The Holy Family

by Pastor Paul Wolff

The Holy Family Window from Epiphany Lutheran Church, Detroit, Michigan (Now closed)

This past year (2022) my wife and I have been blessed to see our extended family grow. On the day of Epiphany we rejoiced at the birth of our fifth granddaughter. Then, not quite eleven months later, we rejoiced again at the birth of her niece, our first great-granddaughter. I don’t know what the deal is with all the girls. Statistically, you would expect out of six children born to the younger generations three would be girls and three would be boys. Children, aren’t born by statistics, however, and our grandchildren are all beautiful women and girls, and we thank God for all of them.

Children are truly a blessing from God, despite what the world may think of them. King Solomon wrote, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!” (Psalm 127:3-5) This blessing goes all the way back to the creation of the world where God created mankind as a husband and his wife and blessed them, saying “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28) This blessing was given before the fall into sin, but God blessed Adam and Eve with children even after they rebelled against Him, but He also promised to send a Savior to rescue them all from their sin. God also repeated His blessing to Noah and his sons after God rescued them from the great flood, saying“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” (Gen 9:1) Even though every person ever born on earth (except Jesus) has been born a sinner, God still blesses families with children, and has provided salvation for all of us through Jesus. This is the reason why we celebrate with joy the birth of Jesus, and why it is also important to remember the Holy Family at Christmas (and at other times when we celebrate God’s gifts of new members to our family).

 

The Holy Family at the Nativity of Christ This is not the real Holy Family, but a lifelike representation (compared to the other images in this article).

It is significant that when God became incarnate He came into a young family. In American culture, we would say today that Mary and Joseph were engaged to be married, because the marriage had not been consummated. In Jewish culture of that time, respectable people (like Joseph and Mary) would be legally married for a year – while living apart – before they consummated the marriage. You should note, too, that this practice was not only for prominent wealthy people, but also for laborers, like carpenters. It didn’t matter if Joseph was a skilled master carpenter or an unskilled laborer. People of all social classes would demonstrate their integrity by waiting a year before consummating the marriage, thus showing that they had not engaged in physical intimacy with each other. This not only gave them time to prove they were chaste and hadn’t been unfaithful, but it also gave them time to solidify their lifelong commitment to one another, and to the new family that they were creating.

God could have chosen an unmarried virgin to bear God’s Son, but that is not how God works. God, in His wisdom, created marriage and family for a purpose and He blesses families. In an intact family, the children know the love of both their father and their mother (see the Fourth Commandment – Exodus 20:12). This is God’s good plan, and though in this sinful world, this is not always possible, it is what we should strive for at all times. Besides, as God planned it, we have the “holy family” to look up to and try to make our own families holy also. We do this through repentance and forgiveness of one another when we sin against one another – as we inevitably will. If God had become incarnate through an unmarried woman, then Christians would idealize unmarried mothers and that would necessarily result in all kinds of chaos, like we see in pagan America today: children growing up in broken families feeling unloved and disobeying authorities and getting involved in drugs and crime. Our prisons are overwhelmingly populated with children of broken families.

The Holy Family Window from Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Detroit, Michigan (Now closed)

As it is, Joseph and Mary belong together, and we ought to try to emulate their purity and faithfulness. Though, I should say here that the “pious” idea of Mary’s lifelong virginity is pure wickedness. That would make her a lousy wife to withhold herself from her husband (see 1 Corinthians 7:1-5). Mary is perpetually a virgin in our memory because we perpetually remember her as “the blessed virgin”, or the “virgin mother”. We do this because Mary was still a virgin until after Jesus was born (see Matthew 1:18-25). This is important because it testifies to the fact that Jesus is the Son of God, not the physical son of Joseph or any other sinful man, though Jesus lived as the son of Joseph, and was named as such (see Luke 2:48; Luke 3:23; Luke 4:22; Matthew 13:55; John 1:45; and John 6:42). There is no confusing the Blessed Virgin Mary with anyone else because never before and never again will a virgin conceive and bear a child. We also see in Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3 that the brothers of Jesus are named and the Gospel writers make note that they have sisters, also. The most plain (and best) interpretation of this is that these are the natural children of Joseph and Mary. There is no reason to doubt that – either historically, or exegetically, or theologically.

