Redeeming The Image Of God

How would you respond if I asked you, “What is the image of God?” Some of you would say, “we are made in the image of God.” Some may even venture to say the physical shape that He created Adam to appear as. However, the physical appearance of God is “light” according to 1 John 1:5. So, what is this image, that God Almighty, created you in the image of Himself? Once you have thought about how God is holiness and righteousness, you may venture to say that His image is holiness and righteousness. Now, I think we are getting close!

Let’s refer to the scripture where this image is first mentioned. Gen 1:26, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...” So, the original image of God that Adam was created in was more likely the spiritual nature versus the physical nature. We have some clues from the scripture, in fact, this first clue appears all through the Bible, “Be ye holy, for I am holy” Here are two inferences: Lev 20:7 and 1 Pet 1:16. “Holiness” is a nature that God originally created Adam to live in. We will come back to this, but now let’s look at another clue.

The second clue is also scattered throughout the scriptures, and that is God being “righteous.” Here is an example, Psalm 119:137, “Righteous art Thou, O Lord....” We also see where the heroes of the Bible often refer to them being righteous also, which is a desired trait that God requires in His people. See what Gen 15:6 says about Abraham, “And he believed in the LORD and He counted it to him for righteousness.” Being righteous is part of this image that God created Adam in.

Now before you start to think that I am reaching for some new idea about what this image is, this thought is not mine only, but the Apostle Paul also taught this similarly in 1 Corinthians 15:40-49. Verse 45 pulls two Adams into this account as an “image bearer.” However, as you read this account, you will notice that the first Adam is broken, but the last Adam is a restorer! Of course, this passage is HUGE in the doctrines that mentioned; however, I want to focus on the idea that the image of God is not just a physical thing, but more a spiritual thing.

40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the

terrestrial is another.

41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star

differeth from another star in glory.

42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:

43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:

44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

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

46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

47 The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven.

48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.

49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

The problem with the first Adam, as Paul demonstrated, is that he was broken, however, that was not how God created him. Adam was made perfect, as we consider the Last Adam was, but something happened, “The Fall!”

This issue of brokenness is a topic that comes up often and is not just an attribute of Adam; but a spiritual trait that has been passed down from Adam to all the generations following him. So, what do you think that it means that “someone is broken,” or what makes someone “broken?” If you think about a person, who you claim is broken, you will most likely describe someone depressed, discouraged, struggling to get their life together, and has made a lot of bad choices in their life. Well, all these things are reflective of sin in a person’s life or on the receiving in of someone who is living a sinful life, and it breaks them!

We know that sin is the violation of God’s commandments. (Note: these commandments were not given to the first Adam when he was first created in Eden but given afterward to one of Adam’s descendants: Moses.) James 2:10 declares that “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” One failure equals the failure of all!

Perhaps it would be beneficial to understand God’s commandments, since breaking them is known to be sinful. Psalms 119:138 declares, “Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful.” This means that the commandments reflect the image that God made us to be in: righteous! Jesus also elevates the commandments in Matthew 5:18-19, “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

These commandments Jesus elevates are listed in Exodus 20, commonly known as the Ten Commandments:

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain.
Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy.
Honor thy father and thy mother.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
Thou shalt not covet.

These describe the very nature of God, and He created mankind to live according to His nature: holiness and righteousness. The wages of breaking these is “death” according to Romans 6:23, “but the gift of God is everlasting life.” Reaching back to 1 Corinthians 14, the spiritual died the day Adam sinned, though they continued to live physically. That is why Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3 that he must be “born again” - not physically, but spiritually. Fulfilling the image of God, can now only be accomplished through Jesus Christ. Thus confirming the teaching of Paul in Romans 8:29, “to be conformed to the image of His Son...” This is the way we were originally created, but mankind’s failures have corrupted the perfection in which God designed them, but Jesus has the fix to repair the broken!

“NO OTHER GODS OR GRAVEN IMAGES”

The common teaching of these commandments is not usually in conjunction with the image of God, however, several times in the scriptures, this is precisely, how they are taught. Let’s look at the first two commandments: “Have no other gods and no graven images.”

God begins the list defining images that are prohibited in Exodus 20:4 & 5 “any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them...” Think about this logically, what is happening when someone designs a false image and worships it? They are denying the true image of God and giving honor to something that is a lie. This would, in effect, also attribute to the denial of the very image, in which, God created mankind.

