Image of God

THE IMAGE OF GOD

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1), and all that is in heaven and upon the earth, including the angels (Psalm 148:2, Colossians 1:16). Of mankind Scripture records, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). God alone is eternal. Therefore, God’s reference to Us and Our speaks to the mystery of the Trinity. “There are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one” (1 John 5:7). God consulted with Himself before He created mankind. Genesis 1:27 (twice) and 9:6 speak of man created in the image of God. Genesis 5:1-2 speaks of man being made in the “likeness” of God.

God is a living personal being, though not a physical being. The statement “God is a Spirit” obviously declares that the image of God is not a reference to a material being. The apostle John wrote, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). When our godless culture promotes some social, political, or racist agenda by claiming all people bear the image of God, it demonstrates a woeful, if not intentional, ignorance of Scripture in its application.   

While all creation was very good (Genesis 1:31), of all living creatures which God created by the power of His Word, only mankind was created in the image of God. “The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). Man, was created as a rational being. God created man who was like God in righteousness and true holiness. The human heart, mind, and will of man was in harmony with the will of God. The image of God was a perfect spiritual likeness, perfectly reflected in the life of Adam and Eve.

In the beginning, our first parents had free will. For however long it was between creation and the time when by disobeying God they abused their free will, there was no shame, no fear, no sorrow. Adam and Eve enjoyed heaven on earth. However with the fall into sin, harmony with God was lost. The image of God was lost with the introduction of sin

“The Scriptures [therefore God] deny to the intellect, heart, and will of the natural man all aptness, skill, capacity, and ability to think,  understand, to be able to do, to begin, to will, to undertake, to act, to work, or to concur in working anything good and right in spiritual things  as of himself “ [emphasis ours]. (FC. Thor. Decl. Art. II, 12 Triglotta, p.885).

Martin Luther commented, “If we wish to follow Moses [in Genesis], we can say that the original righteousness consisted in this, that man was righteous, true, and upright, not only in his body and externally, but, above all, inwardly in his soul and that he knew God, was obedient to Him with the utmost pleasure, understood the works of God without any instruction concerning them…. The original righteousness also consisted in Adam’s loving God and God’s work with all his heart, in a pure spirit” (St. L. I: 138).

Since the image and likeness to God—righteousness and true holiness—in which man was created was lost, every human conceived and born of the flesh is in and from the womb corrupted by sin and is under the wrath of God, because they are born in the image of sinful man. This is inherited or original sin. Children are not born in the likeness of God in which Adam was created. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh…” (John 3:6). “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5). “I know that in me (that is in my flesh) nothing good dwells” (Romans 7:18).

Scripture clearly defines the difference between man created in the image of God, and human offspring born of the flesh. “This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and called them Mankind in the day they were created” (Genesis 5:1-2). However, because of his sin of defiance, Adam did not pass on the image of God in which he was created. The first son, Cain, who murdered his brother, was not born in the image of God. Further, note: “And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth” (Genesis 5:3). Seth was not born in the image of the holy God, but in the image of sinful Adam. By one man, Adam, sin entered into the world. Death is a consequence of sin (Romans 5:17).  

The carnal, natural, mind resists God’s truth. “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be” (Romans 8:7). The natural heart and mind of fallen man does not conform to the will of God. The carnal mind centers on temporary gratification, worldly success. It is egotistical, envious, self-serving. It is dead in trespasses and sins. It is continually evil (Genesis 6:5). Living according to the will of the flesh it perpetuates guilt, dissatisfaction, and ultimate spiritual ruin. The apostle Paul addressed the Ephesian Christians pre-conversion status. They “were by nature children of wrath, just as others” (Ephesians 2:3). The “others” include you and me!  Natural man in his fallen state does not know, neither can he know nor discern the will of God for life, and for salvation, because the things of God are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14).

In like image and likeness to God’s own image–righteousness and trueholiness– and in conformity with God’s will, man enjoyed fellowship with God. Though the original image was lost, it pleased God to restore it. In His mercy, He sent His Son to be our Savior, Who through His substitutionary atonement appeased God’s wrath. For Jesus’ sake, the Father says, “I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12). Do not ask how this can be. Look to the cross. Believe it.

Since the fall into sin, man is born in sin. Yet by grace of God, by the power of the Spirit working through baptism and the Gospel Word, we were regenerated and “put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him…” (Colossians 3:10). “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Though still in the sinful flesh, the believer is restored to the image of God by the same Gospel through the Spirit, and strives to reflect it as he is encouraged through the apostle Paul, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather expose them” (Ephesians 5:8-11). The Ephesians Christians were encouraged in daily contrition and repentance to “Put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and …put on the new man which was created according to God” (Ephesians 4:22-24). Christ-believers are to manifest what natural man in his fallen state does not know, neither can know nor discern, for the will of God for life, and for salvation, is spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14). Much less can fallen man by himself accomplish his own salvation or claim to be in the image of God.

Christ-believers “are His [God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant…” (Philippians 2:5-7). Exercising ourselves according to the mind and will of God is the sanctified life through which the child of God reflects the image of God.

The restoration of the divine image occurs when one is justified by faith in Christ. Sanctification, however, or renewal of the image of God is a process through which Christ-believers strive, upon daily contrition (sorrow over sin) and repentance (faith), to manifest in their life the new man who reflects the image of God. By the power of the Spirit working on the heart through the Gospel the new man strives to practice all that is good, virtuous, and pure in an earnest desire to serve the Lord and glorify and reflect the will of God.

However, still in the flesh, Christians are not sinless. The apostle who taught the steadfast, inerrant Word of God, encouraged the Ephesians, the Romans, and encourages us to reflect the divine image in our lives. Simultaneously he acknowledged that reflecting the image of God is a challenge. He wrote, “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God–through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God but with the flesh the law of sin” (Romans 7:15-25).

During their earthly sojourn, believers in Christ rue their weakness in their pursuit of sanctification. Children of God confess that they fail to be the lights they are called to be. Even as they confess their sins which sully the restored image, they pray with steadfast heart: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:10-11).

In eternity our bodies shall be changed (1 Corinthians 15:52). As to the soul, the image of God will be fully restored to its full glory. “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (John 3:2). We will not be God—we will be like God. “Thanks be to God Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 7:24). What a future the believer in Christ has—eternal life–when he will be like God, with God.

Until that day, pray what the unbelieving world will not because it cannot:
                                      

                                       Grant that Thy Spirit’s help

        To me be always given

        Lest I should fall again

        And lose the way to heaven;

        That He may give me strength

        In mine infirmity

        And e’er renew my heart

        To serve Thee willingly. (TLH 417:5)

 Until we are with Jesus, may our lives reflect the image of God. May we reflect who we are in and through Him, that it may be said of us as it was recognized of Peter and John, “that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).