Throughout all of God’s creation, from the vastness of the universe and the angelic hosts to the earth and all that is found upon it, there is no creature declared to be made in the image and likeness of God except man. To some extent this truth declared in Genesis 1:26 (“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”) has been an enigma throughout the history of theological study. To what extent is this image and likeness? Truly God made man with holiness and righteousness, with an absence of sin, and with an eternality of soul. God chose to make man with a full personality of intellect, emotions, a will, a self, a heart, all found in a spirit-soul breathed into man. We may go so far as to believe that man’s bodily image was fashioned after the image in which the second personality of the Trinity, the Son, later came to earth.
The Image of God Versus the Fall of Man
To what extent was man’s image and likeness in creation? At this point of our writing, we will acknowledge that, whatever that image and likeness was at the fall of Adam, it was profoundly affected by the Adamic sin principle that was brought about by man. This sin principle now became an integral part of the existence of the offspring of Adam. After the fall, man had a human nature made by God mixed with the inherited pollution of Adam.
The overt desire and will of the archangel Lucifer is carefully revealed in Isaiah 14:12–14. He wanted to be “like” God but not in the matter of heart or of the essence of His holiness and righteousness. He wanted to be like God in power, in control, in headship, in sovereignty over all, and in a manifested glory over all creation. He tried to overthrow God and take His place, but he did not have the nature of God, and he did not desire to have God’s nature and attributes of holiness and grace and righteousness. When the serpent convinced Eve to become like God, it was only in the matter of the right to choose what is good and evil, right and wrong. Eve would become her own ethical authority about good and evil. This authority is the only concept of God that man wanted. No, it was not the holy and righteous nature of God he sought.
This willful disobedience and rebellion against God became a natural principle of sin that pervaded every aspect of man, his personality, his self, his fountain of existence—his heart, his conscience, and his spirit. Man’s holiness and righteousness were gone simply because he was no longer absent of sin; he no longer could be declared holy, and he was no longer righteous. Because Adam fell away into sin, is there ever the hope of reclaiming this created image and likeness of God?
The Coming of the Son
Yes, the answer to reclaiming this image is found in the coming of the Son of God to the earth, His taking on flesh and the nature of man. The New Testament reveals the Son in the human context of living in this image and likeness of God. Note the apostle Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 4:3, 4:
But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
In Colossians 1:15 the apostle declares, “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.” The second member of the Trinity, taking on flesh became the “firstborn” of a new humanity. God created the human flesh and human nature for His Son; He took upon Himself that created body and nature as part of His existence. He is ever now a part of this creation, though He was and continues to be eternal with the Father in personality and in the power behind the creation of man (John 1:3, 4). Note Hebrews 1:2, 3:
Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness [the effulgence] of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Being Conformed to His Image
Colossians 3:10 further reveals this image: “And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge [Gr., epignosko, ‘a full experiential knowledge’] after the image of him that created him.” In the epistle dedicated to the unfolding of the full Gospel, Paul declares in Romans 8:29, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” Here the apostle reveals our predestination to be conformed to the Son. The believer is to acquire God’s likeness of Christ in his own life. The Greek word for conformed is sunmorphe; this word in this passage means to pattern ourselves after Him because we have been made within after Him. Paul furthers this truth in 2 Corinthians 3:18: “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
Everything of our life is to be conformed to our Saviour’s human nature. He was the image and likeness that the Trinity made man to be. We were made in the image and likeness of God! The redeemed human becomes like God; he becomes God-like in Christ. Lucifer wanted to become “like” God, but like Him in power, authority, and sovereignty. God wants us to become like Him in spirit, in heart, in humility, even as Christ in submissiveness. This is truly like God. It includes the fullness of what we are spiritually, and the manifested self—our spirit.
This meekness and submissiveness begins in simplicity as that of a child. But as a child grows older, his spirit is being formed and manifested. Things that are instilled in the child for good become a part of the child’s spirit. When the child is permitted to get away with wrong, it also becomes a part of that child’s spirit. As he grows older this growing spirit becomes part of the warp and woof of the fabric of a child’s character. This could include proclivities to hatred, anger, recklessness, undisciplined manner, moodiness, apathy, getting his way, etc. These are spirit matters that become a part of the spirit of the child. When one grows up in a home given to these things (such as an exploding mother or father, a lawless home, etc.), all of these characteristics contribute to a child’s spirit.
