A Sermon Series
The Five Solas
“Soli Deo Gloria; God’s Glory Alone”
Genesis 1:26-30
Introduction
In the previous weeks of this series, we have looked at Scripture alone, Grace alone, Faith alone, and Christ alone. These first four solas fight against the word “addition.”[1] No authority is above God’s Word (it is perfect just the way it is), or comes along to add to its authority. The other three deal with not adding anything to salvation (like works, or means of), and it is Jesus alone and His work on the cross that alone satisfies God’s punishment for our sin. Jesus is the only way that man is justified before God. “How we like to think that there’s something for us to add to the satisfaction and obedience of Christ or to the inspired word of the prophets and apostles, . . .”[2]
The fifth sola, God’s Glory Alone, is a fight for balance in the Christian’s life. No, not balance as in work and family, but as in why were you saved to begin with? Is salvation ultimately about you? You were lost in sin, Jesus came along and saved you, so that you can live a better life? Is that why Jesus ultimately came and died on the cross, so that you can be better off? Now that a person has been saved, then what?
What Is My Purpose?
My Best Life or God’s Glory Alone?
Genesis 1:26 says “Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness.” Being made in the image of God, or bearing His image makes mankind distinctly different from the rest of creation, since mankind is the only being made in the image of God.
The rest of creation points to a Creator, Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above1 proclaims his handiwork.” And Hebrews 3:4 “For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.” It is so wonderfully complex and orderly, it must have a Creator (as a man who finds an iphone in the forest he knows someone at one point made it).[3] While mankind also points to God as having a creator because of the complexity and beauty the human body holds, it also plays a far more important role. The role of “bearing the image of God.”
So what does this mean, to be made in the image of God? The word “image” in the Hebrew is where the word “idol” comes from. You don’t have to read very much of the Old Testament to see that idols were forbidden, and caused much trouble for the people of God. God’s people, the Israelites, would follow a false god, and create an idol (or representation) of the god, that they would then bow down to and worship it as the one true God. The representatives made of stone, metal, straw, etc. represented the god. These images angered God because they did not accurately represent Him and His character, and it was not the way that God had directed that He was to be worshipped.[4]
There are certain attributes that God possesses as part of his nature that we also possess (holiness, love, truth, righteousness, beauty, etc.) and attributes that we do not possess (omnipresence, omnipotence, eternality, etc.)[5] Mankind can show love; dads love their kids. This is true if a person knows Jesus or not.
Think of being an image bearer where the human is a mirror. He was created to reflect; specifically, he was created to reflect God. It is in reflecting, that God receives glory and the person does what he was created to do. Idols are forbidden because they do not accurately represent God as he truly is “In fact it is only mankind that can “bear His image.” But we bear His image in order to reflect the glory to God our Creator. This does not make us gods, anymore than the mirror is its’ maker.
But because mankind is sinful the mirror is covered with mud (sin). What is reflects is covered with sin. This is mankind apart from a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. We do not bring God glory and we do not live a life of reflecting the image of God. God saves us; we then reflect our Creator (Jesus) and He receives honor, worship, praise, and glory. We have a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction because we finally are doing what mankind was created to do (Genesis 1:26).
There is also another problem. Once a person receives Jesus’ free gift of salvation the reflection that he gives is not a perfect reflection. Yes, Christians still make mistakes! In fact it’s much like a House of Mirrors at the local county fair. The image is distorted, warped, and weird. Thus begins a lifelong process of making the image more and more accurate (theologians call this Sanctification). It is only in eternity when we will as the image bearers of Christ accurately reflect Him as we should. Also, because we are all created different and unique we have been designed to reflect that light differently. One person will reflect the attribute of love differently, but they both reflect love.
