1. Created “in God’s image.” 

The Bible begins by informing us that, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,” and after outlining that creative work, brings us to its climax in God’s creating man “in his own image” in order to “have dominion” over all of the creation.

The 8th Psalm states the question, “What is man?” which centers the whole area of Bible teachings we now review. It raises that question in the light of the unimaginable size of the universe which God created. “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou bast ordained; what is man . . . ?” (vv. 3, 4). Isaiah 40 also calls attention to those vast created heavens (v. 26), saying men are “like grasshoppers” (v. 22), and “the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and . . . as the small dust on the balance . . . before Him are as nothing , . . . less than nothing and worthless” (vv.15–17).

   

2. The Image Lost

When man in his pride, following the devil, rejected his Creator whom he was to resemble, he “changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds, and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up” to all kinds of wickedness and vice that destroy them and their society (Romans 1:23, 24, 26, 28). And so “Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness” (Ephesians 4:17–19). Thus man, whether a primitive pagan or a modern intellectual, debases himself from being a God-like creation, to living and acting as a mere animal,(“The Naked Ape,” was one writer’s characterization), or to becoming an inanimate machine! (The evolutionary theory is this kind of misinterpretation of the universe and man.) Thus as the Psalm (49:12, 20) said, “Man who is in honor, yet does not understand, Is like the beasts that perish.”

3. What is This Image?

The Bible begins setting the record straight by informing us of our creation “in God’s image.” What does this mean? We must not think of this image as physical likeness (like the ancient Greek imagery or modern Mormon views). Ephesians 4:17–24 teaches us that, in contrast with surrounding pagans, the believer in Christ is to “be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and…put on the new man which was created according to God, in righteousness and true holiness.” Similarly, the (“twin”) letter to the Colossians (3:10) says that the believer in Christ has “put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image ofHim who created him.” Thus the Bible teaches that the “image of God” which is being “renewed” in the believer involves “knowledge,” “righteousness” and “holiness”—his capacity to know, serve and love God.

Since this “image” is “being renewed” in the Christian, it was evidently lost in man’s revolt against God. In fact, our Lord told the Jews who rejected him, that, although they claimed to be children of God, they were children of the devil, whose actions they imitated (John 8:44)! That raised the question whether in the life of the non-Christian that “image of God” has been totally lost. Although some Christians have believed that non-Christians have totally lost that image, the Bible evidently teaches that the reality is a little more complicated. Genesis 9:6 decreed the death penalty for murder, “for in the image of God He made man.” This applied to mankind in the violent world since the flood. Similarly James warned (Christians) (3:9) against cursing “men, who have been made in the similitude of God.” Thus man, no matter how fallen, remains human, “made in the image of God,” but misuses and misdirects his human capacities (to know, serve and love) to his own destruction. He needs radical restoration and renewal to be saved.

Christ Restores the Image

Christ, the Divine Son of God in a deeper sense than any other man, “the express image of His person” (Hebrews 1:3), came to bring about this restoration and renewal of man.

We recall that Psalm 8, after pointing us to the enormity of the created universe, states that small and insignificant man was made to “have dominion over” it. Hebrews 2:6ff., commenting on that Psalm, shows us that the inspired song about God’s creation faces us with a riddle, for, no matter what man’s achievements may be or become, we certainly do not see him dominating the whole of creation (v. 8)! In fact, he, despite, (or through) his efforts, again and again becomes the victim! The only way in which we may see the creative destiny of man announced in Psalm 8 fulfilled, is through the work of Jesus Christ, the Savior. H e, as the rest ofHebrews 2 explains, at the enormous personal cost of becoming man and dying for the sins ofHis people, is making it come true. Thus “the author of their salvation” is “bringing many sons to glory” (v, 10). “God sent forth His Son, born of a woman . . . to redeem . . . that we might receive the adoption as sons” and sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. Thus each believer in Christ is to be “no longer a slave but a son, . . . an heir of God through Christ” (Gal. 4:4–7).

God’s Covenant

Man was created “in the image of God” to live as his “child” in a family relationship with God, knowing, serving and loving Him. That relationship the Bible often describes as a “covenant” (mentioned some 300 times in the Bible and sometimes translated “testament”). In man’s revolt against God that relationship was broken, but the Bible, the “Book of the Covenant” or “Testament,” is both the account and means of God’s reestablishing the relationship. In Gen. 17:7 God told Abraham, “I will establish my covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.” Abraham must train his children in this faith in God in order that his promise may be realized (18:19). Galatians 3:6ff. explains how Christ came to make this promise come true, so that “those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham” (v. 9). Thus the gospel promise still goes out to believers in Him and their children (Acts 2:39), whom they must “bring . . . up in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4).

The Covenant of God is a living family relationship with Him. As that all-important relationship, it is revealed and defined (like a “contract,” Gal. 3:15) by a Book, the Bible. That Bible is itself called the Covenant or “Testament.” Its 2 parts must not be separated, but belong to the one full revelation of God’s Good News to us of salvation through faith in Christ, the New fulfilling the promise of the Old (Jer. 31:31–33; Heb. 8:8–13). We must believe and obey that Word which guides and preserves us as His children in His covenant family (Rev. 22:18, 19), anticipating eternal joy in His fellowship (Rev. 21:3, 4; 22:3–7).

Questions:

1. How must we deal with present “scientific” (biological, psychological, sociological) views of man? (Cor. 2:8; 1 Tim. 6:20, 21; Eph. 4:17–24). 2. What does our “creation in God’s image” mean? 3. What did sin do to this “image of God” and how does Christ restore it? 4. Does the non-Christian still have “God’s image”? 5. Are there any differences between men and women as created, and restored “in God’s image?” (Gal. 3:13, 14, 26–29; Eph. 4:22–24; 5:22–25; 1 Tim. 2:11–3:2.) 6. What is God’s “covenant” with us and whom does it include? What does it require? (Hosea 6:7; Gen. 17:7; Acts 2:38, 39; Gal. 3:7, 9; Rom. 5:12, 19; Gen. 18:19; Eph. 6:4.) 7. What is the difference between the Old and New Testament (or Covenant)? (Jer. 31:31–33; Heb. 8:8–13; Gal. 4:1–7) PDJ