Part 3: In His image, and the seventh day

We have watched God shape the world and fill it, day by day. Now we come to the high point of the creation week: the making of man. And then to the seventh day, when God rested.

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:26–28, BSB)

Notice how different this is from everything before it.

Until now, God has said, “Let there be”, or “Let the earth bring forth”. Now He says, “Let Us make man”. It is as if God pauses before this last and greatest work.

And the verse that tells us He did it is almost like a song: “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Three times in one verse we hear that God created man.

And notice one more thing. God blessed the fish and the birds. But here, for the first time, God speaks to the creatures He has made: “God blessed them and said to them”. Man is the creature God speaks with.

Who is God speaking to when He says “Let Us”?

Some have thought He was speaking to the angels. But the angels did not create man, and man is not made in their image. Verse 27 says it plainly: “in the image of God He created him”.

Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or informed Him as His counselor? Whom did He consult to enlighten Him, and who taught Him the paths of justice? Who imparted knowledge to Him and showed Him the way of understanding? (Isaiah 40:13–14, BSB)

And God did not need anyone's advice. “Whom did He consult to enlighten Him?” No one. No creature helped God to plan the world, or to make man.

So when God says “Let Us”, He is speaking within Himself. In the first part we saw the Spirit of God over the waters, and the Word through whom all things were made. Here is another hint that the one God is more than one Person, which the rest of the Bible makes plain: one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Man was made by a special counsel of the three Persons of God.

What does it mean to be made in God's image? The Bible does not give us one short definition, but it tells us a great deal.

First, “image” and “likeness” here mean the same thing. Later in Genesis, Moses uses the two words the other way round. An image is a likeness: something that reflects or represents someone else. And man is made to reflect God, in a way that no other creature does.

It means that we are made to know God. We can think, and understand, and choose. We can hear God speak, and answer Him. We are made for a relationship with our Maker, which no animal can have.

It means that man was made good and upright. The New Testament shows us what that uprightness was. When it speaks of the new life God gives His people in Christ, it says that they are being renewed in knowledge, and made like God in true righteousness and holiness. That is what man was at the beginning.

and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. … and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Colossians 3:10 · Ephesians 4:24, BSB)

When God gives someone new life in Christ, Paul says, He renews them “in knowledge in the image of its Creator”, “to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” That shows us what Adam was like at the beginning: he knew God truly, and he was righteous and holy. That is what we were made to be, and what sin has spoiled.

And to be in God's image means having a soul that will not die. God made man to live for ever, either with Him, or apart from Him.

When I behold Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place— what is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You care for him? You made him a little lower than the angels; You crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler of the works of Your hands; You have placed everything under his feet… (Psalm 8:3–6, BSB)

And to be in God's image means that man is given a task. “Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air”. David is amazed by it in this psalm. Look at the size of the heavens. And yet God crowned man “with glory and honor” and made him “ruler of the works of Your hands”.

In the ancient world, a king would set up statues of himself in the lands he ruled, to show that they belonged to him. God has placed His own living image in His world: man and woman, to rule the earth on His behalf.

But notice what we are given to rule: the fish, the birds, the animals and the earth. Never other people. We rule the creation for God, as His stewards. A steward looks after what belongs to his master, and one day he will give account for how he has used it.

“Male and female He created them.” Both the man and the woman are made in the image of God. Neither is more truly human than the other, and neither is more precious to God. And yet they are different, and made for each other. In the next study, Genesis 2 will tell us how the woman was made, and about the first marriage.

“God blessed them”: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.” Marriage, and the gift of children, are God's good plan and His blessing.

And from that first man and woman, the whole human race has come. Paul said to the people of Athens, “From one man He made every nation of men”. Every people on earth is part of one family, and every one bears the image of God. There is no room in the Bible for looking down on anyone because of their race.

Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind. … With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. (Genesis 9:6 · James 3:9, BSB)

Notice that both these verses come after sin came into the world. After the flood, God says that taking a human life is a great crime, because man is made in His image. And James says we must not even curse people, because they are “made in God's likeness”.

So sin has deeply spoiled the image of God in us, as we will see in study 3. But it has not wiped it out. Every human being you meet, even the person you find hardest to love, is still made in the image of God.

For You formed my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and I know this very well. (Psalm 139:13–14, BSB)

And because every person is made in God's image, every human life is precious, from the very beginning of life in the womb to its last breath. God is at work in the womb: “You knit me together in my mother's womb”.

That is why Christians cannot treat abortion or euthanasia as small matters. Both end a life made in God's image. A life does not become valuable when it is wanted, or useful, or strong. It is valuable because it bears God's image.

And if that touches your own story, the gospel is for you too. There is full forgiveness in Christ for all who come to Him.

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. … The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (Colossians 1:15 · 2 Corinthians 4:4, BSB)

Now see where this leads in the New Testament. Christ is called “the image of the invisible God”. Adam was made in God's image. But Christ is the image of God. In Him we see perfectly what God is like. He is the true man, everything Adam was meant to be and failed to be.

