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 own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 
Genesis 1:26-27  (NKJV)

Sublime thought!  Almost unbelievable!  Can you imagine, reader, that you and i were created in the image of the omnipotent God?  If only the human race would sense their divine ancestry, their lofty lineage, their affiliation with god, their royal Progenitor, what a difference there would be in our attitudes toward God, ourselves, and everybody else.


Can you imagine what Satan has done and is doing to wipe from men's minds the thought that we are made in God's image?  Man is not a two-legged animal.  Man is not, as Mark Twain said,  "the only animal that blushes, or needs to."  Man is not "a great, mischievous baboon," as Dr. William Harvey, discoverer of the circulation of the blood, calls him.


Rather, man is a special, unique, created being.  Our text today takes away any mysterious conjectures about who and what man is.  It states plainly and unequivocally that man is not an animal and that he is not here by accident.  Rather, he is the product of God's thought, design, and power.  "Man was to bear God's image both in outward resemblance and in character." -- Patriarchs and Prophets.  p 45

God's creation of man in his own image is strictly a Judeo-Christian concept.  Other ancient nations have their corrupted accounts of the origin of man, some of which are vile and ridiculous, but none compare to the Bible's lofty description.

For instance, Buddhism teaches that the original source of all was a nameless being, devoid of all qualities and thus indistinguishable from nothing.  If this be true, what does that make man?  Absolutely nothing!  But man was something -- in fact, everything -- to begin with.  He was made in the image of God!  He was created perfect and upright, with noble traits of character.  This high concept focuses on the whole man, his mental, physical, and spiritual aspects.  No part of man was cast in an inferior mold.  Let this concept be held in your mind constantly.  Your ancestral line is important not because of some earthly blue blood, but because of your heavenly Father's will and design in creating man in His very own image!


taken from: First Things First
                      February 17
                 by: Bob Spangler