According to Our Image and Likeness! - Genesis 1:26

 

📖 Scripture:

“Then God said, ‘Let Us make humanity in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over every creature that crawls upon it.’ So God created humanity in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
– Genesis 1:26–27

🔎 Examination:

Genesis 1 is not some fantastic human invention that attempts to explain origins; it is the divine revelation of ontology, authority, order, and function. The repeated cadence—God speaks, creation obeys, God evaluates—establishes a seemingly boundless cosmos created, governed, and sustained by His Word. This is not poetic chaos; it is structured sovereignty. The cosmos is not self-organizing; it is Word-ordained and organized. And everything that exists functions according to its God-ordained purpose—everything except for fallen angels (demons) and rebellious humanity.

When we arrive at Genesis 1:26–27, the pattern intensifies. The Holy Trinity, Creator, declares—“Let Us make”—which introduces a deliberative moment unlike anything before. This is not God reacting; this is God revealing. The plurality of the original Hebrew language does not imply multiple gods but plurality within the one unified, harmonious, divine essence. The full canon (all sixty-six books of the Holy Bible) clarifies this as the God of Holy Triunity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—perfectly united as one, yet distinct in person and role (destroying the heresy of modalism). From before the beginning, unity and distinction coexisted eternally without tension.

The text then declares something staggering: humanity is created in God’s image (ṣelem) and likeness (demût). These are not redundant terms. “Image” speaks to representation—visible manifestation. “Likeness” speaks to correspondence—moral, relational, and functional resemblance. Humanity is uniquely designed to reflect God into creation and to represent creation before God.

Yet the grammar is critical: “So God created humanity… He created him… male and female He created them.” Humanity is singular (“him”) and plural (“them”). This is not a contradiction; it is theological precision. There is one humanity, expressed through two distinct sexes. This mirrors—not perfectly, but analogically—the unity and distinction within the Godhead.

Male and female are not interchangeable expressions of a fluid, ambiguous identity; they are complementary, ordered distinctions within a unified humanity. The text does not present a hierarchy of worth/value but differentiation of role and function. Just as the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Spirit—yet all are essentially, eternally, and equally God—so male and female are equal in dignity yet distinct in role. To erase distinction is not progress; it is rebellion against the created order that reflects God Himself.

This is why the cultural assault on sex/gender distinction is not merely about social confusion—it is theological warfare. It is an attempt to distort, pervert, and sabotage the image of God embedded in humanity. When distinction collapses, the reflection of divine order is obscured, marred, sullied, and violated.

Furthermore, humanity is given dominion. This is not autonomous rule but divinely delegated stewardship. Humanity is to govern all creation under God’s authority, reflecting His character. Dominion without submission to God becomes tyranny; submission without exercising divine dominion becomes passivity. Divine image and likeness require both.

Genesis 3 reveals the fracture. Instead of reflecting God, humanity seeks to replace Him. The serpent’s question—“Did God really say?”—is an attack on divine authority, law & order. The fall is not merely moral failure; it is ontological disorder resulting from rebellion. Humanity rejected its role, distorted its identity, and rebelled against its sovereign Creator.

The testimony of Scripture is that God’s purpose will NEVER fail. Humanity's image and likeness have been marred but not erased. Redemption in Christ is not the creation of something new in kind, but the restoration of what was intended before Elohim (God) spoke creation into existence—humanity, along with the rest of creation, functional and rightly ordered under our Creator, reflecting His eternal glory.

This brings us to 1 Peter 5. Peter is not introducing a new structure; he is applying Genesis order within the redeemed community. The church is not an innovation—it is the restoration of divine function and order through Christ Jesus, our Creator and Sustainer.

God remains the immovable bedrock beneath the foundation. The prophets and apostles form the doctrinal foundation (Eph 2:20), with Christ as the chief cornerstone—the One who aligns everything... plumb, level, and perfect. Without Him, the structure, like Babel, is nothing more than a tower of idolatrous human invention that will collapse and be swept away in judgment.

Within this structure, elders (presbyteroi) function as shepherds. Their role is not authoritarian domination but Christlike stewardship. They do not create truth; they guard and proclaim it. They do not own the flock; they steward and serve under the Chief Shepherd.

Notice the Apostle Peter's emphasis: willingness, eagerness, and type (tupoi) not example (hupogrammon). This reflects the likeness of God—self-giving, not self-exalting. Leadership in the church is not about power, giftedness, or influence, but about patterned obedience to Christ. It is functional obedience and distinction within unity—just as we read in Genesis 1.

