A few weeks ago on things unseen, we were trying to think about this great question.

What is man? I mean, in the sense of Genesis 1, 26 to 28, man made as the image of God.

I think it's both interesting and important that while Genesis 1 emphasizes that God created us with different genders, the first thing it

actually mentions is what we have in common. We're persons made as God's image and likeness, and that's the most important truth about

us and fundamental.

And as we've noted before, when we lose hold of God himself, our identity as his image will also get lost.

And the result is societies where gender issues become far more

important than anything we have in common. It's a very strange thing that the worldly people

tend to complain that Christians are always concerned about sex when actually the boot is on the other foot.

And we've come into a time when the loss of the sense of God, and therefore the loss of the

sense that we're made as the image of God, has led to all kinds of alienations and antagonisms,

not just generally among people, but between male and female as well.

So it's a great thing for Christians to know that we're all people made as the image of God,

and therefore we're called to reflect him, to live for his glory according to His Word.

And when we refuse to do that, we then no longer enjoy him.

And when we don't enjoy him, things begin to disintegrate all around us,

vertically in relationship to God and horizontally in our relationships with one another.

And that's our world today.

But what brings us stability as Christians in a world like this is that the Bible gives us an

explanation for why things are not the way they were meant to be.

And although Genesis doesn't use the specific term, we know that at the back of our human

situation is what we traditionally refer to as the tragedy of the fall.

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