You Are Made by God, and You Have a God Given Responsibility (vv. 26-27)
“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image[6], 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.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Mankind is described as being made in the image of God. To be an image bearer of God is to be like Him, but eternally different from Him. “An image is ‘something cut out” such as an idol (2 Kings 11:18). It describes an exact resemblance, like a son who is an exact resemblance of his father. Genesis 5:3 “When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, . . .” Ancient kings would place such effigies of themselves in cities they ruled. However, although man is like God, he is not God (nor a god).”[7]
Mankind will love, but not as God loves. Mankind will think and reason, but he is not omniscient. Mankind will rule and reign, but not as God rules and reins. Mankind will bring life into the world, but not like God brings creation into existence. But, none-the-less we are a reflection of God. This is why the second phrase, “after our likeness,” is added. We are made in the image of God, but only a likeness (not an exact copy).
Genesis is a written account of creation where God communicates through His Word to us. Being made in the image of God is that mankind has the ability to communicate with God through His Word to us. He is giving us instructions, “God can converse with those made in His image, and Scripture is a record of those conversations. Moreover, conversation enables humans to have genuine fellowship with God.”[8] Because humanity bears the image of God, humanity then, has the ability to communicate with God.
Dolphins don’t have Bibles, crickets don’t know any memory verses, birds don’t quote from Ezekiel. But also, as a shadow, or reflection of this is how we communicate with other humans – it should reflect our knowledge of God’s Word (good, purposeful, holy, etc.) Our being bearers of God’s image allows us to have the ability to possess and understand the Words of God.
Mankind is given a responsibility leading from this act of creation. To be made in the image of God is to have the ability to have dominion over all of creation. God oversees all of time and space, all of reality, all of the created order, all of the heavenlies, all of wonders we don’t even know about.
So, as a reflection of God, humanity oversee this created order. The verses then go back to how humanity is made in the image of God — having two forms, male and female. “Sexual distinction is also created. The plural in v. 27 (“he created them”) is intentionally contrasted with the singular (“him”) and prevents us from assuming the creation of an originally androgynous man.”[9] In these two forms (which we call genders) humans oversee creation. Men and Women will each play a part in having dominion over creation.
In the previous days of creation, whenever fish, birds, plants, insects, are discussed, there is no mention of gender – even though there are male birds, and female fish, insects, etc. It is only humans that God highlights “male and female he created them.” We are made in the image of God; when God created man He said, “Let us make man in our image,” – there is a plurality in God, and as His image bearers, we have plurality (humanity is male and female).[10]
The human relationship between a man and a woman is a reflection of the relationship between God and Himself. We don’t understand God unless we understand Him as a Trinity (Father, Son, and Spirit). We don’t understand humanity and our identity unless we understand this plurality of men and women and how they are designed to be together.
Psalm 8:5-8 “Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.” Mankind is an image bearer and he is given the responsibility to oversee and rule over all of creation, as men and women, and in this responsibility, he has been “crowned with glory and honor.”
Genesis 9:5-6 shows us all of mankind are crowned with glory and honor from God, and you cannot take a human’s life without a reckoning from God, “And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. 6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” (Do not murder, Ex. 20:13)
In Amos 2 we see that God’s people are facing the judgement of God, “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals — 7 those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted;”
All humans are made in the image of God so they should not be murdered, enslaved, or mistreated. How we treat other people is rooted in our seeking to honor how they have been created in the image of God – crowned with glory and honor by God. This person is God’s creation, we should be careful how we treat God’s creation.
Also, to be made in the image of God is to be made eternal. Mankind was originally designed to live forever.
You Are Blessed By God to Give God Glory (vv. 28-30)
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.
Genesis 2:18 “Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” God created man with a desire, he was incomplete by-himself. It was the woman who fulfills that part of him that he knows he is missing.
Being created by God, given dominion over the earth, he has also given them the blessing of being able to themselves create life, to “Be fruitful and multiply.” “God is the original possessor of life. Therefore, life is a gift from God – both spiritual life by new birth and natural life by the creation of the soul. . . If each human life is the life of a soul as well as a body, then each human life is created by God. Humans may act as participants in the making of a new body, but humans do not create the soul. God does.”[11]
Psalm 95:6 “. . . let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!” Psalm 139:13-14 “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
Men and women as a unit, that complete each other, both play a role in bringing new life into the world. Neither is capable of bringing life into the word without the other. Each gender has a role to play in having dominion over creation and bringing new life into the world.
