THE IMAGE OF GOD: THE REFLECTION OF GOD IN US Contrary to the teachings of the New Age Movement, Emergent Church and Word of Faith Movement, the fact that humans are created in the image of God does not mean humans are God, nor does it mean humans are individual deities in their own right. Humans are made in the image of God in the sense that humans reflect Gods spiritual, intellectual, emotional, communicative, relational, creative, moral and purpose-oriented qualities. Humans reflect Almighty God the Creator in the following ways: SPIRITUAL – Unlike plants and animals, humans have a spirit essence; that is, a soul that is immaterial, energetic, conscious and immortal. It resides inside the physical body to form the complete human being and it consciously survives the death of the physical body. INTELLECTUAL – Like God, humans have thinking ability, as well as knowledge and the ability to reason over information perceived through various experiences to form conclusions, views or opinions. EMOTIONAL – Like God, humans have emotions and feelings that reflect their views about different people, things and experiences. Humans are capable of expressing love and hate, happiness and sadness, as well as excitement, anger, serenity, humor, etc. COMMUNICATIVE – Like God, humans are capable of using verbal and nonverbal language to communicate with other humans or with God. RELATIONSHIP ORIENTED – Like God, humans the ability to form relationships with others. Humans are the most advanced of all social creatures because they were created to have a relationship with God the Grand Creator. All humans innately have a desire for importance and attention from other social entities, and God satisfies that innate desire perfectly. CREATIVE – Like God, humans have the ability to use their intellect and skills to design and create things. They are capable of being organized and having a sense of beauty and elegance for their gifts and talents, such as writing, singing, acting, painting, decorating, sculpting, building, engineering, etc. MORAL AGENCY – Like God, humans are free moral agents that have a sense of right and wrong, good and evil. Gods law is written on the human heart. Acquisition of the sin nature has severely perverted humanitys sense of right and wrong to where humans naturally choose their own morality over Gods. The primary reason why humans are accountable to God is because they were created in the image of God for the purpose of reflecting Gods moral standards and other divine qualities. PURPOSE-ORIENTED – Like God, humans have a free will and volition to choose what words to speak and what actions to perform according to whatever good or bad morality. They have the ability to plan and to set goals, then to seek to fulfill such plans and goals. Humans are also capable of have a sense of purpose and conforming to a purpose given to them. God created human beings as majestic creatures that were to rule over His creation (Genesis 1:26-31; Psalm 8:1-9). However, everything changed when sin infiltrated the human race. In our fallen, sinful state, we are profoundly disfigured, a perversion of the majesty that God our Creator originally intended (Romans 3:23). Even though the original intimate relationship between God and humanity was severed by the fall of Adam (Genesis 3:1-24; Romans 5:1-21), God has relentlessly pursued His beloved human creatures from the beginning of time, sending His Son, Jesus Christ, so that we might be reconciled to Him and become His spiritual sons and daughters, His heirs alongside Jesus Christ (Romans 8:14-29). It is Jesus who restores those who put their faith in Him. Through Christ, Gods image is brought back into perfect focus so that Gods glory shines brilliantly from the reflection (Ephesians 4:20-24; Colossians 3:9, 10).
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 22:37:24 +0000
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