Images of God

The question, and it is not a simple one, is this: what is meant when God said "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Genesis 1:26) and "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them" (Genesis 1:27)?

Well, I can begin this answer but it might take many of us to add to it; yet I don't think we will even then have a "complete" idea or understanding of the thing in question. To know something about how we are made, it seems to me that we must know something about the One in whose image we have been made. No better place to know about God than by His own Word. So, using only His Word, let's begin to explore what He tells us about Himself, which should tell us something about us as well.

He is eternal. God speaking through the prophet Isaiah to King Hezekiah said: "To whom then will ye liken me, or [with whom] shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Hast thou not known that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?" (Isaiah 40:25-28)

He is almighty. God said to Abraham: "I am the Almighty God, walk before me and be thou perfect." (Genesis 17:1)

He is holy. God spoke this to the Israelites: "Be holy, for I the Lord thy God, am holy." (Leviticus 19:12 NIV)

He is perfect. Jesus said this about God in his sermon on the mount: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5:48)

He is just and fair. Peter said "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him." (Acts 10:35)

He is faithful to keep His Word. Joshua said this of God after following Him the wilderness for many years and even after they entered into the Promised Land: "There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass." (Joshua 21:45)

While this is not a complete list, let's stop there for a moment and reflect upon all of God's attributes that we have discovered thus far and compare them to our own. Personally, I find little here that resembles me. I am not almighty (more powerful than anyone else). I am not holy (I make terrible mistakes – called sin - and I often hurt people, even when I don't intend to at all.) I am not perfect (ask anyone who knows me, beginning with my spouse!) While I would like to think that I am just and fair, I find instead that I can be unjust and unfair, especially if I am being motivated by anger or seeking vengeance. As far as being faithful to keep my Word…..always? Not even close, even though I have been known to say that I "pride" myself on keeping my word. And I am faithful to my word a lot of the time…but not always. Things interfere, circumstances change. That God is able to fulfill ALL that He says He will fulfill, tells me He is in much more in control of things than I am.

Perhaps we should look more closely at the word "image" in the Hebrew. Strong's Concordance says it is: "from a root word meaning "to shade" (shadow), a "phantom", "illusion", "resemblance." The word means "image" in the sense of essential nature, rather than an exact duplicate."

So, if I am a "shadow" of God's image, rather than an "exact replica", there will be much lacking in me still, at least in comparison to God, for whom there truly is NO comparison; for there is only ONE TRUE GOD. Contrary to new age philosophies we are not "little gods" (although we often act as though we think we are!) But there is one other scripture we should look at for today:

"God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." (John 4:24)

Let's consider that scripture and continue tomorrow.