“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” Genesis 1:26
The words “our and us” are interconnected with other words and are distinctly separate phrases in this reference. The words “image and likeness” are also attached to the plural pronouns “our and us”, which means more than one, there are other places in scripture that continue to make reference to this aspect of the Spirit of God.
However, in this verse the writer Moses, is referring to those who are involved in the act of creating, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity itself. It is of this same image that man will be made after, not the Angels as some suggest.
If God had been speaking to Angels when He said “let us make man in our image”, it would imply that Angels have the power to create as God does, and that man was made in their image also, which is not true.
In (Genesis 11:7) - God says “Let us go down, and there confound their language.”
In (Isaiah 6:8) - God is speaking to Isaiah: “Who shall I send, who will go for “us.” Both the singular and the plural form are used in this same verse.
In (Isaiah 40:12-15)
God was speaking to Isaiah with respect to creation, the larger context is that God the Father is alone in His sovereignty saying.
“With whom did he take counsel.”
Today we have many popular Tele-evangelists who use this phrase “in his image” in a tangible literal sense.
Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, Kenneth Copeland, Charles Capps, Kenneth Hagan and the Mormon church, all attempt to make this association of the image of God as a physical one.
Benny Hinn (TBN, Dec 1, 1990)
“God came to earth and touched a piece of dust and turned it into a God. Are you a child of God? Then you're divine! Are you a child of God? Then you're not human!”
Creflo Dollar
Sermon “Our Equality with God Through Righteousness” 1/21/2001
“And God said, I tell you what I’m going to do this time. I’m going to have to reproduce Myself. Like I’m God up here in heaven. I’m going to make Me a god and put Myself in the physical body so that he can guard the earth and keep out all intruders in the earth. (speaking of Adam) he was all God. He was just like God.”
Kenneth Copeland - Ministry letter, July 21 1977
God is a spirit-being with a body, complete with eyes, and eyelids, ears, nostrils, a mouth, hands and fingers, and feet.
A sermon “Following the faith of Abraham”
Audio tape number #01-3001 side 1
God’s reason for creating Adam was his desire to reproduce himself. I mean a reproduction of himself. And in the Garden of Eden he did just that. He was not a little like God, he was not almost like God, he was not subordinate to God even Adam was as much like God as you can get, just the same as Jesus. Adam in the Garden of Eden was God manifested in the flesh.
The Mormon Church (J. Smith History of the Church vol.6 p.305)
“I say, if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form- like yourselves, in all the person, image and very form as a man.”
Kenneth Hagin (The God-Kind of Life, pp. 35-36, 41 - 1989)
“Man was created on terms of equality with God, and he could stand in God's presence without any consciousness of inferiority...God made us as much like Himself as possible...He made us the same class of being that He is Himself...Man lived in the realm of God. He lived on terms equal with God...The believer is called Christ...That's who we are; we're Christ.”
Fundamentally, a creation is never equal to its creator!
“No man has seen God at any time“
(John 1: 18; John 5: 37; 6: 46; Matthew 11: 27; 1 John 4: 12)
There is one encounter in scripture where Moses sees God’s glory pass before him, as God placed Moses in the cleft of a mountain and put his hand over Moses eyes, then God allowed Moses to see his backside as He passed by him.
Exodus 33:18-23
18 “And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.
19 And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.
20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.
21 And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock:
22 And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:
23 And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen”.
There is no contradiction to the statement by Jesus that no man has ever seen God. God states to Moses that no man can see His face and live, which is to say, that Moses saw an aspect of God’s person, but not God Himself. At best, to see my hand, is not to say you have seen me, even though my hand is part of my body, my hand, in and of itself is not representative of me as the whole person.
My hand is an aspect of me, like other parts of my body individually or collectively, but my body and all its parts are not me without my Spirit and Soul to animate them. Therefore, my hand is an aspect of me without being me. Such is the case here with Moses and an aspect of Gods glory that was revealed to him.
God is a Spirit (John 4:24) he is invisible to the naked eye on earth. When Genesis states we were created in Gods image, it does not mean that God is an earthly physical tangible being and that we are like him in that manner.
In the Hebrew language the word “Image” is “tselem”- meaning related to nature, the immaterial part of man. It means we have a spiritual nature like God in a “finite” way.
The word “likeness” - Hebrew – “Demuth” which does not mean in a physical sense, it means we have a spiritual nature like God, God is Spirit – (John 4:24) the similarity is that we have ”finite” qualities like God.
God IS His attributes, we can only share them in an effort to relate to God, however, we have these attributes with sin in us making these attributes manifest with a sinful nature. Virtually all of our sins are a distortion of Gods nature that is in us.
When we are impatient, its because we are not being patient, the opposite of this attribute, the same as showing anger rather than kindness, slothfulness rather than being productive, vengeful rather than forgiving, hateful rather than loving, murderous rather than nurturing and so on. This is a direct result of the sinful nature of man where with God, He has no sin, so these aspects of Gods character are perfect, manifesting without sin.
When God is angry it is righteous indignation rather than evil retribution.
