Image of God

God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Those eleven words have been debated for centuries by theologians. What exactly does the Bible mean in Genesis 1.26 when it says that man is made in the image and the likeness of God? Theologians have been perplexed. They've argued this up one side and down the other. In the colloquial vernacular term today, if you looked it up in a dictionary, Genesis 1.26 you will find that when it talks about an image, it tells us something similar to this, a photographic likeness. How many of you, when you look at your driver's license, say, who is that person on my driver's license?

Well, sad to say, it's probably you. A coin or a stamp is a perfect replica because it's made from a mold that stamps it. Also, a close resemblance to a blood relative. Alvin, if you heard the expression, he's a spitting image of his father. We normally mean by that that he looks like his dad. The actual expression means he spits like his dad spits. He's a spitting image. How do we understand the image of God? It is one of the definitions that I just mentioned, a combination of those or something else. I think as we go through the sermon today and as we look at Genesis chapter 1 and God's creation of Adam and Eve and how God created them, that we will find that our understanding of this particular scripture is absolutely essential to understand God's plan of salvation and what God is working out here below.

One common view is that Adam and Eve were made in the righteous image of God and that they failed. So we have nursery rhymes such as Humpty Dumpty set on a wall and Humpty Dumpty had a great fall and he fell. And so supposedly man fell from his righteous state. And then supposedly Christians returned to the image and likeness of God through conversion. There are a lot of scriptures that are used to try to support this theory about the fall of man.

Genesis 5, Ecclesiastes 7, Ephesians 4, Colossians 3. All of these scriptures are proof texts to try to prove that this is what the Bible says. Now the question is, was man, were Adam and Eve in Genesis 1 as it's recorded in Genesis 1? And the story goes on to Genesis 2 and 3. Was man made in God's righteous image? The author of some of the commentaries that you read perceive correctly that Adam and Eve were made without sin.

They were not made sinful and they also recognize that something changed. What changed when Adam and Eve sinned? Well, the relationship with God changed, did it not? At one time they talked to God and after they sinned, they hid themselves from God. God drove them out of the garden and his relationship with them was severed. They did not have the same close relationship. Their environment changed.

They were no longer in the Garden of Eden. Then they were in Eden and then they were no longer in Eden and you find that Cain was driven out, even out of Eden. So the further away you get from the garden to Eden to other areas, the further away you get from God and his direct involvement with you. But did Adam and Eve fall from the original righteousness and perfection? I want you to notice the following quote by a commentary many of you have, James and Falset and Brown's critical commentary.

The James and Falset and Brown commentary has this to say about Genesis 1 verse 26. Quote, in what did this image of God consist? They ask. Well, in the moral disposition of his soul, commonly called original righteousness. So they say that man being made in the image of God means that he had originally the righteousness of God.

Since the new creation is only a restoration of that image, so what you and I are undergoing today is only a restoration of this image. The history of the one throws light on the other, and we are informed that it is to renew that image of God in knowledge, righteousness, and in true holiness. So the supposition is that conversion causes a person. I'll get this. When you're converted, it causes that person to return to this original perfection.

Now, is that what the Bible teaches? Well, I'll tell you up front. No, it doesn't, but we will proceed. James and Falset and Brown is not the only one to say this. Notice Matthew Henry's commentary on Genesis 1.26. God's image upon man consisted in knowledge and righteousness and true holiness. He was upright. He had an habitual conformity of all of his natural powers to the whole will of God. His understanding saw divine things clearly and truly, and there was no error, no mistake in his knowledge. He complied readily and universally with the will of God without reluctance or without resistance. And so it goes on. It says, thus they were holy, they were happy, they were our first parents, and having the image of God upon them.

So this is what Barnes says with his notes. In other words, these commentaries say that being made in the image and likeness of God meant that Adam and Eve possessed God's holy, righteous character. Now, is that true? This is where the idea of the fall of man came from. That man fell. Man was perfect, but he fell from that perfection and has become perverted. Let me ask you, who does the Bible say, fail? Who did Christ say, I saw fall from heaven? The one we know is Lucifer. He fell.

He was made perfect in his ways, as the Bible says. He was the carob that covered. He fell. He became perverted, twisted in his way, and he has deceived man into thinking that that's what has occurred with man.

