What is Man?
There is an obvious focus upon the 6th Day of creation to which our attention is called in Genesis 1. This emphasis is underscored by certain changes in the text including the introduction of new phrases and even by the proportion given to it. As you read through the passage, each new day brings greater beauty and complexity to God’s work of creation, and then we come to the crowning jewel of all of God’s creative work—the creation of mankind. When David thinks through the implications of the place of mankind within God’s creation, he breaks forth in worship saying as he does in Psalm 8:1-6,
O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is Your name in all the earth!
You have set Your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
You have established strength because of Your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at 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,
and the son of man that You care for him?
Yet You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of Your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
In other words, though man is neither the largest creature nor the grandest aspect of God’s creation, God has still put His finger upon mankind and set us apart as entirely unique in His sight. Thus, what we see at the end of Genesis 1 is the Master Artist putting His finishing touches upon His masterpiece of creation, as He not only completes it, but then also creates and commissions image bearers to represent Him within it.
As we approach verse 26 we cannot but notice a change in the writing—word usage, phrase changes, and even God’s own self-disclosure and self-reference—which are all textual signals to alert us to the fact that something’s up… something big is about to happen. For instance, one of the first things in the text that alerts us to this fact is the change from the so far constant, “Let there be…”, to this new and dramatic, “Let us make…”. At every other juncture in the creative process, God has merely said, “Let there be” this, or, “Let the earth” bring forth that, but here it turns personal, with the first ever (and only), “Let Us make…”. And in this change there is not only a shift to the personal, but there is a change in the entire posture of our Creator. In other words, this is not so much a statement of command—as all the previous creative actions have been—but now we have a move to conversation. God is not merely engaged in an act of creative power…He is now in counsel within Himself—which casts this final part of the work of creation in a totally unique light that up until this point we have not seen.
This new phase or posture is decidedly personal and this is further accentuated by the change from the phrase that we have seen at every other juncture of God’s creation of things with which He is filling the earth—plants, fish, birds, land animals—“…according to its kind”. You see, in contrast with the impersonal, “…according to its kind” , we now read the very personal, “…according to Our likeness”.
Finally, drawing our attention to the importance of this act on the 6th Day—the creation of mankind—we have the generous use of the word create. Up until this point in the narrative, it has only been used twice: In verse 1, to indicate that the heavens and the earth are here by the unique, creative action of God alone, and then in verse 21, seemingly to make the strong point that the sea creatures that so many cultures feared and worshipped at that time, were actually the creation of Israel’s God. But here in the making of mankind the word “create” is used 3 times in one verse. And all of this—all these textual signals—are to get us to see that we have reached the climax of God’s creational activity. This is the end. This is His final and crowning work happening right here, right now, in the creation of mankind. And we should stop for a moment and consider that momentous fact.
As you read Genesis 1, it is clear that there is in fact closeness that humanity shares with the animals, but here in the creation of mankind, that closeness is eclipsed by the uniqueness of mankind and his special place in creation. And thus we cannot view mankind as a highly developed animal, but rather he must be viewed in the most unique position to the Creator Himself. And it is in this unique relationship to God that true human dignity is to be found. Humanity has been made in the closest possible relationship to the Creator Himself. Thus, worth and value come not from what one has, how beautiful or strong one is, or based on their relative talents. Rather, humanity’s worth and value is found in the fact that God made us special, unique, and for relationship with Him.
David Reese has served as the pastor of the Springs Reformed Church in Colorado Springs since 2002. He is a graduate of the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh, PA.
