The biblical story about the creation of a man bears relevance to human beings from those who profess faith in the scriptures and those who do not. The principal claim of the story of creation is the superiority of man beyond other existing creations on earth. People who do not profess faith in the scriptures have generated contrasting assertions about the position of God as the creator. However, irrespective of religious affiliations or beliefs and practices, people may acknowledge the superiority of human beings over other creations as well as the power and sovereignty of the creator.
The passage, “and God created the human in his image” illustrates the love of God towards humanity. The human beings are elevated to the realms of glory by the virtue that God created them in His likeness. The origin of humanity from the biblical context, “in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them”, exemplifies the function of the scripture as a tool that provides information and knowledge to humankind (English Standard Bible, Gen. 1.26)According to Dahlsgaard, Peterson, and Seligman, the purpose of God creating man and woman was to separate them into two sexes, male and female (209). Therefore, the different gender formation communicates God’s objective of providing a defined purpose of His creation. When He blessed the man and woman He said, “be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it” (English Standard Bible, Gen. 1. 28). The scripture confirms the completeness of the creation, “and God saw everything he had made, and behold, it was good” (English Standard Bible, Gen. 1.27). Although the liberal approaches have altered the rule of marriage, leading to same-sex unions, the biblical context of creation provides a roadmap for the union between man and woman.
The purpose of the passages is to illustrate the power and the glory of God as the creator of man. Dahlsgaard, Peterson, and Seligman assert that all human beings irrespective of their religious affiliations have the responsibility of acknowledging their existence as a creation of God, which takes the design of His image and likeness (208). From the biblical passages, the scripture is relevant to all people since it provides a definitive story on the origin of man. The scripture lays a substantive observation on the original expectations of the creator in uniting a male and a female into the institution of marriage for the continuity of creation through family life. The rules of the creation in the book of Genesis idealize the guidelines governing the unity between man and woman when God blesses them to live together. Understanding the story and the design of creation helps in shaping the objectives of human beings. Therefore, the expectations of the creator should form the major deliverable of a man during his active life on earth. Consequently, the scripture explains the story and design of creations and expands on the importance of man, who is created in the image and likeness of God.
As is it evident from the analysis, the scripture provides a roadmap for the purpose and the process of marriage. In addition, it draws a model of continuing the process of creation through the advice of man and woman procreating to fill the earth. It implies that man and woman should conform to God’s purpose of creation as demonstrated in the book of Genesis. Therefore, human beings remain elevated above other creations and have a role of acknowledging the creator during their lifetime.
Works Cited
Dahlsgaard, Katherine, Christopher Peterson, and Martin EP Seligman. “Shared Virtue: The Convergence of Valued Human Strengths Across Culture and History.” Review of General Psychology, vol. 9, no. 3, 2005, pp. 203-213.
The English Standard Version Bible. Oxford University Press, 2009.