2009-6-24 04:57:00
Note from JJ:
As you read this it will become obvious that I have come to some greater realization about the meaning of the image of God since I wrote this. Even so, what I wrote here is true in that the God appointed to this world is the Ancient of Days and He is in the form of a man.
For a fuller explanation of the image of God the reader can go to my book, The Gods of the Bible, or search for the phrase "image of God" in The Archives [here at FreeRead.Com].
The great question in the minds of many people is where did I come from? Who am I? Why is everyone different?
Why are some born with greater opportunities than others if God is just? Paul said, "Now we see through a glass darkly [...] now I know in part." (1 Cor 13:12) In other words our self-understanding may be compared to one looking through a dark glass at an individual. We will get only a vague idea of what he looks like. Therefore, Paul said he knows himself only "in part" But he says the time will come when "I know (myself) even as also I am known." (same verse)
In order to understand who man is and remove this dark glass spoken of by Paul we must first comprehend our source. When a child understands his father he has taken a great step toward understanding himself and his destiny. Man must understand God. If one does not believe that let him dispute with Jesus who said:
"And this is eternal life, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." (John 17:3)
If then it is eternal life to know Him it must be eternal death, or separation, to not know Him.
Many believe that God is but a force or some all-pervading spirit which is everywhere but nowhere. How can we know a force or understand something that is everywhere but nowhere? We are commanded to love God. Can we love any such conception of God? Thus from scripture we may conclude that God is a being that is possible for one to "know" and love. Answer this: What concept of God will fulfill those two qualifications?
What other answer is there but that God is a personal being in the form of a man possessing all the emotions of the eternal spirit? This is the answer the Bible supplies.
We know that God and his son existed in heaven together before the foundations of the world. (John 1:1-3, 14) In the creation "God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." (Gen 1:26) The plural words indicate that God was not alone and also that He and his Son are not one in person. One who has not gotten his mind clogged with tradition would immediately assume that since man is in the image of God then God is in the form of a man. Unfortunately, this is about the most misconstrued scripture we have. Some fantastic explanations have been supplied.
One interpretation I have come across is that man is in the image of God because he is mentally higher than the animals. He is a rational being. Such people do not take into account that God is further above us in our present mental capacity than man is above the animals. Thus if we are in the image of God mentally, being so much inferior, then the animals by the same logic have the right to be called in the image of man.
Another interpretation is that man is in the image of God because he is on a much higher spiritual plane than the animals. He subjects himself to moral laws and feels a moral responsibility which animals do not. Here again we can use the same reasoning. Man is presently as much below God spiritually as the animals are below man. With the new freedom and new morality today man is becoming animal-like for many feel little moral responsibility. Thus man is no more in the image of God morally than the animals are in the image of men.
One more interpretation is that man was created perfect and in the image of God mentally and morally, but he lost, that image after the fall. On the contrary, if man was created in the image of God mentally he should have been smart enough not to have yielded to the adversary, and if he was in His image morally he would not have disobeyed Him in the first place. Such an interpretation is against logic as well as scripture for according this belief Adam would have been the only man created in God's image for he and Eve were the only homosapiens to live on the earth before the fall.
The scriptures clearly imply that God was referring to the whole human race when speaking of man being in the image of God for God said "let them have dominion over [...] all the earth." (Gen 1:26) It was not Adam alone, but he and his posterity who finally subdued the whole earth.
James is even more definite:
"Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. (James 3:9)
James was referring to the human race as a whole when he said "men" (more than one) "are made after the similitude of God." The reason the scripture says we are cursed is that we being in the form of God, are not as much like God spiritually as we ought to be.
Christ plainly implied that his Father was a man for he used the title, "Son of Man" about 80 times in the new testament. Many believe that he used this title to indicate his humility, bringing himself on a level with everyone else. However, the gospels reveal that this is not the case for Jesus said at his trial: "Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven" (Matt 26:64) Surely that is putting himself above the average human.
When Christ asked, "Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" Peter answered for himself and said: "The Son of the living God." (Matt 13,16)
Notice here that "man" and "living God" are interchangeable.
As final verification we see that Christ called himself "the son of man which is in heaven." (John 3:13) At this time Jesus was on earth, but part of that quoted phrase "man which is in heaven" can only refer to the man who is God.
Paul gives further evidence:
"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named." (Eph 3:14-15)
The family on earth would of course be the human race, and, as a whole, they are called man. The scripture says we are named after God the Father. This is only fitting since he is a man. The scripture also says that the family in heaven is called by the same name. Of course, those dwelling in heaven would be in the form of men. No one will lose his identity.
Throughout scripture God's messengers from heaven appeared in the form of men. Mark describes the angel who rolled the stone from Christ's tomb as "a young man". (Mark 16:5)
After the ascension while the apostles were gazing into heaven "two men stood by them in white apparel."(Acts 12:10)
John knew that there were men in heaven when he said "And no man in heaven [...] was able to open the book." (Rev 5:3)
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