MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD?

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“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 when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.” Genesis 5:1-3

Adam is said to be made in the image of God but after The Fall things have changed such that Adam’s son is not described as created in God’s image but in fallen Adam’s image and likeness. This is a statement of theological significance confirmed in Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15.

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned… ” Romans 5:12

“For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners,” Romans 5:19

“Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust,” 1 Corinthians 15:49

Adam’s image includes two things that God’s image did not include. It includes SIN and DEATH. All humans have become dead sinners because we bear Adam’s image. Sin is pollution, which is why Jesus describes the human heart as the source of all kinds of wickedness.

“What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” Mark 7:20-23

Whilst we are no longer made in God’s image the good news is that Jesus is made in God’s image.

“He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” Colossians 1:15

“the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” 2 Corinthians 4;4

“He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.” Hebrews 1:3

The entrance of Jesus Christ into world history was not a surprise. It was part of God’s plan to undo the Fall as prophesied in Genesis 3:15. These words were spoken to Satan.

“I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” Genesis 3:15

Jesus is the woman’s child. He will be injured (bruised heel). But he (Jesus) will destroy sin and death by crushing Satan’s head.

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” Galatians 4:4-5

This is important because sin and death are our problem, not God’s. It is on us to put it right, but it is beyond our power to put it right because it is against God. So the powerful God became man to put things right for mankind.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

Scripture records that:

“For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21

“so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” Hebrews 2:9

Just before His death, Jesus said this astonishing thing in prayer.

“I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” John 16:4-5

HUMAN BEINGS WERE MADE TO “IMAGE” GOD

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This life-changing truth comes from Martyn Isle’s book WHO AM I? Solving the identity puzzle.

“God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27

When we read that verse we learn that mankind clearly reflected and embodied something that was God’s. In Colossians and Ephesians, the Apostle Paul connects the “new self”, after we have received the Holy Spirit, with the image of God, and in doing so he tells us what the image is.

“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” Romans 8:11

“Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” Colossians 3:9-10

The same thought is expressed in Ephesians, this time the “new self” is described according to the likeness of God, which is also Genesis 1:27 language. The template of the “new self” is the image and likeness of God.

“Be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:23-24

Scripture tells us that the whole of God’s nature may be summarised in that sacred word “HOLY”. First, it means sinless and perfect. So Adam and Eve were made sinless and perfect. But when we refer to the holiness of God, it refers to all aspects of His perfection and character traits. So we can assume that all of God’s character traits were able to be demonstrated by Adam and Eve because of their holiness. They were able to radiantly image Him and reflect His glory. This includes His love, grace, mercy, righteousness, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, etc. But to be made in God’s image means to be made with the knowledge of God. Adam and Eve knew God. They spoke to Him directly, and He with them, so rationality, objectivity, creativity, love, and other such abilities cannot be irrelevant to God’s image. We have all these unique abilities so that we may apply them to the great high calling of God’s image on the human race. They enable us to be holy. They enable us to act righteously. They enable us to know God. These are the ends for which they are designed. This is what we should use our special faculties for. The more we know about God, the more we discover who we ought to be, and the more we want to be that person.

Take the human mind as one example. It is unique. We apply it rightly when we use it to grow in the knowledge of God. When the mind is renewed by that knowledge, it changes our whole person, teaching us to reject sin, embrace righteousness, and be holy. It also animates our lives to do small and big things in a way that serves God.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2

When we understand the truth about what God’s image is, we understand the high calling on our lives. Mostly, when we hear people say that humans are made in God’s image, we hear them say it as if that’s the end of the story. It is not the end of the story. It is better to put it this way: human beings were made to image God. We should not think about it as a status, we should think about it as our calling.

It is our calling to be holy, righteous, and to know God. It is how we live up to our purpose of bearing God’s image.

TRANSHUMANISM

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God created man in His image with incredible intellect, creativity, rationality, objectivity, and other abilities. How sad it is to see great minds like Yuval Harari being used to deny the existence of the one who gave them their abilities. Puffed up with intellectual pride even suggesting that the next step in the evolutionary process is, with the use of AI, to become gods.

As Martyn Isles states in his new book Who Am I? Solving the identity puzzle: “”How sinful to see them try to unburden their craving to know God by serving self, demons, and idols. All these are perversions of the very faculties that were supposed to enable us to image God. Human beings were made to image God. We should not just think about it as our status, we should think about it as our calling, to be holy, righteous, and to know God.”

MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD COMPELLING EVIDENCE FOR CREATION

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Justin L. Barret’s book Born Believers reveals some extraordinary facts about the ability and the capacity for very young children to believe and have faith. His work as a noted developmental psychologist and anthropologist at Oxford University, about the value of religious faith, has found that we are all predisposed to believe in God from birth. This is consistent with Scripture.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart… “ Ecclesiastes 3:11

Belief begins in the brain. Under the sway of powerful internal and external influences, children understand their environments by imagining at least one creative and intelligent agent, a grand creator and controller that brings order and purpose to the world. Further, these beliefs in unseen super beings help organize children’s intuitions about morality and surprising life events, making life meaningful.

Summarizing scientific experiments conducted with children across the globe, Professor Barrett illustrates the ways human beings have come to develop complex belief systems about God’s omniscience, the afterlife, and the immortality of deities. He shows how the science of childhood religiosity reveals, across humanity, a “natural religion,” the organization of those beliefs that humans gravitate to organically, and how it underlies all of the world’s major religions, uniting them under one common source.

For believers and nonbelievers alike, Barrett offers a compelling argument for the human instinct for religion, as he guides all parents in how to effectively encourage children in developing a healthy constellation of beliefs about the world around them.

Surely, this is compelling evidence for creation and that evolution is a failed theory.

“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...” Genesis 1″26a

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27