The Manhood Talks | Foundation & IdentitySample

Day 3 | Genesis 1:26-27 | In His Image

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Welcome to day number 2 of The Manhood Talks. My name is Gabriel Nieves and it is great to be with you. So today we are going to go back to our roots. Yes indeed we are going old school! If you want to know what it means to be a man then we gotta trace our roots. And let me tell you that you’re not the first person to wrestle with what it means to be a man. Your dad was here first and his dad before him. But today we're going to follow the family line all the way back to man number one. We're going to go way back to Genesis 1. The creation story.

We jump in on day number 6 of creation. God has already completed the creation of light, the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, the birds that soar the skies and the vast multitude of the oceans creatures, and here on day 6 — the land animals, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And in verse 26,

"Then God said, 'Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground'" (Genesis 1:26).

Now the creation of mankind is no small task! The human body is the most complex machine in the known universe. I know a few engineers that have actually worked on rockets, and they launched stuff into outer space. It doesn’t mean that they are smarter or better than anyone — it just just means they know a thing or 2 about machines.

And as a machine, the body is impressive. Your body is made of about seven octillion atoms — that’s a lot of zeros 27 to be exact! — and they are all neatly organized into tiny little cells with each and every cell more complex and sophisticated than the International Space Station.

A single cell has a hundred thousand moving parts completing thousands of complex operations every second.

You have about 37 trillion of those little machines — self-replicating wonders, all working together in millions of interconnected processes, forming tissues which work together — to make organs which work together — to make systems which work together — to-make — your — body!

And of course, you might believe that all that got there by accident. You might also believe that the Space Station got there by accident. But I think it’s a little insulting to the folks who designed it.

But imagine in your minds eye, if we discovered 37 trillion space stations all working together in one fantastic mega-machine — just flying through space and performing beautifully. Now if a scientist announced that this tremendous machine got there by accident, or a series of accidents — that it was not evidence of alien intelligence — would you give him a round of applause? I'm just saying.

Still, it is interesting that here in the book of Genesis, the Bible doesn’t mention any of that complexity. Rather, it focuses almost entirely on just one aspect of mankind — on one word repeated three times: image. Look at verse 27:

"So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27).

First please note, both male and female are created in God’s image. Our series is about manhood — but first we need to look at what it means to be mankind —male or female. And the Bible says that — in our roots — at the core of what it means to be us — we are created in God’s image.

So what does that mean? Do we look like God? Does God have two eyes and ten toes like we do? Well I think there’s more to it.

When you look at an image — a picture of someone — that image is not the actual person, but it reminds you of them. Not just because they have two eyes and one chin — because it reflects a part of who they are.

We have a little insight on this image concept in Genesis 5:1, where it says that Adam — the first man — had a son in his likeness, and his image. A son in his father’s image. Now if you happened to know me as a teenager, and you also meet my son today — you’d probably notice something. We’re not the same person, but there’s something there — part of it looks — part of it laugh, talk, personality. But my son is his own man — but he’s also a reflection — of his dad, his mom and his Creator.

So what does it mean to be made in God’s image? Whatever it means, it is at the very core of manhood.

And that brings us to the subject of faith. As we examine what it means to be a man, we’re also going to look at four pillars of man’s character: faith, courage, strength, and love. Today: faith. Hebrews 11:1 defines faith this way,

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1 ESV).

See faith and manhood go hand in hand. It is essential because only faith can connect us back to the image of God that we were made for.

So here’s what you do next. First, read Genesis 1 and the assigned reading. Just a couple passages. But this is your journey, your faith walk, so I want you to write down your thoughts. You can either write in a journal or if your group has a discussion page set up to share your answers together, use that.

For Thought & Discussion:

Question 1: What do you think it means to be made in God’s image?

Question 2: How do you think your faith affects your understanding of what it means to be a man and how you develop your sense of identity?

Read Genesis 1:26-27

All verses are quoted from the NIV, ESV.