The “holy family” is considered holy because Jesus is holy. Joseph and Mary were sinners in need of Jesus to save them from their sins. In the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) Mary calls God, “my savior” (v. 47). Yet, despite the fact that Joseph and Mary were just like everyone else, they were also faithful, pious believers. As a young married couple, they were chaste and pure. When Joseph learned Mary was pregnant, he knew he was not the father, and though he was not (at first) willing to believe what Mary must have told him about what the angel said, he could have intended to have her stoned for adultery, but instead he planned on divorcing her quietly and not subjecting her to public disgrace. Then, when God told Joseph in a dream that all Mary had told him was true (see Matthew 1:20), he believed and kept the family intact. Joseph later protected Mary and Jesus by taking them to Egypt after Herod sought to kill the child, who was the true King of Judah (see INRI).

The Holy Family Window from Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Dearborn, Michigan

The world despises children because it takes sacrificial love to properly raise a child. Selfish pagans idolize themselves and do not care to expend the love and time and money it takes to provide for a child’s needs of body, soul, and mind. Parents must sacrifice to provide for their children’s needs, but that is what people were made for. It is very rewarding to raise a child and give him or her the necessary skills and resources necessary to become a respectable, productive member of society. It is even more rewarding for Christian parents to raise a child who loves God and his neighbors, and trusts in Jesus to save him from his sins. Parents who have done a good job raising children can be justifiably proud that their children are admired and respected by their neighbors and friends, and are valued members of society who care for those whom they deal with every day. This is something that selfish unbelievers who despise and murder their children (see my article on Molechianism) will never fully know because they idolize themselves, and they are unfulfilled because sooner or later their false gods will fail them.

No family is perfect, however, because all members of families are sinners. Even the holy family must have had its struggles and difficulties. The presence of Jesus did not change the sinful nature of Joseph and Mary, nor of His brothers and sisters. The story of the boy Jesus in the temple at age 12 (Luke 2:40-51) shows us that as the years went by, Joseph and Mary seem to have taken for granted that Jesus was the Son of God, and just thought of Him as a normal boy – which He was. There seems nothing out of the ordinary in the way that they deal with Him, as their son. They do show a high level of trust in Him, as they weren’t particularly worried that He wasn’t with them for a time. They assumed that Jesus was with others in their group (v. 44) as they traveled back up north, and they trusted Him not to be disobedient. Jesus always obeyed them perfectly, as an obedient son, but somehow not in a way that drew attention to Himself – so they trusted Him. Though, Mark 3:20-34 describes a situation where Christ’s family (specifically, His mother and brothers) thought Jesus was out of His mind, but Jesus kept teaching what He had been teaching because He was doing what He was supposed to do, and few others understood what it was all about. They thought Jesus suicidal for calling the leaders to repentance, and not heeding the threats against His life. Jesus was not suicidal, and at various times had to walk away from imminent threats to His life before His work was finished (See John 6:15 and Luke 4:24-30), but neither did He try to save Himself when the time came for Him to give His life to pay the price for the sins of the world (see Matthew 27:12-14). Some of the people who heard Christ’s teaching understood after He died and rose to life again, but others never did.

Glory to God in the Highest Jesus is born in Bethlehem (I forget where this window is from. This is a scan of an old film photograph.)

It seems strange to the world that God would become a man simply for the purpose of suffering and dying a shameful death on a cross. It is no wonder that Christ’s family thought Him out of his mind. That kind of love doesn’t make sense to our selfish, sinful flesh, but God’s love is perfect, and we see perfect love in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. That is why we celebrate Christmas, and why we celebrate more on Good Friday and on Easter Sunday. God is the only one who can save us from the guilt of our sin, and rescue us from sin’s consequences. So God became a man in Jesus to redeem us from sin and death. This is perfect love in action – that God would live and die to save His disobedient people, so that He could make us holy to live with Him forever.

 

This Christmas may Christ bless your family as you contemplate the Holy Family. May you love one another as Christ has loved you. May you forgive the sins that your family members commit against you, as Christ has forgiven all your sins. May father and mother be strengthened in love and commitment to one another, and may children give thanks to God continually for the blessings of their family.

