Genesis 1:1-2:4
Lesson Focus
God created us in his image so we might best be able to enter into a relationship with him.
Learning Outcomes
Through this lesson, students should:
Understanding the Genesis narrative reveals that God's act of creation emanates from a desire to extend love and invite humanity into a divine relationship.
Explore the concept of being made in God's image suggests a profound likeness that enables humans to engage intimately in this divine dance, implying a deep connection beyond physical resemblance and potentially involving capacities like choice, love, spirituality, and eternal existence.
Contemplate why God would create despite the risk of rebellion
Catching up on the story
This is the beginning of the story. God, who is outside of time and space, has existed for all of eternity. There is nothing besides God. God, however, out of his divine love, chooses to create in order to include others in his divine dance.
The TextAs we look at the text for the first time, a text we are very familiar with, we find that the story begins not with a reason for what is about to happen but with a simple declaration of what will happen. In the beginning, God begins to create.
So God speaks, and the heavens and earth form and are separated. And as God’s voice and spirit hover over the vast formless and void expanse of the world, the waters and land begin to separate. With another word, light comes into existence. It was good. God continues to speak, and things continue to happen. Dry land appears. Then, vegetation and things that produce seeds and can reproduce themselves. It was good.
God continues to speak, and the sun, moon, and stars are created. Notice that light comes into existence before the sun. Many cultures worshiped the sun as a god. This account specifically states that the sun is a created thing. It has no power other than to give warmth. Day and night, seasons of the year, are created by this word that gives the sun and moon. God speaks again, and living things are made, fish and things in the sea and sky. Then, animals are created to cover the dry land. They are all given creative power and endowed with the ability to create new life.
Then it happens. God decides to make something in his image. In verse 26, we aren’t told exactly what that means, but we are told that this new and last creation will be in the likeness of God; it will have the authority to take care of and use the good earth for its own needs. Everything is given to humanity. We are mysteriously made in God’s image and likeness. Then God stepped back and said that it wasn’t just good, but that it was very good. It was very good indeed.
So, that leaves us with three questions. Why did God create in the first place? What does it mean to be made in the image and likeness of God? Why would God create if he knew things would end up like they have?
Why did God create in the first place? First, we need to specify that God did not need to create. Demanding that God needed to create would be like saying that something outside of God was making God do something. This is not the case. God, if he is what the bible says he is, is bigger and more powerful than anything else in existence. There was nothing, and never will be anything, that can force God to do anything.
So if God didn’t have to create, then why did God create? The passage we are looking at today doesn’t answer that question. It merely begins with the beginning of the story of God’s creation. In the beginning, God began to create… So, to answer this question, we must keep in view the entire scope of the bible and all of Christian thought since its inception. We must look to the Church’s confession of who God is for the answer.
What has the church, those who confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, believed about who God is? The church has always confessed that God is three persons, yet one essence. This is Article One of our Articles of Faith. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are one God, but three persons as well.
This can be a bit hard to understand. So, we will look to a metaphor to help explain it. We’ve used this metaphor before. Early on, the church found it useful to describe the relationship between the persons of the Trinity as a divine dance. The word they used to describe this is perichoresis. It literally means circle dance. The members of the Trinity engage in a dance with one another (remember, this is a metaphor). There is fluidity of movement and unity of purpose within the Trinity.
See, God exists as a fully self-contained being. God does not need anything else. All of the relationships that God needs are within the relationship of the Trinity. But, and this is a big but, God wanted to invite another dancing partner. Because God’s very nature is love, he wanted to include another in the relationship of love, that is, the Trinity. God wanted a dancing partner, so God created a dancing partner (the world, humanity) and invited them to dance with him.
So, this helps us answer our next question. What does it mean to be made in the image of God? As with our first question, our text doesn’t tell us. Many have tried to answer this question, but my guess is that we will not fully understand what it means to be made in the image of God until Christ returns and we know God in his fullest. Nevertheless, let’s use the dancing metaphor again to help us understand this image of God thing. Have you ever tried to dance with someone who was not close to your same size? Perhaps you have witnessed a short girl dance with a very tall guy. Or perhaps you have witnessed the opposite. It’s awkward. The same could be said for trying to dance with an animal. Try doing a nice slow dance with your cat or a cow. See how that goes. It just does not work as it should.
The point is that God has created us to be significantly similar to him so that we can dance well with each other. It means that in some kind of mysterious way, and I doubt it means that God has two legs, two arms, and a head, we are like God. It could be that in our ability to choose between right and wrong, we are like God (we are free creatures). It could be our ability to love selflessly, our spiritual makeup, or our potential to live eternally with God that makes us like him. I’m not sure. But I do know that God has created us to be enough like him so that we can enter into his divine dance, a dance that brings us into an intimate relationship with him.
That brings us to our final question: why would God create if he knew it might turn out the way it has? Why would God create if he knew we would disobey? The answer has to do with the nature of Love.
Loving involves risk. Any of you who have entered into a dating or marriage relationship with someone knows that there is always the risk of that person breaking your heart or being unfaithful. Love requires freedom. For love to be true and real, it must not be forced or coerced.
So God creates this dancing partner with whom he hopes to have a great and loving relationship. God creates them out of love, allowing them to choose to love him or not love him. God allows his creation to choose to dance with or not dance with him. And it’s a risk.
So What?
God, despite the risks, created anyway. God, despite those risks coming to fruition, continues to love us. The world that God has created was good, very good. God has not given up on that world that was so very good. He continues to call to us, his beloved dance partners, to return to him. This is, I believe, part of the purpose of everything that follows in the bible. Its purpose is to tell the story of God’s continual and relentless calling to the creation he loves so much, to rejoin him in the divine dance. This relentless love leads God to exit the comforts of heaven to become one of those creatures he created. It led him to death on a cross so that he might defeat death once and for all. And now, this crucified yet resurrected God continues calling us to enter into relationship with him.
Discussion Questions
Read the text aloud. Then, read the text to yourself quietly. Read it slowly, as if you were very unfamiliar with the story.
What was before creation took place?
Why did God create?
What does it mean for us to be created in the image of God?
Why did God create if he knew there was a possibility that his good creation might rebel?
Those of you who are parents, why did you have children?
Reflect on the “Dancing with God” metaphor. What does it look like to dance with God in everyday life?
If we believe that the world that God created was very good and that God has continued to love and call his creation back into relationship with him, how might that influence our understanding of what happens to the world when Christ returns?
Ways to Dance with God
Begin your prayer time this week by thanking God that you were created in his image and likeness. Ask that God might help you more fully understand what that means.
If you have children, reflect on the love that you have for your children. Reflect on the times your children have been disobedient or rebellious and the emotions you experienced because of their disobedience. Now, relate those reflections to God’s love for us.
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