God’s Image
God created most everything by His word. He spoke and things began to happen. The crowning work of His creation was when He created humankind from the dust of the earth. The Bible says that He created man from the dust of the earth and breathed His own breath into their nostrils, and then man became a living soul. It is this unity of God’s breath and dust (our bodies) that composes our being. Without this unity, life for us never would have existed.
The thought of God creating us in His image is staggering. How could God love us so much that He would make us an extension of Himself? The Psalmist David was astonished by this great honor when he wrote: “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!” Psalm 8:4-9.
At some point after God created Adam and Eve, they chose to ignore the special guidelines that protected them from ruin. They decided to betray their origins by sinning against God. As a result, a peculiar shift in language occurs in the scriptures. “And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:” Genesis 5:3. I do not want to make too much of this because it may just mean that Adam’s son came from his own loins and reflected that. Whatever the meaning, it makes me think that our natural birth after sin maintained the separation from God that occurred in Eden. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” John 3:6, 7.
One of the blessings of the image of God being placed in us is that it has the power of choice. The way Adam and Eve chose to ruin their lives is how we can choose everlasting life (Deuteronomy 30:19). Once we make the decision to follow the God all the way, His perfect image begins being restored in us. We look forward to the day when His image will never be effaced from His people.
As we go out into the world everyday, let us work, study, and play as those being elevated to the image of God Himself.
