DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
Genesis 1:24-2:3 (3/12) 1st
God
Said-III ~ Let Us Make Man: Genesis 1:24-2:3, especially vss. 26, 27: “And
God said, Let Us make man according to our image and likeness, and let them
have dominion....And God made man, according to the image of God He made him,
male and female He made them.” Continue examining
God’s unfolding revelation of Himself, especially in the Genesis account
of the sixth day of creation.
Herein, God discloses Himself as personal and relational with man who is
made in his Creator’s image, and is, therefore, a personal and relational
being to whom God, as Ruler of the creation, extends dominion within His
creation.
First,
notice that between vss. 26 and 27 there is a significant moment akin to a
pause. God “reflects”
within Himself, among His Persons.
Throughout the Genesis account, as God creates, He says simply, “Let
there be” (e.g., vs. 14) or, “Let the earth bring forth” (vs.
24), and whatever He names comes into being. However, in these two verses God first
proposes “Let Us make man” (vs. 26), after which He acts:
“And God made man” (vs. 27).
An important addition to note here is the “Us.” Creation is revealed to be the work of a
personal and relational Being. God
proposes, deliberates, and communicates among the Persons of the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. Persons
in a relationship of Communion with each Other is the appropriate way to
conceive of God the Creator. Since
man is fashioned in the image of God, these facts concerning God’s nature
have immense consequence when we consider ourselves as God’s creature, as
man.
Metropolitan John of Pergamon explains that when man is made in the
image of God, “he exists, he takes on God’s ‘way of
being.’ This way of being is
not a moral attainment, something that man ‘accomplishes.’ It is a way of
‘relationship’ with the world, with other people, and with God, an
event of ‘communion.’”[1] It should be noted that this way of
being, however, may only be attained fully within the life of the Church,
“only as an ‘ecclesial’ fact.”
What do we mean by saying ‘person’ and
‘personal?’ St. Gregory
of Nyssa says, “There is nothing remarkable in man being the image and
likeness of the universe: for the earth passes away, the sky changes, and all
that is contained therein is as transient as that which contains it.” [2]
What we can intuit from the fact that we are made in God’s image and from
knowing that He creates, deliberates, proposes, decides, and communicates, is
that we are ‘persons’ with constitutive capacities, able to do
these sorts of things. What is
remarkable about Man and each man we encounter is that we bear in our breast
what St. Gregory the Theologian calls “a divine particle,”[3]
that includes the capacities for self-awareness, choice, and a modicum of
freedom.
Man also is relational, as Metropolitan John indicates. As God is Communion and diversity, so we
are complete only in social relation.
We are made for Communion.
This also is the underpinning of our being made male and female in the
image of God (vs. 27). Let us
recognize, therefore, that gender diversity is not merely natural, but
supra-natural. We are not complete
merely in physical union, but in spiritual Communion.
Finally, mankind’s God-given mission is stated here: “Let
them have ‘dominion’ over...all the earth” (vs. 28). Respect and care for God’s
creation is implicit in this dual extension of “dominion” and “blessing.” God has called us to bless the world, to
transfigure it in Communion with Him.
As St. Diadochos of Photiki states: “Our likeness to God requires
our cooperation. We are to work
with God in bringing blessing to the created order.”[4] “But man shall go forth unto his
work, and to his labor until the evening” (Ps. 103:25).
“Thou, [O Lord,] hast made [us] a little lower than the angels; with glory and honor hast Thou crowned [us], and Thou has set [us] over the works of Thy hands.” (Ps. 8:5).