Created in the Image of God

[70x7]

Adam and Eve were created in the image of God but are you and I? 
 

Hi brothers and sisters. I love to speculate about biblical topics. Topics that in the grand scheme of things like our eternal security/salvation are not so important. For example how tall was Adam?  We aren’t told, but I very much doubt he was 5 foot 8 and probably more like 8 foot 5. 🙂

I suggest that since we are all born in sin we can not be born/created in the image of God. However perhaps we are restored to the image of God when we are born again. 
 

The Bible teaches us  that “the natural man”  can not grasp the things of God because they are spiritually discerned. The things of God are foolishness to him.
 

This is why the natural man identifies with being a “species”, a mere animal, an ape. This is precisely what a HUMAN is. The word HUMAN is a secular scientific word for APE certainly not MANKIND and certainly not created in the image of God. 

Is it arrogant for us, the born again through grace and faith in Jesus Christ  to identify as “Supernatural” ? 
  
Beloved let us cease from identifying as HUMAN, we are mankind. At best we are supernatural. A new creation recreated and restored to the image of God. 
 
Let us live as supernatural eternal beings and be bold and courageous in reaching out to the lost with the good news of the Gospel, the reason for hope we have. Each one save one AMEN my supernatural brothers and sisters. 
 

 

 

[AnOrangeCat]

I've often seen being made in the image of God as a multifaceted thing. There are very much ways in which we're deficient, but there are also ways in which we arguably serve as a reflection. Just as God is a three part being we have spirit, soul, and body, for example.

But you are very much right that the secular world tries to distance us from that and disavow it in whatever ways they can, even through terminology. I've often commented in scientific discussions that science doesn't really know where consciousness (in the sense of our sense of self, personality, etc.) comes from, but the idea of consciousness also has a lot of overlap with the soul. The term 'soul' has implications of an afterlife and some sort of creator. Consciousness doesn't.

[70x7]

54 minutes ago, AnOrangeCat said:

I've often seen being made in the image of God as a multifaceted thing. There are very much ways in which we're deficient, but there are also ways in which we arguably serve as a reflection. Just as God is a three part being we have spirit, soul, and body, for example.

But you are very much right that the secular world tries to distance us from that and disavow it in whatever ways they can, even through terminology. I've often commented in scientific discussions that science doesn't really know where consciousness (in the sense of our sense of self, personality, etc.) comes from, but the idea of consciousness also has a lot of overlap with the soul. The term 'soul' has implications of an afterlife and some sort of creator. Consciousness doesn't.

We are born with an eternal hell bound soul a dead spirit and a dying body. This is not the image of God 

 

Adam was created with an eternal body an eternal alive spirit and eternal soul already abiding with God 

Edited February 27 by 70x7

[D. Adrien]

Scriptures seem to indicate that being made in the image of God is an on-going process.

1John 3:2-3,(ESV)

 2Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

[Tristen]

22 hours ago, 70x7 said:

Adam and Eve were created in the image of God but are you and I? 
 

Hi brothers and sisters. I love to speculate about biblical topics. Topics that in the grand scheme of things like our eternal security/salvation are not so important. For example how tall was Adam?  We aren’t told, but I very much doubt he was 5 foot 8 and probably more like 8 foot 5. 🙂

I suggest that since we are all born in sin we can not be born/created in the image of God. However perhaps we are restored to the image of God when we are born again. 
 

The Bible teaches us  that “the natural man”  can not grasp the things of God because they are spiritually discerned. The things of God are foolishness to him.
 

This is why the natural man identifies with being a “species”, a mere animal, an ape. This is precisely what a HUMAN is. The word HUMAN is a secular scientific word for APE certainly not MANKIND and certainly not created in the image of God. 

Is it arrogant for us, the born again through grace and faith in Jesus Christ  to identify as “Supernatural” ? 
  
Beloved let us cease from identifying as HUMAN, we are mankind. At best we are supernatural. A new creation recreated and restored to the image of God. 
 
Let us live as supernatural eternal beings and be bold and courageous in reaching out to the lost with the good news of the Gospel, the reason for hope we have. Each one save one AMEN my supernatural brothers and sisters. 

