We Shall Be Like Him

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26)

Here we have the first of man – his origin and his destiny entirely Divine. God undertook the stupendous work of making a creature who is not God, to be a perfect likeness of Him in His Divine glory. Man was to live in entire dependence on God, and to receive directly and unceasingly from Himself the inflow of all that was holy and blessed in the Divine Being. God’s glory, His holiness and His love, were to dwell in him, and shine out through him.

When sin had done its terrible work and spoiled the image of God in man, the promise was given of the Seed of the woman, in whom the Divine purpose would be fulfilled. “God’s Son, the image of His glory, and the very image of His substance” (Hebrews 1:3) was to become the Son of man, in whom God’s plan would be carried out, His image revealed in human form. The New Testament takes up the thought of Creation, and speaks of those who are “foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son;” and gives the promise: “We know that when He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.” And between the eternal purpose and its eternal realization, we have a wonderful promise in regard to the life here upon earth.

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)