Genesis 1:26-28 "God's Image, Our Identity"

1:16It makes sense that we would ask ourselves these questions because our answers to them impact everything. From what we do with our lives and how we view ourselves and others, to where we find and where we look. For our meaning and purpose in life, this quest to discover our identity and our purpose has captured our cultural imagination. As we just, as we look around us at the commercials, the billboards, the movies, the TV shows, and the songs, they're all about discovering who we really are.

1:54And the challenging thing today is that we have been told that we need to answer these questions on our own. After all, no one can tell us who we are or what we're supposed to do. As almost every Disney movie preaches to us, we have to follow our own hearts. Authenticity requires that we be true to ourselves, regardless of the impact that it has on other people. We can't allow anything or anyone, certainly not the church or our parents, to tell us otherwise. We are the ultimate authority.

2:33But as a good friend of mine might have us ask at this point, how's that working out for you? How's that working out? The sad reality is that as we look at our lives, as we look at the culture around us, it is not working out very well. This freedom to create our own identity hasn't led to flourishing in true and lasting peace. Instead, This freedom has actually become slavery, as we are now more anxious, fearful, and worried than ever before. Because the sad reality is, when we're free to create our own identities, when we are free to define who we are and what we're here for, when we're not living our best lives now, the only ones we have to blame are ourselves. The only one we can blame is me.

3:31And so, what are we supposed to do? We want to know who we are. We need to know who we are, but where are we to turn? Well, thankfully, as we consider the most important questions in our lives, we can turn to Scripture confident that it gives us the words that we need to hear. And as we search for our identity, we need to look no further than the first chapter of our Bibles, where God speaks to us, telling us who we are and what we're here for. As we're going to see this morning, our identity and our purpose are summed up in this beautiful phrase: the image of God.

4:15In our passage, we are going to see that because we are created in the image of God, we have a given identity and a glorious purpose. Created as God's image, We have a given identity and a glorious purpose. As we work through our text this morning, we're going to see how it provides the answers to the most human of questions, showing us who we are and what we're here for. So, first, in Genesis 1, 26 and 27, we see our given identity. Our given identity. In these verses, we see that we were created for a personal relationship with God, to relate with him and to represent him. This is our given identity. We have been created for a personal relationship with God, to relate with him and represent him in the world.

5:18Look with me beginning in verse 26. We read, Then God said, Let us make man, that is, that is humankind. Let us make humankind in our image after our likeness. And skipping down to verse 27, we read, So God created humankind in his own image. In the image of God, he created them, male and female. He created them. This concept of the image of God was a very familiar one for the Israelites. During their time in Egypt and when they wandered around the desert, they would have frequently heard. The various kings and pharaohs referred to as the image of God. It was the king who was in the image of God. In the ancient Near Eastern culture, the king was seen as the God's representative on earth. The king was there as the God in the flesh who represented him. But it wasn't just any representative because the king was also seen as the son of the God. There was this unique and this personal relationship between the king and the God. For example, the Pharaohs were called the Son of Ra, their chief God. Unlike the rest of the people, it was the king alone who enjoyed this unique and personal relationship with the God and who represented them on the earth. This phrase, the image of God, would have also brought another image to mind and the image of a statue.

7:04You see, in the situation where a king reigned over areas larger than he could possibly visit, he would build statues or he would build images of himself that he would place around his vast kingdom to represent his personal presence among the people and his rule to the subjects and the people who couldn't see him in person. Just a couple weeks ago, I had the joy of teaching. In K4 Club at 11 o'clock, and our Bible lesson for that day was in Daniel chapter 3, where we read about King Nebuchadnezzar setting up a hundred-foot-tall statue of himself in the kingdom, and he gives this order that all of the kingdom was to fall down and worship this image when they heard the music. You're all familiar with that story, right? Well, that image there, that statue, would have been the image of the king. It would have been the image of the God. It would have stood in and represented the king to all of the people who couldn't see him in person, who couldn't see him in the flesh. The image, the statue there represented the king's presence and his rule. So, back in Genesis 1, when we read the Israelites, when we read the Israelites heard this phrase, the image of God, that's what would have come to mind, the gods and their statues. In the same way that the statue represented the king, so the king represented the God. That's what would have come to mind for the Israelites when they heard that they were created in the image of God.

8:44But what we see here in Genesis 1 is a little different. It's similar in many ways, but it's different in one very important way. Because if you'll notice in Genesis 1, it's not the male king alone. Who's created in the image of God? It's not the male king alone who images God. No, it is every woman and man who's created to image God, who's created in the image of God. And this just would have absolutely blown their minds. And it should blow our minds.

