Question 10: People

Question 10: How did God create man?

Answer: God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.

It has been said that man is both noble and cruel. These two ideas correspond to the two most important things that the Bible tells us about our nature: first, that we are made in God's image; second, that we are sinful. However, only one of these two was present at creation, in which God made all things good. That was our nobility our creation in God's image. Psalm 8:3-8 acknowledges that even though humans are made out of dust and are as nothing in God's sight, yet he has still given us a unique nobility on this earth: "When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man, that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas."

What precisely does it mean to be made in God's image? The catechism starts us with an answer from Genesis - we are designed as male and female. The image of God is not displayed in any one person, but in a diversity of people who together show forth God's glory. But the catechism gives a fuller answer to this question from the New Testament. Because of our sin, it is very hard for us to know what the image of God should look like. But we do have one perfect model - Jesus himself. Ephesians 4:23-24 tells us that to learn the way of Christ means "to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." Living out our noble calling, the image of God, involves knowledge (our minds), righteousness, and holiness - something that is only possible through Christ's saving work on the cross.

You are made in the image of God, and if you are in Christ, you can look forward to being remade perfectly in the image of God. Do you actively seek to live that out in the way that the Scriptures teach?

Reference: Explanation of the Shorter Catechism by Thomas Vincent