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I want to tell you exactly what it means that God created
man in His image. Many books are written on that but God
makes it clear in the Bible. We have His inspired answer about
what is the image of God. Listen to these three verses. 2
Corinthians 4:3&4, “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled
to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world
has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see
the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of
God.” Christ, the image of God; simple words. Listen to
Colossians 1:15, “And He is the image of the invisible God, the
first-born of all creation.” He is the image of the invisible God.
Hebrews 1:3, “And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact
representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word
of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat
down at the right hand of the Majesty on high..” Jesus is the exact
representation of God. The image of God is Christ. That was
God’s original intention. That was the divine idea. This is man
as God created man to be. This is what makes man different from
all other creatures. This is the heart of what it means to be human.
Man was created in the image of God.
When God first created man in His image, God could
look down from heaven at man and see Himself. When He saw
man He would see His Son. When He saw man as created man
to be He would be pleased because man would radiate Christ.
That was God’s original plan, that man would reflect Christ all
over the earth. You know the sad story. Adam #1 sinned. What
did Adam lose when he sinned against God? I know he lost
lordship/dominion. I know he lost his innocence. I know he lost
the garden. I know he lost most of his brain. He doesn’t think
like God created man to think. But bottom line, what did he lose?
I’m suggesting that he lost the very thing that makes man
a man. The thing that makes man a man, as God intended man
to be, he sinned away. The Apostle Paul explains it in Ephesians
2:12, “…remember that you were at that time separate from
Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers
to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in
the world.” Before you were saved you were without Christ in