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This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastors Gary Hashley, Tim Hebbert and Brad Kilthau.

Gary Hashley
So the one we're gonna look at is this, "We often hear from Bible teachers that, we as humans are made 'in the image of God' what does that exactly mean? And what is the significance of this to us today?" Well, let's start with, where do we even find this term used in scripture?" There are really three places in the book of Genesis that alludes to this. In Genesis 1, in the account of creation after God has made, you know, the heavens and the earth in chapter one, verse one. Then He makes light, then He makes an atmosphere, and then He makes the seas and the land and the plants appear. Then He makes the sun, the moon and the stars. And then He makes the fish and the birds, then He makes animals. We get later to where He makes man, and in chapter one, verse 26, it says, "And God said, 'let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens. Over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' So God made man in His own image, in the image of God, He created him. Male and female, He created them. And then a little later in chapter five, we come across this concept again, where it says, "This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, He made them in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and He blessed them. And named them Man, when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son after his image and named him Seth." And then we get to chapter nine, verse six, where we read, "Whoever sheds the blood of man by man, shall his blood be shed for God made man in his own image." Now I'll tell you right off the top, that this is one of those questions that has been talked about, reasoned about, debated about, argued about, written about, and disagreed about as the years have gone on. What is implied when it says, that God made us in His image? One author says, "Christian thinkers have tried to locate the image of God in various dimensions of man's being. Including man's spirit, soul, rationality, will, mind, personhood, immortality and even his physical body. But scripture is not specific." I want you to hear that, "Scripture is not specific as to exactly what it is about man that constitutes the image of God." The image of God cannot be reduced to one attribute or any combination of attributes in man. The biblical portrait is more holistic. The entire man as a human being, images God. So I'm just gonna share a couple, three thoughts, and then I'll turn it over to my brothers, who are way smarter than I am. I have come to the conclusion over the years, that this isn't a physical thing, because God is spirit. Jesus became flesh, but when He became flesh He became like us. So the fact that, you know, we're made in God's image, doesn't mean physically we look like Him. I do believe it's a uniqueness thing, because if you notice in Genesis 1, it doesn't say this about any of the animals, any of the fish, or any of the birds. It doesn't say they were made in the image of God, but when it comes to the final creative act God records for us here, that He created man. It says He created them in His image. So there's something unique about people as opposed to cattle, as opposed to cats, as opposed to canaries, as opposed to trout. There's something in us that's unique enough that God said, we were being made in His image. I think it's also a position thing, because after saying "We were made in God's image," it says "Now have dominion over everything else." Dominion over the cattle, dominion over the fish, dominion over the birds, dominion over the plants. God put us in a position of being over the rest of creation. It's very important to remember, and I agree with the writer. The Bible does not describe the contents of the image. So anything we say today is kind of conjecture, maybe it's implied, but it'd be nice if He specifically said. And there were those over the years who have argued the difference between image and likeness. What's significant about the fact that we were made in the image of, and the likeness of? And there are so many variations of what has been thought and what has been said about such things. So does it refer to our personality, to our consciousness, to the fact that we can use language, to the fact that we have a will, to the fact that some morality that is built into us? I will let Tim pick up and share what he's prepared on this.

Tim Hebbert
You know, going back to Genesis, for me the defining shift there, and I'm gonna talk for just a couple of seconds here about character that we share with God. Things that He shared in our nature that come from Him. But the defining shift from every other piece of creation in the creation story, is He said He formed man out of the dust of the earth. And then He breathed the breath of life into him. And what is that breath of life? Because all the animals had to have life breathed into them, or they were created with that. I think the shift there is, He breathed His essence and His spirit into us, and so one of the very first things that we share with God is, He is spirit. And He has given us spirit. You know, my dad and I, he's jokingly said, "I don't think any animals will be in heaven except for dogs," because he loved dogs. But what separates man from the rest of animal living, breathing, creation, was that spirit that was breathed into him. In the fourth chapter of John, it tells us, "God is spirit, so those of us who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth." So while most of us on Sunday morning, we're gathering and singing worship, but there's a physical human act that goes along in that. A physical act of humanity that goes on in life. But really, that worship time is born out of our spirit. All that we do to worship God is born out of our spirit. So the things in His character that He shares with us is, He shares things from His character with us, but not completely like Him. We are born in spirit, but we are a spirit that depends on His spirit. We reflect God's nature and our ability to reason and the freedom to choose God. God gave us part of that, He gives us knowledge, He gives us the ability to learn things and to reason with what we've learned. To make good decisions, and He's given us the freedom to use those, to make good choices. Unfortunately, in the garden, that's the very first thing that they did wrong. We share a nature of God that has a desire for fellowship. It tells us, you know, in the third chapter of Genesis. He would come to the garden for a time of fellowship with Adam and Eve. And when they broke covenant, that was the very first thing that got broken with Him. God is famous in all of scripture for His desire to be in fellowship with those who love Him. We were created and birthed as children with perfect innocence, which is a reflection of the perfect holiness that God has. Again, original sin destroys that. And I wanna just give one last thing and I'm gonna turn it over to Brad. He creates each and every one of us, unique. The one thing that we can say above all things about God is, there has never been or never will be anyone like Him. In the commandments, you know, I go back to A.W. Tozer talking about the second commandment, "Don't make any graven images." Basically Tozer says, "What He's saying to us there is, 'don't you think for a second, you know, what I look like or what I'm all about.' But in correlation with that, He's called and He's created each of us. That's one of the, I think the amazing things about human creation. There's not two of us that are identical. I mean, we are separate, we are different, each one of us is unique. Even if we're twins or triplets and we're identical on the outside, our spirits are still unique and individual to us.

