Are we made in God's image?

Are we made in God's image?

Genesis 1:26 says, '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.'
I would like to suggest that we are actually made in Adam's image. Adam was made in God's image (Genesis 1:26) and at the Fall (Genesis 3:6) Sin (the image of Satan) entered Adam.

In Genesis 5:1 & 3 we read, 'This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him ... And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth.' So by creation Adam was made in God's image and by procreation we have been made in Adam's image.

I would like to suggest the following formula to understand Adam's image. GI+S =AI (God's image plus Sin equals Adam's image). This means that to restore the image of God in His creation (man), sin needs to be removed.  Adam's image less sin equals God's image. However, because sin is part of our nature (Adam's image) we cannot, of ourselves, remove sin and become again like God's image.

Satan's great lie to Eve suggested that she was not already in God's image and that partaking of the fruit would make her like God. In fact, the entering of sin did the opposite - it made her less God-like. In order for us to become God-like we need to be re-created, or born again. Something we cannot do for ourselves. However, God is willing to take the sin part of our nature and, with our permission (and only with our permission) start us on the journey of his re-creating us anew. When we invite him to change our image we acknowledge that He has already made provision through His Son Jesus.

God does this in several stages. When we confess our sinfulness he regards us as if we had been created and not procreated. He gives us a clean slate to work from (we call this Justification). We are born again, as if procreated as a newborn infant without sin. But as procreated beings, we still bear the image of Adam and so we are still inclined toward sin. So God continues to nurture us on to wholeness in Him for the remainer of our earthly life (we call this Sanctification). On the Great Resurrection Day, God will finalise this change by re-creating us in His image (We call this Glorification).

-- Lionel Hartley ©2007