Let us make man in our image, after our likeness

This article was published in french on this same blog under this title: "Faisons l'homme à notre image, selon notre ressemblance" on July 20, 2015.

In Genesis 1:26 God said:"Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." In this way, since we have been created in his image, after his likeness, it is legitimate to ask ourselves what is the substance (essence or nature) of the image and likeness of God. The word 'image' in Hebrew is 'tselem' (see 'The New Strong's Expanded Exhaustive Concordance Of The Bible' at the number 6754). In the context of Genesis 1:26, this word means that God have created man with the same essential ingredients which characterize his own nature. Then, what are these essential ingredients? In 1 Thessalonians 5:23, the apostle Paul gives us a starting point for our effort to answer this question: " And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

1- God is, first of all, a Spirit: "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). Seen in this way, we can bring forth the idea that He is actually the one called 'Holy Spirit' or 'Holy Ghost' since Him only is holy (Revelation 15:4). Consequently, since we have been created in His image, we are called to be " holy in all manner of conversation" (1 Peter 1:15-16) (note that in the french version of 1Peter 1:15-16 it says "holy in all manner of conduct" instead of "in all manner of conversation").

The word 'spirit' taken from 1 Thessalonians 5:23 comes from the Greek word 'pneuma'. It means according to the Strong's concordance (number 4151), (on the human level) "the rational soul and by implication, the vital principal and mental disposition". Joseph Henry Thayer ('A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament' p. 520) defines this same word (taken from 1 Thessalonians 5:23) as follow: "The rational part of man, the power of perceiving and grasping divine and eternal things, and upon which the Spirit of God exerts its influence." Luther said that 'pneuma' "is the highest and noblest part of man".
Some precisions would be appropriate concerning this power or capacity of perceiving and grasping divine and eternal things: Since Adam and Eve's sin, this power of our spirit is lessened if not lost; it is  a consequence associated to death (as our body and soul can be sick or lessened since Adam and Eve's sin, in the same way, our spirit can be lessened). Only if we identify ourselves to Christ in his death and resurrection, in other words, if we become born again (John 3:3,5) or even, if we have received the Spirit of God (read with attention 1 Corinthians 2:11-12 and Romans 8:9-11) we can have again this power or capacity.

Reading 1 Corinthians 2:14-16  in which the apostle Paul is bringing out some differences between the the natural man (in my understanding: whom is not born again, whom lets himself governed by the passions and desires of his flesh and does not have the power or capacity of perceiving and grasping divine and eternal things) and the spiritual man (in my understanding: whom is born again and filled and governed by the Spirit of God) permits to better grasp what was written above in this article:

"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ."  (1 Corinthians 2:14-16)

And if we have the mind of Christ, It is because He dwells in us. And if He does so: "If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the 'spirit' is alive because of righteousness." (Romans 8:10) (note: This verse is taken from the 'New American Standard Bible' instead of, as usual, from the 'King James version' because the word 'spirit', in my understanding, refers to the spirit of man instead of the Spirit of God). This last passage (Romans 8:10) shows clearly that if Christ dwells in us, our spirit is regenerated and becomes able to perceive and grasp divine and eternal things.

One comment about Romans 8:9 (to read below) should be given: It seems that the apostle Paul associates closely, as if he was talking about the same Spirit, the words 'Spirit of God' (that is the Spirit of the Father) and 'Spirit of Christ' (that is the Spirit of the Son):

