Paul reveals God’s heart concerning being conformed to his own image in Romans 8, and in summary declares, “For whom he [God] did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” (Romans 8:29 KJ2000) As this study progresses we will examine the whole of Romans 8 more carefully, but for now notice this one thing, God predestinated or ordained that certain people would one day “be conformed to the image of Jesus.” This means that Christians, by virtue of simply believing in Jesus or having faith him, are not automatically remade into the image of their Savior. Paul makes it clear that being made into Christ’s image remains a future event. But, before we discuss how that ever happens or who it happens to, let’s find out more about what it even means.
As with all other important doctrines we must go back to the very beginning, back to the Book of Genesis. In order to ever understand God’s Word we must know and believe certain verses of Scripture, including,
For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. (Malachi 3:6 KJ2000)
Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. (Isaiah 46:10 KJ2000)
Christianity has burdened itself with many false doctrines because it forgot these two Scriptures. The first declares that God does not change. This means that his ways with man remain constant and consistent. Specifically, for one important example, this means that the path of man’s salvation has always remained the same… “by grace [mercy] through faith.” If salvation depended upon man’s ability to perfectly obey God by, for example, perfectly obeying the Law under the Old Covenant, then man would be “consumed” because he would always fail. God, however, does not destroy man because he changes not, his ways are and always have been the ways of mercy.
The second verse quoted above tells us that God declares the end from the beginning, the “things that are not yet done” even from ancient times. The book of Genesis describes the most ancient times known to man, the times of his actual creation, saying,
26 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[a] the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”27 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)
Now I ask you, was man fully conformed to God’s image when first created? If you think the answer is yes, then ask yourself, why did he disobey God at the very beginning of his life? What is an image? The Hebrew word “tselem,” translated as image, means a “representative figure.” Later in Scripture this word is used to represent idols, men’s representations of the false gods they worshipped. In Genesis 1:26 God also uses the word “likeness” to describe the man he made. This word comes from the Hebrew word “demooth” which means “resemblance,” or “like.” So, in the beginning God created a likeness of himself.
Clearly, however, this likeness did not possess all the attributes of God himself because Adam was not created perfect; when tempted, he sinned. God does not sin and so we see that Adam, although created in the image and likeness of God, was not finally finished on the sixth day. I believe that God determined not to perfect Adam in his initial creation because then Adam would have been more like a computer than the one God. He would have been “programmed” to do good without the possibility of doing evil. But Isaiah says that God declares the end from the beginning. God did declare that he made man in his image, in his likeness, but we do not yet see him as such. But that which God declared he will do.
Thus we see that God devised a plan by which man could be fully made into his image. And that plan required a helper, a helper whose name is… Satan.