9:25As the Israelites wandered through the desert trying to figure out who they were, God wanted them to know that each and every one of them was created in his image, that everyone, all of them, every man and woman represented him on the earth, and every single one of them was created to have a unique relationship with him. They were all created to be sons and daughters of God. To be created in the image of God means that we have been created for relationship with God. Unlike the rest of creation, the animals, the plants, everything else that God created, it is humankind alone. It is you and me alone who was created for a personal relationship with God, to relate to him and to represent him here on the earth. As we think about what this has to do with who we are, as we think about what this has to do with our identity, I think there are at least two profound applications there. We can take from this reality. The first is that being created in the image of God shows us, it teaches us that we are dependent upon God for our identity. We are dependent upon God for our identity.

10:49Created as God's image means that we are creatures who owe our entire existence to God. As Paul says in Acts 17, it is in God that we live and move and have our being. And just as we are 100% dependent upon God for our very existence, we are 100% dependent upon God for our identity. This is an important reality that we all need to hear. I think especially you middle schoolers, high schoolers, and college-age students. You see, our culture constantly tells us and sells us the idea that we can create our own identity, that we are called to create our own identity. Just hear what one of our modern-day cultural saints, Taylor Swift, said at a recent college graduation. Hear what she says to all of these college graduates.

11:45I guess you can read on the screen. It's right there. Look at that. It says, I know it can be really overwhelming figuring out who to be and when, who you are now, and how to act in order to get where you want to go. She says, I have some good news for you. It's totally up to you. That's the message our culture tells us today. It is totally up to you. And while this might seem like good news at first, the fact that it's up to us, the fact that we're no longer limited by who our parents are or where we live, now we can be whoever we want to be, right? The sky's the limit. As we're told growing up, we can be whoever we want to be. The reality is, it's anything but good news. And it seems like Saint Taylor Swift knows this as well. Because after saying the good news, here what she says: she says, I also have some terrifying news for you. It's totally up to you.

12:56Seems here like she speaks the quiet part out loud. But the truth is, she is 100% correct about the terrifying part. It is terrifying to bear the weight of creating and recreating our own identities because, as we've all experienced, no matter how many likes, hearts, retweets, kudos, whatever we're receiving today, whether that's on social media, at work, in school, or on the sports team, wherever, no matter how. How much affirmation and recognition we receive, it is just never enough. And so we keep anxiously posting and performing to feel like we are good enough. And it's into this terrifying situation that the first page of our Bible tells us something different. It tells us something much, much better.

13:58That we have a given identity. You have been created in the image of God, created to reflect Him and relate to Him. Sisters and brothers, our identity, the core of who we are as a person, is not something that we have to create. It is something that has been given to us by God, grounded in our relationship with Him. And this is good news. Friends, we can rest. We can be still and cease striving, knowing that we have no image to maintain because we have been created in the image of God.

14:44Saint Augustine, the North African bishop from the fourth century, was a man well acquainted with the terror that Taylor Swift talked about of trying to figure out who he was. While social media didn't exist, Back then, Augustine lived his entire life searching for the person or the position that would tell him he's enough. But with each step that he climbed up the social and the career ladder, he became more and more dissatisfied. His life felt more and more empty as he reached each new level, only to find out that it didn't bring him the meaning that he was searching for. It was only after his conversion to Christianity that he found true rest and peace, no longer striving to create and maintain an identity that God had freely given to him. That's the background to the famous prayer at the beginning of his book, Confessions, where he prays and he says, You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.

16:03Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you. Perhaps you're here this morning and you can relate with Saint Augustine. Perhaps you came in here this morning restless, tired, exhausted from creating and maintaining this identity of trying to project this image into. The world. If that's you this morning, I want you to know that there is much rest and peace on offer to you this morning as God is inviting you to look to him, to turn to him, to see the given identity that you have in him, one who has been created in his image, created for relationship with him, created to relate to him. If you're here this morning and you're just very aware that you have tried everything you can think of, whether it's money, power, drugs, alcohol, whatever it might be, and nothing seems to satisfy, if that's you this morning, I just want to ask you to consider what it might look like for you to see yourself as someone created in the image of God, created by God, created for relationship with God. Because apart from this understanding, like a ship without a sail, unable to reach its destination, you will continue drifting along, always restless, never finding your true identity. Created in the image of God shows us, tells us that we have a given identity. So it shows us that our identity is dependent upon him. And it also shows us that we are eternally valuable.

