Image of God
Genesis 1:26-27
Genesis 2:7
Romans 5:12
James 3:9
Ephesians 4:24
Ephesians 2:8-9
II Corinthians 5:17
Intro:
Genesis 1:26-27
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
As Christians, I think we can overlook this statement sometimes. “WE WERE CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD”. What does that mean? How does it affect us? How should we be different knowing that we were created in his image? I think we need to clear it up and get a deeper understanding of what it means to be made in the image of God.
• Something to notice about this scripture is that is says in our image. Our image being the image of not only God the father, but God the son (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit.
What does it mean?
• Being made in the image of God, means that he created us to be like him, and to be a reflection of him, which means we should act like a reflection of him.
• As humans, we are unique. We have a fleshly body, but also a spirit and soul.
Genesis 2:7
7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
• God formed us, and breathed his breath of life in us, which means we have life because of the breath of God. We have life because of God’s spirit.
• God directly created our fleshly body whenever he molded us from the dirt, and he directly created our soul and spirit whenever he breathed his breath of life in us.
How does it affect us?
• We are like God mentally, and morally.
o Mentally:
? We are created with the same emotions that God has.
• Love, righteous anger, jealousness, joy etc…
• Whenever we are experiencing emotions like this, we can directly correlate them to the emotions that God feels when he looks at us.
• Unrighteous anger, greed, hate etc… are not from God, these emotions entered the world when sin did.
? God also gave us reasoning and rationality.
• We are able to make choices for ourselves, and typically see what the outcome might be if we make the choices.
o Morally:
? Mankind was originally created innocent, pure and without sin.
• Adam and Eve were created most closely resembling the image of God, because they were not subject to sickness, death, age, time, sin, etc…
• This was just in their initial creation though. Because of the mental side of humanity, they had freewill and had the ability to make the choice to screw things up.
Romans 5:12
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—
• Even though Adam and Eve made the wrong moral choice, that wasn’t a reflection of the image of God, the still reflected the image of God, from a mental standpoint, because they used freewill to make choices.
? Anytime you are faced with a moral decision, the Holy Spirit tries to guide you in the right image, which is the image that mankind was originally created to be.
How should I be different knowing that we were created in his image?
• Today, we still bear the image of God, but we also bear the image of sin.
James 3:9
9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness.
• There is good news though, because of Christ we are redeemed. We become a “new creation”, and he begins to restore us to that original image of God that was given to Adam and Eve when they were created.
Ephesians 4:24
24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
• God wants us to have this restoration to his image and this grace that he gave us. We do not have to work for it, it is a gift.
Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
• Through Christ and our faith, we have been given grace. Without this grace, we would not receive restoration back to Gods perfect image.
Conclusion:
Through Christ, we have been made “new creations” and are restored back to God’s perfect image for us…and that is THE IMAGE OF GOD! Now we must start reflecting this image that we are being restored back to!
II Corinthians 5:17
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