I agree that the world is in a continual effort to belittle humans as mere animals - because we bear the image of God (which Satan sees and hates). Like God, we are freely sentient - with the free capacity to both receive and return His love in truth. Any sense that we humans are God's special creation is therefore attacked by the fallen, anti-Christian world. I still remember 80s propaganda - whereby a photo of the earth from space was widely promoted to show that the earth is merely one small blue dot amidst the vast universal expanse - and therefore we should not consider ourselves to be special in any sense.

Originally, the term "APE" referred to the higher primates that are explicitly distinct from humans. Yet today, the connotation of the word has evolved, and many define humans amongst the apes.

The word "human" just means belonging to "mankind" - and is therefore not problematic. Likewise, the word "species" is merely one level of a classification system invented by an avowed, God-fearing Christian. This classification system may be commonly misused to imply Common Ancestry between humans and animals - but the word "species" itself does not mean nor imply any relationship to animals.

Humans have always been "supernatural" - i.e. created as living spirits with souls and bodies. Renewed humans (Christians) have the life of our spirit sourced in God's own eternal Spirit.

 

 

[FreeGrace]

On 2/27/2025 at 6:55 AM, 70x7 said:

Adam and Eve were created in the image of God but are you and I?

Technically, no.  All humans after A&E come from procreation.  But the process involves what God did create.  And thanks for starting this thread, because the issue is far more important than many understand.  And it explains a number of NT words that need to be understood.

On 2/27/2025 at 6:55 AM, 70x7 said:

 Hi brothers and sisters. I love to speculate about biblical topics. Topics that in the grand scheme of things like our eternal security/salvation are not so important. For example how tall was Adam?  We aren’t told, but I very much doubt he was 5 foot 8 and probably more like 8 foot 5. 🙂

I suggest that since we are all born in sin we can not be born/created in the image of God. However perhaps we are restored to the image of God when we are born again. 

Granted, understanding the phrase "in the image of God" isn't required for salvation, it is important to understand exactly what it does mean and why it is so important.  

On 2/27/2025 at 6:55 AM, 70x7 said:

Is it arrogant for us, the born again through grace and faith in Jesus Christ  to identify as “Supernatural” ? 

All believers will be literally supernatural when we receive our resurrection bodies, that will be imperishable, and just like the resurrected body of the Lord Jesus.  In the meantime, God the Holy Spirit dwells in each believer's body, and what is accomplished through His power is supernatural.

On 2/27/2025 at 6:55 AM, 70x7 said:

Beloved let us cease from identifying as HUMAN, we are mankind. At best we are supernatural. A new creation recreated and restored to the image of God.

Close.  Yes, there is a restoration, so to speak.  Which explains exactly what it means to be created in the image of God.

On 2/27/2025 at 6:55 AM, 70x7 said:

Let us live as supernatural eternal beings and be bold and courageous in reaching out to the lost with the good news of the Gospel, the reason for hope we have. Each one save one AMEN my supernatural brothers and sisters. 

I think Paul beat you to the charge.  Gal 5:16 - So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Eph 5:18 - Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,

These 2 verses are essentially saying the same thing.  Believers must be under the influence of the Spirit in order to produce the righteousness that God desires and commands of us.  Even unbelievers can live moral lives, be good citizens, etc.  However, all of this is nothing more than human "good", which still comes from the flesh.  Paul noted that even the Gentiles have a conscience with which to understand right from wrong, so that is common among all mankind.

However, Isa 64:6 gives proper focus on how God views (smells) mankind's moral good (our righteousnesses).

"For we are all become as one that is unclean, and all our righteousnesses are as a polluted garment: and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away."

Horrifically, the red words refer to the literal Hebrew;  used menstral rags!!  And it is referring to the BEST our flesh can produce!

So, a quick history lesson.

Gen 1:1 "God" is in the plural in the Hebrew, 'Elohim'.

Gen 1:26 - Then God (Elohim) said, “Let US make mankind in OUR image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

It is clear that 'God' is more than One Person here.  We know from the rest of Scripture that 'God' means the Triune God, unless specifically identified as the Son of God or God the Holy Spirit, or Father God.

The only reasonable understanding of being created "in OUR image" refers to the Triune God.  So Elohim created man as tripartite:  body, soul and spirit.  And this is affirmed in the NT.

