Genesis 1:27 - Homiletics

The greatness of man.

I. THE TIME OF HIS APPEARANCE . The latest of God's works, he was produced towards the close of the era that witnessed the introduction upon our globe of the higher animals. Taking either view of the length of the creative day, it may be supposed that in the evening the animals went forth "to roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God," and that in the morning man arose upon the variegated scene, "going forth to his work and to his labor until the evening" ( Psalms 104:20-23 ). In thin there was a special fitness , each being created at the time most appropriate to its nature. Man's works are often mistimed; God's never. Likewise in man's being ushered last upon the scene there was peculiar significance ; it was a virtual proclamation of his greatness.

II. THE SOLEMNITY OF HIS MAKING , which was preceded by a Divine consultation: "Let us make man," &c.; The language of—

1. Resolution . As if, in the production of the other creatures, the all-wise Artificer had been scarcely conscious of an effort, but must now bestir himself to the performance of his last and greatest work.

2. Forethought . As if his previous makings had been, in comparison with this, of so subordinate importance that they might be executed instantaneously and, as it were, without premeditation, whereas this required intelligent arrangement and wise consideration beforehand.

3. Solicitude . As if the insignificance of these other labors made no special call upon his personal, care and attention, whereas the vastness of the present undertaking demanded the utmost possible watchfulness and caution.

4. Delight . As if the fashioning and beautifying of the globe and its replenishing with sentient beings, unspeakably glorious as these achievements were afforded him no satisfaction in comparison with this which he contemplated, the creating of man in his own image (cf. Proverbs 8:31 ).

III. THE DIGNITY OF HIS NATURE . "Created after God's image and likeness," suggesting ideas of—

1. Affinity , or kinship. The resplendent universe, with its suns and systems, its aerial canopy and green-mantled ground, its Alps and Himalayas, its oceans, rivers, streams, was only as plastic clay in the hands of a skilful potter. Even the innumerable tribes of living creatures that had been let loose to swarm the deep, to cleave the sky, to roam the earth, were animated by a principle of being that had no closer connection with the Deity than that which effect has with cause; but the life which inspired man was a veritable outcome from the personality of God ( Genesis 2:7 ). Hence man was something higher than a creature. As imago Dei he was God's son ( Malachi 2:10 ; Acts 17:28 ).

2. Resemblance . A distinct advance upon the previous thought, although implied in it. This likeness or similitude consisted in—

3. Representation . Man was created in God's image that he might be a visible embodiment of the Supreme to surrounding creatures. "The material world, with its objects sublimely great or meanly little, as we judge them; its atoms of dust, its orbs of fire; the rock that stands by the seashore, the water that wears it away; the worm, a birth of yesterday, which we trample underfoot; the sheets of the constellations that gleam perennial overhead; the aspiring palm tree fixed to one spot, and the lions that are sent out free—these incarnate and make visible all of God their natures will admit." Man in his nature was intended as the highest representation of God that was possible short of the incarnation of the Word himself.

IV. THE GRANDEUR OF HIS DOMINION . Man was designed to be God's image in respect of royalty and lordship; and as no one can play the monarch without a kingdom and without subjects, God gave him both an empire and a people.

1. An empire .

2. A people .