Genesis 1:26-27Amplified Bible
26 Then God said, “Let Us (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) make man in Our image, according to Our likeness [not physical, but a spiritual personality and moral likeness]; and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle, and over the entire earth, and over everything that creeps and crawls on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image, in the image and likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning; is now and ever shall be; world without end, Amen, Amen.
Uniqueness
People are unique.
We all have things that make us who we are as individuals.
Yet, there is something that unites all of humanity: we are all “image bearers” who are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27).
All throughout history and the world, in different times and in different places, our humanity connects us to our Creator.
In James 3:9 it says that human beings have been made in God’s likeness.
Being human sets us apart from the rest of creation, but it draws us together as image bearers who were originally designed to reflect their Maker.
Reflecting God’s Image from the Beginning
It was always God’s intention to create us to bear His image.
From the beginning, God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…” (Genesis 1:26).
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit were in perfect fellowship together from before the world began and have always been.
This is why it says “us” and “our.”
We worship one God in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is spirit (John 4:24), but when Jesus came into our world as a baby, He became flesh and blood; He was God incarnate – God with us (Matthew 1:23).
When God created man, He breathed life into him:
“Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7).
We are distinct from the natural creation around us that we were mandated to steward and take care of.
We were created to be in fellowship with God, to dwell with and walk with Him.
God also created a man and a woman who are both made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27).
The woman was to be a helper suitable for the man (Genesis 2:18) and she was created by being taken out of man (Genesis 2:23).
Both man and woman were created by God, for God, and with a purpose that God had planned out from the very beginning.
Complementing the Created Order
It is said that God is a God of order and not chaos.
In 1 Corinthians 14:33 it says, “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace” and we see this consistency in the order of creation.
He placed the earth in the perfect conditions for life and habitation.
The pattern of day and night, the rhythms of the seasons and the sequence of how He created everything was brought into perfect order.
Within the order of creation, it was beautifully and intricately designed.
When God created humanity, He had an order and a purpose within that.
He gave the instruction for the man and woman to increase in number, fill and subdue the earth, and rule over the creatures on land, in the sea and the sky. (Genesis 1:28)
Through the first man, Adam, came the fall of all mankind into sin and death.
Yet, this was still under the divine purpose of God, with a clear, ordered plan to rescue the image bearers He made.
Romans 5:17-18 says,
17 For if by the trespass of the one (Adam), death reigned through the one (Adam), much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in [eternal] life through the One, Jesus Christ.
18 So then as through one trespass [Adam’s sin] there resulted condemnation for all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to [a]all men.
Jesus took on flesh and lived the life that Adam did not.
God became fully human; living and breathing like those made in His image from the beginning.
The mind can barely fathom the wonder and the mystery of God coming down into the world He had made, as flesh and blood,
“who being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used for his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Philippians 2:6-7).
The one who is the
“exact imprint” of God’s nature and “upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3) was made to be like us in order to reconcile us to Himself.
Disfigured, but not Destroyed by Sin
Since sin and death entered the world through Adam, the image of God in us has been disfigured.
It has been marred because of the ugliness and depravity that sin works in the lives of us and those around us.
Yet, thanks be to God, this is not the end of the story.
Adam and Eve were not destroyed on the spot for their decision to disobey and destroy the relationship with their loving Creator.
There were, however, serious, life-altering, eternity-shifting consequences for their first choices which has been passed through generation to generation.
However, what Satan did to tempt the first image bearers in the Garden of Eden and unravel the order and peace, Jesus came and regenerated and restored.
He lived the perfect life and died the death that we all should have died.
He took the wrath of God upon Himself; all the judgment and condemnation our sins deserved was imputed from us to Him.
His body was crushed for our iniquities (Isaiah 53:5).
We live because of what Jesus did for us when we went catastrophically astray.
Adam and Eve walked out of the presence of God in Eden, but not before God had mercy on them and clothed them with animal skins.
God is the one to make the sacrifice of mercy, taking the animal’s life, covering their shame.