Let's go over to Ecclesiastes 7.29. That's one of the scriptures that's quoted.

Ecclesiastes chapter 7, verse 29, to try to prove that man was created perfect. 1st verse 29 says, truly, this only I have found that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes. Now, the Bible says that man was made upright.

Now, does that word mean perfect? It just simply means that when God created man, he did not create man evil. He did not create man sinful, but man was created upright. Man could go one direction or another. He had to choose. You might also just think about Romans 8, verse 20. Romans 8, verse 20, where it says, for the creation was subjected to futility.

Or the King James Version says, the creation was subjected to vanity. Not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope. The word here for futility in the New King James Version means vanity, futility, or worthlessness. It doesn't mean that man was created with the righteousness of God. It doesn't say that, but God created him upright.

A better commentary on the nature of man is found in Genesis 39. Let's go over to Psalm 39, Psalm 39, verse 5, where we read this. Psalm 39, verse 5. You have made my days as a handbreath, and my age is nothing before you. Certainly man, at his very best state, is vapor. The word vapor in the Hebrew is translated in the standard version as vanity 61 times, vain 11 times, and it can refer to vapor or breath or vanity. And so, man, at his very best state, is nothing but vanity, vain, and vapor. His life is only temporary, temporal, and we are not immortal. So, does the Bible, does the New Testament teach that upon conversion that a Christian is returned to a state of righteousness?

And the answer is no, it doesn't. Do these versions mean that conversion merely returns a Christian to the state that Adam and Eve were in to begin with? Well, no, rather it suggests a return to an image of God equal to that in which Adam and Eve were created. These verses refer to something greater, as we will see. There is something more that God has in mind than most theologians have never stumbled across, never thought of, simply because, as the Bible says, eye is not seen, ears not heard. Neither has it entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for us. And so, God has a great plan that He's working out.

And so, He wants to work that plan out, and it has to do with our ultimate purpose.

I want you to consider the implication of what James wrote about the nature of God's righteous character. Remember in James chapter 1 and verse 13, James 1.13, James wrote that God cannot be tempted by evil, and neither does He tempt anyone.

If Adam and Eve had God's righteousness, Satan would not have been able to have tempted them.

Satan did not cause Adam and Eve or mankind to fall from the image of God. He lured them to sin, which proves they were subject to sin and they were not inherently righteous.

Let's notice back in Genesis 2, verse 9, something that we have understood for many decades.

In Genesis 2, verse 9, there are two trees pointed out in the garden.

In verse 9, out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight, good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge good and evil. Now, verse 16, the Lord commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

Now, the Bible clearly says they could die. And the Bible also says the wages of sin is death.

By sinning, we will die. So, could they sin? Well, the Bible clearly says so.

Were they able to partake of the tree of life? Well, no. You find that when they sin, they listen to the serpent, they disobeyed God, they were driven out of the garden, there was a carob set there with a flaming sword, what does it say, to protect the way to the tree of life. They were forbidden to enter back into that garden to partake of the tree of life. Mankind has been cut off from God ever since, except for the few that God is now calling to salvation in this age. You look around this room and here we are, a pitiful handful of people. Out of the thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands who live in this area, only a few dozen understand God's way and are living that way of life. Let's turn over to chapter 5, chapter 5 in the book of Genesis. Because chapter 5 verses 1 through 3 shed light on what the Bible means when it says, the image of God.

And even here in this particular section, it is debated back and forth.

In verse 1, it says, this is the book of the genealogy of Adam.

In the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. So man was made in the likeness of God. He created them, male and female. He blessed them. He called them mankind in the day that they were created. And Adam lived 130 years and begot a son in his own likeness after his image and named him Seth. So he called him Seth, but Seth was made in his likeness and after his image. Now does this mean that Seth was made in the moral image of Adam or that he just looked like Adam? Well, notice Jameson falls in brown again. They comment on Genesis chapter 5 and verse 2. Genesis chapter 5 and verse 2.

And he begat a son in his own likeness. The commentary says, both physically and morally, an outward features the son would naturally exhibit a resemblance to the blended features of his parents. But especially as to the inward, his soul, his image would conform to the moral character of Adam, not as he was in the period of creation, but since he had become a degenerate creature. So what this commentary is saying is that Adam passed on to Seth, his degenerate nature. He had become a degenerate creature. Though the divine likeness was not entirely faced, he was subjected to moral disorder, disorientation, both in intellect, power, spiritual qualities by sin. Like begets like and so Seth inherited, as all people do, the corrupt nature of fallen Adam.

