THE IMAGE OF GOD (Pasche)
God created man. in His own Image, in the image of God
created He him. Gen. 1 ,27.
When God created man on the sixth day of creation, there
was not a stain upon him; he was like unto God, holy, righteous,
and as free from sin as the angels in heaven. The divine image
consisted in blissful knowledge of God and in perfect righteousness
and holiness. As God is holy, He had made also man holy.
Man had a fervent desire for holiness. The apostle therefore writes, Eph. 4, 24: “Put on the new man, which after God is created in
righteousness and true holiness.” Besides this, man also had
a rich knowledge of God and a pure and strong affection to serve
the Lord voluntarily and with joy. Our Confessions say: “ The
greatest excellency of this noble first creature was a bright light in
his heart by virtue of which he had a perfect knowledge of God and
His works, and true fear of God and truly sincere confidence in
Him dwelt in it, and in every respect he had a correct, reliable
understanding and a heart well disposed toward God and all divine
things.”
Man had a blissful knowledge of God, reverent fear of God,
ardent love of God, perfect trust in God. Therefore the apostle
admonishes, Col. 3,10: “ Put on the new man, which is renewed in
knowledge after the image of Him that created him.” Man knew
the will of God and was both able and willing to do it; that was
the image of God.
This image of God was lost to man in the Fall, and it would
have been lost forever, had not God, in His mercy, sent His beloved
Son into the world to live and die for us and thus to restore to us
the lost divine image. A beginning of its renewal is made in the
believers from the moment of their conversion, when by the gracious
working of the Holy Ghost a new spiritual life is born in them.
It must be our aim to renew this image by holy living all the days
of our lives, until in the life to come it will be fully restored.
Then we shall be entirely without sin, perfectly holy and righteous.
