The Image of God.
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.
Prayer.
Almighty and everlasting God, who hast given us Thine only- begotten Son to take our nature upon Him, grant that we, being regenerate and made Thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by Thy Holy Spirit after the image of this same blessed and glorious Christ; who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
