In this series of posts, I want to talk about the doctrine of mankind or human beings. The Bible has a lot to say about YOU. In fact, we don’t even get out of the first chapter of the Bible before God tells us all about our uniqueness in terms of creation.
Britain has its royal family that regularly generates buzz and gets attention. According to God’s Word, you and I belong to a royal family. You may have written yourself off. You may call yourself a loser, a failure or any other number of names.
But God’s Word indicates that YOU are a person of worth, value and dignity.
The Big Idea for YOU: The Doctrine of Human Beings is:
Because you bear the image of God Almighty,
You have immeasurable worth, value and dignity.
You are actually royalty, with inherent responsibility.
Our story begins in Genesis 1:26-28.
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…”
— Genesis 1:26 NLT
We’re not the by-product of chance. We didn’t bubble up from some kind of primordial sludge. You were created by God Himself.
The word for “mankind” in Genesis 1:26 is the Hebrew word, “adam,” which is a general term for human beings that also became a proper name for Adam. Think of this…
Genesis 1 describes the ultimate King — the King of kings — who commands and creates. He spoke creation into existence.
It’s interesting that in every other act of creation, God spoke, “Let there be… light (1:3), space (1:6), oceans, rivers, dry land and vegetation (1:9), sun, moon, planets and stars (1:14-15), fish, ocean and river life and birds (1:20), and animals and livestock (1:24), and they came into being.”
God determined and defined good and evil. He brought order out of chaos. He spoke all of creation into existence, and, then, incredibly, God created us.
In every other act of creation, God spoke. But when it came time for God to introduce the pinnacle of His creation, He didn’t speak men and women into existence, instead, He looked at the other members of the Trinity and had a conversation.
Check out v 26 again…
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…”
— Genesis 1:26 NLT
The basic implication is that God who is eternally Father, Son and Holy Spirit looked at Himself.
The word “make” is a Hebrew word that means to fashion, make, produce or bring forth.
Genesis 1 contains sort of a macro view of all creation. Genesis 2 zooms in and gives us the micro view on our creation.
Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.
— Genesis 2:7 NLT
Pay attention to the word “formed.” It’s another Hebrew word that means to form, fashion, frame or shape by design. It’s a word that is sometimes used to refer to pottery (Cf 1 Sam 17:28; Isa 29:16; Jer 18:1-17).
God formed, fashioned, molded and shaped us by design like a skilled artist forms, fashions, molds and shapes a piece of pottery or work of art.
In every other aspect of creation, God simply spoke. But when it came time to create human beings, we’re so valuable, important and treasured in His eyes that God personally and lovingly formed and shaped us from dust.
God personally fashioned and framed us.
David described the miracle and marvel of you and me like this in Psalm 139:
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” —Psalm 139:13-14 NIV
Verse 14 reads like this in the NLT…
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! — NLT
You might be thinking, “That’s true about my spouse. He/She is wonderfully complex.” According to Psalm 139, it’s also true about YOU. We are all “wonderfully complex.”
Do you realize that your very existence is a miracle?
According to best-selling self-help author and motivational speaker, Mel Robbins, scientists estimate the probability of your being born at about 1 in 400 trillion. [1]
Your mom carries over one million eggs during her lifetime. Scientists have determined that the egg that formed you was choosy and could determine which of your father’s 250 million sperm cells it wanted to connect with. If the egg that created you had chosen any other sperm, some sibling of yours would be here and you may still only be a possibility or never have existed at all.
Mel said that experts put the odds of YOU being the result of that sperm and egg encounter to be 1 in 400 trillion.
Dr. Ali Binazir, who graduated from Harvard, got his M.D. from the University of California at San Diego, and holds a Master of Philosophy at Cambridge, put Mel’s statement to the test and said that she was wrong. He calculated that the odds of you being born are closer to 1 in 400 quadrillion. [2]
In other words, just the fact that you exist is a miracle!
Let me just give you a glimpse of the miracle that is YOU…
Scientists recently discovered that when a sperm meets an egg, an explosion of tiny sparks erupt from the egg at the exact moment of conception. Scientists have even captured these astonishing fireworks on film… Human life literally begins in a bright flash of light. [3], [4]
Dr. Richard Swenson writes that every human body is a miracle beyond comprehension. [5]
For instance, the human body is composed of ten thousand trillion atoms – a number greater than the number of stars in our universe. In each person, more than a trillion of these atoms are replaced every one-millionth of a second.
Each human cell is made up of a trillion atoms. The body contains between 10 and 100 trillion cells. We tear down and rebuild over a trillion cells every day.
During a lifetime, the heart beats over two billion times and pumps sixty million gallons of blood through sixty thousand miles of blood vessels. We each manufacture over two million red blood cells every second. Laid side by side, our red blood cells would stretch over 100 thousand miles.
We breathe 600 million times over an average life span, with every breath containing over a billion trillion air molecules. [6]
Are you still with me? Good! Let’s continue…
We could go on and talk about the miracle of the human eye, ear and nose — all miraculous in their own way.
Swenson continues…
Our three-pound brain is the most complex arrangement of matter ever discovered in the universe. It contains ten billion neurons (possibly ten times as many) and has 100 trillion neurological interconnections that if stretched out would extend 100 thousand miles. The brain fires at a rate of a thousand trillion computations per second and can hold information equivalent to that contained in twenty-five million books.
We are the only species with the gift of language and are capable of thinking at a rate of 800 words per minute… [7]
Augustine was right:
“Men go abroad to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the season, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering.” — Augustine
Art critics will tell you that you can tell a lot about an artist by looking at his or her art… People who love art will say things like, “Look at the art, and you’ll discover the artist…”
According to Psalm 139:14-15 and Ephesians 2:10, you and I are a work of God’s art. We are God’s masterpiece.