It is all a part of His plan, pointing to another time when He would provide the ultimate sacrifice – His body and His own life blood poured out on the cross to cover our shame and give us mercy and forgiveness, eternal life in His presence.
Created to Reflect the Image of God
We are made in the image of God, but because of sin, that image has been distorted.
All of us are still image bearers and we need to live with that in mind as we interact with others, we reflect God’s love and love our neighbor as ourselves (Mark 12:31).
Setting biases and prejudices aside, as we are covenanted by God to do, from the very beginning all lives absolutely matter to God, without exception, and those around us DO bear the image of God and Jesus died for their sin as well as ours.
Galatians 3:23-29 Amplified
23 Now before faith came, we were kept in custody under the Law, [perpetually] imprisoned [in preparation] for the faith that was destined to be revealed, 24 with the result that the Law has become our tutor and our disciplinarian to guide us to Christ, so that we may be [c]justified [that is, declared free of the guilt of sin and its penalty, and placed in right standing with God] by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under [the control and authority of] a tutor and disciplinarian. 26 For you [who are born-again have been reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, sanctified and] are all children of God [set apart for His purpose with full rights and privileges] through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ [into a spiritual union with the Christ, the Anointed] have clothed yourselves with Christ [that is, you have taken on His characteristics and values]. 28 There is [now no distinction in regard to salvation] neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you [who believe] are all one in Christ Jesus [no one can claim a spiritual superiority]. 29 And if you belong to Christ [if you are in Him], then you are Abraham’s descendants, and [spiritual] heirs according to [God’s] promise.
Seeing all people, without any exception, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit do, as image bearers should change how we view human dignity, the sanctity of life.
There are ethical, moral and spiritual implications to our understanding of all that it means to be dignified and respected as an image bearer of the living God.
From the moment of our Baptisms, we are to forward reflect His image to a sin disfigured world needing to be reconciled with their Creator and their Savior.
Those who trust in Christ’s finished work on the cross have become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17); they have been “born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).
He has “reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them” (2 Corinthians 5:18-19).
Those who look to Jesus for salvation, behold His glory “are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
It is transformational to us and others as we begin to look more and more like our Savior.
It is all the Spirit’s work in us, transforming us to be like Jesus, reflecting His image to a broken world.
It was all part of His plan of redemption, as it says in Romans 8:29:
“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”
Restoration of the Image Bearer
Sin has affected God’s original design of humans being made in His image.
Preacher, theologian and writer, Dr. Sinclair B. Ferguson spoke at ‘Made in the Image of God’ (Ligonier Ministries online event, 2020) of how the image of God has disintegrated within society.
He said we no longer know who we are and when we remove God, we take away our identity – the image of God. But one day we will bear the image of the man from heaven, Jesus, and all will be restored.
There is hope for the people of God in a broken, fragmented and distorted world where it seems chaos and disorder dominate.
Pastor and theologian John Piper describes well how the image of God in us has been defaced but not destroyed.
It is worth reading his description of being like a mirror which gives a clear illustration of how we reflect God as image bearers has become distorted since the fall, where “Satan persuaded [us] that [our] image is more beautiful than God’s image.”
Yet, by His life, death, resurrection and ascension. Jesus has made salvation eminently possible and because of Him we can see all God’s glory once again and we can begin to reflect the beauty of the Lord Jesus unto those around us.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
My Heavenly Father, I stand in awe of Your grace and wisdom. Thank You for my creation, salvation, and the glories that you have prepared for me in the eternal ages to come. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Dearest Heavenly Father, I thank You that I was created in Your image. Help me to see the reflection of Your beauty in my life. Help me to reflect Your beauty through my life. Thank You for sustaining me by Your divine DNA imprint in my life. May Your likeness, and the likeness of your Son, be reflected in all that I am, and all that I do. Alleluia, Amen.
Revelation 4:11 Amplified Bible
11
“Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they exist, and were created and brought into being.”
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning; is now and ever shall be; world without end, Amen, Amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 