These images represent those things or personalities that people seem to be more familiar with. Those who make these images like the idea of gods who are more like depraved humans or things found in the world, rather than a standard of perfection. Images also are not limited to being made of wood or stone, but encompass vain ideas of who God is. False worshipers invent vain declarations of God’s attributes rather than except Who He says He is in the scriptures. God says, “ I have not spoken in secret…I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right. images have no knowledge and cannot save,” Is 45:19-20. He continues in verses 21-22, “there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Savior; there is none beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved all the ends of earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” If one’s god can fail, has moral compromises, or is just symbolic; then that god cannot judge those who do likewise. The false worshiper has determined that they are not made in the image of a holy and righteous God, but rather made after the image of an imperfect god. Therefore, judgment will be based on the standard that the false worshiper attributes to his false deity, not that of the true God.

The true believer in God will accept that God has no image that he should or can make like unto God. God is “light” according to 1 John 1:5, and the scripture even reveals God as light in passages such as 2 Chronicles 5:14, “for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.” This light is the manifestation of God’s holiness and righteousness! Mankind were made to live in this image, not devise an image that we prefer. Proverbs 4:18 explains, “the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” This teaches that the longer one lives according to God’s holiness and righteousness, the better they become at living in this standard. In the Gospel of John 1:9, reveals that Jesus is “the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” Then Romans 8:29 explains that we are “to be conformed to the image of His Son (Jesus).”

All of this is to say, we are not to make images of God so that the world can see God, but we are to live out the image of God with our lives! Believers must be God’s representatives of His holiness and righteousness in this world; revealing the True Light of Jesus Christ. “Presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice” of Who He is; being “transformed by the renewing of our minds, proving what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God,” Romans 12:1-2.

“DO NOT KILL”

A student of the scripture will not read too far into Genesis before again stumbling upon a return to this “image of God” teaching. Genesis 9:6 reveals another link of the image bearer and the commandments by stating, “whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.” The shared commandment is Exodus 20:13, “Thou shalt not kill.”

Though seldom taught this way, the commandments show how the image of God functions in the role of mankind. Here we see the display that to murder someone, is deny that; that person is indeed, made in the image of God. This is to take away that person’s right to be an image bearer and reject God who is the giver of life. God is the one who determines how a soul should return to Him, however, a murder actually puts himself in God’s place and robs God of this authority. Ultimately, when a person murders another person, a conclusion can be made that this action is a total disregard of the image of God and even God Himself!

So far, these three commandments show direct links to the image of God in the text of the scriptures. However, the rest of the commandments are not so direct, but if the student of the Bible will reflect on these commandments, they will see that the last seven also teach the image of God is their respected authority over certain imager bearer activities.

“TAKING GOD’S NAME IN VAIN”

Taking the name of the LORD in vain is often taught as using God’s name as a “cuss-word.” When the commandment was given in Exodus 20:7, “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain,” this was not merely referencing how you speak God’s name, but how you “bear, carry, support, sustain, endure” His name with your life.

Consider when two people are married, it is traditional in the United States that the bride would assume, or “take” the name of the groom. This involves a license, certification, and a visit to the social security office to make it a legal transition from whom the bride was to who she now is. In 2 Chronicles 7:14, king Solomon applies this teaching, “If my people, which are called by My Name…” Here, Solomon, declares in his prayer that Israel has taken up, and bears God's name as God’s earthly representatives. John also parallels this teaching in Revelation 3:12, “...and I will write upon him the name of my God.” Bearing the LORD’s Name evolved in the book of Acts 11:26, “And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch,” in which, these disciples bear the name of Christ their Lord!

Hopefully, this clarifies what it means to take the LORD’s name. So now, what would it look like to “take it in vain?” This would be to take the LORD’s name falsely, or as one who lies. Applying this to the image of God, would be a person who is a false representative as His Image Bearer! What this would look like in a New Testament light is someone who claims to be a Christian, but has very little attributes of a Christian.

According to the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:20, “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ…be ye reconciled to God.” As ambassadors for Christ we are to represent His image or as Romans 8:29 presents the godly change that overtakes a believer who is an image bearer, “He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son.” This believer’s life conforms to the lifestyle that Christ Himself presents - a keeper of God’s commandments!