The congregation is then called to obedient submission—not blind compliance (sin), but participation in divine order (worship). Submission is not inferiority; it is holy alignment with God’s divinely ordained structure. Just as Christ submits to the Father (1 Cor 15:28) without diminishing His deity, so, too, ordered relationships within the true church reflect divine harmony.

Peter then broadens the scope: “all of you… clothe yourselves with humility.” This is the unifying virtue. Pride is the root of disorder—it was the sin of Satan and the catalyst of the fall. Humility restores alignment under God’s authority.

This is the connection: Genesis 1 reveals ordered creation; Genesis 3 reveals disorder through pride; 1 Peter 5 calls the redeemed to restored order through humility.

The church, then, is a living structure—“living stones” (1 Pet 2:5)—being built together. Each part functions according to God’s design. Elders shepherd. Members submit and serve. All humble themselves under God’s mighty hand.

And the purpose/goal? It's not about personal salvation, self-confidence, self-worth, self-help, self-expression, or self-fulfillment. It's not about institutional success or cultural relevance. The purpose is doxological: “to proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (1 Pet 2:9).

This returns us to the highest truth: God is worthy of praise simply because of who He is (1 Peter 1:3), not because of what He does, though His works are glorious, but because of His essential, eternal, divine being. His holiness, His sovereignty, His order, His triune perfection.

Creation displays His invisible qualities (Rom 1:20). Redemption displays His mercy. But His worthiness is intrinsic, eternal, and forever unchanging.

The redeemed—His poiēma (Eph 2:10)—are not those who ask Jesus into their hearts, but the one (singular humanity as the Body & Bride of Christ) doing (present and active) the will of the Father in heaven (Matt 7:21).  That's what it is for us to function according to our created and redeemed purpose. Just as trees bear fruit according to their kind, the elect produce the Fruit of the Spirit, i.e., lives of adoration, praise, lawfully ordered obedience, not to earn favor, but because we have been supernaturally resurrected, reborn, and reunited to Christ Jesus our Creator!

The church, rightly ordered, then becomes the visible testimony of Genesis restored—unity with gender role distinction, authority with submission, leadership with humility—all functioning under the sovereign rule of God.

🤺 Action:

• Examine your alignment with God’s order – “Search me, O God… see if there is any offensive way in me” (Ps 139:23–24). Are you embracing or resisting the roles and structures God has ordained?
• Test your understanding of identity – “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith” (2 Cor 13:5). Is your identity rooted in being created and redeemed in God’s image, or in cultural constructs?
• Evaluate your posture toward authority – “Let us examine and test our ways” (Lam 3:40). Do you joyfully submit within God’s design, or subtly resist through pride or independence?
• Assess your humility – “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (1 Pet 5:5). Where is pride producing disorder in your life?
• Test your function within the Body – “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only” (Jas 1:22). Are you actively participating as a living stone, or passively observing?
• Discern truth from distortion – “Test all things; hold fast to what is good” (1 Thess 5:21). Are you guarding against teachings that blur God’s created distinctions and order?

🧠 Reflection:

From the beginning, God has revealed Himself as a God of law, order, clarity, and purposeful design. Nothing in creation exists randomly; everything functions according to His Word. Humanity alone was given the privilege of reflecting Him uniquely—and yet, in Adam, we despised and rejected that calling.

In Christ, the image has been restored. The chaos of sin has been undone through redemption. The true church stands as the visible evidence of that restoration—a redeemed people brought into alignment with God’s design, living under His authority, and reflecting His glory.

This is no heavy burden; it is freedom! To live according to God’s law & order is to live according to the only truth and reality. It is to step out of chaos, ambiguity, dysfunction, and confusion... and step into clarity, adoration, function, and purpose as praise! Above all, it is to recognize that God, Elohim, our eternal sovereign Creator, is worthy, fully, eternally, independently of us and our response. Neither our belief, obedience, adoration, or praise makes Him worthy; it simply reveals that in His lovingkindness... He has been gracious to us in removing the scales from our eyes and given us eyes to see the boundless depths of His infinite worth!

So the question is not merely theological—it is personal: Are you functioning according to the purpose for which you were created and redeemed? Are you a devoted member of a local church that's joyfully gathering with Christ, intentionally growing in the WORD, lavishly giving yourselves away, and boldly going in the power and unity of the gospel?

The One who spoke light into existence and separated it from the darkness is still speaking. Not through charlatans, liars, and hacks, self-appointed modern-day prophets and apostles, but through His WORD. The call is the same as it has always been: alignment, submission, and joyful participation in His divine order. That precisely what King Jesus said, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” 

Blessings & love,

Kevin M. Kelley
Pastor

BigIslandChristianChurch.com

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