And God said, Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness.
—Genesis 1:26
Here we have the first thought of man in the mind of God; here man’s origin and his destiny are shown to be entirely divine. God undertook the stupendous work of making a creature, who is not God, to be a perfect likeness of Him in His divine glory. Man was to live in entire dependence on God and to receive directly and unceasingly from Him the inflow of all that was holy and blessed in the Divine Being. God’s glory, His holiness, and His love were to dwell in man and shine through him.
When sin had done its terrible work and had spoiled the image of God, the promise was given in Paradise of the woman’s seed, in whom the divine purpose would be fulfilled: God’s Son, “the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person” (Hebrews 1:3), was to become a son of mankind. In Christ, God’s plan would be carried out, His image revealed in human form. The New Testament speaks of those who are “predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29) and of “the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him” (Colossians 3:10). We are given the promise: “We know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).
Between God’s eternal purpose for man and its eternal realization, we have a wonderful promise in regard to life here on earth: “We all…beholding…the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Let us take hold of this promise as the possible and assured experience of daily life for everyone who gives Christ His place as the Glorified One. Let us keep our hearts set on the glory of the image of God in Christ, in the assurance that the Spirit will change us into that image day by day. Dear reader, take time to believe firmly and confidently that this promise will be made true in your Christian life. God Almighty, who created man in His image, seeks now to work out His purpose in changing you into the image of Christ Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).
“For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you” (John 13:15).