Image of God

Who do I look like?

Humanity created in God’s image

Image and likeness are probably synonymous terms in Hebrew parallelism. No physical likeness between God and humanity is intended.

Genesis 1:26–27 NASB95

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Genesis 1:26–27 NASB95

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Holman Treasury of Key Bible Words: 200 Greek and 200 Hebrew Words Defined and Explained Image, Likeness

In recent years, a famous tennis player, Andrew Agassi, advertising for a camera company, was fond of saying, “Image is everything.” The Bible also has its “image” motto: “People are created in God’s image.” Whereas the advertisement promotes physical image, the Bible promotes people’s spiritual image.

See also

Genesis 5:1–2 NASB95

This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and He blessed them and named them Man in the day when they were created.

Paul recognizes that the divine image is associated in the first place with men at creation.

Although Paul at points seems to imply that the image of God is especially associated with males, he does not imply that this involves male supremacy:

1 Corinthians 11:11–12 NASB95

However, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman; and all things originate from God.

Respect for human life in God’s image

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James 3:9 NASB95

With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God;

Genesis 9:6 NASB95

“Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man.

The divine image implies partnership with God in the stewardship of creation

Genesis 1:26 NASB95

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

See also

Psalm 8:3–8 NASB95

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained; What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field, The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.

The divine image includes imitating God’s love and justice

Matthew 5:48 NASB95

“Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

See also

Deuteronomy 10:17–19 NASB95

“For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe. “He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing. “So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

The image of God disfigured, though not totally destroyed, in the fall.

Perversion of Desire

Distortion of Taste

Blinding of Sorts

We don’t See; Hear; or Understand as we were meant to

Romans 3:23 NASB95

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Fallen humanity in contention with creation

See also

Genesis 3:17–19 NASB95

Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”

Fallen humanity and the exploitation of nature

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Isaiah 7:23–25 NASB95

And it will come about in that day, that every place where there used to be a thousand vines, valued at a thousand shekels of silver, will become briars and thorns. People will come there with bows and arrows because all the land will be briars and thorns. As for all the hills which used to be cultivated with the hoe, you will not go there for fear of briars and thorns; but they will become a place for pasturing oxen and for sheep to trample.

Deuteronomy 22:6–7 NASB95

“If you happen to come upon a bird’s nest along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young; you shall certainly let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, in order that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.

So What Should We Look To?

Are we stuck?

Should we just resign? Act like animals? Live like Noah’s society?

How

Is is Possible to get back to what God intended?

Ephesians 2:10 NASB95

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Jesus Christ the image of God

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Colossians 1:15 NASB95

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

Philippians 2:6 NASB95

who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,

See also

He is the exact representation of God

Hebrews 1:3 NASB95

And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

He reveals God

John 1:18 NASB95

No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

Jesus Christ is the perfect human being

John 1:4 NASB95

In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

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John 1:14 NASB95

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Philippians 2:7 NASB95

but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.

Hebrews 2:17 NASB95

Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

John 1:9 NASB95

There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.

Restoration of the divine image through Jesus Christ

The divine image is renewed in all who are united with him by faith

Romans 8:29 NASB95

For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;

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Jesus is the Fulfillment of the Law

We should become transformed every time we approach Scripture

2 Corinthians 3:18 NASB95

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

Ephesians 1:13–14 NASB95

In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

Ephesians 4:22–24 NASB95

that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

Colossians 3:9–10 NASB95

Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him—

The promise of complete restoration in the future

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1 Corinthians 15:49 NASB95

Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.

1 John 3:2 NASB95

Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.

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1 Corinthians 15:42 NASB95

So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body;

1 Corinthians 15:45–48 NASB95

So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly.

Philippians 3:21 NASB95

who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

The Christian life as a process of transformation

2 Corinthians 3:18 NASB95

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.