 " But ye are not in the flesh, but in the 'spirit', if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."  (Romans 8:9) (note: This verse is taken from the 'English Revised Version' instead of  the 'King James Version' because, again and this time in Romans 8:9, the word 'spirit', in my understanding, refers to the spirit of man instead of the Spirit of God).
Thus, following the same idea, Jesus said to his apostles and disciples that He is the truth (John 14:6). Still in chapter 14 (book of John) Jesus said further, in John 14:16, that the Father shall give them (and us) another Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, whom was already with them at the precise moment He (Jesus) was speaking to them: " The Spirit of truth...but you know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." (John 14:17). It becomes evident, here, that Jesus wanted to point out that the 'Spirit of Truth' was in fact inside of Him, and consequently It (the Spirit of Truth) was necessarily with them at the exact moment he was saying " for he dwelleth with you " and that after His death and resurrection, this same 'Spirit of Truth' would come and dwell in them (the word 'them'  implies his apostles and all the other disciples from now on). We are not mistaking if we affirm that the words 'Spirit of God' or the 'Holy Spirit' or the 'Comforter or the 'Spirit of Christ' or the 'Spirit of Truth' represent the same Spirit. In other words: Spirit of God = Holy Spirit = Comforter = Spirit of Christ = Spirit of Truth.
Somewhere (or 'sometime') before the foundation of the world, the Father have begotten the Son (Hebrew 1:5; Psalms 2:7) in His image (Colossians 1:15). The Father and the Son are one (John 10:30). "For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him" (John 3:34).  "For it pleased the Father that in him (Jesus-Christ) should all fulness dwell" (Colossians 1:19). These verses suggest all that the Father and the Son have the same Spirit. Hence, It becomes important, at this point, to distinguish between having been begotten (Jesus the Son of God have been begotten) and having been created ( we humans and everything existing in the universe have been created). Jesus said in John 16:27-28 that He came out from God and that He came forth from the Father. It is as if the Father had made come out of Himself (grossly comparable to a process of auto-reproduction) a being (that is the Son of God) having the same nature, spiritually, mentally and corporeally. We could say figuratively, in a contemporary context, that the Son had received from the Father the same genes. They both have the same nature, the same attributes. At the foundation of the world, when the Father had decided that the 'time' or 'moment' (did time as we understand it really exist before the foundation of the universe?) had come for the creation of the universe, He (the Father) said to the Son: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Genesis 1:26). In this particular instance, the Son, obeying to the Father, made come to existence the humans and all the rest of the universe by his Word (John 1:1-3). This is different from being begotten. This is not 'auto-reproduction'. The Father and the Son existed before the foundation of the world. Everything created since the foundation of the world depend on God's Word for it's existence and subsistence (Colossians 1:17).
To resume  this first section on the nature of our Creator, we cannot escape the idea that God the Father is above all a Spirit. He is the Holy Spirit. His Son was begotten at His image before the foundation of the world. In spite of the fact that we have been created in their (The Father and the Son) image, after their likeness, we are above all immortal spirits but not eternal spirits having been created at the foundation of the world when time, as we know and understand it began. Our body, indeed, can die because of sin, but it is not really the case for our soul and spirit. These, however can be diminished or sick in some ways: after the original sin (the sin of Adam and Eve) the spirit of man lost to a certain degree the capacity or power of perceiving and grasping divine and eternal things. Saying that our spirit is dead because of the sin of Adam and Eve should be taken as a figure of style  and used for a way of showing that our spirit is deprived completely or to a certain degree of its capacity or power of perceiving and grasping divine and eternal things, and consequently, not being able to have communion with the Father and the Son (1 John 1:3; about this verse, did you notice that John the apostle doesn't mention having communion (fellowship) with the Holy Spirit? As an explanation, my suggestion is that the Father and the Son are one (John 10:30) and, indeed, they have the same Spirit which is called in the Bible the Holy Spirit). This figure of style appears in Ephesians 2:1-2:" And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience;"
But, through the death and resurrection of Jesus-Christ, our spirit can be regenerated: "But God, who is rich in mercy,  for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus;" (Ephesians 2:4-6). In other words, through Jesus-Christ,  our spirit was reanimated or vivified (Romans 8:10) and thus, we can again be in communion with God and draw near with confidence to his throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16).

2- God has a soul: The word 'soul' taken from 1 Thessalonians 5:23 is the translation of the Greek word 'psuche' (number 5590 in the Strong's concordance). It means the portion of our being that can feel emotions (Matthews 26:38), have desires, love, having an aversion on something or someone. It also means the vital force animating our body and which manifests itself by our respiration. Considering the definition given, it is certain that our Creator possess a soul: He can desire (Psalms 132:13-14); He loves (John 3:16); He has in aversion sin in general (Isaiah 43:24) even a nation (Psalms 95:10)  or certain sins in particular (Deuteronomy 18:10-12). Finally, in Him resides the breath of life (Genesis 2:7). 

3- God has a body:Indeed, when the apostle John was on Patmos island, he had a vision of heaven in which he saw and described someone sitting on a throne (Revelation 4:2-3, NIV). This person was the Father. John would not have said that there was someone (NIV) or one (King James) sitting on a throne if he (someone) had not a human appearance (head, arms, hands (Revelation 5:1,7), thorax, abdomen, legs and feet). When  a heavenly being does not possess a human appearance, he or it is described  with more details, which is the case of the four beasts in the midst and around the throne (Revelation 4:6-8). We must consider that the Spirit of God is everywhere (omnipresent) but He is not visible (John 3:8). The only man having seen face to face the Father is the Son  (John 1:18; 6:46). This is possible only if the Father formed himself a body in heaven, sitting on his throne, to let the heavenly beings whom He have created see Him while they are serving Him and adore Him : "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 18:10).

The Son himself has a human appearance: "And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the middle of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars..." (Revelation 1:12-16). We should remember that when we will be in heaven, after the resurrection, we will have a glorious body similar to the one Jesus has (1 Corinthians 15:42-44).

To conclude this article, the Hebrew word used to design 'likeness' in Genesis 1:26 ("Let us make man in our image, after our 'likeness'.) is 'de-mooth' (number 1823 in the Strong's concordance). It means concretely: model, form. In the context of Genesis 1:26 it has this specified signification: according to the original model. Indeed, we, humans, were created according the original model which is the one of the Father and the Son: we are spirits with a soul and a body. Satan had become a fallen angel because he wanted to be like the most High (Isaiah 14:14), and the reason why he hates us so much is that we (humans) , in fact, have been created in God's image, after His likeness.