Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:26-27
God said, “Let us…” and “…in our image…” and “…in our likeness…” Us and our mean more than One. Us and our, in this case, mean the Trinity. Us and our mean the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God is a triune being. “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…” God said. God is a triune being, and we are made in His likeness. God is Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and we are spirit, soul, and body. The spirit referring to our eternal being, the soul referring to our mind and emotional being, and the body referring to our physical being.
We are in His likeness because God loves, and we also love. (John 3:16) God reasons, and we also reason. (Isaiah 1:18) God has free will and we also have free will. (Deuteronomy 30:19)
We are made in His likeness.
Notice also that no proclamation of likeness unto God was spoken regarding all the creatures who were created before us.
We are distinct from the animals.
Finally notice that He saved His best for last. Man was created in His likeness on the sixth day, on the last day, the last day before God rested. I recently read about a man, Bob Buford, who has already picked out the epitaph for his headstone. Bob wrote that his epitaph will say “100x.” This in reference to Jesus’ parable about the seed that was sown in good soil, giving the greatest yield, multiplying 100 times. (Matthew 13:1-23)
What about your last? Do you know what you want your epitaph to say? What do you want to be remembered for after you’ve passed?
What are you doing about it now?
Consider the account of when the religious leadership of his day came to trap Jesus. They asked him whether or not it was right to pay taxes.
“Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”Matthew 22:15-21
“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” Jesus said. Even as the coin made with Caesar’s image is to be given to Caesar, you and I, who are made in God’s image, are to be given to God.
Give your life to Him. Bear fruit for Christ.
“Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. He who has ears, let him hear.”
Matthew 13:8-9
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