 

 

Psalm 144:9-15 (NIV)

I will sing a new song to you, O God;

on the ten-stringed lyre I will make music to you,

to the One who gives victory to kings,

who delivers his servant David from the deadly sword.

Deliver me and rescue me from the hands of foreigners

whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands are deceitful.

Then our sons in their youth will be like well-nurtured plants,

and our daughters will be like pillars carved to adorn a palace.

Our barns will be filled with every kind of provision.

Our sheep will increase by thousands,

by tens of thousands in our fields;

our oxen will draw heavy loads.

There will be no breaching of walls,

no going into captivity,

no cry of distress in our streets.

Blessed are the people of whom this is true;

blessed are the people whose God is the Lord.

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Here are my other Christmas-themed articles from this blog:

What was Jesus like as a Boy?

Come, Lord Jesus! 

God’s Justice and Mercy at Christmas 

Justice at Christmas 

Christmas Peace is Forever 

Is Christmas Offensive? 

Christ is for You 

God is With Us 

Does Jesus Sing? 

The Incarnation of God

Magi

Shepherd Visitors

Don’t Make Me Come Down There!

The Problem with Sexual Politics

by Pastor Paul Wolff

God instituted marriage at the creation of Adam and Eve. Sin made marital relations a struggle.

Sexual politics is the idea that men and women must compete for power in order for there to be equality or justice or fair treatment and the like. There are so many problems with sexual politics that I hardly know where to begin. I will start with the most obvious, though it is so often ignored that we think it is less obvious than it ought to be. Sexual politics is an oxymoron, which is to say it is a phrase which contradicts itself. Sexuality is naturally intimate and personal, and politics is naturally public and common to all. When you try to combine the private with the public what results is chaos, confusion, and insanity.

Sexuality is a gift from God for the purpose of strengthening the marriage bond between a husband and his wife, and for the purpose of filling the world with people through procreation. The sexual act is so personal and intimate that if God had not blessed it and made it pleasurable for both husband and wife, then no one would ever engage in it, and if that were true, and had sin also never entered the world, then the entire world population would still only be two people, Adam and Eve.


The problem with sexuality is that sin has perverted our use of God’s good gift, and turned a wonderful, intimate, private act into a selfish, filthy, perverted, public spectacle. When people give in to the devil’s temptations then we pervert God’s good gifts, and turn them into wicked things. Any use of sexuality apart from the normal use in natural marriage is a misuse of God’s gift which is forbidden by God’s Sixth Commandment (“You shall not commit adultery”). God forbids such acts because, as Scripture says, “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.” (1 Corinthians 6:18) God’s commandments are all given for our good to forbid us from doing things which hurt ourselves and others, and God’s commands encourage us to do things which are good for others and ourselves.

The devil’s temptations to sexual sins promise to give us physical pleasure without the lifelong commitment required in marriage. The tragic consequences of sexual sins are that they interfere with, and destroy, our relationships with one another, especially relationships between men and women. Sexual sins also ruin the sinner’s view of himself or herself because one who commits sexual sins is sinning against one’s own body as noted above.

Romantic ideas about marriage are neither Biblical nor sustainable. Marriage is a lifelong commitment.

Sexual politics turns relationships between men and women into struggles for power. These power struggles are the opposite of loving and are never beneficial for anyone concerned. Even if you “win” the power struggle you lose much more, including friendship, respect, cooperation, companionship, assistance, help, comfort, fidelity, and more. True love is concern for someone else over your concern for yourself. Holy Scripture’s “Golden Rule” is a good guide as to what true love is: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Power politics (especially when applied to the two sexes) are all about what is good for me, not someone else, and that is, by definition, selfish and unloving. No one will think well of you if you gain power for yourself, but everyone will think well of you if you care for others above your own self interest.