1 Thess 5:23 - May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Heb 4:12 shows the soul and spirit are related but separate, just as the "joints and marrow" are related but separate.

"For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."

OK, back to Genesis.  This time the warning in 2:17 - but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

However, the literal Hebrew reads:  "in the day that you eat of it, DYING, you shall surely DIE."  This can easily be proved by googling the Hebrew of Gen 2:17.  

So, what do we do with what Moses actually wrote?  We know that "dying" is a process, such as aging.  iow, old age can kill us.  And the verse is very clear;  IN the DAY that you eat... you shall surely die.  So, clearly something did DIE on the day they ate.  But it wasn't physical.  It was spiritual, and specifically the human spirit died.

Now, does that mean the spirit goes away?  No.  And we can understand that by the very words of the NT:  RE-generated, born AGAIN, NEW birth, "made alive".  All these words refer to what happens to a person who expresses saving faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross.  For these words to be literal, which they are, there MUST be a dead human spirit present.  If Adam's spiritual death when he ate the fruit meant that the human spirit went away, then how can these words be literal?  "made alive" clearly indicates that something that was not alive has been MADE alive.  

This shows that humans are born with a living soul and body but a dead human spirit.  And we call that state "spiritual death" because the human spirit is literally dead, but present, just as a physically dead body is still present, when the soul/spirit leaves the body.

Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well:  God is Spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the spirit and in truth.”  John 4:24

Granted, various translations capitalize the second 'spirit', but it makes sense that in order to worship God according to His plan, man must have a living human spirit and worship in the truth of the written Word.

So, because of being born with a dead human spirit, everyone NEEDS to be born AGAIN.  Only with a functional (living) human spirit can anyone have a proper relationship with God.  The best man can do apart from RE-generation is his own moral efforts (filthy rags), which stink to God.

So, the only time believers please God is by living in fellowship with the Lord (1 John 1:9), by faith (Heb 11:6) and being filled with the Holy Spirit (Eph 5:18).  Everything less is merely human good (filthy rags), and may explain why so many believers struggle so much.  

Given the RE-generation of the human spirit, and knowing that the Holy Spirit indwells every believer, it should be clear or at least logical that He would reside IN the RE-generated human spirit.

That thinking helps us to understand 1 John 3:9 - No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.

While this verse suggests one can achieve sinlessness, it is referring to the human spirit "born of God" and "God's seed".  

Rather, the verse teaches that when the believer is functioning from the human spirit (filled with the Spirit - Eph 5:18, Gal 5:16) they can't sin.  Too many verses prove that believers continue to sin, so the verse cannot be about achieving sinlessness.  The only time a believer isn't sinning is when they are in fellowship through confession (1 John 1:9) and acting from their human spirit (Eph 5:18, Gal 5:18).

[Dennis1209]

On 2/27/2025 at 5:55 AM, 70x7 said:

Adam and Eve were created in the image of God but are you and I? 
 

Hi brothers and sisters. I love to speculate about biblical topics. Topics that in the grand scheme of things like our eternal security/salvation are not so important. For example how tall was Adam?  We aren’t told, but I very much doubt he was 5 foot 8 and probably more like 8 foot 5. 🙂

I suggest that since we are all born in sin we can not be born/created in the image of God. However perhaps we are restored to the image of God when we are born again. 
 

The Bible teaches us  that “the natural man”  can not grasp the things of God because they are spiritually discerned. The things of God are foolishness to him.
 

This is why the natural man identifies with being a “species”, a mere animal, an ape. This is precisely what a HUMAN is. The word HUMAN is a secular scientific word for APE certainly not MANKIND and certainly not created in the image of God. 

Is it arrogant for us, the born again through grace and faith in Jesus Christ  to identify as “Supernatural” ? 
  
Beloved let us cease from identifying as HUMAN, we are mankind. At best we are supernatural. A new creation recreated and restored to the image of God. 
 
Let us live as supernatural eternal beings and be bold and courageous in reaching out to the lost with the good news of the Gospel, the reason for hope we have. Each one save one AMEN my supernatural brothers and sisters. 
 

 

 

I have a ton of notes on what it means to be created in God's image, but they are too long to post. However, I will leave a couple of thoughts for you to ponder.

The image of God cannot be any set of attributes, talents, sentience, or intelligence, as everyone must equally share it: a fetus, the mentally impaired, both sexes, all ethnicities, everyone.

