God created man in His own image.

Genesis 1 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. ³ Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. ⁴ God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

⁶ Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” ⁷ God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. ⁸ God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

⁹ Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. ¹⁰ God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good. ¹¹ Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. ¹² The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. ¹³ There was evening and there was morning, a third day.

¹⁴ Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; ¹⁵ and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so.¹⁶ God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. ¹⁷ God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, ¹⁸ and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

²⁰ 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.” ²¹ God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good.²² God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” ²³ There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

²⁴ 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”; and it was so. ²⁵ God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

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.” ²⁷ God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. ²⁸ God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” ²⁹ Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;³⁰ and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so. ³¹ God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

It is important as we begin this new year of 2019 and journey through God’s word that we begin at the beginning. We cannot fully trust God and His word if we are unwilling to accept it as truth. 2 Timothy 3:16 says:  All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.   This does not mean that the Bible, each individual word is the literal infallible word of God. It does not mean that the men who were inspired by God to write it or those who have interpreted it never made any mistakes in language. But if we are to believe God, it is important that we believe His word and that we view God’s word in light of the full revelation of the word. Faith does not mean that we mindlessly accept every isolated word or phrase, but rather by faith we look at the word in context of the word and we seek to understand and apply what it says to our lives.

There really is little if anything in the Biblical account of creation which is completely opposed to the facts of science. There is on the other hand much in the Biblical account of creation which is contrary to the theories of science. Those who truly look at the Bible through the eyes of science find the compatibility of the two. Those who seek to, by all possible measures, disprove the Biblical account look for incompatibility, creating theories and hypothesis rather than holding to fact. There is no scientific explanation for how nothing became something or even that something which was random, disorganized and chaotic became highly organized and structured. The creation account says:   In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.  God created something from nothing. Science tries to explain the beginning with something, and then theorizes how that something changed. Science does not try to explain where that something came from because it understands that scientifically something does not come from nothing. Those who want to refute the creation account though will also ignore the fact that scientifically matter tends to break down and become less organized not randomly move from a formless void or a big chaotic explosion to a highly organized, life sustaining system. How many explosions have ever resulted in well formed structures or systems? Why would anyone believe that it would happen once to the level of creation and then never again to even a very small degree?

The creation account says:  God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind 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.” God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind… “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind.   God created everything after its kind. He created grass and shrubs, vines and trees. A blade of grass did not become an oak tree. The seed of every plant produces that same kind of plant. In the same way, God created fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians, mammals and insects and each kind reproduces after its kind. Why would anyone believe that a single cell hooked up with other cells to become a fully organized living creature; or a fish became a lizard which became a bird and a dog, or that a monkey became a man, if there is no evidence of that continuing to happen for the last 5000 thousand or more years? There is a big difference between the evolution and adaptation of a species, which we still see evidence of all the time and the evolution of one species to another fully different species, which we do not see, nor have we seen.

Throughout the creation account it says: God said… and it was.  It was not by chance or coincidence. It was not a series of unrelated circumstances, every one against all odds, which happened over time to create something from nothing or order from chaos. If that happened once to the degree that we know and see in the universe, we should see it continuing at least to a small degree today.  Through the lens of our faith though, when we look at the magnitude, the precision and the intricacies of creation; the balance of nature, the exact atmosphere, temperature and the complexity of our bodies and the bodies of every living thing, created after its kind, required to sustain life, we should be in awe of the God who before He spoke, thought so deeply about all He intended. Psalm 139:17-18 says:  How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand.  In Jeremiah 1:5 God says:  Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.   That too, we must believe by faith, even if we cannot fully understand or comprehend it. That God gave as much thought to each one of us as He did to creating the awesome heavens and earth which we see. The creation account says:  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.    As we begin this year, it is vital that we believe that we are created in the image and likeness of God. The Genesis account will also describe the fall of man through disobedience and sin. The rest of God’s Word, all of scripture is about God’s desire that we would be restored to His image and likeness. From the beginning, before He spoke and it was, He thought about sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins, that we would be restored to His image and likeness; created like Him, not like a fish, a monkey or an amoeba.

Thank You heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and precious Holy Spirit, for Your Word, which from the beginning reveals Your awesome and wonderful thoughts toward us.   Amen.