The Image Of God

by Toms, A. F. | Category: Christ In Genesis | Aug 1988

I was talking recently with a gentleman who believed that death ended all. "We die like the animals" he said, "and when we are gone that is the end of us". I drew his attention to the verses in Genesis chapter 1 where God said "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" and the following verse says, "God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him". That very fact makes us different from God's animal creation. We have been made in the likeness of God, with minds that can reason and communicate, and we have been made to enjoy fellowship with God. Sadly, that likeness was marred on account of sin, and later on, in Genesis chapter 5 it says about Adam that he lived a hundred and thirty years and became the father of a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. The son still bore a resemblance to God, with a will to choose what was right, but the perfect image of God had been spoiled because of sin.

And that is where the coming of the Lord Jesus has made all the difference, for 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 says, "if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature". God began again in Christ, and Romans chapter 8 teaches us that every born again person is destined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. And the Son, of course, as we so well know, is the image of God. In fact, He is "the very image of His substance", or as another version puts it, "the very stamp of His nature" (Heb. 1:3). As a coin or a seal pressed into molten wax makes an impression which is exactly the same as its own image, so the Lord Jesus is the very same as God His Father, in nature and in essence.

And we are going to be like Him. The image that was marred through sin has been restored through Christ and through eternal ages God is going to have many sons who will all bear the likeness of His only begotten Son. "Conformed to the image of His Son". And it will all happen in a moment of time, for when our Saviour returns He will change our lowly body to be like His glorious body. And how? we may ask. God gives us the answer, "by the power which enables Him even to subject all things to Himself" (Phil. 3:21 RSV).

Toms, A. F. | Aug 1988
Christ In Genesis