gross income – that is your first fruits. Any other other giving is an offering to a ministry unto the Lord. Honor the Lord in all you do and with all that you have. Always remember that everything you have and all you are belongs to the Lord. It is on loan to you – so manage it well! There will be an audit one day! Make sure the Books Balance!