"If any man is in Christ he is a NEW CREATION - the one Born again to the Image and Likeness of Jesus..."

IMAGE vs IDENTITY

Most of us are familiar with Genesis 1:26 “And God said let us make men in our own image and likeness, let them have dominion…” In this blog I am going to attempt to shade some light on this matter using some biblical insight that I got as I was preparing for the sermon Just Jesus that at I shared with my congregation on Sunday.

While popular belief would want to credit Genesis 1:26 to the creation of Adam, my studying proves and reveals something contrary, which I also remember my father Prophet Kobus touched on. If you notice, the clarification of the men that God wanted to create in Genesis 1:26 was the one in HIS IMAGE & LIKENESS and also having DOMINION.

Only in Genesis 2 was Adam formed from the dust of the earth and he became a living SOUL. Please take note of the fact that ADAM was a SOUL MAN, not the soul man that likes chicken, but the soul man that is governed by emotions and feelings.

Now if you understand that Adam was a SOUL man and then read John 4:23 that teaches us that God is SPIRIT, which means the man created in God’s image is a SPIRIT man and if you read your bible you will soon find out that the SPIRIT man was always destined to be Jesus.

1 Corinthians 15:45

So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”[a]; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. That which is natural is first and then that which is spiritual.

The Soul refers to the mind and the thinking part of a person, the Spirit is were the development of all things take place, the soul cannot produce life it can only reason but the Spirit is were the real life giving action happens.

Image is not soulish, but spiritual.

How then, does one now function in the IMAGE, it's simple, by the renewing of your MIND, because it is your mind that influences your IDENTITY, is it not written in the book of PROVERBS “as a man THINKS so is he.” Paul in the book of Romans 12 writes and says ,” Do not be CONFORMED to the standard (Identity) of this world, but be ye RENEWED in the Spirit of your mind (Image).”

Just like the eagle was conformed to the standard of the chickens it could not fly even though it was made in the image of an eagle. It can only change its nature seeing other eagles Fly and rewire its mind set from a chicken to an eagle then only then can it fly. Which then brings me to my next point, what is influencing your identity? What are you listening to, what are you looking at?

In the Garden, Adam and Eve had the potential to move from being SOUL man, to being in the IMAGE. Why do I say so, well if you read the instruction in Genesis , God allowed them to EAT (Consume, interact, have fellowship) with every Tree in the garden which included The Tree of Life, but not The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:17).

Instead of going for the Tree of Life they opted to go for the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil after being tempted by the serpent to eat and become like, this is the interesting part as they were already created in the likeness and image so they were deceived out of there identity into another fake identity. The consequence to that decision resulted in God putting a guard on the Tree of Life (Genesis 3:24) which meant that the way to actually getting the IMAGE was cut off and man was cursed to only live in the SOUL state obviously until JESUS who then manifested the IMAGE of God in the flesh.

Now they were deceived by believing to eat of the forbidden fruit and become something they already were created and destined to be, Jesus comes now and say I am the way the truth and the life in john6 53 he opens up the way to restore mans destiny and identity by say if you do not eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you. I am the bread of life in Jesus words he says come the way is open I am the tree of life I am the very image of what you must become.

JESUS THE IMAGE & LIKENESS

The opening of the book of Hebrews makes it clear who the IMAGE of God is, especially according to the amplified version bible. From this you will notice the one thing Adam didn’t posses which was Dominion being clearly stated as something Jesus possessed as the IMAGE of God in flesh.

Hebrews 1:3

The Son is the radiance and only expression of the glory of [our awesome] God [reflecting God’s [a] Shekinah glory, the Light-being, the brilliant light of the divine], and the exact representation and perfect imprint of His [Father’s] essence, and upholding and maintaining and propelling all things [the entire physical and spiritual universe] by His powerful word [carrying the universe along to its predetermined goal].

Only Expression = IMAGE

Exact Representation = LIKENESS

Upholding and maintaining everything by His powerful word = Dominion

If you can grasp this simple breakdown, then it becomes very clear that the IMAGE in Genesis 1:26 is Jesus , once we come to terms with that and not constantly try to restore what we claim Adam lost which he didn’t have to begin with then the scriptures will start opening up differently and very soon you will realise that its JUST JESUS, from the beginning till the end its all been about JUST JESUS.

John write , in the beginning was the word , and the word was with God and the word was God. We beheld of his Glory, the Glory of the ONLY begotten. That word Only means there was no other before this one that had the Glory (Image) of the father. Adam was not begotten, her was Created, but we that come after Adam, through the finished work of Christ have the opportunity to be Born again, through our faith and belief in Jesus. So now after the cross, Jesus is no longer the Only begotten, but he is now the Firstborn of many brethren, which says to me, the Image is no longer only limited to Jesus, but anyone that accepts the born again experience can now bore the Image as 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “If any man is in Christ he is a NEW CREATION”, the one Born again to the Image and Likeness of Jesus.

Going through Colossians 1: 9-13 , you get to notice that Jesus is the one who had the image of the invisible God and also the one who was first to host all the fullness of the Godhead in the flesh. In John 17, Jesus prays that we could be one with the father as he is one with the father, in other words he prayed that we could have the fullness of the Godhead as he had the fullness. Also Paul in the epistle to the Ephesians he writes in chapter 4 that the gifts to the body were for the equipping of the saints that we would all grow to the full measure and stature of Christs perfection.

What sums everything for me is Romans 8:29 which says, “for those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son”. This scripture confirms that from Genesis , the plan of God was to have Sons and Sons come from the Son not a Soul man but a life giving Spirit.

Jesus was not God’s plan B because Adam the plan A failed, no, Jesus was God’s Only Plan from the Beginning and you and I where included in that plan through the sacrifice of Jesus and you and now can now bear the IMAGE of God through Jesus who has reconciled us to God.

I pray and trust that upon understanding this truth, you will be set free from trying to wrestle the flaws and weakness of the flesh through a Legalistic, I got to do this and that kind of way. But realising that receiving Jesus, the Life Giving Spirit , introduces you to a new realm of Possibilities which Paul writes to Timothy saying that we are partakers of the divine nature, meaning we are partakes of Gods Image, remember God is Spirit. Be blessed , thank you for reading this blog, if you need to a much fuller understanding on this subject please listen to the sermon Image & Likeness on our YouTube .