Feminism is a main contributor to the problems of sexual politics. Here I will only briefly mention the problems with feminism because it is a topic so broad (pun intended) and complex that it could fill many whole books. Feminism is fundamentally Marxism for women. Especially as it has developed, feminism is completely power politics. Sexual politics is just one troubling aspect of feminism, of which there are many more. Twenty-first century feminists completely reject the ideals of the original feminists. They still can talk a good “equality” game, but hardcore feminists are all about domination, and frequently sneer at the suggestion of equality. Also, don’t even mention accounting for women’s needs and desires for protection in marriage and motherhood. There are many prominent feminists who hold to the idea that a woman has the right to murder her own children, or she isn’t a real feminist. This is so ridiculous that it shouldn’t need comment except for those who advocate for such barbarism with vehement sincerity.

The Holy Family is a good example of a loving family.

Another problem with the politicizing of sexuality is that it objectifies the pleasure of intimacy and that makes it inherently selfish. When sexual intimacy is based on selfishness then it leads quickly to all kinds of perversions. If someone views sex in political or selfish terms, then all that matters to that person is how he (or she) feels personally. All kinds of sinful perverted acts can make a person feel pleasure if they don’t care at all about the person with whom they are engaging. This leads people to seek their “pleasure” in adultery, fornication, promiscuity, homosexuality, and all kinds of violent perversions including rape and more. There is no end to perversions if someone only cares about the momentary pleasure of sexual stimulation.

Sexual politics also directly leads to murder in many cases. There are news stories every day about murders of passion where the betrayal of a spouse, or an uncaring lover, leads someone to murder. Also the selfishness of sexual politics leads to the most common cause of death in America – abortion. When children are conceived through selfish acts, those children are seen by their parents as unwanted burdens, and the easiest way to eliminate the consequences of one’s selfish actions is to commit murder. No civilized society in the world allows the murder of children in the womb, but such is the wickedness of the human heart that so many societies, though they may be advanced in many ways, allow the barbaric practice of pre-natal murder of children. There is no such thing as a truly unwanted child. There is always someone who is willing and able to care for children otherwise “unwanted” by their parents. Truly civilized societies support and maintain structures and organizations who will protect and provide for the most vulnerable of the victims of sexual politics and the sexual revolution.

Husband and wife are not faceless, generic partners. They are individuals committed to one another for as long as they both shall live.

The problem of gender confusion is a somewhat surprising development and outcome of this topic and it really has made sexual politics absolutely crazy in the second decade of the 21^st century. One hopes that sanity will soon prevail, so that gender confusion is just a passing fad, but for now those who combine sexual politics with gender confusion are getting otherwise rational people to do some truly insane things. In some states boys who obviously and falsely claim to be girls have been allowed to participate and have been declared champions in girls sports. Obviously that doesn’t work the other way – girls or women who falsely claim to be male will never prevail at a high level, even when they take body-destroying performance enhancing drugs which would immediately disqualify a boy or a man in the same sport. Men are being allowed in women’s and girls’ private places such as locker rooms and toilet facilities, and this has even gotten so bad that on this issue the President of the United States (Barack Obama at the time) openly expressed his ignorance of the difference between boys and girls even though young children know that this difference exists and is obvious even with casual (not intimate) observation.

Marriage is related to the tree of life because through marriage (ideally) the next generation is born and raised and taught how to be good people.

Related to gender confusion is the idea of homosexual marriage. Homosexuality is probably the origin of much confusion in sexual politics because it replaces the natural complementarity of the sexes with the sameness of the perversion, and tries to pretend that there is no difference between intimacy with the same and intimacy with someone who is sexually complementary. This confusion has also gone to high levels when a slim majority (5-4) of ignorant ideologues on the United States Supreme Court ruled (“Obergefell v. Hodges”) that the States had to allow marriage between people of the same sex. The five justices of the majority were ignorant in this decision because they not only ignored over two hundred years of precedents where the states each made their own decisions about marriage laws, but they also ignored thousands of years of precedent where marriage was only between a man and a woman (or men and women in some cases). The foolish majority ignored all scientific information and common sense that men and women are made for each other. But most importantly for the context of the Supreme Court, they ignored the fact that the United States Constitution and all its amendments do not give the Federal government nor the courts the authority to regulate and redefine marriage.

