LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2010, Page 305

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305

THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS­­—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS

By the power of His Spirit, God renews His created and redeemed men and women for life in various callings. The Scriptures
focus significant attention on relationships within marriage and the
church in the present time, but Christians also live in the hope of
Christ’s second coming and the bodily resurrection from the dead.
Big picture and details in reading the Scriptures
A scene in the comic strip “Calvin and Hobbes” features Calvin
sitting in class, raising his hand. “Miss Wormwood,” he says, “I
have a question about this math lesson.” “Yes?” the teacher asks.
“Given that, sooner or later, we’re all just going to die, what’s the
point of learning about integers?” Ignoring him, the teacher says,
“Turn to page 83, class.” Calvin, depressed, looks down at his book
and says to himself, “Nobody likes us ‘big picture’ people.”
Calvin makes a good point. It is important to see the big picture.
On the issue of man-woman relationships, we need to be big picture people who see the entire tapestry. We affirm the coherence
and unity of the scriptural writings. Therefore, we let Scripture interpret Scripture. The perspective of each book fits together in a
unified whole. Calvin’s teacher, however, is also right. God speaks
in the details. It is important to pay attention to the particulars of
a passage, much like taking a magnified look at individual strands
of the tapestry.
A faithful reading of God’s Word requires, above all, that we
always approach it with humility and reverence. As sinful human
beings, we are all naturally prone to impose our own preconceived
ideas and sensitivities upon the Bible. Understandably, we also
tend more readily to accept some texts but view others as less important, even pitting one passage against another. May the Holy
Spirit give us—both men and women—hearts and minds willing to
receive all that the Scriptures teach, even when we find something
difficult to accept or understand. May He also help us to discover
the joy and delight of studying God’s Word and following God’s
design for our relationships to each other.
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FIRST ARTICLE:
GOD CREATES MAN AND WOMAN
“I believe that God has made me and all creatures …”
Luther’s Small Catechism

Genesis 1
The biblical account of the creation of man and woman is itself part of an exquisite tapestry that pictures God’s goodness and
wisdom toward His creatures. In the beginning everything had its
distinct place and purpose which contributed to the harmony of the
whole. Through His creative acts, God revealed that He is a God
of order, not of chaos. Day upon day, God declared the works of
His hands “good”—resounding testimony to how much He loved
and esteemed all that He made. Consider how the Creator, by His
Word, made from nothing all things in six days and arranged them
in a very orderly and symmetrical way.
Day 1: light separated from darkness, called “day and night”
Day 2: an expanse separating waters above from below, called
“heaven” [sky]
Day 3: gathering of waters and appearance of dry land (“earth
and seas”) and vegetation on earth
Day 4: lights in the sky to give light, separating day from
night, marking seasons
Day 5: fish in waters and birds in sky
Day 6: living creatures on the earth and human race, male and
female.

Let us make man
With ascending complexity and beauty, God’s creative activity
reaches its high point on the sixth day: the creation of the human
race—male and female. After creating the land animals, 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 (Gen 1:26).5
Important details of this beautiful passage are worthy of note.
First, the Hebrew noun adam (translated “man” above), occurring
here for the first time in the Bible, is used as a “collective”—a singular noun referring to a category of creatures. That adam functions as a collective is shown by “them” in the words immediately
following: “let them have dominion.” This detail is important because it shows that the word adam in this passage has a generic
sense denoting “the human race.” It embraces the first man and
woman from whom the rest of humankind would descend.6
Significantly, God said “let there be” for other creative actions
in Genesis 1. Here—in sharp contrast—God says, “Let us make …
in our image, after our likeness” (emphasis added). Now God takes
deliberate counsel to create the human race, that is, there is reflection among the Persons of the Trinity. The human race does not
come into existence by accident, nor is a human being just another
earth creature. Humankind is the pinnacle of the Creator’s magnificent work, indeed, His showpiece—amazingly—in the entire
universe. The majestic Creator of this cosmic expanse made the
tiny speck called “man” “a little lower” than Himself and crowned
him as a king with great honor. Psalm 8 declares:
When I look at your heavens, the work of your
fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set
in place, what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you
have made him [man] a little lower than God7 and
crowned him with glory and honor. You gave him
dominion over the works of your hands; you have
put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and
also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens,
and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the
paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is
your name in all the earth! (Ps 8:3–9)
Genesis 1:26 intimates that the Creator is none other than
the Triune God whom we worship and confess. The Christian Church has traditionally understood verse 26 this way
and with good reason. Genesis 1:2 mentions “the Spirit of
God” hovering over the waters, and God creates through His
Word. The words “let us make”8 indicate that the Father is speaking
to His Son (the Word) and the Holy Spirit. The implicit Biblical
teaching regarding the Trinity here is more clearly revealed later in
the Scriptures (see, for example, John 1:1–3).
Created in 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. And God blessed them. And God said to
them, “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” (Gen 1:27–28).
That God created human beings—male and female— “in His
image” means that among all God’s creatures they are in a category
by themselves. They are, indeed, the crown of His creation. God
made the human race in His “image,” according to His “likeness.”9

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