Adam created in the image of God?

[cupotea]

Hello Everyone,

Recently I visited website "www.wordofchrist.net and read there a topic " Doctrines of the Beginning ", in which the author proves from the Bible that Adam could not have been created in the image of God. The reason being that had he lost the image of God (or marred) because of sin, then what guarantee is there for a believer, regenerated in the image of Christ, that he will not lose his salvation in the future.

After reading this topic and comparing scripture with scripture, I can't but come to the same conclusion as the author himself. Nevertheless, I want to invite your comments, but only after your complete assessment of this topic.

The earth was created without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep (Gen 1:2)

Then God commanded the Light to shine forth and that Light was separated from darkness. If we compare scripture with scripture, God wants us to understand that He is refering to His salvation program.

2Co 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

God relates that Light to be the gospel of His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Light of the world. So when God talks about creation of man after His image and likeness, He had salvation of His elect in mind (Gen 1:26-27).

Adam needed the gospel of salvation from the moment he was created, for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.

Read 1 Cor 15:42-50 very carefully. First Adam was earthy and the second Man is from heaven. As we have borne the image of the earthy, so we will (elect remanant of mankind)
bear the image of the heavenly. The first man was of the dust.

That's why we have creation account of Adam in Genesis Chapter 2 :7.

We see that Jesus Christ alone was the image of God, That's why He is the Son of God and the Bible says that He is pre-eminent.

Col 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

It is only in salvation that man is created in the image of Christ who is the image of God.

Col 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed (made new) in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

1Co 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

2Co 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

2Co 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Ro 8:29 ¶ For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

1Co 11:7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.

Jas 3:9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.

When scriptures refer to man as the image of God, they could only receive it from the time of their salvation and not before. Man is accountable to God for his sins not because they are all created in His image but rather accountability starts at the cross:

Joh 15:22 If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.

Joh 12:31 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.

That's why the Lamb of God was slain principally from the foundation of the world and not presumably from Adam's fall.

Rev 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.



God bless

 

[Scott Bushey]

Dan,
Please click on the 'signature' link at the bottom of my post please........

 

[Puritan Sailor]

Dan, I would refer you to our Confessions with their Scriptural references before we go any further. We are a Reformed Discussion group. See our Board Rules. If you have questions after reading those references then we can discuss. You can also do a search and see the previous threads on this topic as there have been a few.

 

[Contra_Mundum]

We cannot reduce our picture [of the image of God] to a single item, even one of our favorites, Reason. Man is not the image of God because he reasons, nor because he was given reason tha the might be the image of God thereby. He reasons because this is one of the ways he displays the image of God....

Man was created to reflect, on the creaturely level, in every way that a creature can--or put differently, in the highest, most developed, most complete or fullest creaturely expression--the being of God. Man is that image partly by what he is and partly by what he does....

[One distinction we can make in discussing this image is that between the natural and the moral aspects.] Man's whole being fell in the first transgression. The natural image, then, was affected by sin. It was marred and wrecked. "In the day ye eat of it, ye shall surely die." God is Life itself. His antithesis is death. Sin when fully mature gives birth to death (Jas. 1:15). How can a dead thing be the image of God? Well, the fact is that our bodies are living while we have breath in them, and being alive continue to show forth the image of God placed there at creation. Until the body is dead, the natural image remains there, in some degree. When decay arives, the image is at last destroyed completely. God's curse is fulfilled. Death does remove the image.

This is why murder is still a crime. As God said to Noah (Gen. 9:6), after the Fall and the Flood, that he required from the hand of man the life of the murderer. An assault upon man is an assault upon the image of God, and a consequent assault upon God himself, who is identified with that image. James says much the same thing in 3:9, condemning men's hateful speech toawrd other men as virtual blasphemy. God demands the right to an immediate "judicial review" of these cases, an automatic "final appeal" to a court far higher than the Supreme Court. It is an affront to his justice either to fail to give the death penalty to convicted murderers or to delay the swift execution of their sentence. We do not condone a "rush to judgment," but neither do we condone a system that needlessly prolongs the outcome, as if God had made no such demand. He will swiftly and surely condemn the guilty, and exonerate the innocent, though in this life their days are over.

We see, that naturally, man is still the image of God....

It is the designation that sets man apart [as the image of God], however, and not the exercise of his ability. Else, superior specimens would have a natural right to claiming to be a superior image, and favored. But this is not so....

The moral image, however, was not merely wrecked in the fall; it was obliterated. This fact holds even though we are reminded in Romans 2:15 that the "work of the law," God's moral requirements, remains in the heart of all men. This law was carved, like as by "the finger of God," into man's soul. And if one could "see" the soul with his eyes, he would see the remaining evidence of that great work of God upon it. But what work that was, has been effaced. Like a battering ram against a chiseled work, you can see that the work once was there, but its content lies smashed in ruin.

The hope in Christ is that this moral image can be and is renewed in the hearts of believers. The relevant texts are Eph. 4:24 and Col. 3:10.... Knowledge, righteousness, and holiness: htese three have been tied together in Reformed thought to the three-fold office of man, prophet, priest and king. What man was created to do, he lost the ability to do, but that ability is regained through union with Christ and the work of sanctificaiton. Only the redeemed can properly image God in the moral sense. The ungodly can reason; they can attain some isolated bits of knowledge of true things. But having been cut off from life in God, they have no connection to the ultimate reference point, and so their knowledge must forever remain ignorance, never be truly integrated into the realm of reality, despite their vaunted boasts.

Christ is the true Prophet, Preist, and King. We are reminded again in Col. 1:15, he is the Image of the invisible God. Christ clothed himself in humanity for our sakes. He took our nature upon himself, and dwelt among men. In so doing, as God-with-us, he perfectly imaged God, so that the disciples could say, "We beheld his glory, as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (Jn. 1:14). He was able to say in all soriety, "If ye have seen me, ye have seen the father" (Jn. 14:9). Jesus put God on display for our sake, as well as coming to die for our sake, and rise again for our sake. In Jesus there is no more perfect revelation of God, no superior image. And thus in truth we are not so much being renewed after the image that Adam once owned, but rather after Christ's Image.

 

[Presbyrino]

Bruce,

Where is the source of the quote from?
Is there a hyperlink to a larger document or book?

Steve

[Edited on 5-23-2005 by sntijerina]