I always enjoy 50th Anniversary parties. They are always celebrations of life and commitment, and show how loving parents produce good children and grandchildren.

I have to wonder if, because of Obergefell v. Hodges, my marriage to my wife (who is the opposite sex to me, in case there is any confusion) is still legal! There is no definition of marriage in the constitution and there doesn’t need to be because it is obvious to anyone who cares that marriage is between a man and a woman of opposite sexes. But now the Supreme Court has given a “legal” definition of marriage, and it only acknowledges marriage between people of the same sex. Natural marriage does not fit that definition. Already people are losing their jobs and/or being prosecuted (“Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission” for example) for maintaining that true marriage is only between one man and one woman. I remain married to my wife, and will continue in my marriage as long as we both shall live, as I promised, whether or not is is legal for us to do so in this crazy world of sexual politics, but you can see the crazy insanity which results when sexuality is inserted in the political process (no pun intended, honestly).

It is interesting to note the societal fallout which began in the United States shortly after the death of Hugh Hefner. Hefner helped popularize the sexual revolution when he founded the porn magazine Playboy in 1953. Very soon after Hefner died in 2017 we started to hear about women complaining that they had been raped by men in positions of power, but had been afraid to speak out for years in some cases. Some high profile Hollywood actresses started the “me-too” movement to encourage other women to come forward and publicly expose the wrongdoing of powerful rapists and sexual abusers. The timing of the emergence of the “me-too” movement was interesting from a Spiritual perspective, as if whatever demons that influenced Hugh Hefner (and other pornographers) suddenly lost much of their fear-making influence on sexual abuse victims once Hefner died.

King Herod's broken family caused the holy family to flee to Egypt and the death of all the children in Bethlehem.

The nature of power politics (with the “help” of Marxist feminism) is such that the “me-too” movement is being turned from an honest search for justice into a weapon against innocent men in power. The most obvious of these was the unsubstantiated (and literally unbelievable) allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. The woman who made the accusations against Kavanaugh was a California Psychology professor who appeared to have been under the influence of hypnosis (or something) so that she would appear to believe the lies she was telling, but it did not help her to give any information which would be believable to objective outsiders. The end result of the attempts to defame Brett Kavanaugh is that his opponents opposed him simply because he is a man, and some of the most radical feminists want to believe that to be a man is equal to being a rapist even when it is not true. Here is a good lesson: if your ideology requires you to lie or dismiss the truth in any way, then it is a false ideology and pursuing it is a waste of time.

The growth in the popularity of pornography and the politicizing of sex has led to the breakdown of the family in affected societies. Since the family is the fundamental foundation of society and civilization, once it has begun to crumble we see the signs that the societies under this destructive influence have also begun to crumble. This is most evident in the United States of America, and in some European countries as well as China (with its one-child policy and enforced abortions). In the USA sexual politics has actively encouraged divorce and the destruction of families. Our prisons are full of fatherless children from broken families. Instead of reversing the breakdown of families which lead fatherless children to lives of violence and crime, sexual politics spurs its adherents to work harder to destroy the foundational structures of society and civilization.

It is somewhat strange that although the USA and some other Western countries have moved to embrace destructive sexual politics, like homosexual marriage, which have never been seen in the history of the world, the push for polygamy is late to the game. Polygamy has been known for thousands of years, and although the lack of enforcement of adultery laws has made the practice of polygamy (or at least, adulterous promiscuity) common, but the legal status of polygamous marriages is still not recognized. We see polygamous marriages in the Holy Scriptures, even among some of the most prominent patriarchs like Abraham and Jacob. Isaac was monogamous and loved Rebekah, his wife, but he seems to be an exception. The Scriptures don’t really condemn polygamy outright, but rather simply define and describe marriage as between one man and one woman for as long as they both shall live. The Scriptures also often show the dysfunctional outcomes of polygamy. When asked about the topic of divorce, Jesus (in Matthew 19) teaches about what God intended for marriage since the very beginning. Divorce was never God’s intention, but because of man’s stubborn sinfulness God allowed divorce in some circumstances (with strict limits) in order to mitigate further sin. Christ’s teaching in Matthew 19 also answers the objections of those who falsely claim that Jesus never forbade same sex marriage. If Jesus taught about God’s institution and blessing of natural marriage when asked about the practice of divorce, then there is no reason to assume he would have taught otherwise when asked about same sex relationships.

