Welcome to this blogpost series; In His Image. I am confident that it is going to be enlightening as well as a blessing. Like many of my blogposts, I am really excited to be doing this at this time. And if you have been following me on the blog of late, God has been faithfully pointing me to my identity in Him. I am a son of God, I have the God-status, I have beautiful rights and privileges and now He’s saying; ‘Grace (your name), I made you in my image’. Hallelujah!

Our focal scripture is Genesis 1: 26-27;

“Then God said, “Let us make man in Our image, according to Our Likeness, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth”. So God created man in His image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Genesis 1:2

Starting off to write this article, I had no clear idea what direction to go. I knew for sure that The Lord has given a topic to explore, but there was no content for many days. I am thankful that the more I turned the topic over in my mind, the Lord faithfully (as always) began to download the contents to me by His Spirit. So to thoroughly distill insights from Genesis 1:26-27 relevant for this study, I’ll be adopting a very detailed approach to sharing my thoughts. Every step is important. Stay with me 🙂

A. What is an image?

An image is “a representation of the external form of a person or thing in art”.

Note the words in bold- external form (as against internal). The external of a thing describes the part of the thing that can be connected to easily by the senses. It is the outer surface or substance of a thing. So, an image is a reflection of how a thing or person appears physically. For example, my image reflects my physical expression, how I appear, how I am seen.

Therefore the image of God is an expression of how God appears in His ‘physical’ form, how He relates with the physical world. How the world ‘feels’ or ‘sees’ God.

I am carefully choosing the words to describe Image, especially as it relates to God. And that’s important because God Is a Spirit. A spirit does not have a physical image. So ‘God’s image’ would not be referring to His spiritual nature. And so, when the Bible says God created man in His image, that would mean God created man to be just as He (God) interacts with the physical world {these are my thoughts on this portion of scripture}.

Another word used for image in our focal scripture is ‘Likeness’ , and I looked up it’s meaning as well ?….

Likeness means the semblance, guise or outward appearance of something or someone.

Some synonyms of likeness are; appearance, character, shape, form, outward form.

It is quite instructive for me that the verses of scripture immediately following Genesis 1:26-27 begins to enumerate how God wanted man to relate with the world around him….think about that for a bit..

B. What are the features of the Image of God-how does God relate with mankind?

1. God reigns in dominion.

When we think of God, we think of a supreme or sovereign being,….. that’s exactly how God expresses Himself. Not as an aggressive or arrogant display of dominance or control but in calm, confident dominion. He is God all by Himself. Sovereign and Self-sufficient.

Again, here are some interesting synonyms for dominion; supremacy, dominance, preeminence, authority, command, control, rule, sovereignty.

Now, look at Genesis 1 again, and notice that God transferred to man His dominion character….

“Then God said, “Let us make man in Our image, according to Our Likeness, let them have dominion….”

There is a link between ‘let us make man in our image’ and the ‘let them have dominion‘. You can’t have one without the other. To have dominion requires a ‘being made in the image of God’ and being made in the image of God confers dominion on you.

God gave man dominion over everything that He created, to rule, dominate, control, command, have authority. And God was careful to spell out Adam’s sphere of influence….over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over every living thing that moves on the earth. In addition, man can have any herb that yields seed and every fruit with seed as food.

If you are thinking ….’did God really give man dominion over mere animals, birds, fishes, etc?’, yes He did! I noted that too. What am I going to do with dominion over these creatures? ?… Why didn’t he say to the first blessed man; ‘I give you dominion over all other humans after you?’

Learning point here for me is; it is useless indulging in rivalry and competition with other humans. I should apply my dominion in calling forth answers to my needs from the world around me. Amen!

I love dominion 🙂 Have you ever considered the opposite of dominion?……..

How do we reign in dominion? We take charge or control of the world around us. We speak, we decree, we believe, we walk by faith, we call things that be not as though they were, we wield authority through the name of Jesus Christ. We RULE.

2. In relating with the world, God sets in motion a system with a multiplier effect for productivity and fruitfulness.

One Adam- many humans, One Begotten Son- many other sons, One set of animal kind- many generations of same kind.

How does God achieve that? – He puts the blessing on the first specie! The blessing sets off a system of multiplication.

Oh! Adam could have had a generation of blessed descendants not requiring the coming and death of a Saviour because the blessing was placed on him. But the reverse was the case. A blessed Adam sinned, became cursed (Genesis 3:17-19) from then onward, could only reproduce cursed and sinful descendants. We see the same principle put in place for salvation (Romans 5: 12-21).

How did 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish feed over 5,000 men with remnants (Matthew 14: 19)? Because Jesus blessed and broke it! (selah).

So when I confess that I am blessed, that means I have potential for limitless productivity, fruitfulness and multiplication. And Yes! I am blessed, ….right from the beginning;

“Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘be fruitful and multiply..” Genesis 1:28

That is what the blessing does for you- makes you fruitful and gives you the ability to multiply. Hallelujah!

Therefore no child of God should live in poverty (selah).

Maybe someone is saying ‘Grace, what about the effect of the fall of Adam? Do we still have the blessing? YES! Jesus Christ made sure (Galatians 3:13-14).
So then, if we were to operate in the likeness of God, how do we cause the land, the sea, the livestock, etc to yield an exponential output for us?

Question: How did God bless man? How did Jesus bless the loaves and fish?

We will provide answers to this question in the next part.

Thank you so much for studying with me 🙂