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An Essay Based on Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 10

Q. 10. How did God create man?

A. God created man male and female, after his own image [a], in knowledge [b], righteousness, and holiness [c], with dominion over the creatures [d].

[a]. Gen. 1:27 [b]. Col. 3:10 [c]. Eph. 4:24 [d]. Gen. 1:28; see Ps. 8

Two Questions That Shape Everything

How did we get here? What are we supposed to do while we are here? These are two first order questions to ask and answer. The answer to the second question depends on how you answer the first. If you believe that there is no One, then there is no Purpose either. If you believe God created you, then the Bible and Creation speak clearly to you about Purpose.

The Testimony of Our Existence

We affirm that God created us. Therefore, we believe our existence is the greatest testimony that there is a God. We have teams of the smartest people in the world working on creating sentient (conscious) AI. However, if we ever accomplish it, it’ll be because we followed the pattern of Creation. The original AI models used linear progression, like regular math. Current AI models, AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), mimic human brain cells and are dynamic.

His Image in Us

How can “we” exist without “Him?” God formed us in His image. That means we are a living testimony of His existence. Every human you see testifies to God’s existence.

Mankind Imitates the Creator

Mankind mimicks God’s complex work in our own complex work. We don’t create, we discover the uses He hid in Creation like Easter eggs for us from the beginning.

Marriage Reflects the Eternal

Paul says in Ephesians 5 that marriage serves as a metaphor to reveal the future union of Christ and His Church. That means God created marriage with the Gospel in mind.

The Resurrection Foreshadowed

The resurrection is apparent from Creation 1 Corinthians 15:35-49 teaches that:

• God’s power to resurrect is witnessed in the power to create “from nothing–ex nihilo.”
• And that God can raise our natures (glorify us) to a higher one than we have now is seen in the hierarchy of the original created order.

Created to Reflect the Eternal

God created marriage from the beginning to reflect the Eternal. He created seeds from the beginning to reflect the Eternal. The point is He created.

Male and Female in His Image

God created Man–male and female. Two complementary creatures that both reflect God’s image. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them (Genesis 1:27).” But what does it mean to reflect God’s image?

Marred Yet Reflective

Before we go any further, we have to acknowledge something. We have to acknowledge that we are marred images of God. The Fall of Man altered us. We still shine as God’s images, but the image is dimmer because, as Paul says in Romans 1 “our foolish hearts were darkened (Romans 1:21).” In order to teach us what we lost in the Fall, the Catechism points us to what is restored to us by the Holy Spirit through sanctification.

Renewed in Knowledge

Paul writes to the Colossians that they, when they received the Holy Spirit, “have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” The Holy Spirit, in conjunction with the Word of God, renews the mind of Man. If you renew you are “making again.” To make “again,” means that you already made it once. God, in the beginning, made us like himself in knowledge. What that means is that we can read His Creation. Again, Man can create AGI. We can create airplanes and rockets. We can create heat resistant and cold resistant wheat with double the grain head size.

The Power of Knowing

How can we do this? We possess the ability to know and continue to know. Chimpanzees do not preserve knowledge bases and advance technologies by mimicking the created order. Ever wonder why the world seemed to take off after the life of Jesus Christ? He sent back the Holy Spirit and began “renewing us in knowledge.”

Knowing Good and Evil

We are like Him in another important way too. We not only can know things, but we can know goodness, law, order, and evil. Paul, writing now to the Ephesians says, “and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:23-24).”

This is one of C. S. Lewis’ major points in “Mere Christianity.” He said that there is an objective law of goodness that exists outside of us and we all know it. When one baby takes another’s toy or commits an act of violence the offended child cries out for justice. What we see in seed form with babies works its way out into full blown systems of justice, law, and order. We know what good is, even as Fallen creatures, and nothing demonstrates it more than our creation of justice systems and moral codes.

We Were Given Dominion

Finally, since we can know, pass on knowledge, advance technology, erect safe society, and easily trick (train) much larger and physically imposing animals into doing what we want, it is apparent that we were given “dominion” by God. We are Earth’s rulers.

Crowned with Glory and Honor

“What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? 5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas (Psalm 8:4-8).”

Created, Redeemed, and Perfected

God created us. God created us male and female and we both are living testimonies of His existence. In our original creation God made us with knowledge, righteousness, and holiness–Chief characteristics of Himself. In our redemption, God is renewing His Image. When Jesus returns He will perfect it. That is the promise of God.

He Will Complete the Work

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6).”

Q. 10. How did God create man?

A. God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness [c], with dominion over the creatures.