God blessed the first marriage and He still blesses marriages even of unbelievers.

It is no small thing that the first two people God created on earth were a husband and his wife, who became the ancestors of all people. The perfect relationship between the two didn’t last too long before they were at odds with one another. They fell into sin before their first child was conceived. When God confronted Adam about the guilt of his sin, Adam referred to Eve as “The woman you gave me” (Genesis 3:12), which was a far cry from “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Genesis 2:23) which means Adam originally considered his wife to be the best part of him. Yet, even after the fall into sin, there was forgiveness, and Adam named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all people (Genesis 3:20). God foretold the problem of sexual politics with His words to Eve in Genesis 3:16, “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” The problem here is not that the man would rule over the woman, but that she would desire to rule over him, but would not be able to do so. Also, the sinfulness of the man’s rule would also cause problems. Women aren’t the only cause of problems in this world, only about half, by my calculations.

Abraham was not the perfect husband but God still blessed him and Sarah with a son who became the ancestor of our savior, Jesus.

It might come as a shock to the sexual revolutionists that Christians are not opposed to sex, but have very healthy attitudes about sex and a proper use of sexuality, and are not hesitant to talk about it at all. It is just that Christian attitudes about sex are in many ways opposite of the revolutionists. When it comes to sex, Christians talk about marriage and intimacy and commitment and faithfulness and love and compassion. It is not about selfish pleasure and technique or any of a number of perversions. Now, it is true that you may find some folks who purport to be Christian who follow the revolutionist party line and speak of sex in terms of perversion, and pleasure, and technique, and politics, and the like, but we call those people heretics. Just because someone claims to be Christian doesn’t make them Christian. If they renounce the clear Scriptural teachings then they are heretics at best, and unbelievers at worst.

Despite the false teachings of Christian heretics, the Holy Scriptures give a consistent view of marriage and sexuality throughout all the books of the Bible. God instituted natural marriage when He created Adam and Eve and blessed them when He said, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (Genesis 1:28) This did not change after the fall into sin. Sin only brought sinful behavior into the equation which God forbade when He gave the Sixth Commandment (“You shall not commit Adultery.”) The Sixth Commandment affirms natural marriage as good for all people, especially parents and children. Also the Levitical laws for the Israelites affirm natural marriage, restrict divorce, and condemn unnatural relations. There are also New Testament admonitions in favor of natural marriage and against perversions which gratify the flesh over and against God’s institution of natural marriage. God gave these laws and admonitions because strong laws and societal norms favoring natural marriage are what is best for a stable society, and happy productive citizens. This is confirmed by the best scientific research. One may find some research reports which say otherwise, but those have either been shown to be inaccurate, or seriously flawed in their testing procedures or data gathering or manipulation in some way. God’s word remains true and good no matter how much sinful people might wish otherwise. God created people in His image originally and blessed them subsequently. We are always ill served when we act against God’s ways and according to the ways of our own wicked imaginations. God knows what is best for us, and we would do well to live according to God’s directions.

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See also my article on “The Problem with Democracy”  

See also my article on “The Problem with Socialism”

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The Crown of God’s Creation

Creation Day Six from Emmanuel

And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground–everything that has the breath of life in it–I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning – the sixth day. (Genesis 1:24-31)

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On the sixth day of creation God created animals and man. One might be tempted to say that on the sixth day God just created all kinds of creatures, but that is not how the Holy Scriptures tell what happened. It is true that man is certainly a creature created by God, but there is something very special about the creation of man that distinguishes us from everything else that God created.

When God had made nearly everything in the universe and had come to the last part of His creation He said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness….” So God created man in His image. This is special because God did not do this for anything else in creation. Man is the “crown of God’s creation” because God made people in His image. What does it mean that man is made in God’s image? It means that Adam and Eve were made holy, like God. They were made immortal because death only came after the fall into sin as a punishment for their disobedience. The image of God is also seen in verse 26 in the passage above where God gave Adam and Eve the authority to rule over the earth and all other creatures just as God has authority over us and ultimate authority over all things.

