Spittin' Image

  

Read Genesis 5

Here is a quick creation story that we find at the beginning of this chapter.

This is the written account of Adam’s family line.

When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them “Mankind” when they were created.

Humankind was created mankind and there was no feminist argument, because it wasn’t a sexist thing.  Man—Adam—human was created out of the dust of the earth.  As it hadn’t rained yet, God probably had to use a little spittle to hold us together.

Maybe we are the spittin’ image of God.

The girls all went yuck.  That’s why they came from a rib and not the dirt.  OK, let’s be serious.  God created mankind—male and female alike.

We are created in God’s image—in his likeness.  We got that in chapter 1, but it seems relevant enough to the lineage that follows to be repeated here.

And we are reminded that God blessed us.  He gave us dominion and stewardship of this earth.

Only after this executive summary of creation, do we get the lineage. So, we will save much of the lineage for the next service and focus on who we are.

God created and God created good, and we were and are at the top of that creation.

We are of the earth and we are of God.  We often struggle between those two.  Struggle is part of our lives, but we must never forget that we are also made in the image and likeness of God.

For all of our struggles, God wants us to be more like him.  God does not want us to conform to the world and its models and patterns but be transformed into his image.

We don’t get all of that in this chapter of Genesis, but we also don’t read this chapter with blinders on and ignore the full biblical witness.

We have struggle but we are predestined to be conformed to God’s glorious image—to the image of his Son. From the beginning, God wanted us to be like him.

He chose us, but we must receive him as Lord and take his yoke and learn from him.  God chose us!

Let us choose to live his way in spite of and especially in the midst of our struggle. Yes, the chapter you read all week is about the bloodline that began with Abraham and continued through Seth and we see it here go all the way to Noah.

We know that it continues to Christ and that bloodline continues in the shed blood of Christ for our sins.  Let’s follow Adam’s bloodline through Noah, then Abraham and his sons, but let us remember that it is the blood of Christ that sets us free from sin and death.

Amen.