His Likeness

DEVOTION

GENESIS

HIS LIKENESS

Gen 1:26-27

26 Then 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." 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

NIV

We are still in day six and what a big day this is. God has already created all the livestock, the wild animals, the creatures that move on the ground, basically the whole of the animal kingdom and now he comes to his crowning glory, man. It is interesting that God says “let us make”. The Hebrew word is used in a very wide sense and we cannot be sure of its exact meaning except in the context here we are given the sense of to make, to produce, to do the work, to bring about. But there is not sufficient evidence with that word to indicate using the word, “us”. The only case would be in the deviation of the spelling in the interlinear text and how the lexicons spell it. The text uses the word Na’aseh but the lexicons only show the definition of aseh. The Na has been used for "now" in other places, so it says now make. But the “us” which has been the basis for so many to say God is an “us”, which is to say the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit were all there deciding to now make man in their image. The text uses “us” here but in the next verse it says that God created man in his own image. This does seem a little confusing and perhaps those scholars who study Hebrew having full knowledge of its words and their uses and meanings have a greater ability then we do to determine the “us” and “his” and when the need to use each. We do know because of all the rest of scripture there is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. There is three distinct persons all wrapped in the word God. So it would be appropriate to use the term, “Let us now make man in our likeness”. So God made us in his likeness, to resemble him. What does that mean for us? We know who Jesus is, we have a record that he is in human form, as we are. We know he sent the Spirit, who we know is a Spirit who we cannot see, but we can sense his presence, his divine conviction upon us to repent and accept Jesus as our Savior, as well as his divine presence in leading us into all truth. But we cannot know what the Father looks like although Jesus has told us if we have seen him we have seen the Father. What exactly does the mean? He has been portrayed as an old grey haired man-like being wrapped in flowing clothes. But we simply do not know what he looks like, but we do know his character. So then, when we were made in his likeness, in his image, to resemble him, we have some insight into what we are supposed to be like, not just what we are to look like but who we are to resemble. This should shake us up a bit, we are to resemble God. He made us to be a likeness of him. We have often thought that we are a spirit who owns a soul and lives in a body, which is the triune sense of God. That we are in the same way, three in one. But that is only in a somewhat physical sense of being in his likeness. But what about being made to resemble him, to resemble all the aspects of God, his character, his mannerisms, his thinking, his actions rather than just being three in one. He made us to be like him. We know from reading ahead that when Adam and Eve ate from the wrong tree, he had to send them away from the garden before they reached out and ate from the Tree of Life and became like him, an eternal being. If Adam had eaten from the tree of life first and never touched the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he would have been exactly like God, including being eternal. We will explore that in further detail when we get there, but for now let us consider what does it mean to be made in his image, his likeness, to resemble him. Although we will also get to another aspect regarding God making us from the dust of the ground and we are the only ones who he breathed his breathe into, it behooves us to consider this as all part of being made in his image. We have his very breathe within us. We are made to resemble him. Our person, our character, our personality, our thinking, our behaviors, our actions should be like that of Gods. Wow, this brings to light just how much we have failed. What do we do with this truth? How can we resemble him and still sin, still yield to temptations? If we say, “God is love” then should we not also be people of love? If we say, that God loved us so much he gave his only son so that we might be brought back into perfect fellowship with him again, then should we not also be willing to give our very best? We need only to read the letter to the Corinthians to see how God defines love. On and on we could use the list of his attributes in an effort to see how we are to resemble him. Jesus gave us a list of attitudes or we say the beatitudes. We have been given a list of the fruit of the Spirit so we can resemble the likeness of God. We have been given various lists of his gifts which again are from his character and for us to once again resemble him. It is almost overwhelming to consider how far we are from being his likeness. It is a good thing he is also a forgiving and patient God, which again shows us another aspect of our being in his likeness that we still need the help of the Spirit to become more like him. We truly need the help of the Spirit to overcome those areas in our lives that are not a resemblance of God, but rather a resemblance of someone or something else. It seems more than we can deal with, but we must, we need to see the truth that we are indeed made in his image, his likeness. Lord help us to be more and more like you, each and every day.