How God Created Man

Q. 10. How did God create man?
A. 10. God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.(1)

(1) Gen. 1:26-28; Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24.

God created all things in the space of six days and all very good. We saw this in the previous question concerning creation. Now we come to the pinnacle of creation: man. On the sixth day of creation, after everything else had been made, God took matters into His own hands, so to speak. Previously as God created He said, "Let there be..." and there was. Now Genesis 1:26 gives us something a little different. "Let us make man in our image..." God could have said and done as He had done with everything else He created: "let there be man." Thus we see right from the beginning of verse 26 that there is something special about man. 

Genesis 2:7 expands on this and tells us that "the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature" (ESV). There is a lot packed into this verse and much of it is to get us to meditate on the wonder of it all and not necessarily to answer all the potential questions that may arise. First, God formed the man. The verb here is related to the idea of a potter forming something out of clay or even a carpenter making something out of wood. In other words, man is a creature who is carefully crafted by God. You are the way you are because God carefully crafted you to be the way you are. Second, God formed man out of the dust of the ground. The word translated "ground" is the same basic root for "man" and for that matter "Adam." It is true that 2:19 says something similar about the other creatures, but taken with chapter 1 we can still conclude that the creation of man is still quite unique. Third, God breathed into the man the breath of life. Fourth, man became a living creature or perhaps somewhat more woodenly, man became a living soul.

Returning to Genesis 1, we see another profound truth, namely that God made man male and female. This is a biblical truth that is under sustained attack by the world today. The simple truth is that there are two and only two sexes/genders. Many today attempt to play semantic games by trying to differentiate sex and gender; it is true that the two are not quite identical in terminology, but the point is that for mankind there are males and there are females. That's it; nothing beyond that. Arguing for multiple genders or arguing against your own gender is simply sinful rebellion against God and His created order. Christians must not compromise here. It is not hateful to uphold this truth contrary to what the world may tell you.

In addition to what has been noted above, man is created in the image of God according to Genesis 1:27. What exactly does this mean? God has no body; we have already seen that God is a spirit. Man clearly does have a body, so being made in God's image is not about man looking like God or resembling Him in some physical sense. Rather, as our catechism answer indicates, we are made in God's image in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. These three characteristics of being made in God's image come from both Colossians 3:10 and Ephesians 4:24. In both of these verses, we see how knowledge, righteousness, and holiness are connected to the image of God. But what does all of this mean?

Concerning knowledge, man as created had a knowledge of God, knowledge of himself as created, knowledge of the rest of creation around him. This was not an exhaustive knowledge since only God has exhaustive knowledge. Simply put, man was able to know what God revealed to him. The living animals do not act according to knowledge, but rather by instinct. Not so with man. One way this knowledge is demonstrated is in his naming of the animals. He could see and observe the animals and gave them appropriate names. Sadly, our knowledge has been severely dimmed due to the entrance of sin into the world.

Concerning righteousness, man as created was righteous. Simply put, man did what was right. Of course, what is right is what God says is right. God always does what is right and man created in God's image will reflect God by doing what is right. This, too, has been terribly affected by the entrance of sin into the world such that man has lost original righteousness and everything he now does is tainted by sin.

Concerning holiness, man as created was holy. This is not unrelated to righteousness, but whereas the concept of righteousness stresses our deeds, the concept of holiness stresses our state. To be holy means primarily to be set apart. Man certainly was set apart because no other creature was created in God's image; no other creature could commune with God; no other creature had dominion over the rest of the creatures. Once again, the entrance of sin into the world corrupted this aspect of being God's image.

God gave man dominion over all the creatures. No other creature was granted such dominion. He was commanded to be fruitful and multiply and fill the whole earth and subdue it. Theologians frequently call this the cultural mandate. Many in the world today say the world is overpopulated and we should have fewer children. God clearly says otherwise. While it is true that God said for the creatures to be fruitful and multiply, something very subtle is present in 1:28 concerning man: God said this to man whereas with respect to the other creatures God simply declared it, as it were. This, too, shows the unique position man in that there was to be mutual communication between God and man.

All of this matters because - as we shall see later in the catechism - Jesus Christ took to Himself a human nature, but without sin. On account of what Jesus did for us, we are being renewed in God's image in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness as both Colossians 3:10 and Ephesians 4:24 indicate. This is why Christ is able to redeem and save us fully... He is truly man in all respects yet without sin. He is the true image bearer and those of us who have placed our faith in Him are being conformed into His image.