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Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 4:4b; Gen. 1:26, 27a; Phil. 2:7b; Gen. 2:8-9; John 1:1, 14; Heb. 2:16-17; 1 Tim. 3:16
At this point in the Life-study of Luke we need some messages that will provide a further development of four subjects: first, Christ’s becoming a God-man, a man with God living in Him; second, the jubilee; third, Christ’s resurrection; and fourth, Christ’s ascension. We have covered these matters in a brief way in certain of the foregoing messages, but we have not covered them adequately. First we shall consider Christ’s humanity, His living as the God-man. Hence, the title of this message is “The Man-Savior’s Incarnation Fulfilling the Purpose of God’s Creation of Man.”
It is a great thing to see that Christ’s incarnation is linked to God’s purpose in creating man. This is a point that we have not covered fully in the past, although we have considered it briefly. We need to be impressed with the fact that the incarnation of Christ is closely related to the purpose of God in creating man. As we shall see, God’s purpose in the creation of man in His image and after His likeness was that man would receive Him as life and express Him in all His attributes. We shall also see that the Man-Savior’s incarnation brought God into man to restore and to recover the damaged and lost humanity and to express God in His attributes through human virtues. These matters are deep, profound, divine, and mysterious, and our words are limited in speaking of them.
If we have an all-inclusive view of the entire revelation in the Scriptures, both of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, we shall see that God designed man to be one with Him. God made this design in eternity past. It is a great matter that God designed man to be one with Him. Of course, in the Bible we cannot find the word “design” used with respect to man’s being one with God. Nevertheless, if we have an all-inclusive view of the revelation in the holy Word, we shall see that in eternity past God designed man to be one with Him.
We may use the designing and building of a house as an illustration of God’s design concerning man. Before we build a house, we first need a design. Likewise, in the Bible we have both God’s design and His building. Throughout the Scriptures we have a complete revelation of God’s building. For His building God had a design. He designed to have man and that man should be one with Him.
Based upon His design, God created man in His image and after His likeness. “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness....So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him” (Gen. 1:26-27a). Two phrases in these verses have troubled teachers of the Bible: “in his own image” and “after our likeness.” What is God’s image? What is God’s likeness? What is the difference between image and likeness? Why are different prepositions used in relation to image and likeness? In other words, why does the Bible say that man was made in God’s image but after God’s likeness? Why does it not say that man was made after God’s image and in His likeness? If we study the Scriptures carefully, we shall be concerned with the difference between image and likeness and also realize that it is difficult to explain this difference.
Some Bible teachers say that in Genesis 1 image refers to something inward, and likeness, to something outward. This is the distinction made by Mary E. McDonough in God’s Plan of Redemption. Asking what is meant by image and likeness, she says, “These two words are not synonymous; the former word refers more especially to the invisible part of man — the inner-man — while the latter indicates the visible part, i.e., the outer-man or body. The inner-man was in some way created like God; we may reverently say, patterned after Him....”
In the Life-study of Genesis we pointed out that man was created in the image of God inwardly and after the likeness of God outwardly (see Life-study of Genesis, Message 6, pp. 65-70). In that Life-study we said, “Man was created not only in the image of God inwardly, but also after the likeness of God outwardly. All the other items in creation are after ‘their kind.’ Man, however, is not after man’s kind, but after God’s likeness. As image indicates the inward being of God, so likeness must indicate the outward form of God” (pp. 69-70). We may say that in Genesis 1:26 and 27 image refers to the inward being and likeness to the outward expression. In this message, without departing from what we have said in the past, we shall go on to consider in more detail the meaning of God’s creating man in His own image.
In the Scriptures the word “image” is used to refer to God’s being. This can be proved by certain New Testament verses. Second Corinthians 4:4 says that Christ is the image of God, Colossians 1:15 tells us that Christ is “the image of the invisible God,” and Hebrews 1:3 reveals that Christ is “the effulgence of His glory and the express image of His substance.” Christ is the very embodiment of God. As God’s embodiment, Christ is God’s image.
Furthermore, according to the Bible the image of God is related to His duplication. In Genesis 1 “image” is for God to be duplicated, to be “copied” in man. This means that man was created in such a way that he could become God’s duplication, His copy. God created man in His own image with the intention that man would become His duplication.
Since God created man for the purpose of man’s becoming His duplication, and since this purpose is indicated by the use of the word image, we may go on to say that the word image implies the capacity to contain God. If man did not have the capacity to contain God, how could he become God’s duplication, His copy? In order for man to be a copy of God, man must have the capacity or ability to contain what God is.
This understanding of the image of God does not contradict the definition given in the Life-study of Genesis. To be sure, the image of God does refer to the inward being of God. It is no contradiction of this to go on to say that for God to create man in His image means that God created man with the intention that man would become a duplicate of God, and that the word image implies that man has the capacity and ability to take God into him and to contain Him. The man created in God’s image was created to be God’s container. Since man was made to be such a container, there was the need for him to have the capacity to receive God as his content and to contain this content.
We have emphasized the fact that man was created not only in God’s image but also after God’s likeness. The word “likeness” refers to outward form, outward fashion, outward appearance. Hence, “likeness” here is a matter of expression. First, man was made in God’s image to be a duplicate of God, and then man was made after God’s likeness to have the appearance of God for His expression.
If man had only the likeness of God but not the image of God, this would mean that man would have only the outward appearance but not the inward reality. In such a case, the appearance, the expression, would be empty. The image is the inward reality of the outward expression, and the likeness is the expression, or the outward appearance, of the image.