Truly one who is a Christian, bearing the image of God, taking God’s Name realizes the actuality of Isaiah 43:7, “Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.” A Christian’s purpose is to glorify the image of God, for he realizes that God is the Creator honoring His Name in Whose image he knows that he was created! This understanding does not end with just honoring the LORD’s Name, but also understanding how the image of God is passed from one generation to the next through one’s parents. Precise understanding of this concept will lead a person to additionally honor “honor one’s father and mother,” Exodus 20:12.

“HONOR FATHER AND MOTHER”

When God created mankind, He took extra steps that were not done so for the rest of creation. Genesis 2:7 explains, “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.” This process was different from the rest of the creatures, in which, “God said, let the earth bring forth the living creatures after his kind,” Genesis 1:24. Man did not ascend from the earth, but was given a body fashioned by the Almighty and was made a living soul from the breath of God. He was perfect in his entirety, maintaining the attributes of holiness and righteousness bearing the image of God, and declared, “very good,” Genesis 1:31.

Mankind (Adam’s race) is “His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them,” Ephesians 2:10. The sons and daughters of Adam’s race were not created to be “beasts of the field,” but to regulate the earth (Genesis 1:28) and to do so by filling the earth with the image of God.

When those of Adam’s race honor their fathers and mothers, they reveal a subconscious understanding from where the image of God originates and that it is passed on from generation to generation. However, as we discussed before, that this once holy and righteous race, is now broken. The brokenness occurred when mankind failed to acknowledge God and His commandments.

The Apostle Paul captures this understanding in Romans 1:23-31. Verse 23 describes this descent, “they changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.” When one fails to acknowledge the rightful image in which he is designed, it seems that the result will be a reclassification of this image to make a “worldly” sense of it. Mankind realizes that they are created differently and has tried to explain it away as someone who has evolved rather than made specifically as a male or female, and to live holy and righteous in the Almighty’s image. As mankind progresses down this corrupted path, God will eventually “give them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves.” (Rom 1:24)

This rebellious nature is not what God desires. However, part of the way God’s image works revolves around the freewill of mankind to live according to the high calling of the original image or to dishonor even their own bodies with the rejection of holiness and righteousness. To make this choice requires one to “change the truth of God into a lie, and worship and serve the creature more than the Creator!” (Rom 1:25) “For this cause, God gives them up unto vile affections.” As Paul explains in Romans 1:28, “when they do not want to retain God in their knowledge, He will give them over to a reprobate mind.” This entails forsaking the natural affections described in Genesis 1: as woman created for man and to live in married oneness, desiring to work, loving God, and the attributes of holiness and righteousness. Rather than blessing the image of God, the rebellious person accepts the things, Paul calls inconvenient: “unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful.” (Rom 1:28-31)

Even the Psalmist of Psalm 78 agreed that these are “dark sayings.” It is vitally important to understand that because God’s image is passed on through the parents, the parents must reveal these truths to their children, “that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children. That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments,” Ps 78:6-7. The children that deny God’s image and how He created them will eventually be faced with a choice: they will choose God and to live according to the created image or have their civilization judged. This all boils down to understanding that the image originates from the father and mother!

“NO ADULTERY”

The godly design for passing along this image is through the marriage union of one husband and one wife. God’s prescribed marriage is a vital part of God’s image and its function within mankind. God intended from the beginning that a single male would marry a single female, nothing else! Jesus ratified this in Matthew 19:5, “Have ye not read, that He which made them at the beginning, made them male and female, and said, for this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore, they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”

As one reads this, he may wonder what does adultery have to do with marriage? Adultery is any relationship outside of the relationship defined in Genesis 1 and 2, because of the way in which God created Adam and his wife, Eve. Mentioned before, was the different method God used to create mankind, but what was neglected in the content was the female creation. God made them both after His image according to Genesis 1:26; however, Genesis 2:20-25 reveals more concerning the creation of Eve.

In the Genesis narrative, God creates “man” or Adam in His image and then has him search for a “help meet” (one that can help in a like fashion that God helps, every other time this word is used is in reference to God helping mankind). However, Adam found no such help in all of God’s other creations. So, God determines that He will make one for the man, using the man himself. At this point, God causes a deep sleep to fall upon him and removes a rib, according to the English translations of the scripture. Then God uses the rib to create a female, technically, from the image He designed in Adam. Basically, God removed a piece of the image to replicate another one. That is why Adam says concerning the female, “this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman (notice that Adam defined that a woman is a biological female), because she was taken out of Man.”

