Made in God's Image

In Genesis 1 we read the creation story which outlines how God created and placed everything in this world. In verses 26-28 God creates man, but not the same way he created the plants and animals. When God created the plants and animals the text says that God spoke them into existence:

Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.”

Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”

But in verses 26 & 27, God’s work sounds different:

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.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

God made each one of us in HIS own image. We are going to spend the next few days talking about why we were made in God’s image and what that means for us as we apply it to “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Lastly, a side quest, did you notice that God said, “Our image”? Who was God referring to? There are several different thoughts around this, but I think John 1:1 answers the question. John 1:1 reads, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”. John calls Jesus, “the Word”, so I think God was referring to Jesus and the Holy Spirit (the Trinity) in Genesis. In fact, if you continue reading in John 1 you will see that John teaches that it was Jesus that was doing the work in the story of creation in Genesis 1.