Characteristics of Man as the Image of God

CHARACTERISTICS OF MAN AS THE IMAGE OF GOD

Genesis 1:26-27      And God said, ‘Let Us make humanity in Our image, after Our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’

        So God created humanity in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them.”

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

Nu 23:19    God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent …”

What does it mean that humanity is created in the image of God? Such an image that, if an anyone kills a man, they must die for killing God’s image-bearer. (Gen 6:9)

According to God’s original creation, man’s characteristics included righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:24; 2 Cor 3:18; Col 3:10; ), to which we are to aim as new creations in Christ.

God is not physical, nor material, so the image we bear is not in physical appearance or attributes. (Col 1:15; Num 23:19; John 4:24) While we are said to be his “offspring” (Acts 17:28-29) our birth was not a physical process emanating from God Himself. So what does it mean?

Man’s position in creation is superior to that of animals; we have been created above all other creatures. (Ps 8:6; Gen 9:3) Yet we are not equal to God, (Num 23:29) so how can we be made in His image?

God endowed humanity with many characteristics and abilities unique to us in creation, that are a reflection (image) of God’s characteristics and abilities. Unlike animals, we are capable of complex cognition and emotion, and while corrupted, we have the innate ability to be righteous and good, as God originally created us.

The qualities unique to humanity, with which God has gifted His image-bearers include the following. When we take the time to consider these attributes first possessed by our Divine Creator, and their exceptional quality and the implication of their possession, we can begin to skim the surface of understanding the kind of Deity Which we believe and worship:

ability to honour

ability to plan

ability to self-sacrifice

abstract thought

anticipation

awareness of relative time, and the existence of past & future

calculation

comparison

compassion

comprehension

concentration (on an object or subject)

concept

consideration: of facts, influences, variables, and implications

decision

deliberation

empathy

estimation

evaluation

intention

intuition

invention

moral application

moral awareness

purposefulness

reason

self-awareness

volition

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