The doctrine of man is a major area of conflict in our day. Contrary to popular belief, you do not get to create yourself and choose all your obligations. You are created by God, and while you have some chosen obligations in life, you have other obligations by virtue of how God made you. You are created and designed by God as either male or female and as one made after his own image, to reflect his knowledge, righteousness, holiness, and dominion.
"So God created man in his own image,How did God make man male and female?in the image of God he created him;male and female he created them."(Genesis 1:27)
He formed the man's body from the dust of the ground and formed the woman's body from the man's rib. Notice, God did not at first create an androgynous person without a sex, and then divide that person into a man and a woman. No, he created first the man, and then from him the woman. Sex identity as male or female was there from the beginning and is good.
Are there more sexes than two?
Are there more sexes than two?
No, there are but two sexes, male and female. Rare physical anomalies may occasionally make it complicated to identify, but they do not create a third sex or nullify the link God has made between biological sex and a person's identity as male and female. A woman is an adult human female, and female denotes the sex that can bear offspring or produce eggs. That is what old and new dictionaries say and is the biblical usage too. When Adam named the woman, he did not ask her about her psychological experience and whether she felt like a woman. He named her "woman" because her body was formed from the man’s, corresponding to it.
What implications might this have for you?
What implications might this have for you?
You should affirm the goodness of this distinction. Affirm it in the way you dress and act (Deut. 22:5). Treat men as men, women as women. Fulfill your particular responsibilities as men or women, using your particular gifts well (e.g. 1 Peter 3:1-7). Men marry women, and women marry men. Sin seeks to blur the distinctions God has appointed, and the more it holds sway, the more it distorts human desires, destroying natural orientations (Rom. 1:26-27) and natural affections (Rom. 1:30-31). In our day, this sinful distortion is an ideology being promoted in our society. The creation order (natural law) is contrary to androgyny, egalitarianism, queerness, homosexuality, transgenderism, effeminacy, irresponsibility, and the hatred of either sex. Both men and women should be valued and honored as such.
What was made after God’s own image?
What was made after God’s own image?
God created man in his own image. "Man" here refers to mankind, male and female. And it refers to man, not merely some part of him
What does an image do?
What does an image do?
An image resembles something and it represents that thing. As the image of God, man represents God and resembles God. Genesis 5:1-3 connects the ideas of image and son. The son resembles his father and represents his father. Especially in an ancient household, the son would represent his father and would bear his authority under him. Likewise, Adam was created as a son of God (Luke 3:38), to resemble God and to rule God’s earthly household on his behalf (cp. Acts 17:28). The doctrine of the image of God shows us what we are and what we are called to do. If you learn that a rock is a statue, you know what it is and what it is supposed to do. It is a statue that represents someone and it is suppose to resemble that person.
How does man represent God?
How does man represent God?
Man is God’s representative on earth, his vice-regent. Just as a king might set up statues and flags and images on coins to assert his reign - the violation of which is taken personally - so God has set up man as a symbol of his royal authority on earth. To mistreat man is to attack God (Gen. 9:6, Prov. 14:31). Man’s basic value does not come from his abilities, his usefulness, his race, his independence, or his mental capacity, but on his or her identity as a human, made in the image of God. From conception, each child is made in the image of God.
How does man resemble God?
How does man resemble God?
Particularly, we resemble him in knowledge, righteousness, holiness, and dominion. This resemblance is connected to the first point - we resemble him to display his glory on earth.
Does man’s body resemble God?
Does man’s body resemble God?
The divine nature is spiritual and invisible (1 Tim. 1:17, John 4:24), so no, the resemblance is not physical. Nevertheless, man was made to physically manifest God's invisible attributes. Our bodies are intended to be instruments of righteousness and dominion. Our bodies do not physically resemble God, but our resemblance to God does express itself through the body. The whole man is the image of God.
How does man resemble God in his dominion?
How does man resemble God in his dominion?
Man was made as a productive being who at least originally exercised true and good dominion (Gen. 1:26-28, 2:15). God had worked to create the world with power, wisdom, and goodness, forming and filling the earth. He also created mankind to have dominion over his creation and work the earth, to exercise power, wisdom, and goodness. We are sub-creators who reflect God in our work, working on his behalf.
How does man resemble God in his knowledge?
How does man resemble God in his knowledge?
Man was made as a rational being with true knowledge (Col. 3:10). Think also of how knowledge and wisdom is discussed in Proverbs 8, as active in God’s work of creation and as something which man is to take hold of and exercise. Man was created with the knowledge of God and was taught right away about God’s covenant and creation. Man is able to know God and communicate with him. He can communicate with one another, and reason about and investigate this world.
How does man resemble God in his righteousness?
How does man resemble God in his righteousness?
Man was made as a moral being with true righteousness (Eph. 4:24). True righteousness is conformity to the moral perfection of God. Unlike the pagan gods who expressed human vices on a supernatural scale, the true God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. He is faithful and just. His children ought to be as well. His moral law is not an arbitrary expression of his whims, but a definition of what it looks like for man to reflect his righteous character.
How does man resemble God in his holiness?
How does man resemble God in his holiness?
Man was made as a religious being with true holiness (Eph. 4:24). True holiness is total consecration to God and separation from the defilement of sin. You shall be holy, for the Lord your God is holy (Lev. 19, 1 Peter 1). God is set apart, undefiled, and pure - completely good. He is “inclined to all moral purity and recoils from all impurity of sin.” Mankind reflects God’s holiness by being totally consecrated to God, conforming its will to love and reject what he loves and rejects, demonstrating its devotion to him in worship and service.
What has sin done to God’s image?
Sin distorts and defaces the image of God. If you learn that a rock is a statue, you know what it is and what it is supposed to do. If it gets defaced, it is still a statue, but it does not fulfill its purpose well, and it is in need of restoration. Humanity should still be respected as God’s image, but man has marred the image and acts contrary to it. He remains a rational, moral, religious, and productive being, capable by God's common grace of some earthly good, but his thinking is blind to God and ultimately futile, his righteousness is as filthy rags before God, his religion is idolatrous, and his dominion is ultimately vain and often cruel.
How might God’s image be renewed and restored?
How might God’s image be renewed and restored?
Only by God's grace. Thanks be to God that he has sent Jesus Christ to redeem his people, to break the power of sin over them, and to write God's law on their hearts by his Spirit. When we come to Christ, we "put off the old self and its practices" and "put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator" (Col. 3:10). The resemblance to God is being restored in believers, who are transformed by the renewing of their minds, enabled and taught to put to death their former sinful practices and to put on the ways of Christ.
“For as when a figure painted on wood has been soiled by dirt from outside, it is necessary for him whose figure it is to come again, so that the image can be renewed on the same material - because of his portrait even the material on which it is painted is not cast aside, but the portrait is reinscribed on it.”- Athanasius, On the Incarnation
