Prayer
Heavenly Father, At the start of this new day, I life up my eyes to the hills for my help, my help comes from you, O Lord, Maker of heaven and earth. All glory be to your name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You are worthy to be praised, worshipped, and adored. I have made a poor return unto you for all of your goodness to me. I stand in great and continual need of mercy. Please forgive me anew for my sins this day, O Lord. Pardon my iniquity, for it is very great. Wash me, and I will be clean. I look to you, O Lord, and I look to you for the washing of my heart with your word. Cleans and purify my mind, I pray, that I may serve you acceptably this day. Please deliver me from the sins I most cherish, and help me to walk upright before you in love. My need is desperate and great, O Lord. Come to my aid I pray, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Reading
Gen 1:24-31.
“And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 26. Then 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 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.” 29. And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”
Meditation
In Genesis 1:27 we read these words: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them”. Being created in God’s image defines Everything about who we are. This is not some added bonus in human nature, it is human nature. We are images of God. But there is another mystery to unravel in this equation, because God, as he created us in the image of God, made another fundamental distinction: he made us male and female. It’s not about males made in the image of God and females not being made in the image. It’s about male and female in the image of God. For men, maleness is an inescapable aspect of who we are; for women, being female is an inescapable part of your identity; but how does this all fit in with the image of God? Our meditation is application heavy today, and there are a number of things to consider.
Be ye doers of the word…
Firstly, and most obviously, verse 27 stands as a declaration at the start of humanity showing to us that men and women are equal in dignity and equal in value. Neither sex is second class. Neither sex is superior or lesser – although we are each unique in God’s plans and purposes. This is a fundamental message which we and our society desperately need to hear. Our culture has been and is waging war on the image of God as it is revealed in male and female. We see this cultural poison outbreaking around us in many ways. Masculinity has become “toxic”; feminism has become the standard paradigm for thinking about female identity; transgenderism seeks to blur the lines further; homosexuality seeks to remove the lines. The bottom line is that with all of these things and more besides, our basic nature as being created in the Image of God is under heavy attack.
We don’t have the time right now to explore any of these ideologies in detail, but stated positively it’s as simple as this: men and women need to start from the foundation of Gen 1:27. We need to see and treat each other with love and respect. Neither sex should look down on the other. We need to mutually treasure the image of God as we see it revealed in each other. We need to take our cue on what it means to be a man or a woman from God, and we should rejoice in the way he’s made us. It’s good to be a man. God made the woman beautiful, and it was good. Men and women are equal in God’s image.
In addition to being created equal in dignity, we find also that men and women are unique in the image of God. God made men and women in the image of God, and if you take either away, something is missing. If there were only men, the image would be incomplete. If there were only women, the image would be incomplete. Why? Well for one thing, if we did not have both, the image would die out. Both are thus necessary in that sense. Without male and female, the glory of God expressed through the image of God in man would not increase as it was meant to, and so both are necessary. This in addition to all the variations we see between people – male and female – in personality, gifts, and abilities. In all these things we see more and more of the great and infinite personality of God.
The image of God in man is also a relational reality, and for this reason it requires both men and women to be fully realised. There can be no human relationships without both sexes. We sometimes come across the idea in society that there is a war of the sexes, but this is part of sin’s legacy, for a war was never intended. Men and women were made with differences it’s true, but we were made to function together in harmony as images of God. Different roles, different gifts, but one image. The gifts and roles of each sex are not something to be shunned and rejected, nor are the roles that God gives to each of us are something to be coveted and fought over. No, they are something to be embraced and used in the service of God.
If you’re a man, make it your business to find out what God calls you to be as a man. What role does he have for you to play in his image? Our culture, our churches, our families, our sons, our daughters, our wives need men of God to stand up and be counted. If you’re a woman, make it your business to find out what God calls you to be as a woman. Our culture is starved of true models of godly womanhood. Our churches, our families, our men, and our children need to see the beauty of true womanhood displayed. God calls us to rejoice in being what God has made us to be as men and women. We must prayerfully look to God to show us what it means to be men and women of God.
Finally, we also find that men and women reveal the mystery of the image. We have seen that mankind is a picture of the union between heaven and earth, and that we are beings that are both spiritual and physical in nature. In mankind, you see a seamless union between heaven and earth and that this union is ultimately realised in Christ. When God become flesh, in Christ we have seen that heaven came down to earth. The first Adam failed, but Christ the second Adam didn’t fail. He is the man.
By contrast, in the woman we find a picture of earth raised up to heaven. If Christ is the man of whom all men are a picture, then the woman is a picture of mankind united to God through Christ, then we are – male and female – a picture of earth raised up to heaven. Now that might sound a little strange at first, but it’s exactly what we see in Ephesians 5. In Ephesians 5, we see that the union between man and woman is a picture of the union between Christ and his people the Church. We are the bride of Christ. And so as man and woman were created on day six, we see the greatest mystery of all, and the destiny of the creation itself, revealed on day six at the climax of creation: the union between God and man.
One of the great marvels of the image of God in man is that man will be truly united with God. That’s the endgame, that’s the goal. That’s why there’s a marriage at the start of the Bible between Adam and Eve, a marriage in the middle of the Bible between King Solomon and the Shulamite, and the marriage at the end of Revelation between Christ and his bride. In John 17 as the Lord Jesus prays to the Father prior to his crucifixion, we see this union between God and man clearly revealed. In these verses, the Lord Jesus prayed for those who believe in His name – for us. Listen to these words, the heart of God toward us:
“I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” SDG.
Prayer of Confession & Consecration
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. How great are your thoughts, Lord, how vast is the sum of them, were I to count them they would outnumber the grains of the sand. Lord, please forgive me for every occasion where I have disregarded and disrespected the dignity that you have laid out in making man and woman in the image of God. Please forgive me for failing to live up to the high calling of my sex. Please teach me truly your role for me as a man/woman, and help me to serve you faithfully with the lot that you have appointed for me in this life. Please help me to treat my brothers/sisters with all purity and dignity, and to both live out and speak out a faithful witness to your design for men and women in our unique roles and callings. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
Day 33: Male and female in the Image of God (Gen 1:24-31).