Genesis 1:26 - Meaning and Application

We now come to the second part of the sixth day’s work, the creation of man. We should pay special attention to this, because it helps us understand ourselves. Man was made last of all the creatures, so no one could think he helped God create the world. That question should humble every human being: “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?” (Job 38:4).

Yet being made last was also an honor and a kindness. It was an honor because creation moved from what was less perfect to what was more perfect. It was a kindness because man was not placed in his royal home until it was fully prepared for him. As soon as man was made, he had the whole visible world before him to enjoy and to study.

Man was made on the same day as the animals, because his body was made from the same earth as theirs. While he lives in the body, he shares the same world with them. But we must never use the body or its desires in such a way that we become like the beasts that perish.

Man’s creation was a more direct and striking act of God’s wisdom and power than the creation of the other creatures. The account is introduced with special solemnity. Before, God said, “Let there be light,” and “Let there be a firmament,” or, “Let the earth bring forth.” But now the language becomes one of counsel: “Let us make man.” This was the work for which the rest of creation had been prepared, and God speaks as one who is about to take this work into his own hands.

In the earlier acts of creation, God speaks with authority. Here he speaks with love, for “his delight was in the sons of men” (Proverbs 8:31). It is as if he had long been ready for this work and now says, “The preliminaries are finished, let us now make man.” Man was to be unlike anything made before, joining flesh and spirit, earth and heaven, and belonging in some way to both worlds. So God not only makes man himself, but speaks as though he is calling a council: “Let us make man.”

The three persons of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are united in this work, because man was to be devoted to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit when he was made. We are rightly baptized into that great name, because to that great name we owe our being. Let him rule over man who said, “Let us make man.”

Man was made in God’s image and after his likeness, two words that mean the same thing and strengthen each other. They point to the closest likeness found in any visible creature. Man was not made like any creature before him, but like his Creator. Still, the distance between God and man is infinite. Christ alone is the exact image of God’s being, as the Son of the Father, sharing the same nature.

What is given to man is only a small reflection of God’s glory, like a shadow in a mirror or a king’s image on a coin. God’s image in man shows itself in three ways.

First, it appears in his nature and make-up, especially in his soul, not in his body, since God has no body. Yet God has honored the human body too, since the Word became flesh, and the Son of God took a body like ours. He will also soon clothe our bodies with a glory like his own. We may safely say that the One through whom God made the worlds, not only the great world but also man, the little world, formed the human body from the start according to the pattern he would later take for himself.

But it is the soul of man that especially bears God’s image. The soul is a spirit, an intelligent and immortal spirit, active and powerful, and in this it resembles God, the Father of spirits. “The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord.” The human soul, with its three noble powers, understanding, will, and active strength, may be the clearest mirror in nature for seeing something of God.

Second, God’s image appears in man’s place and authority. “Let us make man in our image,” and let him rule. As man has rule over the lower creatures, he stands on earth as God’s representative, or vice-regent. The animals cannot know, fear, and serve God in the way man can, so God has appointed them to fear and serve man. Yet man’s rule over himself, through the freedom of his will, shows more of God’s image than his rule over the creatures.

Third, God’s image appears in man’s purity and rightness. This image consists in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness (Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10). “God made man upright” (Ecclesiastes 7:29). All his natural powers were in a settled harmony with God’s whole will. His mind saw divine things clearly and truly, without error. His will freely agreed with God’s will, without resistance. His affections were orderly, and he had no out-of-control desires or passions. His thoughts were easily turned to good things and held there, without vanity or disorder. The lower powers of his nature were fully under the guidance of the higher powers, with no rebellion or unrest.

So holy, so happy, were our first parents in bearing God’s image. And that first dignity gives us good reason not to speak badly of one another (James 3:9), not to harm one another (Genesis 9:6), not to lower ourselves into the service of sin, and instead to give ourselves to God’s service. Yet how far we have fallen, O son of the morning! How badly this image of God in man has been damaged! How little remains, and how great the ruin is! May the Lord restore it in our souls by his saving grace.

Man was also made male and female, and blessed with the gift of fruitfulness and increase. God said, “Let us make man,” and then it says, “So God created man.” He carried out what he planned. With us, speaking and doing are two different things. It is not so with God. He created them male and female, Adam and Eve, Adam first from the earth, and Eve from his side, as chapter 2 explains.

It seems that God made many pairs among the other creatures, but with man did he make one only? (Malachi 2:15). Christ uses this fact to argue against divorce (Matthew 19:4-5). Our first father, Adam, was given only one wife. If he had put her away, there would have been no other wife for him to take. This clearly showed that the marriage bond was not meant to be broken at will.

Angels were not made male and female, because they were not meant to produce children (Luke 20:34-36). But man was made male and female so that human nature could be passed on and the race could continue. Fires and candles, the lights of this lower world, can spread light because they burn away, but the lights in the sky are different. Stars do not make more stars.

God made only one man and one woman so that all nations would know they come from one blood, from one shared family line. That should move people to love one another. Since God made them able to pass on the nature they had received, he said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.”

In this command, God gave them a large inheritance: “Fill the earth.” This is the gift given to the children of men. They were made to live across the face of the whole earth (Acts 17:26). This is the place where God set man to serve his providence, that is, his wise rule, over the lower creatures. Man is also meant to be the one who receives God’s gifts, which other creatures live on without understanding. He is to gather God’s praise in this lower world and send it up to heaven (Psalm 145:10). And he is to live here as one being prepared for a better life.

God also gave them a large, lasting family to enjoy this inheritance, and he blessed them so that their children would spread to the farthest corners of the earth and continue through all time. Fruitfulness and increase depend on God’s blessing. Obed-edom, a man in David’s time, had eight sons, because God blessed him (1 Chronicles 26:5). It is because of this first command and blessing that the human race still exists, and that one generation passes while another comes.

God also gave man, when he made him, rule over the lower creatures, over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air. Though man does not care for them as he does for himself, he has power over both, and much more over every living thing that moves on the earth, since those are closer to him and more under his care. God intended this to honor man, so that man would feel a stronger duty to honor his Maker. This rule has been much weakened and damaged by the fall into sin, yet God’s providence still leaves people enough of it for the safety and support of life. And God’s grace has given believers a new and better claim to the creatures than the one lost through sin, for all things are ours if we belong to Christ (1 Corinthians 3:22).