Just the fact that you are here is a miracle!
Don’t miss the next sentence in Genesis 2:7…
Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.
— Genesis 2:7 NLT
Have you ever wondered why God did it this way?
More than mouth to mouth resuscitation, this was mouth to mouth life creation.
Why didn’t God just snap his fingers, or as He did in other aspects of creation, say the word? Either would have been a whole lot more hygienic.
Instead, after God personally formed us from the dust, He then personally breathed into us the breath of life.
This was an indication that mankind wasn’t just another aspect of creation, we were the apex of God’s creation.
Life can only come from life.
God didn’t just fashion a physical body and then fill it with oxygen. He didn’t just create animated tissue. God personally breathed into the pile of dust He had shaped and formed, and “…the man became a living person, being or living soul,” filled with the very breath, vitality, life and Spirit of God.
This was and is incredible!
Back to Genesis 1:26… It gets even more astounding.
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…”
— Genesis 1:26 NLT
The word “image” is the Hebrew word tselem. It’s the same Hebrew word used for an idol or image. It signifies a “copy” and carries the idea of “representation.”
The phrase “in our likeness” is the Hebrew word demut and can refer to “pattern, shape or form.” It signifies something that is patterned after the original (Cf Gen 5:1-3).[8] [9]
In ancient times kings often claimed to be gods. They would even refer to themselves as “the image of God.”
Because they were kings, within the sphere of their kingdom, they had authority to command, create, order, delegate and determine and define good and evil.
Kings would even create statues of themselves, also called tselem, and place these tselem — images and representations — in locations they had “annexed” through battles fought and won to indicate that their influence, authority and sovereignty extended to that region. When people saw the image they knew who controlled the territory.[10]
The God of the Bible, on the other hand, commanded Israel to never make an image or idol of God (Ex 20:4-6; 34:17; Lev 19:4; 26:1; Deut 4:16-18, 23-24; 5:8). This flowed out of the belief and conviction that you can’t reduce Creator God down to any “one thing” in His creation.
But, there also appears to be another reason.
In Genesis 1, and later in other places in the Bible, God, who is King — in fact, He’s King of kings, announced something completely radical and totally unheard of, especially for people in the ancient world.
God basically indicated, “People aren’t to make images of God, because I’ve already made images of myself.” [11]
When the Bible indicates that we were made “in the image of God” it’s an indication that as God’s image bearers we were created to represent and reflect God! We are His representatives or images in this world. We’ve been shaped, formed, fashioned and patterned after the “Original” Himself.
Theologian N.T. Wright describes it like this…
He says that God has placed us here as “angled mirrors” to reflect the worship of creation back to the Creator, and to reflect the heart of the Creator out to His creation. [12]
“…God has put humans like an angled mirror in His world…
[to] reflect His love, care and stewardship of the world through humans,
and so that the rest of the world can praise the Creator through humans.”
—N.T. Wright
God is THE KING, but, incredibly and astonishingly, He didn’t limit Himself to be represented by any one human being who happened to be in power at any given time in some specific place.
Instead, God created mankind — men and women — as “kings” and “queens” or “co-regents” of “His territory” which happens to be the entire cosmos.
Kendrick Lamar wasn’t using hyperbole when he rapped, “I got loyalty, got royalty inside my DNA…” [13]
Psalm 8 refers to every way man and woman ever conceived.
“4…what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? 5 You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor.“
That’s not something you have to work to make true, it is true. Ray Ortlund describes it this way: “Your creation was your coronation.” [14]
6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet… — Psalm 8:4-6 NIV
6 You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority… — Psalm 8:6 NLT
That’s why the Big Idea isn’t just hyperbole. This is reality...
Because you bear the image of God Almighty,
You have immeasurable worth, value and dignity.
You are actually royalty, with inherent responsibility.
You and I were patterned, shaped and formed after the original. We were created to be “like” God and to represent God to this world and to reflect God’s glory back to Himself.
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…”
— Genesis 1:26 NLT
As I have with the STORY and LORD blog post series, I will have a new post each day this week to expand on YOU: Doctrine of Human Beings.
[1] Mel Robbins, The High Five Habit, p 60, Kindle Ed.
[2] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/probability-being-born_b_877853
[3] Nancy Pearcey, Love Thy Body, p 61, Kindle Ed.
[4] https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-04-26/human-eggs-emit-zinc-sparks-at-moment-of-fertilization
[5] Richard A. Swenson, M.D., More Than Meets the Eye: Fascinating Glimpses of God’s Power and Design, (Colorado Springs, Colorado, Nav Press, 200), pgs. 32-33.
[6] Richard A. Swenson, M.D., More Than Meets the Eye: Fascinating Glimpses of God’s Power and Design, (Colorado Springs, Colorado, Nav Press, 200), pgs. 32-33.
[7] Swenson, See Above.
[8] John MacArthur, Biblical Doctrine, Location 12043 or 34425, Kindle Edition.
[9] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, p 1109, Kindle Edition.
[10] John MacArthur, Biblical Doctrine, Location 12032 or 34425, Kindle Edition.
[11] The Bible Project video, Image of God, YouTube, March 21, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbipxLDtY8c
[12] N.T. Wright, YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp-Ku-_ekAY
[13] Kendrick Lamar, DNA, Kendrick Lamar Song, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_(Kendrick_Lamar_song)
[14] Ray Ortlund, The Death of Porn, p 22, Kindle Ed.