The Likeness of God – Lost and Regained

“In the day that God created man, in the LIKENESS OF GOD made he him” – Genesis 5:1.

One of the most precious gifts that God has bestowed on mankind and something that everyone should be excited about is the fact that we carry the form of God in us. Isn’t astounding to know that we actually look like God? Yes! God created man and woman in the LIKENESS OF HIM. Genesis 1:26 says “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”. Next time you see yourself in the mirror shout a big thank you to God. Never complain about how you look for you are created by God in His own likeness. Today let us look through the Bible how man lost this impeccable form and regained it.

Genesis 3 narrates the fall of man because of his disobedience. The serpent tricked Adam & Eve to believe a lie that he formulated and made them betray God. This sort of betrayal is not just eating an apple against God’s will rather a higher form of betrayal where man replaced satan for God. His right as a son of God having the likeness of God was despised to satisfy the lust of his eyes. Esau, in Genesis 25:32 lost his birthright for he didn’t value the sonship that he was entitled for. Esau resembles the fallen man. Thus when man despised God he actually started to lose the form of God as God was no longer his father but it was satan who snatched that place by his craftiness.

God had to send man out of the garden of Eden because he betrayed him. In chapter 6 the Bible says that men began to multiply on the face of the earth. If you furl a few chapters back you would notice something peculiar. God sent Adam & Eve out of the Garden of Eden for their disobedience. Adam knew his wife and bore a son and named him Cain. Then she bore Abel. If you notice the characteristics of Cain and Abel, Abel chose to be a shepherd and was pleasing to God. Genesis 4:4 says God had respect on Abel and his offering. But v5 says that God did not respect Cain and his offering. I was wondering why God portrayed this favoritism. On reading these chapters again and again I got this revelation – when man disobeyed God, he bore the fruit of sin within him as he walked out of the Garden of Eden. He knew his wife during this period of guilt and the seed of sin came out as Cain. But man did repent for his transgressions and the God of grace did grant him repentance. Abel was born during the period of repentance. That is why right from the beginning Cain had bitterness towards Abel and wanted to kill him as there was an enmity between the son of man (Cain) and son of God (Abel).

Later Eve bore Seth and she considered him as another seed instead of Abel. So Adam and Eve had two descendants Cain and Seth, the former being a seed of sin and the later seed of God. Now when they began to multiply Cain’s descendants lost their identity with God whereas the descendants of Seth resembled God’s form. It’s until chapter 6 when the sons of God mixed with the sons of men that they all lost the likeness of Christ. V4 says that there were giants on the face of the earth, a form of man that God didn’t intend to be. God’s prime purpose to create man in his likeness was no longer worth it as he already destroyed it by his sin. Now when God saw that every thought of man was only evil, he had no other resort than to destroy him because he lost the form of God.

Surprisingly Noah and his family kept themselves from mingling with the sons of men and still had the form of God. So Noah found grace in the eyes of God and his family was spared. All the giants and mighty men who lost the form of God were destroyed in the great deluge. Thus, though we were about to lose the likeness of Christ we were able to regain it because of Noah’s righteousness. Noah is a shadow of Christ in the Old Testament. He resembles Christ as through him we regained what we thought we almost missed.

I still argue with historians and atheists that the fossil remains of pre-historic man are true. It’s nothing but the remains of guys who simply didn’t value God’s likeness and became disfigured. Sin separates us from God and we start to lose the likeness of Christ as we move away from Him. This is a warning to each one of us to understand how we need to conduct ourselves as told in 1 Corinthians 6:19 – “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”

Lord Jesus, thank you for making me in your likeness and help me value your form in me and live a life worthy of it. Amen