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If we are made in the image of God…
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.” — Genesis 1:26, HCSB
Essay Copyright 2015 by Bob Rogers
The Bible says that human beings are made in the image of God. Scholars debate the theological significance of this– that humans resemble God as spiritual beings, rule with God as stewards of His creation, and have a relationship with God by faith. But let’s come down to earth and think about the practical significance of this:
If we are made in the image of God, then abortion is wrong, and murder is wrong, euthanasia is wrong and war is wrong unless it can be shown to be justified by saving more lives than it takes, because these things kill a soul that is made to be with Jesus.
If we are made in the image of God, then racism is wrong, sexism is wrong, pornography is wrong, kidnapping is wrong, and slavery is wrong, because it devalues somebody who is made in the likeness of the king of kings.
If we are made in the image of God, then it is wrong to abuse a child, or abuse a wife or husband, or abuse an elderly person; and it is wrong to neglect and mistreat people because they are poor or mentally unstable or mentally handicapped, physically disabled, or unable to care for themselves due to illness. For each human life is a spiritual life, capable of spending eternity with Christ, so how we treat them down here on earth will be remembered forever up there in heaven.
Four great truths from the creation account in Genesis
Copyright 2013 by Bob Rogers.
Some people get so caught up debating how to fit different scientific views to the creation account in Genesis chapter one, that they miss the great theological truths in this chapter:
1) God created! Only God can create, and He does simply by speaking the Word, “Let there be…” and creation comes out of nothing (compare Hebrews 11:3).
2) God’s creation is good! Repeatedly, God saw what he created and “saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31). When He created mankind, He said it was “very good.”
3) God’s creation is under His Lordship. God is the one in control. He speaks, and it comes to be. God alone is to be worshiped, not “Mother Earth” or the sun or moon, which is why God deliberately did not name the sun and moon (Genesis 1:16). Compare Romans 1:25.
4) God’s creation is under mankind’s trusteeship. Man was told to subdue and rule creation (Genesis 1:28), but also to “watch over it” (2:15). We have a responsibility to be good managers, for we don’t own it; God owns it all (compare Psalm 24:1).
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Bob Rogers 