Tuesday 10th January
Read Genesis 1:27
“So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.” (NIVUK)
The image of God includes both male and female. Though the relationship between men and women will be strained, with men often dominating women, the author of Genesis makes it clear that the original, good creation of humanity involved both sexes. The writer will later make the important point that the blessing of God on humanity includes the ability to continue to create humans in His image – a blessing that demands male and female to come together.
“This is the written account of Adam’s family line. When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them ‘Mankind’ when they were created.” (Genesis 5:1-2) (NIVUK)
The significance of repeating the blessing of humanity in Genesis 1 in the context of the account of ‘Adam’s’ genealogy is precisely that – the blessing is the ability to ‘procreate’, to continue God’s creation of humanity going forward.
The unity of ‘male and female’ is clear in the Hebrew and captured in the word ‘mankind’ – which in Hebrew is literally ‘adam’. This essential unity between male and female is restated and restored by Christ. Consider Paul’s words to the Galatians, in seeking for them to understand the nature of the good news they believed, a good news that erases the distinctions which are so familiar to them and unites them once more in the second ‘Adam’, Jesus.
“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:26-28) (NIVUK)
At its heart the gospel restores us, male and female, to the image and likeness of God: in Christ we are again fully human.