We are meant to be ambassadors for the Lord. In antiquity, an envoy or ambassador for the king was sent out to a land that had never known the king before and took an image of the king in the form of a signet ring or cylinder bearing the likeness and image of the king for proof.

In short, being created in God's image is God’s seal of man’s authority, representing Him on Earth to do His will.

As sin is inherently passed down from Adam from generation to generation, so is God’s image.

As far as Adam’s size, given the mammoth size of flora and fauna in the fossil record, it stands to reason humans must have been more extensive than that of today. Dragonflies with three-foot wing spans; imagine getting hammered with mosquitoes the size of bats and ticks the size of baseballs after the earth was cursed. Yep, speculation!

[Dennis1209]

4 hours ago, Tristen said:

I agree that the world is in a continual effort to belittle humans as mere animals - because we bear the image of God (which Satan sees and hates). Like God, we are freely sentient - with the free capacity to both receive and return His love in truth. Any sense that we humans are God's special creation is therefore attacked by the fallen, anti-Christian world. I still remember 80s propaganda - whereby a photo of the earth from space was widely promoted to show that the earth is merely one small blue dot amidst the vast universal expanse - and therefore we should not consider ourselves to be special in any sense.

Originally, the term "APE" referred to the higher primates that are explicitly distinct from humans. Yet today, the connotation of the word has evolved, and many define humans amongst the apes.

The word "human" just means belonging to "mankind" - and is therefore not problematic. Likewise, the word "species" is merely one level of a classification system invented by an avowed, God-fearing Christian. This classification system may be commonly misused to imply Common Ancestry between humans and animals - but the word "species" itself does not mean nor imply any relationship to animals.

Humans have always been "supernatural" - i.e. created as living spirits with souls and bodies. Renewed humans (Christians) have the life of our spirit sourced in God's own eternal Spirit.

 

 

I am not being quarrelsome or argumentative, and I agree with your assessment. But, as I proposed above, all humans must possess the image of God equally. Do all humans possess sentience and the ability to love from conception?

Without going into detail, there are those being cared for and alive who are not self-aware or aware of anything and have no concept or ability to give or receive love. This concept does not seem to fit the definition of God's image.

Humans and the animal kingdom are both given spirits; ours are God-breathed:

Ecclesiastes 3:21 Who knoweth the spirit (rûaḥ) of man that goeth upward, and the spirit (rûaḥ) of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?

Ecclesiastes 12:7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit (rû^aḥ) shall return unto God who gave it.

In contrast to the animal kingdom, the 6^th commandment is interesting: thou shall not kill (murder). In effigy, it is trying to kill the Creator, Almighty God, killing an ambassador representative in His image as I view it.

As you infer, there are numerous species of “kinds.” It is expressively prohibited to cross the kind barrier, a long Genesis 6:1-4 and elsewhere narrative. It is an open secret the “kind” barrier is now being exploited. The percentage of DNA we share with the primate kingdom is amazing.

A top geneticist states that <1% of human DNA alteration will make us less than human, which is the goal of enhancing our strength, endurance, and senses for super soldiers and human enhancement. I don’t know why I threw that in. 

[Who me]

On 2/27/2025 at 11:55 AM, 70x7 said:

suggest that since we are all born in sin we can not be born/created in the image of God

God is a spirit so we being physical don't  look like God, but we have similar characteristics  of God.

We are spiritual beings, we have emotions, we are rational and reasonable, we are creative.

These are  ways in which all mankind is made in the image of God.

[Cntrysner]

1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. 

1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. 
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. 
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 

Image of the earthly is a body made from dirt and it will return to dirt (Gen 3:19), image of the heavenly is a Spiritual body of oneness (Eph 4:4, Joh 17:21-22) with God.

Joh 4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

 Gen 1:26  And God said, Let us make man in our image (H6754), after our likeness (H1823): 
Gen 1:27  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 

The Father said let US make man in our image in verse 26, then the singular God is used in verse 27, thus the US reveals the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are the singular tripartite eternal God, in other words, the Father, and the Son who is Christ, before creation, were Spirit in a singular Spirit Body , not flesh, not bone, not human. The Father and the Son are one as is the spirit and soul of a living man are one. The Spirit is the vessel of unlimited power that performs the will of the Father and Son and our body gives us the ability to operate in this earthly realm. We do not pray to the Spirit and the Spirit does not speak of himself (Joh 16:13).