We should also see that it wasn’t for Adam and Eve’s sake that God made them in His image. Yes, God loved them dearly, but He also knew that they would rebel against Him, reject Him, become His enemies, and face His wrath and condemnation. Instead, it was for the sake of Jesus that God made man to be the crown of creation. Even before anything was made, God knew that He would need to become incarnate as a man to redeem his beloved, but rebellious people. Saint Peter wrote, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.” (1 Peter 1:18-21) This shows us that God had planned to save us before the creation of the world. It was for the sake of His beloved Son (Jesus) that God made people the crown of creation, though because of Jesus, God did this for our benefit and eternal joy.

Saint Paul also said much the same thing when he wrote “For he chose us in (Christ) before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.” (Ephesians 1:4-8) Here again we see that it was according to God’s plan of salvation from eternity that He created us in His image, but it was for the sake of Christ, who redeemed us that we might be “adopted as His sons”. Strictly speaking, Jesus is the crown of God’s creation, but because of Jesus, we have been redeemed through His blood, forgiven of our sins, and adopted into God’s family so that through faith in Jesus we can share in the glories of His eternal inheritance.

There is so much in the creation account that I can only begin to describe the importance of it in this short essay. It is important to note that the creation account in chapter one of Genesis is not the only information we have on the creation of people. Genesis chapter two gives a more detailed account of what God did when He created Adam and Eve. Some people try to discredit the Biblical account of creation by saying that the stories in chapter one and chapter two are different stories, but that is stretching the text too far. It is very clear that the account in chapter one is a general summary of God creating man, and then chapter two gives more details about the creation of man on day six. There is nothing in chapter two that contradicts chapter one, it only expands on the details.

We see in the creation of man that God also created marriage. Eve is described as Adam’s “wife” just as soon as she is formed out of Adam’s rib and given life. Here is the answer to all who would redefine marriage as something other than the lifelong union of one man and one woman. When God created people He also created marriage and blessed this union and commanded them to be fruitful. We also see that the woman is not a lesser being to be dominated, but a true partner, as Adam declares that this woman who was formed out of his rib is “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” (Genesis 2:23)

Nevertheless, there is still a hierarchy in the order of creation of the husband and the wife. The wife is to submit to the husband as the husband is to submit to God, but this doesn’t mean that the woman is the man’s servant or property. After sin came into the world man started getting some strange notions about the roles of husband and wife and twisted around God’s good institution. However, people who take seriously the Genesis account of creation have throughout history have had a higher view of marriage, and women in those cultures have enjoyed greater protections and stability than those cultures which either put women down to the level of servant or property, or those which raise women up to a level of superiority over men.

In the New Testament Jesus acknowledges the sanctity of marriage when He was asked a question about divorce in Matthew 19:1-9. Jesus references the creation to show what God intended and says that marriage is “what God has joined together” so that no one should separate those united in marriage. Saint Paul also gives a bold endorsement of marriage in Ephesians 5:21-33 even though he remained celibate in his life. Even though Paul’s words have been twisted throughout history he gives a beautiful picture of marriage where the wife submits to the husband, and the husband loves his wife and submits to God. If you read Paul’s words carefully as written you see that he does not give the husband the authority to dominate his wife, but requires him to give his life for his wife as Christ gave His life for the church (all believers). So if the husband loves his wife enough to die for her, then he will not dominate her, but will care for her as he ought.

We see God with us in the account of creation in that He not only made all things for our benefit, and made us in His image, but also in what God did for us when we rebelled against Him and became His enemies through our disobedience. God could have destroyed all people for their sin. He maybe should have, but out of love for us creatures God came to earth Himself as one of us. Jesus came to keep God’s law, which we are unable to do, and also to endure the punishment for sin as our substitute so that we are freed from that threat of punishment. This is what Jesus did out of love for God’s disobedient creatures.

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The Seven Days of Creation
In the Beginning
The Orderly Creation
Distinctions in Creation
The Center of the Universe
Designed by God
The Crown of God’s Creation
A Sabbath Day Rest