LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2010, Page 306

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THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS­­—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS
Both of these expressions emphasize that humanity was created
unlike the animals, birds, and fish. There are different “kinds” of
animals but only one human race patterned after its Creator. God
created only one human race, one adam: “… in the image of God
he created him”—one humanity that derives from one common
ancestor, whose personal name is the same word, Adam (adam).
Every individual human creature, male or female, belongs to this
one humanity and, therefore, is created in God’s image.
How was humanity patterned after its Creator? How did human
beings resemble God? On the basis of Genesis 1 several things can
be said. The Creator wanted to have a special, unique communion
with these particular creatures that He did not have with His other
creatures. He made humans to be His companions, creatures who
would know Him, live in righteousness and holiness before Him,
and look to Him as the Giver of every good gift (see also Eph 4:24
and Col 3:10). God spoke to His human creatures in an extended
conversation (Gen 1:28–30). By conversing directly with them,
the Creator shows that the human creatures are capable of relating to Him and responsible to Him for what takes place. Because
they alone were made in God’s image,10 they were not simply another category of earthly creatures but were given dominion over
the birds, fish, and land animals. Although the word “image” itself
does not mean “to rule over,” this unique status given the human
creatures resulted in their having dominion over the animals. In
order to exercise this dominion as responsible stewards of the earth,
they were given wisdom and the capacity to make judgments.
Created male and female
Although God indeed created humanity in His image, the
human race was at the same time clearly unlike Him. In God there
is no sexual differentiation,11 but He created man in a duality as
“male and female,” and He continues to do so. This fundamental
distinction precedes all other distinctions of ethnicity, nationality,
language, culture, and customs—which are mentioned later in Genesis (for example, Gen 10).
A person’s sexual identity is a given and not a matter of human
choice. It is not simply a social construct or the invention of society. A human being is not an independent soul or mind that just
happens to be encased in a male or female body. An individual’s
sexual identity and the sexual distinction between male and female
are wonderful gifts of God established at creation.
The sexual difference within humanity serves a good purpose in
God’s grand design. It enables human creatures to be fruitful and
multiply and fill the earth. Precisely through this sexual difference,
male and female together can procreate, which makes possible the
continuation of the human race. In His wisdom, the Creator has
thus provided for the care of His creation. Psalm 115 confesses one
of the chief purposes of the Creator’s work highlighted in Genesis:
The heavens are the Lord’s heavens, but the earth he
has given to the children of man (Ps 115:16).
God made His human creatures male and female so that together they might enjoy one another’s companionship, multiply, populate the earth, and rule12 over it. Both male and female
have received this task, responsibility, stewardship, and privilege. They are the Creator’s representatives and are accountable to Him for how they exercise the responsibilities entrusted
to them.

Genesis 2
We have viewed with amazement and wonder God’s creation
tapestry pictured broadly in Genesis 1. Now we are invited to step
forward for a closer look. In Genesis 2 the Scriptures give us a
close-up, in zoom-lens fashion, of God’s creation of the human

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race as male and female on the sixth day. Taken together, these
two chapters present a coherent and complementary portrait of our
Creator’s majestic work.
As we look closely at Genesis 2, we cannot leave unnoticed the
warmth and personal nature of the Creator’s touch—reflected in the
very name by which He reveals Himself and does His work. Genesis 2 calls the Creator not just “God” (Elohim) but “the Lord God”
(Yahweh Elohim). “The Lord” is the conventional English rendition of “Yahweh,” God’s personal name in the Old Testament.13
In Genesis 1, He reveals Himself by the generic title “God/Deity,”
the God of transcendent power, but in Genesis 2 He also discloses
Himself to us in His personal name, “Yahweh” (“the Lord”).
The creation of the man
Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the
ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of
life, and the man became a living creature (Gen 2:7).
The transcendent and all-powerful Creator of the universe
reaches down and as a master artisan forms the first man from the
ground. The man was carefully fashioned from the same earth he
was later to till (Gen 2:5). The Hebrew text shows the connection:
“The Lord God formed the adam [the man] of dust from the adamah [the ground].” Or, as we might capture it in English: “The
Lord God formed the earth-man of dust from the earth.” In the
Creator’s deft hands, the ground He had created becomes the
raw material from which the man is shaped. The verb translated
“formed” denotes to “shape, forge” and often refers to the work of
a potter. The language connotes the great care that God devoted to
the creation of His creatures, both animals and human beings (see
Gen 2:19). Into the man He had formed, however, the Creator Himself directly “breathed … the breath of life.” Through this intimate
act of his Creator, “the man [the adam] became a living creature.”
Unlike the creation of the animals (Gen 1:20–25; 2:19), God’s own
breath makes Adam a breathing and living creature.
The first man stands on the earth from which he is made and for
which he is to care (2:5). We have seen that in Genesis 1 the Hebrew word adam (ESV “man”) was used generically to denote the
human race: “Let us make man [human race—adam] in our image,
after our likeness. And let them have dominion over” the other animals. Now in Genesis 2 the word adam designates the first human
creature. This adam was not an androgynous creature; a kind of
male and female packaged in one and later split in half. Rather, the
word adam here refers to the first male from whose side will be
created the first female. Because the human race descended from
this first man, the word designating the human race (adam) appropriately became his personal name “Adam.” The opening verses of
Genesis 5 show this connection:
This is the book of the generations of Adam [adam].
When God created man [adam], he made him in the
likeness of God. Male and female he created them,
and he blessed them and named them Man [adam]
when they were created. When Adam [adam] had
lived 130 years, he fathered a son (Gen 5:1–3).
Adam, therefore, became the one through whom the human race
began and to whom it is ultimately tied. In this sense, he may be
regarded as the representative of the entire human race (cf. Romans 5). God gave His word to this man standing before Him in
the garden. He gave Adam the command to live in obedience to
Him, setting a boundary for his freedom: “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the
garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall
not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen
2:16–17). The man was held responsible and accountable to God
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