For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers. … And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so also shall we bear the likeness of the heavenly man. (Romans 8:29 · 1 Corinthians 15:49, BSB)

And here is the great hope of the gospel. God's purpose for His people is that they will be “conformed to the image of His Son”. The image that sin has spoiled is being restored in all who trust in Christ. And one day it will be complete: “so also shall we bear the likeness of the heavenly man.”

So the image of God gives us our dignity: what we were made to be. And in Christ it gives us our destiny: what God will make us to be.

So they brought it, and He asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they answered. Then Jesus told them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” And they marveled at Him. (Mark 12:16–17, BSB)

Jesus was asked whether it was right to pay taxes to Caesar. He asked for a coin, and asked, “Whose image is this?” Caesar's. So the coin could be given back to Caesar.

But then: “and to God what is God's.” What bears God's image? We do. The coin belongs to Caesar, because it bears his image. You belong to God, because you bear His. So give yourself to Him.

Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit contains seed. They will be yours for food. And to every beast of the earth and every bird of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth—everything that has the breath of life in it—I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God looked upon all that He had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. (Genesis 1:29–31, BSB)

“Behold, I have given you”. God gives food to man and to the animals. In the stories of the nations, people had to feed their gods. In Genesis, it is the other way round. The true God feeds His creatures. He provides for us before we even ask.

And then: “God looked upon all that He had made, and indeed, it was very good.” Not just good. Very good. With man and woman in it, the work was complete, and everything was as God meant it to be.

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. And by the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on that day He rested from all His work. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on that day He rested from all the work of creation that He had accomplished. (Genesis 2:1–3, BSB)

“Thus the heavens and the earth were completed”. The chapter began with “the heavens and the earth”, and now they are complete. Nothing needed to be added.

And notice that the seventh day is different from the other six. There is no evening and morning to end it.

“So on that day He rested”. God did not rest because He was tired.

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary; His understanding is beyond searching out. (Isaiah 40:28, BSB)

The Creator “will not grow tired or weary”. God's rest means that He stopped creating, because His work was finished, and He was satisfied with it. It is the rest of a king who has finished his work, not the rest of a tired worker.

“Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it”. To sanctify means to set apart as holy. And notice this: the first thing in the Bible that God makes holy is not a place, or a person. It is a day. A time set apart for God.

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God, on which you must not do any work—neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant or livestock, nor the foreigner within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, but on the seventh day He rested. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy. (Exodus 20:8–11, BSB)

When God gave the Ten Commandments, He based the pattern of the week on the creation week. Six days of work, and one day set apart for God.

And notice who the day of rest is for: not only the master of the house, but his children, his servants, the foreigner, and even the animals. It is a gift, and a kindness, especially to those who would otherwise never stop working.

Then Jesus declared, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27–28, BSB)

Jesus said the same. “The Sabbath was made for man”. It was given at creation, for the good of the whole human race, not only for Israel. And He said that He is “Lord even of the Sabbath”. The day belongs to Him.

On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Since Paul was ready to leave the next day, he talked to them and kept on speaking until midnight. … On the Lord’s day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet… (Acts 20:7 · Revelation 1:10, BSB)

In the New Testament, the Christians met on the first day of the week, the day Jesus rose from the dead. John calls it “the Lord's day”. God had rested from the work of creation on the seventh day. Christ, by His resurrection on the first day of the week, showed that a greater work was finished: the work of redeeming His people.

So the day of rest was not done away with. From the resurrection of Christ it became the first day of the week, the Lord's Day, the Christian Sabbath: a day set apart for the worship of God and for rest from our ordinary work. Our Baptist forefathers, in their Confession of Faith of 1689, summed up this teaching of Scripture in the same way.

There remains, then, a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His. (Hebrews 4:9–10, BSB)

And there is a rest that the weekly day of rest points to. “Whoever enters God's rest also rests from his own work”. That is what happens when someone trusts in Christ. He stops trying to earn his way to God by his own work, and rests on the finished work of Christ. And one day, God's people will enter His rest for ever.

Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28, BSB)

The Lord Jesus Himself invites you into that rest. “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened”. If you are tired of trying to make yourself right with God, you can stop. Christ has done the work. Come to Him, and He will give you rest.

Let us gather up this first study.

In the beginning, God made everything from nothing. He needs nothing, and everything depends on Him. In six days, by His word, He formed and filled the world, and it was very good. He made man and woman in His own image, to know Him and to rule the earth for Him. And He rested, and blessed the seventh day.

And all through the chapter, the New Testament has shown us Christ: the Word through whom all things were made, the light that shines in our hearts, the true image of God, and the One who gives us rest.

Some questions to finish.

If every person is made in God's image, how should that change the way you treat others, including those you find difficult?

Jesus said we are to give “to God what is God's.” What would it mean for you to give yourself to Him?

How do you use the Lord's Day?

And have you entered the rest that Christ gives, by trusting in His finished work?

In the next study, we will read Genesis chapter 2: the man and the woman in the garden.