So most theologians today believe that you and I were born with a corrupt nature, a fallen nature, a perverted nature. Why? We inherited, they say, from Adam.

That conclusion is totally wrong. It's totally misleading. There isn't any historical or biblical evidence that Seth was an evil man. Notice again what Barnes says. The only peculiarity in the life of Adam is the statement that his son was in his likeness after his image. This is no doubt intended to include that depravity which had become the characteristic of fallen man. So here he's saying that this would include his depravity. His moral depravity, affecting the essential difference of his nature, descended to his offspring.

Now is that true? Does a deprived rapist, a deprived or a depraved killer, a depraved mass murderer, a depraved thief, a depraved adulterer, are those traits passed on to your offspring just because they're born? You have a little baby.

You know, he cries. He's born. He's lying there. Is that baby because you, perhaps in the past, were a robber or an adulterer or a murderer? Is he automatically stamped murderer?

Well, obviously not. He was not created that way. This is the question that Mr. Armstrong wrestled with back in the early 60s. Was man born with a nature that is good, or a nature that is evil, or a nature that is neutral?

We have come to understand that man was born neutral. Genesis 1.31 states that everything that God made was good. So when God made man, created the animals, recreated the earth, you find that man was not created evil. Genesis chapter 2 demonstrates that man was able to be influenced by God to do good or to do what is right. Genesis 3 demonstrates that man was capable of being influenced by the devil to do what is wrong and morally offbeat. Man was made with a neutral nature and could be influenced for good or for evil. Any baby that is born can be influenced for good or evil. There is a devil out there, and he broadcasts his spirit. It's called the spirit of this world. Back in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, Satan broadcasts his attitude.

When a baby is born, it's born neutral. Now depending on what we do as parents and how we train them, how we teach them, the influences they have, the peer pressure, the society they grow up in, how much they're exposed to others, to television, to the influences of society and culture around them, they can be influenced either for good or bad. Seth was born with a neutral nature, not a depraved nature. Again, nothing in the Bible or history proves this contention.

That Adam's sin and his sins somehow changed how he was made in the image of God, and that Adam then has engendered morally corrupt children. That's simply not taught in the scripture.

As I mentioned earlier, there was a change that took place. Man is cut off from God.

What does Isaiah say? Our sins have cut us off from God, and so therefore, God does not hear our prayers. So sin cuts a person off from God, from having that contact from God. Man presently is subjected to Satan's constant deception and influence.

Satan is called the God of this world, the God of this age. He influences all mankind, and so his spirit is very dominant. Now, many of these theologians, commentaries, in order to try to prove their point, miss what the Bible truly is talking about. Let's notice what the Bible says about the nature of man, what is the nature of man like? The New Testament shows that man is mortal, the man is temporal or temporary, that he is subject to temptation, the man is subject to sin and death. Romans 8, 13, if you'll turn over to the book of Romans, chapter 8, verse 13.

We read, if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. So you and I are to put to death the old man, the old way, the Bible clearly tells us. We have the human flesh, which can be misdirected in a wrong direction, can be influenced to sin. Satan the devil certainly works on lust. The term lust means inordinate or wrong desire. So you have the wrong desires of the flesh, the wrong desires of the flesh, the wrong desires of the eyes, the wrong desires of how we think. And Satan the devil certainly influences man. What happened when Adam sinned? Did it deprave nature to sin on mankind? Let's notice in verse 12, chapter 5 of the book of Romans. Romans 5, verse 12. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, death through sin, thus death spread to all men. Why? Because all sin. That's why everyone has sinned. And we all die because of our own sins. I died for my sins, and you die because of your sins, if we don't repent of those sins. For until the law sin was in the world. That means until the law was given on Mount Sinai, codified law. But until the law sin was in the world. But sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses. So there had to be a law that was broken. Even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who was a type of him who was to come. So death and sin and death were introduced. But mankind has sinned, and death passes on mankind, on the human race, as a result of our own sins. However, man has the potential to become a son of God, a child of God in a way that is far superior to the natural way. When you and I are converted, brethren, we become heirs of God.

