Part 2 and Part 3

These three posts will be mainly exploratory. The question is; why is man made in the image and likeness of God? We’re not claiming to know the answer, but the exploration will be a worthwhile study. The answer may be found in the ongoing revelation of the Father’s redemptive plan. It’s hard to know where to start. But we should first see what God’s image and likeness are (or is)?

Accepting that God is sovereign, that His will is done in all things, that He works all things for good to those that love Him (Romans 8:28), and that He will get His glory in all, we seek to know more about God. This exploration has been undertaken before but probably from the wrong end. Discovering who we are, the object, is putting the cart before the horse. God existed first; He will do as He pleases with His image and likeness. Exploring God from the point of view of trying to understand who we are as His likeness will only lead to pride, humanism, or making God into our image; all of these are folly, the last being blasphemy and rampant in American Christianity. We are sinners, our perception damaged, we can only rightly glimpse what Adam was, and we know not what we have yet to attain in the fullness of time. There are some things that maybe no man can know until we see Him as He is, and even then, will we comprehend? When asking what is the image and likeness of God, the underlying question is, who is God?

He’s unknowable by mere men, for He is the God, the all of which cannot be contained. We know He exists, interacts, chastens, creates and sets down, brings seasons to us and nations, instructs, loves, and praise His holy name; saves. The closer you draw to Him, the more you see of Him, and the more it breaks us, uplifts enlightens, and confuses us.

This is why most Christians shrink away; He is holy, and who can search Him out? When the Apostle who Jesus loved finally saw Christ as He is, John fell at His feet as dead (revelation 1:17). Every time we approach to within one breath away from the Ancient of days and the truth of who and what He is, we’re undone; He’s unsearchable, His ways are unknowable, but the Spirit reveal them (1 Corinthians 2:9-11). The better you know Him, the more you know that you don’t know. But the insights and glimpses of the glory and majesty, raw power, and tender love that Holy Father God has for His own; He’s worth searching nonetheless. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of living God.” – Hebrews 10:31

“8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. 9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?” – John 14:8-9

Leaving off “who is God,” let’s seek to know His goal from the start. This we fathom must be in His word. We have His Holy Bible. So what is knowable is revealed. We suffer until the fullness of the realization of all that Christ has inherited for us. And it’s not much to suffer; His word is precious and blessed; indeed, it is holy. No man can attain unto the end of the knowledge held therein.

These first three verses from John are the declaration from the outset that we have the word of God and nothing more. Always be suspicious of special revelations of God, both personal and claiming additions to Cannon (2 Peter 1:20).

“No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” – John 1:18

God is a Spirit. No man has seen God at any time. Here, with the woman at the well, is a glimpse of where we’ll head. God has been from the beginning, seeking a people to worship Him in spirit and in truth. Only later shall we see Him.

“23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” – John 4:23-24

We’ll provide some verses that may point to God’s plan from the start. Unquestionably we are blessed in the New Covenant. How dimly and far off did they seek a country (Hebrews 11:13-14), knowing almost nothing but walking in faith as though using braille? Those that lack faith today are without excuse; our Christ is risen, millions professing His name, and His New Covenant written, Romans 10:17 declaring, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Brothers and sisters, read His book!

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” – Genesis 1:26

We’ve tried at times past to approach this question from the perspective of the triune God. Let’s see what our three parts are then we’ll know God? But that fails utterly, for only is Christ made in the express image of God (Hebrews 1:3). And to understand WHY God created us in His image is not a physiological or psychological examination of ourselves. This is the fate of every religion devised of men; it’s selfish, prideful, and in the end, it’s dead, cast into hell.