Genesis 1:26-27
The great work of creation now approaches its close -
“Now heaven in all her glory shone, and rolled
Her motions, as the great first Mover’s hand
First wheeled their course: earth in her rich attire
Consummate lovely smiled; air, water, earth,
By fowl, fish, beast, was flown, was swum, was walked
Frequent; and of the sixth day yet remained:
There wanted yet the master-work, the end
Of all yet done.” - Milton.
In approaching to the creation of man, the sacred narrative assumes a
more solemn air, and more dignified style - “And God said, let us make
man 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 all the
earth.” And then it is added - “So God created man in his own image, in
the image of God created he him.”
It is impossible to read this account of the origin of our first
parents, and not to acknowledge that it conveys an intimation of some
eminent distinction, which has been exclusively conferred upon the
human race. “We are indeed,” says a fine writer on this subject, Note:
Rev. William Harness. Sermons on the Image of God in Man. 1841.] “the
beings of a day; incapable of counting on a single hour as our own;
uncertain whether we shall be permitted to carry our slightest purpose
into execution; exposed to a thousand perils; and liable to be diverted
from our holiest and most steadfast resolution by the sudden gust of
passion, or the unexpected temptation; but still, though weak and
frail, we are invested with the highest dignity which can be bestowed
upon any creature, for there is some portion of our nature which bears
the impress of the image of the Creator.”
It is said that he still bears this image; for, although some have
urged, that whatever was intended by it, must have been lost at the
Fall, we agree with this writer in thinking that there is Scripture
evidence to the contrary. The Almighty, addressing Noah after the
Deluge, and uttering this solemn denunciation against murder,
says - “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for
in the image of God made he man.” Note: Genesis 10:6.] The reason here
urged for respecting the life of man, could have been of no conceivable
force, had the image of God been wholly or irrecoverably forfeited by
Adam’s transgression. In what then did this image, by which man is
likened to his Maker, consist?
The old, and still too common, idea, that it consists in the lineaments
and erect figure of man, although taken up by the poets and orators,
and hence invested with images and ideas by which its real
offensiveness is hidden, is painfully revolting to one who is enabled
to realize a distinct conception of the great fact, that “God is a
Spirit.”
Does this image then lie in the “dominion,” which is given to man over
the inferior creatures? Some think that it does, and have written
largely on that view; but if we examine with care the text on which
that notion is founded, Note: Genesis 1:26.] we shall see that the dominion
is a power which belongs to man because he bears the image of God, and
does not in itself constitute that image.
Does it, then, lie in that immortality which is denied to all lower
creatures, and which indeed invests man with a dignity which might
certainly, under particular points of view, be regarded as the image of
God? Yet it would be still an incomplete image. The immortality of God
is an eternity of past and future - ours of the future only. But above
all, consider that Satan and his angels are also inheritors of an
immortal being; and it will not, surely, be urged, that the language in
which the Scripture describes the nature of Adam, can be applicable to
them, as must be the case if mere immortality constituted the image of
God.
More will tell us that it lies in man’s intellect - his powers of reason,
of thought, of invention, by which he is made only a little lower than
the angels. Proud sinners that we are, to be thus ever prating about
our intellect, the efforts of our genius, the wonders of our invention,
the grasp of our thoughts! We forget that the devil and his angels have
more of all this than we possess, and that so far from giving them the
image of God, it probably only accelerated their departure from him.
Reason is a fine thing; but let us not think too much of it. God does
not. We know of a surety - we know on the authority of his Word - that all
the proud and high things of man’s intellect, are of infinitely less
value in his sight than the humblest aspiration after mercy and
truth - than the heart-uttered groan of a contrite spirit. Besides, there
is no real likeness. God does not reason. God does not labor in
thought. All truth, all knowledge, is intuitive to Him, is part of his
own essence. Where, then, is the likeness in this?
Since, therefore, the image of God is not to be sought in the
perfection of man’s body, nor of his mind as the seat of the intellect,
this holy endowment can only be found in his soul, the seat of his
moral faculties. It must be a living energy in the human breast,
reflecting the likeness of the God who made its. Surely, therefore, it
is evinced in the capacity of resembling Him in moral attributes; of
being holy as He is holy; of loving him with something of that love
wherewith He first loved us. This is plainly intimated in the words of
the Apostle, where he exhorts us to “put off the old man with his
deeds, and to put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after
the image of him that created him.” Note: Col 3:10.] So also, when he
exhorts the Ephesians to “put on the new man, which, after God, is
created in righteousness and true holiness.” Note: Eph 4:24.] Nothing
can be clearer than these two passages taken together; which both,
indeed, have a most distinct reference to the very text of Genesis by
which this inquiry has been excited.
It is therefore in the capacity for, or in the presence of, true
“knowledge,” of “righteousness,” of “holiness,” that the image of God
is found; and, seeing that all these faculties have their root in
love - love to God, a feeling of God’s love to us, the love of God in the
soul - it is in love that the image of God is perfected; and he is most
like God, sets forth most of God’s image, who loveth most. There can be
no doubt in this. To bear the image of God, is to be like Him in that
attribute in which chiefly He is presented to our view, and is related
to us; and that is love. The book of God’s hand in the natural world,
and the book of his Spirit in the Scriptures, concur in setting forth
his love in creation and In providence; while the latter discloses to
us the special wonders of his love in redemption. “Love is of God,”
says the Beloved Disciple - “and every one that loveth is born of God,
and knoweth God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of
God towards us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the
world, that we might live through him ... Beloved, if God so loved us,
we ought also to love one another.” Note: 1Jn 4:7-11.]
If, then, “God is love,” to love Him, and love mankind - because they
bear his image in the capacity for the same love of Him - is to be like
God, is to bear that image of Him in which Adam was created. Not
faintly did our Lord himself indicate this view, when he told the
hopeful Scribe, that the essence of all the law and the prophets was
comprised in the two great commandments - “Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind;” and
in this other, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” Note:
Mat 22:37-39.] Let us therefore desire to bear more and more of God’s
image in love. Few men loved more than David; and it was in this, that
he was the man “after God’s own heart” - that is, after God’s image. Yet
he was continually aspiring to higher degrees of conformity to the
Divine image. “I shall be satisfied,” he says, “when I awake with thy
likeness.” Note: Psa 17:15.] Let this also be our desire and prayer.
May we also be satisfied with nothing less.