“Being human means being a sexual person. Human sexuality and sexual bonding between husband and wife are deemed “very good” (1:31) by God and are to be honored as the divine ordinance for men and women. There is no place in God’s good order for unisexuality or for diminishing or confusion of sexual identity.”[12]
(v. 27) “male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them.” – “God created in his image a male and a female. Both share the image of God. Sexuality Is not an accident of nature, nor is it simply biological phenomenon. Instead it is a gift of God.”[13]
Thinking about men and women and bringing children into this world, go back and look at v. 26 “Let us make man in our image,” and then later in v. 27 “So God created man in his own image,” – God has just completed creation for the first five days, but here God stops, “but before undertaking the next act of creation God took counsel. This unique reference to God’s reflecting in community before making something underscores both the importance and the uniqueness of what God was about to create.”[14] But God creates in the context of plurality.
The Godhead stopped and discussed how humans would affect them. The Father knew they would rebel and so he would have to send the Son to redeem them, The Son knew it would cost them His life, abandonment and wrath from the Father, the Spirit would have to counsel them, convict them of sin, etc. – so God, amongst Himself, considered these things. It is this communication and contemplation that serves as an example for us – husbands and wives considering and discussing.
(see Psalm 8:5-8) “He [God] crowned him [humanity] in three ways; first by bestowing upon him a posterity – ‘Be fruitful and multiply’ (1:28a). From Adam and Eve the whole human race was to spring. Adam is consistently seen in the Bible as the federal head of the human race.” Secondly, “God crowned Adam with a position (1:28b) giving him dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing.” And Finally, “God crowned Adam with a possession (1:29-31). He gave him paradise to enjoy.”[15]
(v. 28) “And God blessed them,” – “To bless is to bestow not only a gift but a function, and to do so with warm concern.”[16] Genesis 2:3 “So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.” You are given a gift, but it is also the living out, an expectation of using the gift, or exercising the gift, that is the full blessing. You are expected to do something with the gift that has been given.
The crowning with glory and honor, the ability to exercise dominion over creation, and the blessing from God to bring life into this world, all flow from God to humanity and they are expected to follow His God ordained order of creation. Men and Women receiving and obeying God’s Word, fulfilling their God-given calling, being blessed by God and bringing life into this world, in the context of a godly marriage and family.[17]
Conclusion
Humanity was created by God to give Him glory, and Humanity was redeemed back from sin and the fall to give God glory – ultimately our salvation if for God’s glory alone.
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[1] The two overriding concerns of the Reformation were religious authority and the doctrine of salvation.
[2] David Vandrunen, God’s Glory Alone, The Majestic Heart of Christian Faith and Life (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Zondervan Publishing, 2015) 16.
[3] Romans 1:18 ff.
[4] Exodus 20:3, 4
[5] Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears. Doctrine (Crossroads; Wheaton, Illinois, 2007) 121.
[6] imago dei
[7] Clifton Allen, General Editor, The Broadman Bible Commentary, Volume 1 (Nashville, Tennessee; Broadman Press, 1969) 125.
[8] John E. Hartley, New International Biblical Commentary, Genesis (Peabody, Massachusetts; Hendrickson Publishers, 2000) 49.
[9] Gerald Von Rad, The Old Testament Library, Genesis (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; The Westminster Press, 1956) 58.
[10] Frank E. Gaebelein, General Editor, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 2 (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Zondervan Publishing, 1990) 38.
[11] John Piper, Providence (Wheaton, Illinois; Crossway Publishing, 2020) 343.
[12] Kenneth A. Matthews, The New American Commentary, Genesis 1-11:26 (Nashville, Tennessee; Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1996) 174.
[13] Victor P. Hamilton, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament, The Book of Genesis, Chapters 1-17 (Grand Rapids, Michigan; William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1991) 139.
[14] Hartley, 47.
[15] John Phillips, Exploring Genesis, An Expository Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Kregel Publications, 1980) 46.
[16] Derek Kidner, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, Genesis, An Introduction and Commentary (Downers Grove, Illinois; Inter-Varsity Press, 1967) 52.
[17] Mark 10:6-8, Matthew 19:4-5
