Creation and Application

A firm grasp on the doctrine of creation will take your application skills to the next level.

Doctrine of Creation

Humans were created to be different from every other creature. Humans alone were created in the image of God.

God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:26-27

The fact that humans were created by God means that those humans are not themselves God. There remains a distinction between creatures and their Creator.

And yet there’s something special about humans. They are not merely a part of the “circle of life,” distant cousins to other species on planet earth. “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

What does that mean to be made in God’s image? In the most basic sense of defining terms, it means simply that humanity is like God. Humanity reflects or represents God. But in what way does humanity reflect God? In what way are human men and women like God?

Does it mean that the human body looks like what God would look like if we could see him? Does it mean that humans have a unique capacity for morality, intelligence, or relationship? Does the phrase “image of God” simply identify the unique value of every human person?

Such questions are worth considering in light of the rest of Scripture. But in the argument of Genesis 1, the way humans are like God has particular reference to God’s delegation of authority to rule the earth. After stating his intention to make man in his image, God gives them dominion over all the earth. And the narrator concludes: “So God created man in his own image.”

And how is humanity to rule the earth? If men and women are reflections of God, what should they learn from who God is and what he does?

In Genesis 1, we should learn that we—in contrast to every other creature—were made to be creative like God is creative. We were designed to bring order to chaos. To fill the empty spaces of our planet, and to spread the true knowledge of God in all the earth.

God made us for these things. He gave us authority to do these things. And he has equipped every one of us to follow through on these things.

Help with Application

So how does this doctrine help us to improve at applying the Bible?

In nearly any text, you can ask “creation” questions with respect to the author’s main point:

• How does this text help us to recognize and delight in our creatureliness?
• What is the distinction between the Creator and the created?
• How can we exalt Jesus as the very Creator God?
• What is the difference between humanity and the rest of the creation?
• How has God given authority to us in this area? How can we exercise loving dominion under his guidance?
• Where are the “empty spaces” in our world or our lives, where this text is not yet obeyed? How can we fill those spaces with the obedience of faith?
• How can we bring order to the chaos that resists obedience to God in this area?
• How can we proclaim God’s truth, so others can replicate it, until the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of God?

I am intentionally sidestepping matters of direct sin, repentance, and redemption when I ask these questions. That’s not because such matters are unimportant, but only because I haven’t gotten to them yet.

All I’m doing here is applying the doctrine of creation. Drawing application from the way God originally intended (created) things to be. There is much work to be done in our application, before we even get to our sin and need for Christ.

Sometimes, robust reflection on God’s creation of humanity will give us ample material to speak into the issues of our age: human rights, the environment, secular humanism, same-sex attraction, gender identity, global justice, racism, stewardship, work and rest—to name just a few.

Deepen your grasp of the doctrine of creation, and you’ll take your application skills to the next level.