Image bearers.
The genetic information that brought us into being is a reliable sign that we have a creator. We live by the commands our maker has embedded in us. What are the implications of this truth?
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them. Genesis 1:26,27
Intention.
Let us make man. Sometime in the distant past, God resolved to make something that he called man. It was to have a specific form. He wrote the information for what he intended in the genetic code of the first man and woman, and that information has been passed on all the way down to you. You are the result of a unique combination of genes. Though there are several million other possible outcomes, you are the outcome that prevailed. If we take Jesus's words seriously, we must conclude that your existence is a desired and intended outcome. Nothing about you is by chance.
Nature
"Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." Of the creatures on earth, man is the only one described as made in the image of their creator. We understand when a child bears a resemblance to their parents. We can see both the child and the parent and see the similarities. What does it mean for a finite, visible, flesh-and-blood creature like yourself to be made in the image of the invisible, all-powerful, all-knowing God?
One of the fundamental differences between man and his maker is that God is infinite. We can describe everything else in the known universe using some measurable quantity. God, on the other hand, cannot be measured and has no boundaries. We cannot define him the same way we define other things in the universe. God is not so big that no number encompasses his size, but rather that he has no size. We cannot measure his strength by how much weight he can lift or how much force he can generate. His power brings things into being and removes them from existence. What he calls strength is entirely different from what we call strength. The other fundamental difference is that he is holy or completely other. There is nothing and no one of the same nature as him. Those distinctions are the basis for most other differences between us and our maker. Because you are finite, he has confined your being to a specific time, location, and form. The form in which you exist is your body. In his wisdom, God created two forms, male and female, within which to express himself. According to our maker, the male and the female form are not opposites of one another but different ways of expressing the same thing. Two things are opposites when on a fundamental level, they are as different from one another as possible. That is not the case with male and female humans. Each is a very real, equally valid, though limited expression of God's nature.
How exactly are we like him? We are like him the way a picture of a person is somewhat like the person. The person is living, three-dimensional, and more complex than his image can ever be, but we can recognize something of the person in the two-dimensional representation. The person exists before his image and apart from it, but the image cannot exist without the person it represents. God is not like you, but because you are derived from him, you have some attributes that he has in a small measure. Whatever attributes we have in common, he possesses in their purest form, whereas we possess them as dim copies of the original. There are also attributes he alone has.
Here are some ways in which you are like your maker. You have a measure of autonomy, meaning you can make judgments, choices, and decisions without outside influence. You are self-aware, meaning you can think about yourself and your thoughts. You are creative, meaning you can imagine things that do not yet exist and bring them into being simply for the pleasure of doing so. You have complex emotions. You are moral; that is, you have a category of things you judge as right or wrong. Most importantly, you are a spirit, meaning there is a part of you that is not material and that he has made to live forever. Though confined in a body, your spirit is distinct from the body and is who you really are.
She Rules - Purpose
And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
Everything that is made has a purpose. God created both male and female, having his image so that they would have dominion or authority to rule over the rest of creation on earth. You were made to rule.
If the idea of ruling evokes images of crowns, thrones, lots of servants, lots of bowing, fancy feasts, and great privilege in your mind, know that you are not alone. Jesus' disciples, when they saw the great power he demonstrated and heard him teach about the kingdom of God, correctly concluded that he was a man with great authority, a great ruler, and wanted to share that authority and rule with him. He burst that bubble when he showed them by example and with his words that the kind of ruling God has in mind is very different from what people think. With all the power and authority at his disposal, Jesus went about doing good and serving those he encountered. He showed that ruling on God's terms meant living for the wellbeing of those God entrusted to him. All his acts of power were also acts of kindness performed in service to someone. Even when his life was threatened, he used his power to heal the severed ear of one of his attackers, and used his position of privilege with the Father to plead forgiveness for those who did him wrong.
When God said, "Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens," his intention was that man would be a caretaker of the rest of creation. They would rule by doing the work required to keep God's creation the way he intended it for his pleasure. So you were made to rule over God's creation, but it's probably not what you think. You were made to serve, using your God-given abilities for the wellbeing of those around you. This is God's primary reason for making humans.
Made to Love, Made for Love
Someone once asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was. His response was twofold. First, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength; second, love your neighbor as yourselves. How does that fit in with God's original purpose for making man? If, from the beginning, he made us rulers, then what do these most important commands have to do with ruling? God is invisible but very real. He has made us a little like him. Unlike him, we are finite, and he has placed us in a finite, physical world in which, and through which, we may experience his attributes. Ruling over the creation is what we are made to do, but our all-consuming love for the Lord our God is meant to be the reason for what we do. In the second greatest commandment, Jesus goes further to help us understand that among the things God has made, humans have the highest value and priority to the creator. Therefore, if we rule by taking care of what God had made, and if the way we rule is the way we show love to our maker, then loving and cherishing and caring for other human beings, created in God's image, is the ultimate expression of our love for our maker. You could say it another way. You were made to love your neighbor as an act of love for your maker. You love your neighbor by using your God-given abilities to promote their wellbeing.
In summary, you are a creature made by God with a nature in some ways like his. As a female, you are one of two equally valid ways God has chosen to express himself on earth. Being a finite creature, he has placed you in this specific temporary location, your body, on earth, in your country, city, and hometown at this time in history. Your maker has endowed you with specific abilities and given you the privilege to rule on his behalf by caring for the portion of creation you find yourself in. God has done all this because he loves you and invites you to love him in return as you care for others also made in his image.
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