Gary Hashley
So you're saying Mr. Rogers was right. There's nobody like you!

Tim Hebbert
That's it. Maybe, I don't know. You ruined my whole image of God. I always thought He had a long beard with a lightning bolt. No, I'm kidding.

Brad Kilthau
Well, yeah. And what you guys are saying, I agree. You know, the Bible tells us that we are created in the image of God, and Gary you gave three references from the Old Testament. We also have it in the New Testament, we have that in 1 Corinthians 11:7. And then we also have it in James 3:9 and that reaffirms that in the New Testament, that we are made the image of God. And so I guess I could just add to that is, we think about what does it mean to be made in the image of God? My definition is, "To be human is to be a divine image bearer." In other words, we are to reflect the, image of God to all of God's creation. We don't understand, as you guys were saying, it doesn't tell us a whole lot about what it really means to be made in the image of God. So what can you do? You can just go to the Old Testament and you can find the characteristics of God, and keep searching through that and learn more and more about who God is. And then look for those similar characteristics that we could relate to God in. Of course, as Tim was sharing, we have this ability to reason and we have this ability to rationalize things. Also we have this ability to create things. Obviously that's in the image of God. You think about some of the things that man's been able to create and come up with. The concept in His mind and then to make it with his hands, it's an amazing gift that God's given us being made in His image. Also we are moral beings, we for the most part, obviously we've been given a conscience and God's word is written on our hearts. So, but then at the same time, as Tim was saying, we have the choice. To obey what's written on our heart and our conscience, or we can disobey. And again, that's what Adam and Eve did, and of course they passed that down to all of us. And so the image of God has been distorted in us today. But one of the beautiful things is, when we put our faith and trust in the Lord, Jesus Christ, He begins to restore that original image of God back in us. As we go through this process of sanctification, we become more and more like Jesus. And so that starts to change, our attitude starts to change, our thoughts start to change, our desires start to change. And then as those things change inwardly, then outwardly we start to change too. Our language changes, the places we go, the things we do, all of those things begin to change. And I think as you look at that, then that's bringing us again, aback to what God originally created us to be. To walk upright, to be those who seek to live a holy life before God, and to please God. And so again, God gives us an ability that all the rest of the creation that you look at doesn't really have. I mean, the creation has kind of this built-in way of doing things. You know, like this time of year it's the birds who fly south or go to someplace warmer. It's an instinct that we often say they have, but man has the ability to reason these things out. And "why am I going south? And why do I need to do this?" Even our title that we talk about ourselves in science, we're called homo sapiens, which means a thinking being. We have the ability to think where other beings don't, they just do what their instinct says. And even getting back to the thought about dogs being in heaven, you know, we all want our favorite dog to be in heaven, but we have to understand, of course, they don't have a spirit. They don't have a soul, and so are they gonna be in heaven? I don't know. I think God's gonna give us even better animals when we get to heaven. I don't know. But obviously we have a soul that lives forever, He gave us a soul that will live for eternity. And of course, the choice we make determines where that soul is going to live, and with a body that will live with that. If we reject Christ, we'll live forever in a place called hell, with a body that can be tormented forever and ever. If we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, we're given this beautiful glorified body to live forever and ever in the presence of God. You don't see that with any other of God's creation, just man.