It is one thing to be forgiven of sins (physical, mental, and spiritual), but it is another thing for the human spirit to be conformed to the Spirit of Christ. The complexity of our spirit, along with our family’s spirit, the environment in which we lived, all contribute to the molding force of our lives. It includes the things we were able to get away with, the way we were taught (good or bad), and our own secret sins that became woven into what we have become. Our thought life also greatly invested in our spirit. Redemption of Christ is for the whole man, and that includes our spirit. We must ask God to deliver us from everything that has affected our life over the years that mars our conformity to Christ. And, we must also pray that the Spirit of God will conform us more and more into the image of God.
Coming out of the chapter dedicated to faith in Hebrews 11, we enter into the sobering words of Hebrews 12:1, which encourage us to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.” We quote from our commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews on page 259, 260:
These weights to be set aside refer to weights that runners placed on their ankles and wrists while they were in training for a race. However, at the time of the race, these weights would be removed, enabling them to run unhindered and thus faster. A Christian’s weights are those aspects of self that encumber his faith in God. Not always sins, they could be anything that hinder our spiritual progress. The greater life of faith, with a steady and unflinching resolve, will lead one to even sacrifice right things in order to keep from slowing his race. He realizes that what may be innocent or commendable in another is a hindrance he willfully sets aside. This weight could even be an innocent affection that threatens to turn away the diligence of his heart’s love. Paul does not make any suggestion as to what these encumbrances may be; nevertheless, he does imply that he who sets himself to this solemn race will early discover that which proves to be a hindrance to them.
The apostle then gives the exhortation of laying aside every besetting sin. We also quote from the commentary this passage on page 260:
The word sin (Gr., harmartia) is a singular noun; in this context the author is not addressing sins. This word is in reference to the singular sin principle from which all sins (in the plural) flow. Thus, the writer here is not referring to any particular sin; he is referring to the principle of sin itself. Its posture of besetting the believer means it surrounds the Christian, keeping him from growing on with God in this race. The command to lay side (Gr., apotithemi) means ‘to put off or away’ this hindering principle promptly. This is the command to seek God for the crisis experience of sanctification.
Everything we need for godliness and conformity to Christ is found in His redemptive work. Christ even died to do away with the wrinkles: “That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:27). The “spot” is any act of sin; the “wrinkle” is any imperfection concerning the character of Christ in us.
The Final Conformity to Christ’s Image
What will be the finality of this image? There will be the need of the Bematos or the Judgment Seat of Christ, to rid our lives of anything that has become a part of us as a product of the flesh and not of Christ. Note 1 Corinthians 3:11–15:
For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
These things of the earthly life which were based on flesh and wrought by our own power, Christ must judge and burn up, “that no flesh should glory in his presence” (1 Cor. 1:29). Only humanity conformed to His image is to be found in heaven. We also read in Hebrews 12:23, “To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.” The final Greek word in the phrase “men made perfect” is tetelios, which is the word meaning “absolutely, perfectly” conformed.
In 1 John 3:2 the apostle John declares, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” Paul in Ephesians 5:30 writes, “For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.”
What is a glorified body? Christ became flesh, bone, and blood. After He died and His soul reentered His body on the day of His resurrection, He arose with the same body, yet it was a glorified body. It is this glorified body that our body will be fashioned like unto. Only humans can have such a body—in a glorified state, in heaven, forever.
In Luke 24:38, 39 we read that on the evening of the resurrection, when Jesus appeared where the ten disciples were gathered together: “He said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.”
The only thing absent from that body was blood. There will be another principle to take the place of blood in the glorified, human body. We believe Spirit is to be the life principle.
According to Romans 8:23, the final change of redemption will be our body, identified in the context of the image and likeness of His glorified body: “And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” And, 1 John 3:2, 3 reveals the final change: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” The final resolve of our clay body will be fashioned like unto His Body.
Thank God! Christ is the power over all flesh: “As thou hast given him power over all flesh…” (John 17:2). He has the power to deal with the flesh principle in this life and in the final resolve of the natural flesh in heaven as we will be fashioned like unto Him.
Conclusion
Although our knowledge of God will ever be increasing throughout the unending ages, our character will be sealed the moment we die or are raptured. Both grace and suffering are demanded in order to increase our character; heaven will be a place without suffering. Thus, our character is sealed at death by what we were in this life. Some Christians will be saved as by fire, losing all of their professing Christian life because the life they had in professing the Christian faith was all through the power of the flesh rather than through the power and life of Christ. Others will know the gold (Christ’s righteousness within, covering every aspect of life), silver (the redemptive work of Christ), and precious stones (the individual characteristics of Christ in the life) that become the character of the saints and a part of their beauty in that they yield to Christ and His Word rather than to their religious flesh.
Oh, dear Christian, we will forever be clay and flesh, yet in heaven, this clay and flesh will be glorified. We will forever be as Christ’s flesh and bone—glorified!