Adam fully understood that the “Woman” was part of himself and a part of the same image of God in which he was created. He also realized that because of this design, to pass along God’s image he “shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” Following these two principles would complete the cycle of the image of God for mankind. This is why marriage is the cleaving process and restoration of the separated image of God. However, adultery breaks the image by either the man or the woman functioning outside of the “cleaving” cycle designed to keep the image of God whole.

Jesus acknowledged this design within the image of God by certifying even a stronger stance on marriage in Matthew 5:28, “but I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” The Apostle Paul instructed that the will of God and mankind’s sanctification is to abstain from fornication, which includes, adultery, 1 Thessalonians 4:3. Specifically, what God designed in the marriage unit and the prohibition of adultery is the formation of the assembly; otherwise known as the “church.” Jesus encouraged this assembly nature in Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Ephesians presents this understanding also as the Apostle Paul gives guidance and how husbands and wives are to behave themselves as a family unit. He describes an additional step to confirm that the marriage is not just a family, but a church. Ephesians 5:32, “This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”

The design is purposeful and when Paul drew the connection; we can also see that marriage units interacting with other marriage units produce the “body of Christ” with Christ as the “head.” (1 Cor 12:12, Eph 5:23). This conjunction is the completed “assembly” or rather the “church.”

Alright, so to try to organize all these thoughts, we established that Adam was made whole in the image of God - physically and spiritually. Then God separated a piece of that image and created Eve; and, they two were to cleave and be one flesh in the presence of the Living God. However, when they fell in the garden, they two were then separated from God and died spiritually. Jesus, who is the mediator, redeemed us back to God through His death on the cross, thus redeeming the image God, in which mankind was created!

That which was broken is healed through restoration in Jesus Christ. The original trinity of mankind in the garden of Adam, Eve, and the presence of God is restored when we accept the design of the image of God, God’s redemption plan, and call upon the name of “Jesus.” Let Him heal that which was broken! Truly, that is why Christ said, “you must be born again!” John 3:3, (also see 1 Cor 15:45-49) and enter into God’s “Sabbath/Rest.”

KEEP THE SABBATH DAY HOLY

The “Sabbath Day” or rather the “Day of Rest” commandment is the only commandment that Jesus did not precisely mention in the New Testament. However, obtaining the initial context will help to understand what this command teaches concerning the image of God.

Exodus 20:8 says, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” As Moses describes what this means in the next verses, he illustrates that the reason to remember this day is because the LORD God ceased from work on the Sixth Day of creation. In order to keep this day holy, Israel was instructed to not work. Now, if you return to the Genesis 1 account, this is actually the day of creation that did not have an “evening and morning” completion stamp on it. However, when you fast forward to the New Testament to see how Jesus taught the Sabbath, He declares in Mark 2:27-28, “the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath and that the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.”

Jesus does not stop here, but in Matthew 11:28-29 he informs the disciples that He is the One Who gives “rest.” “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me: for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest for you souls.” The Apostle Paul enlightens further in Colossian 2:16 that it is not a specific “day” that is the sabbath or rest, but that all these sabbath/holidays were a picture of how to rest in Christ. “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.”

Basically, Jesus is the “Sabbath” Rest! So, how does this teach people about the image of God? In order to remember the sabbath day and to keep it holy one must remember Jesus by letting Him be Lord and Savior of his life, totally and wholly surrendered in His “Rest!” Romans 12:1-2 explains this best, “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God…and be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Remembering the sabbath and keeping it holy means that you want to live according to holiness and righteousness, which is the image of God and how He created you to be. That may mean that you do not do what the rest of the community does. You love God’s commandments and keep them, not because you have to, but because you want to! This actually shows that you truly love Jesus according to John 14:15. You accept who God says you are and who God made you to be. You also accept the conforming process He uses to make you look more like the image of His Son - “Who is the image of the invisible God!” (Romans 8:29 & Colossian 1:15)

Regardless of how much God wants all of mankind to enter into His “Rest” and accept the image of God that He created, they will rob Jesus of His Lordship and even steal from themselves the truth of God’s word and love!

