God created us in His image, after His likeness (Genesis 1:26-27). That image encompasses all of us, our heart, soul, mind, and strength expressing love to the Creator of all. He made us to be image-bearers reflecting His glory to the world wherever we go.
History in ancient times tells us that when the emperors, like the Pharaohs, claimed new territory for their kingdom, they placed statues of themselves there to remind the occupants who their ruler was. Those images represented the ruler’s authority extended to there.
Adam and Eve were commissioned to extend the garden of Eden out across the world, getting into the earth to pull out its minerals and use the rocks and trees to build bridges, fences, dwellings, musical instruments, and so on, all to represent His character, His holiness, the image of God (Genesis 1:28).
They were to produce children, more images of God who would spread the glory of God throughout the world. Where they go to glorify Him, thus far His kingdom has extended. By their works they would declare who God is, a God of love, kindness, poetry, color, music, creativity, and helps. Adam’s children were to express this in their God-given creativity.
Interestingly, “image” is translated as “idols” in the rest of the OT. In contrast, their images were human-made depictions of their gods. They had eyes but could not see, ears that could not hear, and though they had legs, they had to be carried everywhere.
Our God made us with eyes to see the heavenly vision He has revealed to His servants. We have ears to hear His voice. We have mouths to communicate His words. We have feet and hands to carry out His will. We are living images because we reflect a living God.
Later at Mount Sinai, He gave the Israelites a commandment to not take the name of the Lord in vain (Exodus 20:7). As the images of God, carrying His name means we represent Him faithfully. For instance, if we represent Jesus Christ, then we might call ourselves Christians and live like He did. He is holy, separate from the values of earthly culture, so we are holy, and like Abraham, we do not call this world our home (Hebrews 11:8-10). Where we faithfully reflect Him, thus far His kingdom has spread.
But if we live for this present evil age (Galatians 1:4), we will be images with eyes that don’t see His grace and glory in the Word. We will have ears that are deaf to hearing His voice. Our feet will be too lame to carry His message to others, nor could our mouths proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ. We are false idols. We misrepresent Him. We have become like the nations that do not know the Lord Yahweh. We have been conformed to the world.
Jesus came to reclaim what was His. What sin had taken away through the fall of Adam, the Lord redeems back to Himself by His blood through the proclamation of the gospel. The NT tells us about this transformation from the image marred in Adam to the image of the Last Adam. The Bible tells us how that transformation occurs.
“His divine power has granted to us all things needed for life and godliness.” How does His power produce this result? “Through the knowledge of Him” (2 Peter 1:3). Through deeply knowing Jesus, we become images that more truly represent Him, by His power. We cannot represent whom we do not know! If we do not bear our cross and serve Him, we do not know Him at all, for He kept the cross ever in view.
“Beholding the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into the same image.” By what agent does this transformation happen? “By the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18). The Spirit illuminates Christ, the glory of the Lord, in His role as servant of God, then we imitate those traits. We can’t be image-bearers if we’re more excited by our cultural icons than by Jesus. There is no image-bearing without applying the cross to imitate Him.
Jesus had a commission for Paul: “To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God” (Acts 26:18). How does Paul turn them from darkness to light? By the Spirit using Paul’s preaching of Christ and cross of Christ to impress the truths on their hearts, which turns them to trust all on Jesus.
These changes happen to us when we open our Bibles and expose ourselves to its timeless truths in humility and need. The Spirit whispers His secrets to His seekers.
Adam and Eve and their offspring departed from God. But they were promised a Man who would crush the serpent that had enticed them to eat the fruit God had forbidden them (Genesis 3:15). (The OT is a search for that Man.) Later, refusing to spread through the world, their offspring built a tower to reach heaven without God (Genesis 11). God split them up by language and they spread throughout the earth. Later, God promised to bless Abraham, that through him all the scattered nations would be blessed (Genesis 12:3).
Jesus is the promised one by whom this blessing comes. He is the “express image” of God (Hebrews 1:3) and is reproducing more images through faith in Him to reflect His holiness. In Acts 2 on Pentecost, the nations heard the message in their languages and they brought it back home. Through the preaching of Peter, Paul, and the apostles, the gospel extended from Judah to the ends of the earth, and so the nations are blessed. God is using His redeemed images to fulfill the promises made to Adam and Abraham.
The call to Paul is for us all. May we be those who turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. May we make disciples after His image of holiness and faith as we model it for the brethren. We can only do this as Christ and Paul did. By the suffering of the cross, dying to ourselves, all with the resurrection life in view (Philippians 3:7-11).
Our mission is not to be merely nice people, but to make Yahweh known through these bodies of clay, made after His likeness by the Master Potter. May we “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18), that we may reflect the glory of His love to all.
[The inspiration for this article came from the online Calvary Chapel Bible College class, “Storyline of the Bible,” with professor Zach Hafner.]