Philippians 2:7 is a New Testament verse related to this. In this verse we see that in His incarnation Christ became “in the likeness of men.” This verse tells us not that Christ had the likeness of God but that He had the likeness of men. When He became a man, He had the appearance, the expression, of man. However, this certainly was not an empty expression, an expression devoid of reality, an expression without content. On the contrary, Christ had both the reality of humanity and the expression, the appearance, of humanity. The reality of humanity was the content of the likeness of man that Christ had.
We thank the Lord for leading us into a further understanding of God’s image and God’s likeness. Man was created in God’s image and after God’s likeness in order to be God’s duplication that he may express God. The duplication is in God’s image, and the expression is after God’s likeness.
We have seen that, according to the Bible, God designed man to be one with Him. In order to be one with God, man must have God’s image inwardly and His likeness outwardly. This is God’s design, and in this design we see God’s purpose. What was God’s purpose in creating man? God’s purpose was to make man His duplication for His expression so that man may actually and fully be one with God.
In Genesis 1:26 and 27 we have the container but not the content. The content is found in Genesis 2. According to the record in Genesis 2, after God created man, He prepared a garden and placed man in it. Two trees are mentioned by name: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God’s intention was that the man created by Him would take of the tree of life and live. But if man took of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would die. Man ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and he died.
We cannot understand the significance of the tree of life simply by Genesis 2. By reading the entire Bible we see that the tree of life is a symbol of God as life. For example, Psalm 36:9 says, “With thee is the fountain of life.” In the Gospel of John we see that when Jesus, the Son of God, came, life was in Him (John 1:4). The Lord Jesus said that He was life (John 11:25) and that He came that we may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10). In Colossians 3:4 Paul says that Christ is our life. Furthermore, 1 John 5:11 and 12 say, “And this is the testimony, that God gave to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life.” Finally, the book of Revelation speaks clearly of the tree of life, with which the entire city of New Jerusalem will be nourished in eternity (Rev. 22:1-2, 14). Therefore, by considering the whole Bible we see that the tree of life symbolizes God as man’s life. God’s intention was that the man created by Him as a container would take Him in as his life and content.
Let us now consider further what God’s image is. The New Testament tells us that God’s image is Christ. But still we need to ask how we should describe the image of God.
The Bible tells us that God is love and that He is light (1 John 4:8; 1:5). Love is the nature of God’s essence, and light is the nature of God’s expression. The Bible also reveals that God is righteous and holy. The adjective “righteous” used with respect to God refers to God’s way. God’s way of doing things is always righteous; He never does anything unrighteously. The adjective “holy” refers to God’s inward nature. God is righteous in His doings and holy in His nature. Therefore, God is love and light, and God is righteous and holy. This is a description of God’s image.
In describing the image of a person, it would not be accurate to speak of his height, weight, and hair color. If you would describe a person’s image, you need to say what kind of person he is. This means that you need to describe his attributes as a person, the characteristics of his personality and temperament. In a similar way, if we would describe the image of God, we need to describe His attributes.
God’s image is depicted by these four words: love, light, righteous, and holy. These are God’s attributes. Hence, when we use the term “divine attributes” we are referring to God’s love, light, righteousness, and holiness. Our God is love and light, and our God is righteous and holy. This is not a description of God’s likeness; it is a description of God’s very being. God is love; that is, love is His being. God is light; that is, light is His being. Furthermore, the being of God is righteous in His acts and holy in His nature. This is the image, the description, of our God. The four main features of this description are God’s attributes.
Man was made in God’s image. The man created by God, therefore, has love, light, and the capacity to be righteous and holy. Even though we are fallen, we still have in our fallen condition love, light, and the capacity to be right and to be holy like God. For God to create man in His own image means that God created man with the capacity to have His love, light, righteousness, and holiness. Human love, light, righteousness, and holiness are what we call the human virtues. These virtues were created by God.
God created man in His own image in such a way that man has the capacity to contain God’s love, light, righteousness, and holiness. The human virtues were created by God to contain His attributes. Human love, light, righteousness, and holiness are created capacities to contain the divine love, light, righteousness, and holiness.
People everywhere agree that hating others is contrary to our conscience. Furthermore, it is also contrary to our conscience to lie, steal, and do things in darkness. Even an unsaved person may have the sense that it would be unrighteous to keep extra change given to him by mistake in a restaurant or store.
The point here is that man was made by God to have love and light and to walk righteously and to be holy. Man has these virtues because he was created in God’s image, in the image of God’s love, light, righteousness, and holiness. The human virtues created by God are the capacity to contain God’s attributes. God created man in this way with the intention that man would take Him as the tree of life to be his life and content.
If Adam had eaten of the tree of life and thereby had taken God into him as life, he would have been filled with God, and his human virtues would have been filled with God’s attributes. Then man’s virtues would have expressed God’s attributes. If Adam had done this, he certainly would have become a God-man. There would not have been the need to wait thousands of years for a God-man to be born in Bethlehem. If Adam in the garden had partaken of the tree of life, he would have become not only a man made by God in His own image and after His own likeness, but also a man filled with God as his life and with the divine attributes filling his human virtues. If Adam had become such a person, a God-man, he would have been a man living God.
As we know, Adam failed to fulfill God’s purpose, and he spoiled God’s design. God had made Adam according to His design. But because Adam ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil instead of the tree of life, he spoiled God’s design. The humanity created by God was damaged and, in a sense, lost. However, as we shall see in the following message, the Man-Savior’s incarnation fulfilled God’s purpose in the creation of man.
