Made in the Image of God – Lesson 19 2024
God’s account of the creation of Adam and Eve states that God made the first man and woman “in His own image”. What does this mean? Why is it important?
On the sixth day of the Creation Week,
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. Genesis 1:26-27 KJV
Although man was formed from the dust of the ground, God personally “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” Genesis 2:7.
In the Image of God
When God created man in His own image, He purposed that mankind (both man and woman) would resemble God in certain ways.
Not a physical likeness, but…
Although God is spirit (John 4:24) and does not have a body like a man, God made man in the bodily form in which God would one day reveal Himself. The human body was the form in which God the Son (Jesus) would be ‘made in the likeness of men’ – Philippians 2:7.
He designed the body not like the animals; man has an erect posture, is capable of facial expressions corresponding with emotional feelings, and with a brain and tongue capable of fluent speech.
It was a mental likeness.
This is seen in God’s command to Adam and Eve that they exercise dominion over the earth and its animals-Genesis 1:26,28;
in Adam’s task of caring for the garden- Genesis 2:15;
and in the statement that Adam gave names to the animals on the earth-Genesis 2:19-20.
Man’s intellectual gifts are further seen in his ability to design things and then make them, to appreciate beauty, to compose music, to paint pictures, to write, to count to large numbers and do mathematics, to control and use energy for his own benefit, to organize, to reason, to make decisions, to be self-conscious, to laugh at himself, to think abstractly, etc. All of this behavior is distinct from animal behavior, and of unlimited variety.
It was a moral likeness.
Man only, of all God’s creatures, has a spirit or God-consciousness, a capacity for knowing God and holding spiritual communion with Him through prayer, praise, and worship. Since the Fall (Genesis chapter 3), man has had inborn moral awareness of good and evil, or conscience, which he perceives in his spirit.
Man was made without sin, positively holy, otherwise Adam could not have had communion with God. God cannot look upon iniquity-Habakkuk 1:13. This is further confirmed by Genesis 1:31, when God affirms that everything He had made (including man) was ‘very good’, which would not have been true if man had been morally imperfect.
It was a social likeness.
God—who is love—created man with a social nature and a need for love. The statement in Genesis 3:8 that “they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day” suggests that Adam and Eve enjoyed fellowship and communion with God, perhaps on a daily basis.
God also provided for human fellowship and love in a very special and intimate way. Before He created Eve He said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him”-Genesis 2:18. He then made Eve out of a bone taken from Adam Genesis 2:21-24.
Conclusion
When God created the vegetation and the animals, He made them all ‘after his/their kind’ (this phrase occurs nine times in Genesis 1:11-25.)
When He created Adam, He made him after the God-kind – in the image and likeness of God (cf. Acts 17:28).
After the Fall, man is still said to be in God’s image (Genesis 9:6; 1 Corinthians 11:7) and likeness (James 3:9). However, this image was defiled by man’s rebellion at the Fall, and all aspects of God’s image were tarnished.
Nevertheless, these aspects were perfect in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was and is ‘the image of the invisible God’ – Colossians 1:15, and ‘the express image’ of God Hebrews 1:3, both in His life on earth and in Heaven.
The Apostle Paul says that we are transformed or renewed into the image of God by the Gospel, and that this image is then ‘in righteousness and true holiness’ – Colossians 3:10; Ephesians 4:24. This is not something that the natural man can bring about by his own efforts. It is the result of our ‘receiving Christ’ in faith and repentance (John 1:12; Galatians 2:20). It is accomplished by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5; Romans 8:28-29), who indwells God’s children (1 Corinthians 3:1; 6:19).
‘God is long-suffering towards us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance’ (2 Peter 3:9).