Printer Friendly Page

Are We Really Made In The Image of God?

Posted October 14, 2010

Hi M____,

Thank you for your question. You ask:
Here is the Biblical answer to that question:
Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Obviously Adam was not quite the finished product.
Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay [dust[ was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make [it].

All clay vessels are "marred in the hand of the Potter", so when we read in the Old Testament...:

Gen 1:26  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.
Gen 1:27  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

...this is actually the very beginning of a process that ends with all men being made to "conform to the image of Christ", of which this first physical image, mentioned in Genesis one, is but a type and a shadow.

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

1Jn 2:2  And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Like all Old Testament types in the New Testament, the holy spirit refers to Adam as a "spiritual" type and a shadow of spiritual realities, and in so doing is "comparing spiritual things with spiritual [types and shadows].

1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

If Adam and his wife, Eve, had come out from the Father as perfect spirits, then there would be no need to say this of us:

Rom 8:29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Rom 8:30  Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

It is you and I who are "conformed to the image of Christ", and it is you and I, Lord willing, who will be "the firstborn among many brothers". In fact, it is in this same book of Romans that we are told that all of this is for our good, so we, as God's "firstfruits", can be God's channel for the salvation of the masses of Christianity and the channel for all men of all times, to be shown God's mercy.

Rom 11:30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

Christ is the first of the firstfruits, but we too, are "a kind of firstfruits"

Jas 1:18  Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Rom 8:23  And not only [they], but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, [to wit], the redemption of our body.

Heb 12:23  To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

Rev 14:4  These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

What a humbling concept! Our salvation as Christ's firstfruits is at the expense of God's own called-out but not chosen people who are "not given eyes to see nor ears to hear the mysteries of the kingdom of God":

Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

Orthodox Christianity teaches that Adam and Eve were really perfect spirits, placed into a physical body. Of course, this is the exact opposite of everything taught throughout scripture:

Gen 3:19  In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Ecc 3:18  I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
Ecc 3:19  For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all [is] vanity.
Ecc 3:20  All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

1Co 15:16  For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
1Co 15:17  And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
1Co 15:18  Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

Flesh and blood are made "out of the dust of the ground" and return to the dust as the Bible teaches. Since this is how man was "marred in the hand of the Potter", how then can anyone claim that Adam and Eve "fell"? To what does dust fall, but back to dust? There is so such phrase in scripture as "the fall of man". Mankind was "marred in the Potter's hand... made subject to vanity", not by his own choice:

Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,

Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Rom 9:17  For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

Your question, like so many questions, concerns the letter of God's Word as it is contrasted with the spirit of God's Word. God's Word can only be spiritually understood by "comparing spiritual things with spiritual".

1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

"The holy spirit teaches comparing spiritual things with spiritual", but the natural man teaches by comparing natural things with spiritual things. "After all", it is reasoned, "the invisible things of God are clearly seen by the things that are made..."

Rom 1:20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, [even] his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

These two verses complement each other and are not at all contradictory. The visible world of "things that are made" demands a Creator. All the laws of science demand that anything left to itself tends to deteriorate, be it our homes, our cars or our relationships with our spouses. All things require maintenance, without which things naturally tend to disintegrate. Godless evolution teaches the opposite of the known truths of observable science, teaching that things are constantly and naturally evolving into more complex and more orderly and more intelligent forms. There can be no compromise with that Godless philosophy, and there is no such thing as "theistic evolution". God spoke the universe into existence with the appearance of age, in six "evenings and mornings", just as He spoke Adam into an adult body capable of conceiving children on the sixth day.

Isa 48:3  I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly [Hebrew, instantly], and they came to pass.

Just as Adam was formed as a physical adult, so too, did He create trees with age rings within them and the light from the stars already in motion and already reaching the earth. That is no challenge at all for God.

So Romans 1:20 tells us that the natural creation demonstrates that God exists and the male, female form of that creation demonstrates the form of our Creator. God created us to demonstrate Himself. So just as Eve came out of Adam, so Christ came out from His Creator, who is also "His head" and as such His Husband and His Father. Just as all men come through or by a woman, who came out of Adam, so does all of God's creation come through Christ, who came out from the Father:

1Co 8:6  But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and [besides this "one God, the Father" there is also] one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

1Co 11:3  But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

Even as Christ is our "head", we are also called Christ's brothers and "sons" of our Father in heaven, but with Christ as "our Head", we are called "a virgin espoused to Christ".

2Co 11:2  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

Rom 8:14  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

There are those who loudly proclaim: "You cannot be both a son and a bride", and yet here we have the same apostle saying otherwise.

So I hope all of this puts Genesis 1:26-27 in a proper spiritual and Biblical perspective and that you can see clearly that God's plan from the beginning was to make us all first marred physical vessels, then destroy those marred vessels and through that destruction to make them into a new spiritual vessel which will never pass away.

Your brother in Christ,

Mike