We become joint heirs. Let's notice Romans chapter 8 and verse 17.

You and I are given the Spirit of God, and it is by the Spirit of God. Well, verse 13, if you live according to the flesh, you will die.

But if by the Spirit you put the death, the deeds of the body, you will live. So God gives us His Spirit, and it is by the power of that Spirit that we're able to overcome, put the death, the deeds of the body. And if we're children, then we are heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.

If indeed we suffer with Him, then we may also be glorified together. So notice whatever Christ inherits, we inherit. We're joint heirs. We're going to be glorified together. Whatever glory He has, we have. Verse 18. For I consider that the suffering of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. So you and I are going to be given glorified Spirit bodies in the future at the time of the resurrection. You might remember 1 Corinthians 15. Verse 50 clearly tells us that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.

As long as you and I are physical fleshly, we won't be in God's Kingdom. So as it says there, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, the trumpet will sound. The dead in Christ will rise. You and I will be changed. We will be given immortality.

And it's at that time we will become glorified. You read through the whole chapter, 1 Corinthians 15, and you'll find that God gives us a Spirit body, and that Spirit body is a glorified body.

Christians have not yet been made into the exact image of God. We have yet to be made in that exact image.

In verse 23, Romans 8, Romans 8, 23, it says, Only that but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit.

Even we ourselves groan within ourselves eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. We're waiting for the time when our bodies will be redeemed, and we will be given a new body, an immortal body. If you consider yourself to be converted, do you still sin?

When you were baptized, and most of us in here have been baptized, were you automatically, immediately made perfect and stopped sinning? All those who have not sinned since you were baptized, please rise.

Well, nobody is going to stand up. I'm the only one. I'll go sit down.

But I didn't rise. I was already standing.

Now you find that conversion simply means to change.

There is a change of mind, change of heart, change of approach.

We repent. We begin to go God's way.

Are Christians perfect? Well, all you have to do is read through the New Testament. You find they're not. Read the book of 1 Corinthians, the church in Corinth. Were they perfect?

Was the fornicator perfect? Were those who created division perfect?

Those who were saying, I'm a Paul, I'm a Vipalis, I'm a Christ, were they perfect? Were those who were misusing the gifts, especially the gift of the tongue, were they perfect?

You find that they were not. What about Revelation 2 and 3?

The churches of Nezha Minor. Were they perfect? Did they sin? Well, you can read it there.

If perfection is a state that we have to get back to, like Adam and Eve, something's missing, isn't it? That is not what we're going through. Conversion, as the church of God has long taught, is a process. God gives us His Holy Spirit, and with that spirit dwelling within us, we grow. The Bible talks about how we start as little children, and we grow up. We mature.

We become spiritually an adult. The word is used sometimes. It's said perfect. Well, perfect means to mature. Hebrews chapter 6 talks about how we're no longer on milk, but we are on meat. We take the meat of God's Word. You and I are to mature. We are to grow up.

Ephesians chapter 4 verses 11 through 12 talk about that we're no longer to be children.

Toss to and fro carried about with every wind of doctrine. But you and I are to grow up to where we have the same stature of God. The Bible talks about, in Revelation 2 and verse 7, that we must overcome. What does the word overcome mean? What implies that you have to put forth effort. You have to grow. You've got something to overcome. You've got frailties. You've got faults. You've got mistakes, weaknesses. You've got to overcome those.

Then also we read that you have to endure to the end. So that means you've got to hang on and stay faithful to the end. So, brethren, you find two features in the New Testament may be distinguished in the New Testament concerning the divine image of God. Number one, man, first creation is an Adam. His second or new creation is in Jesus Christ. And we are called a new creation. Let's go back to 2 Corinthians chapter 3. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 17 and 18.

Redemption, conversion, is much more than just the restoration demands primitive state, like Adam and Eve. We read here in verse 17, 2 Corinthians 3, now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

But we all with unveiled faces, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image. So you and I are being transformed into the very image that Jesus Christ has from glory to glory. We take on, should be growing daily and weekly and monthly and yearly, more into the very image of Jesus Christ. And how do we do that? Just as by the Spirit of the Lord. So how are we transformed into God's image? Well, let's consider, first of all, how is a son? How does a son become like his father? We all had fathers, and we all have mothers, too, but we're talking here about the Father. Well, first of all, the Father gives him life, right?

