MADE IN GOD’S IMAGE. Genesis 1
Only God could have decreed, ‘Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness: let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ Genesis 1:26. It was spiritual and moral not physical resemblance.
The Lord created a handsome man Adam and beautiful woman Eve, not as ants or elephants, but human walking in the garden , enjoying fellowship with their Lord.
After Adam and Eve sinned against their Lord, He suppressed them, greatly curbing their authority. ‘Then the Lord said, Behold the man has become like one of us, to know good and evil.’ God judged Adam and Eve early in human history. In their spirit, they rebelled and their deeply-aggrieved God judged them. ’And now lest he put forth his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat and live for ever,’ ( God expelled man.) ’He drove out the man, and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way , to guard the way to the tree of life.’ Being in the likeness of the Lord, and with a clear choice, they were able to follow or rebel against HIM. So with us.
This freedom of choice showed when ‘The whole earth had one language , and one speech.‘ Rebelliously, they decided to ‘Build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered ( as originally from the garden of Eden) abroad over the face of the whole earth.’ Genesis 11;6 The eternal God countered decisively and promptly, ‘Come, let us
( the Holy Triunity ) go down and there confuse their language , that they may not understand each other’s speech.’ Where the Trinity had united in creation, now they judged with one accord. The Lord rightly ’scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth. Then they ‘called it Babel, for the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.’ Diversity and language confusion confirm bible accuracy.
Bible societies plan to translate the main languages ( 6000 separate ones apart from dialects) by the year 2020. Papua and New Guinea have 600 distinct languages, often neighboring tribes being poles apart. God has raised up richly-endowed linguists with extraordinary language recognition . Wycliffe Bible Translators have 2000 missionaries including linguists with the vision of printing the languages before the year 2020. In Papua New Guinea, I met a language consultant well versed in the principles of 1000 languages. He demonstrated this potential when examining translations by missionary linguists. Is this the long-term, driving vision of each church? How close to our God’s heart.
David understood this when he wrote, ’Know that the Lord ( Jehovah ) He is God. It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves.’ Therefore, our Lord has total right to us seeing he created us. ‘We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.’ (Psalm 100:3 ) God purposed that we be His obedient, loving flock, which he appropriated as His own. Sinful rebellion spoiled that awesome oneness. Christ died to restore it : and reconcile us. When made in His likeness, we become the sheep of His pasture. The Arab shepherd’s flute delights his sheep, called by name to follow Him. When I played the same flute and called the sheep, they ignored me. I was not their shepherd. They are His own. We are made in God’s likeness.
Isaiah presented the Lord as the Shaper of clay, moulding our lives. ‘Now O Lord you are our Father. We are the clay; You are the Potter.’ The Hebrew language speaks of One who foreordained us, who shaped us when we were conceived, as the infant develops over the entire nine months. He also created us in His spiritual likeness. Apart from our embryological development, our Lord shapes our character, determines our environment, giving us eternal life and the nature of His triumphant Son. Years prewar in a country town, army experience in Egypt, Israel, Papua New Guinea and the exciting Java experience were the Potter’s moulding of our family for the Lord’s service.
In the Acts, Luke wrote, ‘He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation‘.(17:26) In Java, I gave a unit of blood
( Australian ) to an Indonesian patient and then proceeded with consulting and surgery. While there are blood groups, the Lord created the blood stream for nutrition and oxygen that every man should be sustained by it. The bible states, ‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood.’ While medicine differentiated between blood groups, it established the complex constants of our blood, confirming God’s word as accurate. The Lord Jesus atoned for our sins ( of each generation and culture ) with the shedding of His precious life blood. Born of the virgin, Christ was perfectly human, as well as deity: so that we could wear His spiritual likeness.
’Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God ( a similar eternal nature), did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant ( sameness of a slave ), and coming in the likeness of man.( in his resemblance or equality ) ’ (Philippians 2:5) He came from heaven’s prominence to earth’s meanest form. ‘And being found in appearance of a man ( in fashion, actions, manner of life ), He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.’ Then heaven’s high exaltation and accolades were for the victorious ONE.
God had predetermined us to have a physical likeness to the Son of man, born of the virgin, and a spiritual likeness to the Christ of God. In the rapture, we shall receive a resurrection body to enjoy eternal fellowship with our bridegroom.
Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 11:7, ‘A man indeed ought not to cover his head,
since he is the image and glory of God. Then he added, ‘For man is not from woman, but woman from man. The Greek ‘eikon’ means ‘The image of the Son of God into which true Christians are conformed.’ Man’s spirit and mind must reflect the glory of his Lord, while his face must radiate the presence of the indwelling One. God’s Spirit reminds us of the original creation of woman from the rib of Adam, while blood and water flowed from the second Adam’s side at Calvary for our salvation and the empowering Spirit. We are His heavenly bride.
The Spirit’s sanctifying work restores the lost image of the beloved Son after sin damned and degraded us. Paul continued, ‘We all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory( that faded and was lost) to glory (that excels and progresses) , just as by the Spirit of the Lord.’ ( 2 Corinthians 3:18) God reinstates the glory which sin filched from us; ’For we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God.’ ‘The kingly majesty which belongs to Him as supreme ruler, in the absolute perfection of the deity’ is the Glory into which He transforms us.
Please ponder! Does your life reflect the radiant image of your Lord.?
Paul subtly warns against satan blurring the image of Christ in a believer’s witness, saying ,’If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God should shine on them.
Our witness to Christ should be clear, uncompromising so that the likeness or reflection of our Saviour should be transparent to those whom we meet. Our conduct must not deface His glorious image. Rather reveal it.
Paul added a powerful word in Colossians 1:15, ’He has delivered us from the power of darkness; and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love; in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, ’ and then the striking, ’He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation.’
The model of the concealed, invisible God links you with your liberation from darkness; your translation into another domain; your freeing through His shed blood; accepting His pardon of sins; and Christ the perfect reflection of God, the forerunner of all creation. Christ in you is the hope of glory so that you reveal the indwelling Lord in your real life.
How is your Christ-likeness?