“Let us make man in our image and after our likeness”

Who is God?  What is God?  We are told the when (He is eternal Deuteronomy 33:26-28) and the where (He says he permeates all things by his spirit and sits enthroned in the city of his kingdom (Psalm 139:7-10, Psalm 113:4-6).  How are we to understand God?  We are told He is Spirit (John 4:23-25).   However, he reveals himself in human form (Exodus 33:21-23).  He did this in the ancient times and in the Spiritual realm when the prophets were caught up to Him.  Many say that God has no form, no image.  Yet he made it clear that we are made in his image.  Some say that this means we are made in his spiritual image, yet he did not create our spirit.  He breathed into man’s nostrils, and the man became a living being (Genesis 2:6-8).  God gave us the spirit, He made us of the dust of the earth.  He formed Adam’s body from the clay.  This was the human form; made in his image, after his likeness (Genesis 1:25-27).  These are the same words used in the Bible when Eve bore Seth.  As it is written, Adam “… had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth (Genesis 5:2-4).

One person said that this idea was ridiculous; God in human form!  “Does he have lungs and liver and genitals?”  God is a spirit (John 4:23-25) but does this mean he is formless?  Spirits do not propagate or have need of material energy.  Besides, if all men are made in the image of God, including sinners, doesn’t this mean the human form is in God’s image, not the sinful soul?  A sinful soul needs to be “recreated after the image of God.”  This spiritual image must be sinless to be like God in this respect.  All men are made in the image of God.  They bear the stamp of the divine in which the spirit of man is made to dwell.  Killing an innocent human life is called murder for this very reason; we are made in the image of God (Genesis 9:5-7).  Isn’t this true?

I think most of us would accept that Jesus was the “express image of the invisible God.”  This certainly means he was sinless.  Doesn’t this mean he bore the form of the invisible God?  Is not man unique in this regards?  God “prepare a body” for the Savior to undergo death (Hebrews 10:4-6).  Did not Daniel see one like the Son of Man come to the Ancient of Days and there was given him the dominion of the earth to rule (Daniel 7:12-14)?  Ezekiel also saw the One in a human form sitting upon the throne in splendor (Ezekiel 1:26-28)?  Moses begged to see God.  Only His hands, arms, and back were revealed to Moses.  ““…you cannot see my face; for man shall not see me and live (Exodus 33:17-22).””

We are made in the Divine image.  By that form, we have dominion over all the earth.  We have the ability to subdue all things.   Once we die, are we not spirits? The grandest hope for a Christian is to be clothed with a spiritual body, just as Christ now resides in his former state.  We will be like Him for we will see Him as He is (1 John 3:2).  This is what Paul said about the resurrection of the body.  It is not what is sown that rises (1 Cor. 15:42-50).  The earthly body is put off.  It turns to dust.  We rise with a different body; incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading, everlasting and not subject to death.  Biology teaches the many aspects of this uniqueness of the human body over the animal world.  It seems heretical to ignore these facts.  The human body is an earthly tent in which we live (2 Corinthians 5:1-3).  If it is destroyed, we have a building not made with hands (2 Corinthians 5:1).  The person we call “me” is to be housed in a temple not made with hands; a spiritual house.  Maybe this is what Jesus meant when he said, “in my Father’s house are many rooms…” (John 14:2-4).  Our desire is not to leave this body, but that we should be fully clothed; swallowed up by life (2 Corinthians 5:2-4).

Who is this God?  This is a far deeper discussion than what He may look like.  It would be a disappointment if seeing Him was only a metaphor; in this life and the next?  We know this much, that Jesus remains in the human form.  A resurrected being for sure but he asked to be restored to his former glory?  “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”  (John 17:1-5).  Does this mean that the honor, respect, reverence, and position he had as equal with God before his appearing was to be given back to him at his ascension?  There he sits enthroned, to rule at the right hand of the Father.  It is the man, Jesus Christ who mediates for us now (1Tim. 2:4-6).  This Christ manifested himself by his appearing in flesh and blood to abolish death and bring life and immortality to light through the gospel (2 Tim. 1:10).  He died in the flesh and was made alive in the spirit, but did he lose his features as a human being?  (1 Peter 3:17-19).

God is a person.  He revealed this through Jesus Christ in every way.  Jesus was so much like us in human terms.  His teaching, compassion, and miraculous wonders reflected God’s nature as much as his outrage and anger against religious hypocrisy and greed.  This is who God is.  He loves to the point of death but he remains judge to those who despise his justice and mercy.  In his teaching and in his works Jesus declared, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:8-10).  This meant more than outward appearance.  It meant no less either.  In every aspect, Jesus was the representation of God in human form and in divine action.  Who can deny the scriptures?

Evolutionary atheism mocks a belief in the supernatural.  No one in our generation has seen the dead rise or the eyes of the blind opened by the spoken word. Miracles are past.  The fullness of maturity has been established in this eternal age of the Christ.  Atheism mocks the idea of some ancient patriarch positioned on a throne in some netherworld.  They mock the providential involvement of God in the affairs of men and seek tests and proofs of his business affairs on earth.  The same atheists put their faith in events they want to believe are natural.  Things like the big bang, parallel universes, dark matter, stellar evolution, life from dust and evolution are unnatural events.  They are beyond what we have proven with science. Somehow these are acceptable as facts? Why? Because they exclude the very thing required; God.  God means someone bigger.  Someone bigger means personal responsibility and accountability.  These are not of interest to the natural man.  The spiritual man hungers and thirst for credible answers to existence.  God, not religion, is the end of science and the much-needed answer to the human need to know why we are here.

There should be no shame in recognizing the human form is divine.  There is ample evidence in biology, psychology, sociology and other sciences that place Homo sapiens sapiens far above the animal life forms.  We are a creature; made in the likeness and in the image of God.  This is cause to celebrate life.