“Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’  So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God, he created them; male and female he created them.”

Genesis 1:26-27 (NIV)

Following is an excerpt from my upcoming book, The Point: Journey to Life scheduled to be released this spring.

 Image of God

Our understanding of God and who we are in relation to Him drive our worldview.  Our view of humanity, the world and our standing are dependent on our view of God.  For example, if we believe God is nonexistent, our basis of morality is diminished, possibly erased, we begin to see humans as the ultimate authority on earth, and we begin to craft rules bound only by our desires.  Scripture presents God as eternally present with characteristics beyond our ability to describe or understand.  His power is beyond the capacity of our language and minds – He created all matter in the universe out of nothing by uttering the word making it so (see Genesis 1:1; Hebrews 11:3). He is holy, pure, divine, love, wrath, and the standard upon which everything rests, but each word rings hollow because our language is too limited to communicate the heavenly, our points of references are restricted to this world, and our minds lack the necessary bandwidth.

The most meaningful way to consider God and His majesty is through the lens of people who encountered Him, survived the experience, and wrote about it.  They are left trying to describe the indescribable.  The colors are more vivid, the sounds fuller, the brightness brighter than anything on earth, and God’s heavenly glory has no earthly counterpart.  So they resort to the tools they possess to communicate the heavenly to other earth dwellers, feebly comparing God’s heavenly glory to the brightest gems and His voice to the loudest sound. 

The prophet Ezekiel suddenly sees heaven and he describes “an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by a brilliant light.  The center of the fire looked like glowing metal” (Ezekiel 1:4).  

One day Peter, James and John were on a mountain with Jesus when suddenly two long-dead prophets, Elijah and Moses, appeared and talked with Jesus, and Jesus’ appearance was transformed.  They said His “face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as the light” (Matthew 17:2). 

Years later, John prays in a cave on the island Patmos when suddenly his eyes open and he sees a throne in heaven.  He tries to describe what he sees, and he says the one sitting on the throne looks like “jasper and ruby” (Revelation 4:3), and something like an emerald rainbow encircles the throne, and it flashes like lightning.  He describes the sound of heaven “like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder” (Revelation 14:2).  As he tries to describe God’s glory in heaven, John resorts to the brightest and loudest things on earth, and they undoubtedly pale in comparison.  

Scripture makes it clear that God’s heavenly glory is without earthly comparison, and that those who encounter God instantly know they are nothing compared to Him.  Some throw themselves to the ground in awe and worship Him and they know they do not belong in His holy presence because for the first time they are exposed to holiness, and they realize how sinful they are.

The prophet Isaiah suddenly peers into heaven and sees God sitting on a throne surrounded by angelic creatures unlike anything on earth continuously singing “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:3).  Isaiah knows he is unworthy to be in God’s holy presence and he says, “Woe is me!  I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5).  

Similarly, John’s eyes suddenly open and he sees Jesus Christ in His heavenly glory, and while John knew Jesus as a man on earth, His appearance was different in heaven.  John writes, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead” (Revelation 1:17).

Walking along the road leading to Damascus, Paul encounters Jesus Christ through a heavenly bright light (see Acts 9:1-9).  Paul falls to the ground in awe and immediately changes his life entirely and starts following Jesus.

Even the most righteous people are impure, unholy and sinful in comparison to God, and when mere humans encounter Him, they instantly know they are too sinful to survive His holy presence.  We are nothing compared to Him and His appearance is without earthly comparison, yet Scripture says God creates humans in His image.  What does that mean?

When I hear the word “image” or “likeness,” I think of appearance.  What does God look like?  If we look like God, then He must look like us.  Is God male or female?  Does God have dark skin or light skin?  What color are God’s hair and eyes?  When I think of the word “image” my mind races in the direction of physical appearance, and it is the wrong direction.  

So does image have more to do with character or personality?  Considering it from this angle, different questions arise.  God’s presence and character are incompatible with sin, so if every human is created in His image, why do humans harm one another?  Why does evil exist?  Or perhaps the better question is, how is it possible for evil to exist?  Let’s consider the image of God and sin.

… 

Scripture tells us that God is spirit.[i]  God is the Creator of all things.[ii]  God is the standard of justice, His judgment is perfect, His work is perfect, and He is faithful.[iii] He never lies.[iv]  God is love.[v]  He is merciful, filled with grace, slow to anger and forgiving.[vi]  He is righteous and He loves righteousness.[vii]  God provides the standard for perfection in reasoning, love, clarity of thought, crystal clear judgment and wisdom.  He sees truth as truth and falsehood as falsehood.  God does not make mistakes.  

If our soul and spirit are created in God’s image, and if that means that mankind has God’s capacity to love and God’s clarity of judgment and soundness of mind and crystal clear discernment, why are we such a mess?  Why do we get confused?  Why do we make bad decisions and poor judgments?  Why do we mistake falsehood as truth?  And why do we fail to treat each other with love?  How can we possibly represent the image of the Incorruptible, the Divine, the Holy Creator?

The Hebrew word translated as “image” in the passage above is transliterated as “selem,” referring to “spiritual, intellectual and moral likeness”[viii] of God, but it does not refer to an exact duplicate.  When we think of images today, we are familiar with super-high definition photographs and video that, when combined with giant high-definition screens, allow us to see images in greater clarity than we could see if looking at the real live thing directly in front of us.  But “selem” refers to something more like a shadow of the original, “representing the original in an imprecise manner and lacking the essential characteristics of the original”[ix] and it refers to spiritual qualities.

Our souls and spirits have spiritual characteristics that are similar to God’s spirit, but they are like shadows of the real thing.  We have a rational mind and we have some clarity of thought, but we cannot think as clearly as God.  We have the ability to discern and judge, but we make mistakes.  We have emotions, passion and appetite, but often for things we should not desire.  When we commune with God, when we allow His Holy Spirit within our spirit and we allow that indwelling to gradually transform our soul, we gradually replace selfishness with concern for others and we convey what Paul refers to as fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).

[i] John 4:24

[ii] Genesis  1:1, Colossians 1:16

[iii] Deuteronomy 7:9, 32:4

[iv] Titus 1:2

[v] 1 John 4:8, 4:16

[vi] Exodus 34:6-7,Deuteronomy 4:31

[vii] Psalm 11:7

[viii] Zodhiates, Spiros (editor), Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible, AMG International, Inc., (1996), Old Testament Lexical Aids, Selem p.1546.

[ix] Id