Altered images by sin
So far we have learned that the bible teaches that 'made in the image of God' refers to the image of God's character i.e. righteousness and holiness. But, what happened to this image of God in mankind?
1 Corinthians 15:20 But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.
Adam fell into sin when he disobeyed the Lord. This led to death coming upon Adam and then spread to all mankind.
At that exact time Adam’s image of God was distorted, defaced, corrupted, or spoiled and this
altered and distorted image has passed down to us today.
¨2 Corinthians 4:4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
The god of this age is Satan who seeks to blind people's minds so that the glory of Christ who is the image of God cannot shine upon them to restore the proper image of righteousness and holiness. Satan always seeks to hinder the new birth to prevent the righteous image of God being restored to people.
¨Hebrews 1:3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
We can summarise our findings as follows;
¨You are a human person made by God
¨You are an altered person spoiled by sin
¨You are a person restored by Christ
¨The best biblical explanation of ‘made in the image of God’ is in our character- righteous and holy- this tells us what we are meant to be. Jesus Christ bears the perfect image of God - He is our 'go to' person to see what righteousness and holiness look like in life.
Amen
Prayer
In part 4 of this study we consider what is the importance of being made in the image of God.