God planned, from the very beginning, to populate the earth with many sons.
Knowing that God is perfect and infinite, this might surprise you if you see yourself as a broken, sinful person. But God sees you as uniquely perfect and eternal because He made you that way, and although Adam fell and introduced sin into your natural line, Christ restored you in the eyes of God to what He originally intended – a son!
“In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.” (Hebrews 2:10-11)
Jesus was the first Son who cleared the way for us to join the family. It’s evident in Galatians 4 and Romans 8 that God has always planned and very dearly wants to restore us as sons to the original position in which Adam was placed in the Garden. Before Adam and Eve’s fall, they had a perfect relationship with God and he told them to multiply so He could have many sons and daughters. He hasn’t changed His mind.
God created us as sons to rule in glory over His creation together, to fully grasp God’s design of us in His Image and likeness.
Now let’s turn to Genesis, the book of beginnings, to take a look at how God created man after the first 5 days of creation:
Gen. 1:26-27 [NIV]
26Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
Gen. 2:7 [NIV]
7the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.Gen. 2:20-24 [NIV]
20So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field.
But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.23The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”24For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
Notice that when God intended to create man, He intended that Man be made in their Image and their Likeness. It is to be understood the plural name of God implies all the persons of the Godhead: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Man was given the role to rule over all that was created before him.
Also please notice in Verse 27:
- Man, including male and female in this sense, was only created in “His own image”. How interesting the plural denotation of God is changed to be singular.
- In this singular personality, two sexes, or two sets of characteristics of man, were created in manhood.
Here also, only “Image” is mentioned, but not “Likeness”.
Cont’d tomorrow….
This post is _Part 2_ in a series on God’s image and likeness. To continue with this series, click on Part 3. To use this as a growth tool to better understand your own calling, you might start by reading the explanation of this series and then read Part 1.
Photo credit: Phil Dragash