Physically speaking, there's an egg within a woman, sperm cell that unite, a new life is created, a new creation. Nine months later, a baby is born. Spiritually, we are the egg, the Holy Spirit is the sperm, that comes to dwell within us, and over a lifetime of growth and experience, we grow up. We mature, and we are born into the family of God at the resurrection. Genetically, the Father passes on his looks or some of his mannerisms. So, I look a lot like my father. I look like my mother likewise. We all do. We inherit characteristics.

The older I get, the more mannerisms I find that I have, like my parents, likewise.

So, we know that we inherit from our parents, genetically looks and other characteristics.

What do you inherit from God the Father? Well, you inherit his mind. You inherit the Spirit of God. You receive the Spirit of God. It passes on to us. The fruit of the Spirit passes on to us, God's character that's developed within us. We also have the gifts of God's Spirit. All of this comes to us. The Father provides a safe and secure environment in which the child can grow.

God the Father provides a safe and secure environment for us to grow in. We have the church. The church is compared to our mother. We come here on the Sabbath. We have the safety and the opportunity to fellowship with one another. Additional specific mannerisms are passed on through examples. You see the example of your parents. You imitate that. A son will imitate his father. Alvin, you see a little boy. His dad's walking, and he's walking in his footsteps. Our little girl wants to put on her mother's shoes. Here she's got these big stiletto shoes that she's walking around in. Or she dresses herself up in a dress and all kinds of jewelry.

And a boy will do the same thing with his dad. But when we become an adult, will we automatically have all the wisdom and judgment and ability that our father had through no effort on our own? Is it just automatically we're older so we have it?

Obviously not. We all know that it doesn't come that way. We have to apply ourselves in life as a father did. We have to learn from our father. We have to learn to grow up, ask questions, emulate him, go through life experiences. We learn things on our own.

And a father trains his son in fundamental skills of life. Maybe teaches him how to fish, how to hunt, how to repair a car, how to mow a lawn, whatever it might be. And so as a child grows up, he begins to assimilate some of these things. Well, the family of God is very similar to the human family. You and I are forgiven of sin. We have the power of the Holy Spirit. Gifts are given to us. But man's full potential is not realized at the moment of conversion. We have to grow, and we have to mature, and we do. Let's take a look at the nature of Jesus Christ, because this is a nature that you and I are to have. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 4, we read this, whose mind the God of this age has blinded, talking about the average individual in society, have been blinded by Satan the devil, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel, the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. Jesus Christ, when He was on the earth, was the very image of God. What did He tell His disciples? If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father. You want to see the Father. Well, if you've seen Me, you've seen the Father. But He is today, even, the very image of God should shine on them. Same thing over here in Colossians chapter 1, verse 15. Let's go there. Colossians 1, 15. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn, over all creation. So Jesus Christ is supreme in power and authority, and He is the image of the invisible God. You and I take on, as we read earlier, that same image.

We're to grow in the very image of God. In the two passages I just cited here in 2 Corinthians, Colossians 1, the word for image in the Greek is icon, which generally means to be like or to resemble, and it means that which resembles an object, represents it as a copy, represents the original. It's translated in many cases as image. You and I are to become the very image or icon of God. We are to become like Him in righteous character, and character is not something you develop overnight. It takes time. You have to make choice. You have to resist the wrong, choose the right, and you and I are to grow in the same character, the same righteousness to where we grow up and we resemble God. Somebody sees us, they say, there goes Jesus Christ.

That's how Jesus Christ would live. I remember in Hebrews 1.3 describing Jesus Christ, Hebrews 1, and verse 3. Let's turn there.

Talking about Christ, who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person.

So Jesus Christ is the expressed image of God. He upholds all things by the word of His power.

The Greek word there is character. It's found only here in the New Testament, and it's translated, King James Version, is expressed image, and it means to engrave the means to be the exact image or expression of any person or thing corresponding to the original.

Jesus Christ looked exactly in His character like the Father. The New Revised Standard Version translates, verse 3, this way. He is a reflection of God's glory, the exact imprint of God's very being. Rather than do we realize that's what conversion is doing with us. We're not returning to a state supposedly, as theologians say Adam and Eve had, but we are developing the exact imprint of God's very being, very nature, very character within us. Where Adam and Eve originally made in God's image the way that Christ is described in Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 3, the exact reflection of the Father, and the answer is no. Adam and Eve did not even possess the Spirit of God.