Adam was created in God’s image as tripartite.. body, soul and spirit not in the express image of God who is Spirit, Spirit, and Spirit.

Heb_1:3  Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image (G5481) of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

Adam’s image his own…
H6754;From an unused root meaning to shade; a phantom, that is, (figuratively) illusion, resemblance; hence a representative figure, especially an idol: - image, vain shew.
Adam’s likeness..
H1823 From H1819; resemblance; concretely model, shape; adverbially like: - fashion, like (-ness, as), manner, similitude.
Ascended Christ’s express image of God…
G5481 from G5482; a graver (the tool or the person), that is, (by implication) engraving ([“character”], the figure stamped, that is, an exact copy or [figuratively] representation): - express image.

1Ti 3:16  And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

Flesh was Christ’s covering like you would put on clothing which is not a part of you, lest your nakedness be revealed, but Christ when His flesh was removed during His transfiguring ascension returned to the Father in glory and again received the Father’s express image and was not naked because of the Spirit oneness in one Spirit Body He had with the Father before He became flesh.

Heb 1:3  Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

Sin is in the flesh and Christ took our sins into His sinless body of flesh (1 Pet 2:24) becoming our sacrifice, no flesh will receive glory in the Father’s presence (1Co 1:29) for God is a consuming fire (Heb 12:29) and the flesh profits nothing (Joh 6:63).

Got Questions…“The noun flesh (sarx in Greek) refers to “the physical aspects of a person in distinction to the nonmaterial soul.” Technically, flesh describes the body’s soft tissue but is often used in the New Testament to indicate the “sinful nature” or the seat of sin and rebellion against God in humanity. In the Old Testament, flesh is frequently used in reference to mortal humans in contrast with God, a life-giving Spirit. The term translated as “profit” in John 6:63 means “to be of use, help, aid, facilitate, accomplish.” 

Man was formed from dust and God breathed spirit into that vessel or house and man became a living soul. Our spirit has to have a body to be housed in or it would be non functional having no consistence, the living soul was created with spirit. Without a spirit or a body the soul is not functional. Without any one of the three, a vessel to contain, a soul, or a spirit there is no wholeness and in essence not a living tripartite man.

Gen 2:7  And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

The flesh is a covering vessel or tent for the spirit soul, it merely house’s and gives a consistent shape or image.

2Co 5:1  For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 
2Co 5:2  For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: 
2Co 5:3  If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. 

From God’s breath (spirit) the soul was created and with out the spirit the soul is not functional, death without recovery.

Soul and spirit are the essence of a living man who is housed in a earthly body.

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: (Rom 8:16). The spirit in man cannot die (it is God’s breath) for without a functioning spirit, God would not be able to communicate with a lost soul with a dead spirit with His Spirit.   

It is said by some that the spirit returns to God at man’s death and the soul descends while the body returns to dust. I submit that only after the final judgment of non believers is God’s spirit removed. When a believer at death or rapture leaves the earthly body his spirit soul goes to it’s eternal home and is clothed with God’s Spirit body (express image) and we become one with the Father and the Son. 

Joh 17:20  Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 
Joh 17:21  That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 
Joh 17:22  And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 
Joh 17:23  I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one (Spirit Body); and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. 
Joh 17:24  Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. 

Without the spirit the soul has no life in it, thus damnation and death with out recovery.

This verse is used as proof text that the spirit returns to God at death…
Ecc 12:7  Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
But we read in context that it refers to the time of judgment or when believers go to their eternal home …
Ecc 11:9  Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.
Ecc 12:5  Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets: 

Some try to tear Christ asunder saying… His body was dead in the grave, His spirit returned to God, and His soul descended into hell. His divinity would disallow such a thing, Christ was not merely a man but a life giving Spirit (1 Co 15:45). Christ took our sins into His flesh body and died in the flesh but not in His spirit or soul. Christ was never a damned disembodied spiritless soul and neither will we be if we are members of His ascended Body. God the Father was in Christ on the cross (2 Co 5:19) via the Holy Spirit and He never left Him.

Isa 9:6  For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.