Image of God

Image of God

By Abraham Israel

What is your understanding of being created in the image of God?

The Bible says, “… God created man [Note: not human but man (i.e. spirit being)] in His [i.e. God’s] own image [God is Spirit… (John 4:24)]; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:27).

Here in context with the passage, God is clearly speaking only about the personality of the creation that He was creating. Image means to replicate or in other words to make an exact copy. The Bible clearly says that God is Spirit and He is not an influence or power or a physical and a material image. He is a personality who in essence is a Spirit being. The Bible also speaks about the Holy Spirit as having a mind, will and emotion which points that He is a personality. He is a person who has the creative ability to multiply or create and produce everything as described in the Bible (Psalm 104:30). When God created man in His own image, He created him [Adam] with a personality to express himself by giving man a mind, will and emotion just like God for each person individually. This is the reason why Apostle James warned all the Christians not to curse any man [whether believer or unbeliever] who are basically in the likeness of God having a personality to relate to God (James 3:9). Each human being is made in the exact likeness of God in our spiritual image, which is why man can connect to God and relate to God. If we do not have such an image of God inside us, as the Bible says no man can know God. This likeness of God is called in the Bible as ‘eternity in man’s heart [i.e. spirit of all humans]’ which is the source of every human to find God-connection in this planet earth itself (Eccl 3:11).

As the Bible says God created a spirit being [Adam] in the image of God and He replicated that same image with a physical variety and named that variety as male and female in to two categories (Gen 1:27). The word ‘male’ means ‘belonging to the sex that cannot have babies’. The word ‘female’ means ‘belonging to the sex that can have babies or produce’. Here we notice that the difference is not a spiritual difference in relation to God, but only a physical difference in relation to their own body.

When God felt that ‘It is not good for Adam to be alone, He proceeded to make a helper comparable to him.’ (Gen 2:18). When God speaks about a helper comparable, He speaks of a person with the same essence but for a different functionality, this is also an image of God who is Triune [i.e. three in person but one in essence]. In essentiality they are one, but in functionality they have different roles to play. The three unique persons are co-equal in their essence. In the same way in essence male and female are equal before God, but in function they play different roles and have authority according to the roles that they play. In essence they [male and female] are one flesh and both are spirit beings who can equally relate to God as His sons and daughters, when they are in unity and in unison with in a monogamous family setting physically, they release within them a divine energy to procreate like God who created humans in the beginning when He said “…Let Us create or make man in Our image..” [Note the plurality of language] (Gen 1:26-27). This activity of procreation in unity is also another attribute of the image of the Triune God.

The triune God’s power is released in their unity. Here the equality of male and female is in the spirit of both of them. The soul level is designed by God according to their physical roles which are in fact very different. The female is designed to be a Helper in this functional role as a manager in a family. The male is designed as a head of the family which is the functional role of the chairman of the whole God ordained institution of the family. In the bodily level, female are very different in their ability and strength. Women are weaker vessels and God also makes a difference between them [i.e. male and female], but only in their functional roles. But in essence both of them are in the image of God.

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