A friend of mine has a brother who has spent the last 30 years in a severely incapacitated state. A car accident caused damage to his brain stem that resulted in complete paralysis, including the power of speech. For a long time, Randy was aware of everything that was going on around him, while everybody thought he was in a vegetative state. There were discussions of "letting him pass". His family, however, resisted and then a new doctor ran some tests and they discovered that Randy wasn't vegetative, just "locked-in." He can communicate today using a special computer. He is very grateful to be alive.

We live in a frightening age. With awesome technological and biological powers in our hands, we possess no solid ethical or moral basis for the determination of how these powers should be used. We made it convenient and inexpensive to kill children while still in the womb and there is now actually serious discussion of issuing a "life certificate" which would pronounce an infant legally alive, just as one is now legally certified to be dead. This certificate would not be issued until after the birth of a child, when a complete battery of tests could be administered. Any ‘inferior’ or potentially non-productive infant would simply be rejected and not pronounced ‘alive’ and thus terminated. There are some places of the world where suicide is not considered a crime and counsel is now given to those who wish to pursue it without apparently any attempt to convince them otherwise!

In a day when the power of life and death seems to be more in the hands of men than ever before, we find our society in a moral vacuum in which these life and death decisions are to be made. The age-old philosophical questions about the meaning of life are no longer simply academic and intellectual—they are intensely practical and must be answered.

In the light of such issues, Genesis 1 and 2 has never held more importance than they do today. In them we find the meaning of man, which should rightly determine many of our ethical and moral decisions. Moreover, we are reminded what it is that really makes our lives worthwhile.

There are those who would make much of the "two creation accounts" in Genesis, but they fail to understand that there is really only one stated in two ways. Chapter 1 and the first three verses of Chapter 2 outlines creation chronologically. God created the heavens and the earth, and all life in six days, while He rested on the seventh day. Man is pictured as the crown of God’s creation. In order to maintain a chronological format, only a very general description of man’s creation is given in verses 26-31.

Chapter 2 presents a much more detailed account of the same events. Far from contradicting Chapter 1, it greatly compliments it. Chapter 1 presented the general statement that God created man, both male and female, while Chapter 2 described that in detail. In Chapter 1, man was given every plant to eat, while in Chapter 2 man is placed in a lovely garden surrounded by those plants. In Chapter 1, man was told to rule over all of God's creatures, while in Chapter 2, man was given the task of naming those creatures. Consider Chapter 1 to be the introduction to Chapter 2.

Furthermore, Chapter 2 prepares us for the account of the fall in Chapter 3. We are introduced to the garden, the two trees (one of life; the other of knowledge of good and evil), and the woman. Without Chapter 2, the first chapter would be far too brief and the third would come upon us as a surprise.

Chapter 1 is laid out chronologically, while Chapter 2 deals with subjects. Chapter 1 could be seen as the wide-angle view of creation, while Chapter 2 is creation viewed through a telephoto lens. In Chapter 1, man is the crown of God's creative activity. In Chapter 2, man is the center of God's activity and interest.

The whole of the creation account in Chapter 1 builds up to man's creation. Alone among all that God created, man was created in the image of God.

God is neither male nor female, but that God is both unity and diversity. Man and woman in marriage become one and yet they are distinct. Unity in diversity as reflected in man’s relationship with his wife reflects one facet of God’s personhood.

Man somehow is like God in that which distinguished him from the animal world. Man, as distinct from animals, is made in the image and likeness of God. What distinguishes man from animal must be a part of His reflection of God. Man’s ability to reason, communicate, and make moral decisions must be a part of this distinction.

Man reflects God as he rules over creation. God is the Sovereign Ruler of the universe. He has delegated a small portion of His authority to man in the rule of creation.

Notice as well that it is man and woman who rule: "… and let them rule … " (Genesis 1:26, 28).

"Them" refers to man and his wife, not just the males He has made. While Adam had the function of headship (as evidenced by his priority in creation,his being the source of his wife, and his naming of Eve), both were to rule over God’s creation.

Most important is that man’s dignity and worth weree not imputed by man, but they are intrinsic to man as one created in the image of God. Man’s worth is directly related to his origin. No wonder we hear such frightening ethical and moral positions proposed today Any view of man’s origin which does not view man as the product of divine design and purpose cannot attribute the worth to man which God has given him. Our evaluation of man is directly proportionate to our estimation of God.

I believe that we who name the name of Christ are going to have to stand up and be counted in the days to come. Abortion, euthanasia, and bioethics, to name just a few, are going to demand ethical and moral standards. The bedrock principle upon which such decisions must be made is the fact that all men are created in God’s image.

It's interesting that Jesus summed up the whole of the Old Testament in two commands,

And He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself’ (Matthew 22:37-40).

The attitude of the current society seems to be to love only those ‘neighbors’ who are the contributors to society, only those who may be considered assets. I don't think Jesus agrees: "Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me (Matthew 25:40).

This is where true Christians are going to be put to the test. Some are strongly suggesting that those who Jesus called ‘the least’ are precisely those who should be eliminated from society as "useless". May God help us to see that man’s dignity is that which is divinely determined.