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Sermons

Day Six of Creation, Pt. 3 (Genesis 1:27-28)

Part of the The Book of Genesis series, preached at a Sunday Morning service

David Torres
David Torres
June 9, 2013

Sermon preached on Sunday, June 9, 2013 at Garden Valley Chapel during our Sunday morning service based on Genesis 1:27-28.

Take your Bible if you will and open it to the book of Genesis 1, Genesis chapter one, where we continue our study of day six of creation, as a part of our study on Origins.

Allow me to read this passage of Scripture to you. Please stand in reading of God's Word. Hear the Word of the Lord:

Read Genesis 1:26-31.

In the same way our text has slowed down in its narrative, we too have slowed down in our exposition on the Book of Genesis to look at the sixth day with greater detail - highlighting God's crowning achievement of creation.

Last time in our study, we saw the first feature that addresses man and that is that man is made to bear the image of God (v. 26).

So important is this first feature that it is repeated to us in v. 27 -

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

Here we have three clauses, beautifully joined together, a threefold parallelism if you will; what some commentators have call "a solemn chant"1 inserted into the narrative to drive the point home:

*You and I were made in the "image of God."

What an honor that is bestowed upon man! In fact, none could be greater than that a created being be made in the image of God.

Q: Did you notice the thrice repeated verb in verse 27?
A: Bara (Heb. ??????): a word used of God's creative activity whenever it is used in the Qal stem, as it is here.

According to the creation account, the infinite, eternal, personal, triune God of the universe brought all things into existence which were were not in existence.

He did so in the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth (v. 1), but stated specifically with regards to man.

Once man was not there and then he was - all by God's creative power. He brought into being a man - a living creature, a living soul made in the image of God.

Make no mistake about this important truth:

There is but one God, the one true living God who says, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness"(v. 26) and likewise says in the following verse -

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

He has no problem referring to Himself using personal pronouns that speak of the plurality and singularity of the Godhead.

Thus the Triune God is able to say "Let Us make" and "Our image," in one verse and say that He created man "in His [sg.] image" in the next.

It would have been best if the translators of the LXX had not tampered with the text when they simply omitted the phrase "in His image."

Sure there are difficult portions of Scriptures; there are difficult truths to comprehend in the Word of God; but you do not leave it out, or as it pertains to preachers, you cannot skip portions of Scripture to avoid difficult truths.

Another important truth to note in this verse is that God created him, man (Heb. ????? ), which is a singular pronoun, and God created them, male and female, pointing to the distinctiveness of man from female and female from man.

This is in full harmony with what we read in Gen 5:1-2 -

1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.
2 He created them male and female, and He blessed them and named them Man [KJV - Adam; ?????] in the day when they were created.

Both the man and the woman share a common humanity and equal worth before God (hence, both are "man"), and yet they do so not as identical (hence they are distinctly "male and female").2

That is to say, while God did intend to create male and female as equal in their essential nature as human, He also intended to make different expressions of that essential nature.

Adam was fully human, made in the image of God, made as male, not as female. Eve was fully human human, made in the image of God, made as female, not male.

All of this is important as we continue to look at this foundational and pivotal question that God clearly and so wonderfully answers for us in this passage of Scripture and that is: "What is man?"

Man is we saw last time is...

Man is made to Bear the Image of God (v. 26)
Man is made to Propagate Life (vv. 27-28)
Man is made to Receive Divine Blessing (v. 26)
Man is made to Rule Creation (v. 26)

CONTENT

Today we will aim to pick up the text where we left off and look at the second feature of man described for us and that is...

About David Torres: David Torres was born in San Salvador and moved to the States at the age of 6. He came to Christ at age 15. He is a graduate of The Master’s University (BA ’01) and The Master’s Seminary (MDiv ’06; ThM ‘19). He served as a pastor-teacher in Garden Valley, CA for 8 years. In 2014, he returned to Grace to You as the GAV Radio Producer serving the Spanish speaking world through the teaching ministry of John MacArthur. He serves in the Joint Heirs Fellowship Group at Grace Community Church and on the council for Grace Advance. He also serves as a Section Instructor at TMS. He was married to Angie in 2000, and they have seven children: Isaiah, Emilia, Micah, Eva, Isabella, Elizabeth, and Jeremiah.