The Image of God and Our Own Image

The Image of God and Our Own Image

Colossians 1:15 says, "Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:." 2 Corinthians 4:4 also speaks of the image of God. "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."

The image of God appears in Genesis 1:27, and the phrase “in his own image” appears in Genesis 5:3-5. Genesis 1:27『So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them..』Genesis 5:3-5『And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, and after his image; and called his name Seth: And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters: And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.』

What is the difference between God's image and his own image? God created the first man to express himself in his own image (image). However, his own image is that he created the fallen angel in the form of a human being. That is, God created man and woman. The first man and "man and woman" are different beings.

The Hebrew word for the first man is adamah (person), but the man's name was Adam, and the woman's name was Eve. "From the first man a rib was taken and a woman was made" ultimately means that the first man was separated into a man and a woman. According to Genesis 1:27, the first man was created, and at the moment he fell asleep, he died, and the male Adam and the female Eve were created subsequently. The first man who fell asleep disappeared, and the man with his eyes open appeared.

God is an imageless being. Image means a body like clothing. Saying that God took on a body means that God came to the world in a fleshly body. The first man was God Himself who went into the dust and became a man in order to give people a body of sin. The first man was the first creature made in the image of God. However, he had a body of sin. Therefore, the one who came in the flesh to break the chains of the body of sin was Jesus.

Jesus Christ is said to be "the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature" in Colossians 1:15. The first man, Adam, is a symbol of the last Adam.

Today, believers say that the image of God is God’s character. So they say that we should restore God’s character. They believe that originally, humans had the image of God, but when Adam sinned, the image of God was lost. So they focus on what kind of life we should live to restore the image of God. God tells humans that through the image of God, they have a desire to become like God.

Humans tend to accept the image (shape) of God as they think. When the Exodus people did not return from Mount Sinai for 40 days after Moses went up the mountain, they made a golden calf as the image of God. Today, some people say that Jesus is the Son of God. In other words, they disguise Jesus as God..

 

Jesus is the Son of God, but he became the Son of Man. Because he is the Son of Man (Mary), he has a body of sin. And because he is the Son of God, he must fulfill the role of carrying out God's will. God's will is to die on the cross with the mission of saving all mankind. And whoever dies in union with him will be considered by God as dead to sin. In order for a person to become one with God, he must die on the cross with Jesus.

The image of God means that God came to the world in the form of a man, but his own image is an idol of the body of sin (old man) in the flesh that wants to be like God, and this idol is expressed in his own image. So, he made the sinful angel appear in the form of flesh. All people except the first man and Jesus Christ are beings born with his own image. His own image is expressed in the old man. Therefore, his image that appears to everyone must die with Jesus to become one with God.

Most church people tended to interpret the image of God as a holy character, etc., and tended to equate the image of God with God. That is why believers said that the image of God is the invisible God appearing as the visible God. Believers even said that Jesus, who was born in the flesh, was God. Jesus is not God, but the Son of God.

Jesus, before his ministry on the cross, was in the image of God, but when he died on the cross, was resurrected, and returned to the position of God, he was not in the image of God, but was God himself.

Colossians 3:10 "And have put on the new man, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image (εἰκόνα) of Him who created him." The new man means one who has the life of resurrection. Eikona (εἰκόνα) is translated as image, but it should be "according to life (resurrection life)." Eikona also means shape or form, but in the sentence structure, we can think of a predicate related to the subject. "And have put on the new man, which is being renewed in knowledge after the life of Him who created him." The new man and life are in harmony.

Romans 1:23 "And exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles." Here, eikonos means shape or form.

Regarding his own likeness, in Genesis 5:3-5, “And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, and after his image; and called his name Seth: And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters: And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died..』

His own image repeats the birth and death of people as flesh. His own image is the life of the soul. The life of the soul is not eternal. His own image shows that he is a being that must die. The death of his own image can only enter into the death of Jesus, who is the image of God, in order to receive the seed of the covenant and enter into the covenant of God.

The saints' death on the cross with Jesus is a death to their own image, and it is a union with Jesus' death on the cross. And through the death of their own image, the saints enter into the resurrection of Christ and become one with God. The invisible God came to the world in the form of a form not only to atone for the sins of all the people of the world, but also to accomplish the death of the people of their own image.

The first person born into the world in the image of God was the first man Adam, and the last person born in the image of God was Jesus Christ. The first man Adam gave people a body of sin, and Jesus died on the cross to break the chains of that body of sin, and was resurrected to give the saints a spiritual body so that they can return to the kingdom of God. Therefore, all people born into the world after the first man Adam are not in the image of God, but are merely sinners born in their own image. If people say that they originally had the image of God, but forgot the image because of Adam, and that we should restore the image of God, this is gnosticism.