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Gen. 1.26-27
Gen. 1.26-27
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. And God created man in his own
image, in the image of God created he him; male and
female created he them.—Gen 1:26-27.
God made the light and the sun, and they were very good.
He made the seas and the mountains, and they were very
good. He made the fishes of the water, and the birds of
the air, and the beasts of the field—all that wonderful
creation of life, which, dull and unbelieving as we are,
daily more and more excites our endless wonder and awe
and praise—and He saw that it was all very good. He
made the herb of the field, everything that grows,
everything that lives on the face of this beautiful and
glorious world, and all was very good. But of all this good
the end was not yet reached. There was still something
better to be made. Great lights in the firmament, and
stars beyond the reach of the thought of man in the depth
of space, sea and mountain, green tree and gay flower,
tribes of living creatures in the deep below and the deep
above of the sky, four-footed beasts of the earth in their
strength and beauty, and worms that live out of the sight
and knowledge of all other creatures—these were all as
great and marvellous as we know them to be; these were
all said to be “very good” by that Voice which had called
them into being. Heaven and earth were filled with the
majesty of His glory. But they were counted up, one by
one, because they were not enough for Him to make, not
enough for Him to satisfy Him by their goodness. He
reckoned them all up; He pronounced on their excellence.
But yet there was something which they had not reached
to. There was something still to be made, which should be
yet greater, yet more wonderful, yet more good than
they. There was a beauty which, with all their beauty,
they could not reach; a perfection which, with all their
excellence, they were not meant, or made, to share. They
declared the glory of God, but not His likeness. They
displayed the handiwork of His wisdom, but they shared
not in His spirit, His thoughts, His holiness. So, after their
great glory, came a yet greater glory. The living soul, like
unto God, had not yet been made. Then said God, “Let us
make man in our image, after our likeness.” There was
made the great step from the wonder and beauty of the
world, to the creation of man, with a soul and spirit more
wonderful, more excellent, than all the excellence and
wonders of the world, because it was made in the likeness
of that great and holy and good God who made the world.
1. Reason.
2. Self-consciousness.
Then will follow two practical conclusions, and the text will
be set in its place beside two other texts.
(3) But the truth is that we cannot cut man in two. The
inward being and the outward have their correspondences
and their affinities, and it is of the compound being man,
fashioned of the dust of the earth and yet filled with the
breath of God, that it is declared that he was created after
the image of God. The ground and source of this his
prerogative in creation must be sought in the Incarnation.
It is this great mystery that lies at the root of man’s
being. He is like God, he is created in the image of God,
he is, in St. Paul’s words, the “image and glory of God”
(1Co 11:7), because the Son of God took man’s nature in
the womb of His virgin mother, thereby uniting for ever
the manhood and the Godhead in one adorable Person.
This was the Divine purpose before the world was, and
hence this creation of man was the natural consummation
of all God’s work.
4. And it is important to remember that the “image of
God,” according to Hebrew thought, was not completely
lost, however seriously it may have been impaired, by
what is described as the Fall. In Gen 5:1-3, we read, “In
the day that God created man, in the likeness of God
made he him; male and female created he them; … and
called their name Adam, in the day when they were
created. And Adam … begat a son in his own likeness,
after his image; and called his name Seth”—meaning that,
as Adam was created in the image of God, Seth inherited
that image. After the flood, God is represented as saying
to Noah, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his
blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.”
Murder is a kind of sacrilege; to kill a man is to destroy
the life of a creature created in the Divine image; the
crime is to be punished with death. James, too, in his
epistle, insists that the desperate wickedness of the
tongue is shown in its reckless disregard of the Divine
image in man, “Therewith bless we the Lord and Father;
and therewith curse we men, which are made in the image
of God”; in cursing men we therefore show a want of
reverence for God Himself, in whose image they were
made, and are guilty of a certain measure of profanity.
The “image of God,” therefore, according to these ancient
Scriptures, does not necessarily include moral and
spiritual perfection; it must include the possibility of
achieving it; it reveals the Divine purpose that man should
achieve it; but man, even after he has sinned, still retains
the “image of God” in the sense in which it is attributed to
him in the Hebrew Scriptures. It belongs to his nature, not
to his character. Man was made in the “image of God”
because he is a free, intelligent, self-conscious, and moral
Personality.
II
i. Reason
ii. Self-consciousness
Love! yes. But what is that? The revelation does not tell
you that, I think. Look into the mirror and you will see.
Out of your own heart, you may know what love is. In no
other possible way—by no other help or sign. All the
words and sounds ever uttered, all the revelations of
cloud, or flame, or crystal, are utterly powerless. They
cannot tell you, in the smallest point, what love means.
Only the broken mirror can.
Shall not æon after æon pass and touch him into
shape?
All about him shadow still, but, while the races flower
and fade,
Till the peoples all are one, and all their voices blend
in choric
IV
Three Texts
Literature
Horwill (H. W.), The Old Gospel in the New Era, 53.