#DailyDevotion Man, The Center & Pinnacle Of Creation

Gen. 1:6-2:3 ⁶Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, like Ourselves, that they might rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, and the cattle, over all the earth and everything that moves on the earth.” ²⁷And God created man in His image, in God’s image He created him; He created them male and female. ²⁸And God blessed them. “Have children,” God told them, “and become many and fill the earth and control it; and rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, and every living thing that moves on the earth.” ²⁹“I give you,” God said, “every plant that has seeds anywhere on the earth and every tree that has fruit with its seeds. They will be your food. ³⁰And I give all green plants as food to all the land animals, to all the birds in the air, and to everything that moves and lives on the earth.” And so it was. ³¹And God saw that everything He made was very good. Evening came and then morning — the sixth day. 2 And so the heavens and the earth and everything in them were finished. ²On the seventh day, God finished from all His work of creating; and He stopped working on the seventh day. ³And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on that day He stopped from all the work He did in creating the world.

The LORD God makes this beautiful and majestic creation but what for? Many people today look at and and think as David did, “What is man that you are mindful of him?” They try to make people feel pretty small and insignificant, as if they really didn’t matter after all. We are all just star dust, or so the big minds says. Scientist say the earth and more importantly, man is not the center of the universe.

Well, physically, that may be true. But since we don’t know where the edges of the universe are, we can’t really be certain of that either. Just a mathematical hypothesis based theoretical astrophysics. But this text from Genesis, given to Moses from the LORD the Creator of all that is seen and unseen, tells us something different. Man, mankind, human beings are indeed the center of the LORD’s universe, at least as far as He is concerned. Think about it. He makes man in the image of the Trinity, male and female he makes them. He makes us in His likeness. What other creature has that privileged? Not even the angels can say this. To man he gives dominion over the earth and everything in it. He gives dominion, control over all creation. Man is the crowning glory of everything He has created.

Now what is this image and likeness that man was created in? Well the scriptures do not tell us a lot of what that is. The philosophers and theologians have waxed eloquently on things they think it is. But our best understanding of what that is is by what Paul in Ephesians and Colossians tells us in what way we are being renewed in it through faith in Jesus Christ. Now Jesus himself is the Image of the Invisible God. It is in his image and likeness we are being renewed. In Colossians the image is the true knowledge of God. In Ephesians we are renewed in his likeness is true righteousness and holiness. Peter in his second epistle says through the promises of God we are made participants in His divine nature. In all this I think it is is clear we are not insignificant piles of stardust. God the Father loves us and made us in the image and likeness of God and even after the fall, he restores us to that image and likeness through faith in His Image and Likeness, Jesus Christ.

Heavenly Father, you created man in your image and likeness, and while we lost it through sin, you promised and you do renew us in the same through faith in Jesus Christ. Give us faith to believe this and be transformed by it. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.