DO NOT STEAL

Unfortunately, stealing may be the worst violation of the commandments! Think about what stealing is, or what makes someone steal something? That person does not want to work for whatever they take, but they think they deserve it more than the one who did work for it. The first attribute the Bible reveals is: God is a Worker! (Genesis 1) He made the light & the heavens and the earth, divided the waters and the firmament, the grass and trees, the sun, moon, and stars, and finally the creatures in water and on the land.

God took this same expression of His image and forged it into mankind! God made mankind to be workers just as He is a worker. A denial of this is denying how He made you and is really the ultimate Satanic act and we see from John 10:10, “the thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy…” Jesus, (the image of the invisible God and Whose likeness, mankind is to conform himself to) declares “I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”

A thief, one who steals, takes away trust, honor, integrity, virtue, self-respect, and respect of others. Stealing, additionally, breaks other commandments at the same time, I.E.:

“God’s name in vain” - using a title to take advantage of others generosity or to obtain a gain of some sort.
“Adultery” - taking someone else’s spouse
“honor father and mother” - taking away gift of how God made you and giving it to another idology
“killing” - Killing is the stealing of another’s life

Ephesians 4:28, “Let him that stole, steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is

good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.”

DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS

Obviously, stealing coincides with the breaking of other commandments. This violation leads into the bearing false witness against one’s neighbor, of which, God orders mankind: “thou shalt not bear false witness,” Exodus 20:16. Rather than steal from one’s neighbor, one should promote the image of God within their neighbor. This is how Jesus teaches that we should observe and honor the image of God in Mat 22:37-39, “loving the Lord” the giver of the image of God and “loving your neighbor” the receiver of the image of God. When you actually love the Lord, you love your neighbor!

Many simplify this commandment as the restriction against lying. However, it is so much more, when one understands that the witness is about advocating for the image of God within a person. Romans 15:2, promotes considering others and highlighting image bearers, “let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification.” An accurate witness “considers one another and provokes unto love and to good works…exhorting one another…” So, merely suggesting this command is about lies is a false assumption, but rather about all the truth that accompanies the image of God!

DO NOT COVET

A true witness of the image of God, does not defraud his neighbor and willingly puts away lying by speaking truth with his neighbor, understanding that all members of mankind are actually members linked together by Christ. (Ephesians 4:25; Col 1:17) The love for each other in Adam’s race is an attribute of the image of God. However, failure to accept this agape love leads to violating the final commandment: “Thou shalt not covet,” Exodus 20:17.

Certainly, regarding the image of God, a covetous person does not believe that God is the great I AM! They display contempt for the image of God that they were created in, by thinking that God is holding something back, or that they deserve something that God has not allowed them to obtain. Think about this, God knows what you need as Jesus taught in Matthew 6:30, “if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?”

Adam and Eve suffered from this issue also. The serpent tricked them into thinking that God was holding something back from them with the instructions of not eating from the Tree of Knowledge. “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil,” Gen 3:5. The problem was, God had actually held nothing back. When they gave in to the temptation, they lost almost everything, and only gained evil problems. They went from only knowing the “good” that comes from living fully in God’s holiness and righteousness, to knowing also the evil that is a direct result of apathy against these.

Coveting is the process of “all that is in this world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” all of which “are not of God but of this world.” (1 John 2:16) However, realizing that God is the great “I AM:” He is the God Who is Who you need Him to be, when you need Him! There is no need to doubt God’s goodness to you, and, if you think or feel He is not doing something that He ought, there is a really GOOD reason for it; just like with Adam and Eve. He is always preparing for your future and has been preparing for it long before you could have ever conceived of a need. This is true faith and trust in God.

Those trapped in this covetous mindset have no peace and will never have peace. Nothing will ever be enough or good enough. However, those who serve the God in whose image they were made, will have the peace that passes all understanding, for they accept Him as the GREAT I AM and the image of God in them! True believers will hold to all those things that the scripture teaches, which they have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in fellow believers, and the God of peace is with them! (Philliapians 4:19)

CONCLUSION

The image of God is vast in its complexity, and these simple illustrations surrounding the commandments doubtfully do justice to how grand it is or the depth to which it permeates the personhood of each individual. However, I hope that the next time that someone mentions the image of God, it makes you think of God’s holiness and righteousness. God gave us those commands as a guide in our journey in the land of the living. Though we may not be good at keeping these precepts: we know that in our weakness, then He is strong; where we are broken, He can heal; where we have sinned, He can forgive; where we failed bearing the image of God, He can REDEEM!