What makes us like God are the characteristics God has communicated to man specifically, but many of his attributes He cannot share with us, as in
- His Goodness. “There is one that is good” (Matthew 19:17 – Jeremiah 31:14, Numbers 10:32, 1 Kings 8:66, Psalm 31:19, 143:10)
- His Omniscience - Infinite knowledge. (Knows all) He is Omniscient - Having complete or unlimited awareness, or understanding; perceiving all things. (Understands all)
- His Omnipotence – Having all power, unlimited power (All power)
- He is Omnificent - Creating all things; (having unlimited powers of creation.)
The attributes God has shared with man are characterized in the fruit of the Spirit.
(Galatians 5:22) Fruit of the Spirit
- Love, (1 John 4:8-9, 16, Romans 8:35-39)
- Joy – (Ezra 6:22, Romans 5:11)
- Peace – (Romans 15:33, 1 Corinthians 14:33)
- Long Suffering – (Numbers 14:18, Exodus 34:6) Enduring injury, trouble, or provocation long and patiently
- Gentleness – (2 Samuels 22:33-36, 2 Corinthians 10:1)
- Kindness – (Psalm 117:2)
- Faithfulness – (1 Corinthians 10:13, 2 Thessalonians 3:3)
- Integrity – yea be yea, nay be nay (Matthew 5:37, James 5:12, Genesis 26:3, 1 Kings 8:20)
- Merciful – (Deuteronomy 4:31, 2 Chronicles 30:9, Joel 2:13, Psalm 116:5)
- Gracious – (Nehemiah 9:17, 31, Psalm 103: 8, Joel 2:13 Merciful) Gracious, anger,
- Kindness – (Ruth 2:20, Psalm 31:21, Isaiah 54:8)
- Peace – I make peace (Isaiah 45:7) Romans 15:13, 1 Corinthians 1:3, (1 Corinthians 14:33) – for god is not the author of confusion, but of peace, (2 Timothy 1:7) God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and a sound mind.
- Holy – (Leviticus 19:2, Joshua 24:19, Romans 21:1, 1 Peter 1:15-16)
- Forgiving – if you don’t forgive neither will your father forgive you, remembering your sin no more. (Matthew 6:15, Daniel 9:9)
In contrast to these virtues God also gives us the attributes of..
- Anger – (Psalm 103:8, Exodus 4:14, Deuteronomy 7:4, 2 Samuel 6:7, 2 Chronicles 28:25)
- Jealousy – I am a jealous God (Exodus 20:5) Deuteronomy 4:24, 5:9, Nahum 1:2
- Vengefulness - Vengeance is mine I will repay (Nahum 1:2, Romans 12:19, Ezekiel 25:14)
And finally he gives us Eternal Life, as God is an eternal being, either way, in life or in judgment, we are eternal beings.
The word “Image” means a personal likeness. God is a personal being as is man, evidenced in the personal relationship Christians share with Him. There is also a moral likeness in our creation. God is holy even as we are called to be holy. (Peter 1:15-16, Exodus 22:31, Leviticus 20:26) Adam was holy in his original state in the garden. If Adam had not sinned this nature would have been passed on to his offspring. After Adam sinned the same nature of sin was passed on to everyone as depicted in (Galatians 5:19-21)
These are the specifics by definition according to the law whereby they are derived from.
Adultery – being Conjugal infidelity, illicit intercourse with a married or a betrothed woman.
Fornication - Intercourse between a married man or woman and an unmarried man or woman.
Uncleanness – to be morally impure; evil; vile, having unclean thoughts.
Having a physical or moral blemish so as to make impure according to biblical laws, especially the dietary or ceremonial laws.
Lasciviousness - Unbridled sensuality in excess, sexual interest or expressive of lust or lewdness.
Idolatry - Image-worship or divine honor paid to any created object, strictly speaking denotes the worship of deity in a visible form.
Witchcraft - The art or practices of a witch, sorcery, magic.
Hatred - Intense dislike or extreme aversion or hostility.
Variance - Greek “Eris”- Strife, contention or discord.
Emulations – Greek “Zelos” Jealousy, envy.
Wrath – Greek “Thumos” Anger, rage, indignation.
Strife - Vigorous or bitter conflict, discord, or antagonism, conflict, rivalry or contention especially of a bitter kind.
Seditions – Greek “Dichostasia” Division, to incite dissension against Government, revolt, mutiny.
Heresies – Greek “Hairesis” This word is widely used to denote the teaching of false doctrine, but the literal translation is more complex. It technically means an unintentional mistake. It is typically associated with biblical doctrine nonetheless.
Envy - Jealousy over the blessings and achievements of others, a feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another's advantages, success, possessions, etc. the desire to have for oneself something possessed by another; covetousness.
Murder - The killing of another human being committed with malice aforethought, characterized by deliberation or premeditation or occurring during the commission of another serious crime, the unjustified killing of one person by another.
Drunkenness - Meaning "Inebriated "meaning habitually intoxicated" frequently or habitually drunk.
Reveling - To make merry; indulge in boisterous festivities, riotous merry-making, disorderly.
The Holy Spirit makes it possible for us to operate in the attributes of God, which includes the gifts of the Spirit, which in part is how we share another attribute of God in finite measure, His power. This is manifest in us through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:1-11)
These gifts are given in part to equip man in spiritual warfare and to operate in the office of ministry. (Romans 12:6-8)