Without the Spirit of God, you cannot have God living in you. You cannot have the character of God. And they did not have that Spirit of God. And they were cut off from the tree of life, cut off from access to the Spirit of God. The Bible says in John 3.34 that Jesus Christ had the Spirit without measure. That's John 3 verse 34. Adam and Eve were given access to the tree of life, but they were temporal, mortal beings subject to sin and death. There's clearly a distinct difference between how Christ was in the image of God and how Adam and Eve were in the image of God.

Now, Christ was in the image of God in all respects. By contrast, man was not created in the image of God in two very important areas. Adam and Eve and man was not created in the image of God with regard to substance. God is Spirit. We're flesh. God is immortal. Eternal. We're temporal. We die. Neither were we created in His image according to character. So character and substance we were not created like God. We fall short in that way. Now, we find that Jesus Christ in Hebrews 2 verse 9. You turn across the page here. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 9. We see Jesus who was made a little lower margin says a little while lower than the angels for the suffering of death.

Now, you find the same thing mentioned about man in verses 6 through 8. All men can die, but all men have the potential to take on the image of God in the way that Jesus Christ did in very substance through the resurrection and in very character. You and I are the firstfruits. We're the first ones to have the opportunity to obey God. How then were Adam and Eve made in the image of God? How were they created in the image of God? Well, Genesis chapter 1 says God intended man to be made in our image according to our likeness. Now, notice verse 27. God implies what he wanted them to do and what this meant. God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him, male and female he created them. He told them to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, over everything that moves upon the earth. Man was to have domination over the physical realm. Now, God lives in the spiritual realm and eventually God is going to offer us the opportunity to join him in eternity, to step into eternity, and to live forever along with him and Jesus Christ.

So, we find that you and I are in the process of developing that spiritual character of God in the image of God. Now, Adam and Eve were made in the shape and form of God.

They were created like God in that man is like God in so many different ways. A bird, a dog, a cat, a frog, a tadpole, you name it. They're not made like God. They don't look like God.

They don't think like God. They don't have a mind. Man was given the spirit in man combined with our brain. We have a mind. We're able to think, create, design, read, write, create art, have feelings, have philosophy, understand things. All of the other animals don't do that. So man in his mind is created like God. Man in his emotions are created like God. A man in his shape is created like God. The man in his character was not. Man in his substance was not. So, Adam and Eve were made in the shape and form of God. That's really what the word image means in the Hebrew in Genesis 1.

Likeness means the original after which a thing is patterned. Man is made and patterned after God.

Now, even though the Bible says everything else was made after its kind, in actuality that's true here. God just changes it up a little bit. He says, okay man, you're made in my image, shape, form like I am, in my likeness.

Now, you and I then, when you understand the plan of God, we are going to have the opportunity to become a part of the family of God. So, man was endowed with the ability to think, to create, to dominate the rest of creation. These are God-like qualities and superior to any other creature.

So, there is an infinite difference between being made in the form and shape of God, with God-like abilities, and being made in the substance and holy righteous character of God. So, brethren, the wonderful truth is simply that, as Genesis 5 brings out, the God-man-family tie is spoken in the same way as the father-son-family tie. That as I bear the image of my father, I look like him, and I've grown up in the family, and I've taken on certain characteristics.

of that family. So, it is with us in the God-family. We are made in God's image, his shape, his form. We are made in his likeness. We can think and reason, create, and do all of that.

But, we're not yet immortal. We don't yet have that righteous character complete within us.

So, man can be made in the image of God in an incomparable way, and that is to be made immortal, to have his righteous character, and to become a member of his family.

Go back and read 1 Corinthians 15. We don't have time today. 1 Corinthians talks about the two atoms. One was physical, the other is spiritual. You and I are going to one day become a part of that spiritual. So, brethren, God has a tremendous plan for us. So, let's understand completely.

And when the Bible talks about being created in the image of God, it's talking about more than one thing. You need to understand that according to the particular scriptures that you read. We're made in God's shape and form. We have the opportunity to develop his righteous character and holiness, and to be transformed in the resurrection into the glorified family of God.