18:00Having been created in God's image, we are eternally valuable. We have inherent worth, value, and dignity. And this has massive implications for us as we consider how we view ourselves and how we view others. Perhaps you're here this morning and you are tempted to think of yourself as someone who doesn't really matter. Maybe because of your childhood, perhaps because of a past relationship, you are just convinced that you are unimportant, you are insignificant, or maybe even worthless. But the fact that you have been created in God's image screams of your value, your dignity, and your worth. I mean, just think of what the Israelites were tempted to think of themselves as they wandered through the desert, surrounded by nations that were bigger and more powerful than they were. As they were tempted to think of themselves as less than. It's into this situation that God reveals to all of humanity, that God reveals to you and to me, that we possess dignity and honor that was reserved only for kings. Now, I've never been in the presence of royalty, but I have seen the crown.

19:24It's a great show. So I know that whenever a king or a queen Would enter a room, everyone would stop what they were doing, stand, and acknowledge them. This was done in respect for the position, and also for the person for the person, and also for the position. It didn't matter what sort of person the king or the queen was, there was a deference that was shown to the position. And that's kind of what God wants us to see here. God's telling His people that all of humanity, every single person, has value and dignity that is intrinsic to who they are because they have been created in the image of the king. In other words, here on the first page of our Bible, God is telling us that we are all royalty, that we have all been created in His image, that we are all kings and queens. And this should impact how we see not just ourselves, but how we see others. Because that same inherent value, dignity, and worth that God is saying is true of you is also true of everyone else. Our culture's warped standards for beauty, celebrity, and wealth have no claim on a person's value. They have no claim on your value. Each person has a distinct value because they have been created in God's image. As C.S. Lewis so helpfully says it, He says, there are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Is this how we see those around us? There are no ordinary people. Oh, brothers and sisters, when we look down on other people, whether it's the old, the weak, the disabled, those who don't fit in, those of different races, immigration status, economic status, when we do that, we deny their inherent dignity as those who are made in God's image, and we dishonor God as we do that. Brothers and sisters, page one of our Bible is telling us that every single person has been created in the image of God and has eternal value, worth, and dignity because of whose image they've been created in. Let us be those who look upon others and treat others with respect.

22:08So who am I? What is my identity? Here in Genesis 1, we're seeing that we have been created in the image of God, which means that we were created for personal relationship with God, to relate with him and to represent him. But Genesis 1 doesn't just show us our given identity, it also shows us that we have a glory. Glorious purpose. As a result of our identity as created in God's image, our glorious purpose is to rule creation as God's representatives. We are to rule creation as God's representatives. Look with me at verse 28. God says to Adam and Eve, 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. In these words, Moses uses two terms to define our role over creation. We are to subdue the earth, and we are to have dominion over it. It's important to notice that both the man and the woman are to rule over creation. That's not something that just Adam alone is called to do, but Adam and Eve are called to rule over creation together. Because while each of us individually bears the image of God, we image God together. It's something that we do in community. As we see in Genesis 1 and 2, we cannot fulfill God's purposes for us on our own. We need one another to provide companionship and to work side by side. And this just makes sense, seeing how we have been created in the image of God. Of our relational God.

24:03So, as we see here in verses 26 and verses 28, it is together that we have been called to subdue the earth and to have dominion over it. To have dominion over creation refers to our calling to rule over creation, to occupy it and to cultivate it. This ruling that we're called to have here is focused on the flourishing of all of creation and all that exists in it. Adam and Eve were to work to maintain and to protect the garden, not to exploit and abuse it. As God's representatives, we are to reflect his character in the way that we cultivate and care for creation. This means, brothers and sisters, that you and I, we should be concerned with conserving natural resources, with making the best possible use of all that God has given to us in creation. We should be concerned with the irresponsible use of energy, the pollution of rivers and lakes, the pollution of the air that we breathe. Now, this doesn't mean that we all need to trade in our cars for bicycles or scooters. But I think as stewards of God's creation, I don't think that it's wrong to say that we should be conscious of how we care for the earth. Created in God's image, we have been commissioned. To rule the earth as benevolent kings and queens, acting as God's representatives over them, and therefore treating them in the same way that God would. I think it's this viewpoint that can allow us to avoid the two extremes of how we relate to creation, where we can either deify it or we can destroy it. We can deify creation by placing plants, animals, and other created things on the same level as humans and ignore the fact that God placed Adam and Eve above creation as its ruler, that he called Adam and Eve to rule over and to have dominion over creation. But we can also be guilty of destroying the earth as we neglect our role as God's stewards, failing to cultivate and to care for it as God himself would. So on the one hand, our role over creation is to be one of dominion, but we see that it's also to be one of cultivation. That's what it means to subdue the earth. We are to cultivate it. This here refers to what theologians have referred to as the cultural mandate. This is the command to develop God-glorifying culture. You see, we are called to cultivate the world.

