1 John 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been manifested what we will be. We know that if He is manifested, we will be like Him because we will see Him even as He is. (Recovery Version)
We must consider in what way and for what purpose man was created. The Bible says that man was made in the image of God. Nothing is higher than God. Thus, man was made in the image of the highest One. Perhaps you have never regarded yourself this highly before. Because we bear the divine image, we should have a high regard for ourselves. We are not low creatures; we were made for the purpose of expressing God and exercising His dominion. The subject of Genesis is man bearing the image of God and exercising God’s dominion over all things. We bear God’s image that we might express Him, and we have God’s dominion that we might represent Him. Therefore, we are God’s expression and representation. This is the heart of Genesis. (Life-study of Genesis, msg. 92)
For God to create man in His image means that God created man with the intention that man would become a duplicate of God;…the word image implies that man has the capacity and ability to take God into him and to contain Him. The man created in God’s image was created to be God’s container….The word likeness refers to outward form, outward fashion, outward appearance. Hence, likeness here is a matter of expression. First, man was made in God’s image to be a duplicate of God, and then man was made after God’s likeness to have the appearance of God for His expression. (Life-study of Luke, msg. 56) [John 12:24; Romans 8:29; Hebrews 2:10; 1 John 3:1-2]
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