IT'S ALL ABOUT THE IMAGE!

Gen 1:26-27

26 Then God said,"Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. NKJV

When God made man the whole Godhead was involved in the creation process. The Eternal Father, The Eternal Son, and The Eternal Holy Spirit made man and woman in the image of the eternal God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have perfect unity and communion as three persons united as One Spiritual Being or essence. In the beginning God had no need to have a flesh and blood body to house His eternal substance; but for His own glory, and to display His eternal and perfect attributes, God materialized Himself in mankind to have communion with Himself and with His creation. Therefore man was created for the glory of God to be able to have communion with God being in the very image of God. He needed to be able to think, feel, and act out his thoughts and understandings. What does it mean to be made in His image?

Man was made a living and personal being; therefore it was not good for man to be alone. God was not alone before He made the world. God had perfect peace and perfect fellowship in His eternal unity within Himself. Man needs fellowship to share the desires of his heart. So, just as the Godhead is three persons to share fellowship in God. God made mankind as male and female; two persons, yet, one flesh and one blood. Being both spirit, flesh, and blood man needs the Holy Spirit to make this union possible; so, in the beginning man posessed the Holy Spirit who enabled Adam and Eve to rightly fellowship with each other and with God. The Holy Spirit is who joined these two flesh and blood persons as one spiritual union. Therefore Adam and Eve were justified in the image of God being three seperate persons having communion with each other and God through the Holy Spirit. The universe was made for man, yet, man was made for God and God said, 'It was very good'. So man is a spiritual being like God, but when man sinned he lost all communion with God and his spirit died and became cursed in the absence of the Holy Spirit. What does it mean to be cursed?

Gal 3:13-14

13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"), 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. NKJV

To be cursed is to come under the judgement and wrath of God (Eph. 2:3). To be cursed is to be made in the image of sin. Adam received a new nature when he sinned, a nature incapable to please God without the Spirit (Heb.11:6; Jude 19). This nature is of the same nature of Satan (Eph. 2:1-2). When Adam sinned he lost ownership of his soul and the blessing of God. Adam was sentenced out of the garden where he could have taken from the tree that provides eternal life. He was banished from God's sight; for God cannot look upon sin. Therefore man was lost to the incorruptable image of God and became sinful flesh and blood alienated from the life that is in God (Eph.4:18). Man became more like the dust from which he was made (1Cor.15:49) and the snake upon whom he believed (Gen.3:14-19). Because of the nature of sin in man, God cannot put His image upon it (2Cor.6:15). God now sees man as: swine (Mt.7:6), dogs (Philp.3:2; Mt.15:26), and describes man's nature to that of a dog or a pig:

2 Peter 2:22

But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: "A dog returns to his own vomit," and, "a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire." NKJV

God has degraded mankind from His image (God's nature) into the sin and nature of what He loathes. Therefore man is no longer made in the image and likness of God, but has been made a sinner through the image and likeness of our Federal head in the garden of God. Adam's offspring are all made sinners through his sin and blasphemy of God.

Gen 5:3-43

And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. NKJV

Because of sin, Adam's offspring are now considered children of men (Ps.14:2; Ps.115:16), children of the devil (1Jn.3:10; Jn.8:44), and children of wrath (Eph.2:3). Man goes about the earth in the freedom of his sinful nature worshiping and serving his own image (Dan.3:1; Hab.2:18; Lk.20:24). So man takes what God intended and purposed for God's own glory and uses it for his own vain boasting, as Paul told the Romans:

Rom 1:22-23

Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man...NKJV

This is what we do when we tell unbelievers that they are made in God's image. God's image is incorruptable, but man's image has been and continues to be corrupted (2Tim3:13). Therefore we should show man what he has become in God's sight; because it matters more how God's veiws us, as opposed to how we veiw ourselves. We are to veiw ourselves in the light of who God is because it...is He who has made us, and not we ourselves...Ps 100:3

Therefore man needed a Mediator to be remade into the image of God. While Adam was our Federal Head in the garden and perfection of God, Christ is our Federal Head in the glory and redemption of God (1Cor.15:22). For Christ to be our Mediator He had to be fully God and become fully man. Christ is the exact image and representation of the fullness of God (Col.1:15; 2:9; Heb.1:3). But Christ also became a man in the form of the likeness of Adam, yet, never sinned carrying its weight by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Rom 8:33

For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh...NKJV

While the law increased sin and its nature in us, Jesus Christ, obeyed the law fully and perfectly (Mt.5:17). While being equal to the nature of God, Christ came in the likeness and sinful nature of man. He was a slave to God and to man to bring God's chosen ones to share in His glory, and remake us into that perfect image of God (Philp.2:7-9).

Rom 6:55

For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection..NKJV

Gen 3:21-24

21 Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them. 22 Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever" — 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. NKJV

Therefore to be made in the image of God is to be seen through the Father's eyes as justified. It doesn't matter how you see yourself in the mirror; it only matters how God sees you. When man looks into a mirror he should say, "I am just a man," but when he looks into the mirror and image of God he should say, "I am less than a man." (Ps.22:6) But when you see your justification through Jesus Christ and how the Father sees you through Him then you can understand that you are made in the image and likeness of God, justified in His sight. You are seen as a "Beloved Son or Daughter in whom He is well pleased" (Lk.3:22). Just as it was in the beginning when He justified them and said it was 'very good' (Gen.1:31) and after they fell into sin God clothed them with the righteousness of Christ (Gen.3:21) to justify them back into the image of God when He declared him like "one of Us" (Gen.3:22). But notice that they "became" like one of Us, meaning they were not like Him before. It took the love and grace of God to cover their nakedness "IN JESUS CHRIST"; so that, God could look upon them again and see them as His own. Justifcation after the fall into sin is not like justificaiton before the fall. Before the fall Adam did not have a sinful nature, but now even in Adam's justificaiton, he is still cursed with a sinful nature. Therefore Adam and Eve were adopted back as a son and daughter of God, but are still sinners who have been given grace to be justified as saints in the the sinlessness of Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:3). The question then remains, "What are you?" Are you just a son or daughter of Adam according to the flesh; or have you repented and trusted in the Eternal Son who came from the Father and was conceived by the Holy Spirit to adopt those who receive Him?

John 1:10-1310

He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. NKJV