27:00To engage in the arts and culture, education and business, agriculture and engineering. We are to build bridges, compose music, write poetry, and works of literature. We're to solve problems. We're called to invent and improve things that contribute to the sustainability and the flourishing of all creation, the plants, animals, and people. Brothers and sisters, created in the image of God, created to rule over creation, we were never meant to be stagnant, but we were created with great potential in a world of great potentiality. And so God has called us to rule, to have dominion, and to subdue the earth. So as you sit here and you wonder, what am I here for? What am I supposed to do with my life? I hope this concept of the image of God is helping us see that you have a glorious purpose. You have been created in the image of God to rule over creation as his representative, as you steward it, and as you create God-glorifying culture. There are many, many applications of this reality for each of us, but I want to highlight just one. As you consider your purpose, as you think about your education and career path, I think this concept of the image of God is meant to be very freeing for you. I think this image of this glorious purpose that we have to rule over creation and to subdue it is meant to be very freeing for you because it helps us see that there are an infinite number of ways that you can fulfill God's glorious purpose for you. And one is no better than the other. Your purpose in life is not about reaching a particular social or economic status, but it is about stewardship and cultivation. Faithfully stewarding the gifts, the talents, the abilities, and the opportunities that you've received and that you've worked for to cultivate culture that leads to the flourishing of others. And brothers and sisters, this means that whether you are teaching, whether that's kindergartners or graduate students, whether you're working at a nonprofit, staying home to care for children, aging parents, or both, doing research, making art, working in the service industry, managing projects, or a million other things that care for creation and steward its resources well, all of these are ways that you can fulfill God's glorious purpose for you. God has called us to steward creation, to create God-glorifying culture, and there are a million ways that you can do that. Brothers and sisters, that is our glory. Purpose. So, who are we? What are we here for? As we've seen this morning, God answers both of these questions using the phrase, the image of God. Created as God's image, we have a given identity and a glorious purpose. If our Bibles ended at Genesis 2, I think we could stop right there. But unfortunately, we know what happens next in the story. In Genesis 3, we read of Adam and Eve eating the fruit and disobeying God. And as a result, the image of God in us has become distorted. We are still God's image. Genesis 5, Genesis 9, James 3 tell us that we are all still created in God's image. But how we live it out has been impacted. How we live out the image of God in us has been damaged. As we see in Genesis 4 and all that follows up to today, we no longer live out our status as image bearers as God intended us to. Rather than experience only flourishing, we now live in the tension of flourishing and failure. And it's not always a pretty picture. But thankfully, as God's story continues, we know that Jesus comes to us. And do you recall how Paul describes Jesus in Colossians 1? Referring to Jesus, he says that Jesus. Jesus is the image of the invisible God.

31:36Jesus has come to us as the perfect image of God, the one who has been created as the image of God, and the one who has faithfully and perfectly lived out this relationship to God and to others, living in light of his identity and his glorious purpose. While being 100% God, Jesus was also the perfect human who perfectly imaged God throughout his entire life, perfectly living into his identity and purpose. And because of his sacrificial death and triumphant resurrection, he has made it possible for the distorted image of God in us to be renewed. Just hear what Paul says later in Colossians 3 as he writes about those who have trusted in Jesus. He says, seeing that you have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. When you trust in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, the image of God begins to be renewed in you as you are conformed more and more into the image of Jesus. Brothers and sisters, filled with the Spirit, you are now empowered to live out the image of God in you. You are empowered to embrace your given identity and to fulfill your glorious purpose. Oh, the beauty of the gospel is that as we become more and more like Jesus, as we are transformed more and more into his image, we are also becoming more and more human. We are becoming more and more who God created us to be as we become more and more like Jesus. This is good news. Let's pray.

33:39Oh, Father, we thank you that as we bring real life to Scripture, that you speak to us, that you care for us, that you provide answers to the very important and real questions that we ask. Father, we thank you this morning that as we discern, Father, as we seek to know and we desire to know who we are and why we're here, Father, we thank you that you tell us who we are. Father, I pray this morning that you would give each and every one of us the faith, Lord, to believe what we have heard this morning, Lord, that we have a given identity, Lord, that we do not need to create anything. But we can rest in you. And Father, I pray that you would give us the grace to live in the good of that as we seek to fulfill your glorious purpose for us, faithfully ruling over and stewarding all of creation.

34:47Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.