Made in the Image and Likeness of God: Food for Thought

In Genesis 1:26, God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness,” (NIV)

Have you ever thought of what that really means? God’s image and likeness…what is that? How does that look?

From all accounts, God isn’t constrained within a body like we are. In John 4:24 we read, “God is spirit”, and Deuteronomy chapter 4, verses 12 and 15 tell us that God has no form. If God is “formless”, then Genesis 1:26 is not speaking about the physical characteristics as we know them. So, it’s possible that it has nothing to do with the tangible image and likeness of a body with its head, arms and legs but goes much deeper than what we see on the surface.

After God formed Adam from the dust of the ground, He then breathed living Breath, Neshamah - spirit (see Genesis 2:7), into Adam. Was Adam birthed a spiritual being in a physical realm?

In Genesis 3:7 we read, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked” (NIV)

Hmm, they, Adam and Eve, mankind, became aware of their physical attributes. They saw themselves; each other and their own self. Mankind noticed their embodiment, they became self-conscious.

What changed, not just outwardly but inwardly, for us to become aware of what we look like? What caused mankind to shift his focus from God to self?  From a completely spiritual existence to a physical reality?

Before sin made its way into the Garden, mankind was unaware of “self”. Adam and Eve weren’t self-centred, self-ish, self-reliant, or self-conscious. The tangible qualities of “self” did not factor into their lives until the snake slithered into the Garden.

Our progenitors, in their formless state, were nothing in their own eyes before consciousness of the “self” entered. After that, Adam and Eve lost the ability of their unawareness. They were no longer in the likeness of God, no longer able to communicate with the animals that Adam had named, no longer able to understand the language of the cosmos…they lost the image and the likeness, for themselves and for all mankind.

Now corrupted, they were stripped of their spirituality and made aware of their vulnerability.

In this new state of being, this state of self-consciousness, they would never be able to survive in the divine supernatural atmosphere of Eden. So, out you go!

But God had a plan for His creation and so, there was, and is hope for us but only if we are willing to participate in this plan. It will take some hard work on our part. It won’t be easy, but it will be rewarding.

We need to become unaware of ourselves.

Jesus put it this way,

"If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it" (Matthew 16:24-25)

Deny your “self”. Lose your “self”. Lose your way of life, and embrace Jesus’ way of life and you will find the Life that God intended for you to have.

To regain the image and likeness that was lost, you must deny your “self”, then immediately thereafter, take up your cross. In other words, denying the “self” is a daily, constant, continuous sacrificial crucifixion of the “self”.

We have to become utterly unaware, disembodied, so to speak. We have to recognize that we are nothing, not in a negative sense but utterly unconscious of our “selfs” in order that we may properly follow Him.

Are you ready to experience a taste of Eden – a state of simply being nothing, without the burden of the attachment of “self”, to be re-made in the image and likeness of God?

 

 

Shelley Johnson “Made in the Image and Likeness of God: Food for Thought” © January 12, 2025