Blog: The Image of God (02/15/22)

By Gary Olson – Retired Pastor

The affirmation of God’s image in the Bible continues through the centuries to the present day and into the future.
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let him rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over all the reptiles that crawl on the ground. So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27)
wow! Here are some examples of this meaning from the Gospel of John.
“Jesus said to him, Whoever drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never thirst again.” (John 4:13-14)
A second example:
“He answered the man called Jesus who had made mud, spread it over my eyes and said to me: ‘Go to Siloam and wash yourself.’ Then I went to wash up and got my sight back.” (John 9:11)
A more impressive example comes from the Gospel of John, chapter 11.
“When he heard this, he cried out in a loud voice: ‘Lazarus, come out!’ the dead man came out, his hands and feet tied with strips of cloth, and his face shit with cloth.Jesus said to them, Untie him and let him go.
Can any of us give someone a glass of water so they’ll never be thirsty again? Can one of us go to the hospital with a bucket of mud and make a blind man see? Can any of us go to a funeral home and revive a deceased person there?
No headline has ever announced that at a funeral someone yelled at a person in a coffin “Get Out” and the deceased person kicked the coffin open and jumped out. Our heavenly Father can raise the dead, but we, created in his image, have no such power. Something much more wonderful awaits all who believe in Jesus and walk in his way.
The answer to these questions is a strong negative – none of us can do many of these things even though we are created in the image of God. Among the deeper meanings of these examples is something much more wonderful that awaits believers created in the image of God.
Jesus is God and we are created in his image. What a wonderful association to create in the image of someone so brilliant.
Between now and this special time when everything becomes new, there is a lot we can do. We can take care of each other. We can love each other as Jesus asks us to. We often hear the words of Jesus: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. As I have loved you, you will also love each other. (John 13:14)
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15)
“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you and pray for those who mistreat you.” (Luke 6:27-28)
Matthew 25:31 says, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, with all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All nations will be gathered together before him, and he will separate the people of the form as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep on his right and the goats on the left. Then the king will say to those who are on his right: “Come, blessed ones of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I I was naked and you gave me clothes, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.'”
These words of Jesus conclude: “As you did to one of the least of my family, so you did to me.”
These words remind us that these many donations we give to charitable causes can serve a great cause.