Yesterday I shared some thoughts on “The Image of God.” While he made man in His image, that changed all too soon. On the day Adam and Eve sinned, this image of God was lost. It was gone. No longer did they fear and love God as they should, and that sin was passed on to us. No longer do we have a natural knowledge of God as our loving Father. No longer do we have confidence in him, but we take matters into our own hands. Sin broke creation. Sin broke us. We are different from what God made and what He intended, and we look at others differently.

Not wanting to be seen “naked” (Adam, Gen 3:10), or as we are without the image of God, we try to create substitute images for ourselves. We use masks to hide behind, so that others will think a certain way about us. Perhaps you’ve created a religious image or mask, so that people will think you’re holier than you really are. Perhaps you have an image or mask of bravery to hide your fear. But when all is said and done, we’re still broken. We’re still sinners. We may be able to hide who we are from each other, but you can’t hide who you are from God. Whatever mask you wear, whatever images you create, are poor images indeed. We lost the image of God.

But the God who created man in his image does not leave us fallen and broken. The God who created is restoring His image in a fallen and broken world. We create images for ourselves, but only God can create something out of nothing. He did it in the beginning and is still able to do it today. After sin entered the world, after the image of God in us was lost, God acted. The Father sent his Son into the world, the true and exact image of God the Father. And the Son of God incarnate shows us true man, without sin. In Jesus, the image that we lost lives. Jesus knows his Father. Jesus trusts and has confidence in his Father. Jesus is the righteous one.

Jesus came to restore the image of God in the world, not just by being that image, but by giving it back to us. That is why He took upon Himself your sin, your punishment and death, your broken image, and in return gives you His Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit, the image of God is again given to you – not perfect nor complete, but the image is partly restored. Through the Holy Spirit, you are re-created, made new, and being conformed into the image of Christ, who is the image of the Father. It is an ongoing process.

That attack in the Garden of Eden caused devastation to our world. It has affected every one of us. The task of recovering what was lost that day fell to one man, and He determined that each life was worth His own. So He gave His life for your life. He suffered the shame and nakedness of the cross and then rose from death, that all who believe in him might be raised from death with him and live not only forever, but already now, in His image. After Jesus completed His task, He said it need never be done again. It is finished. You are whole. You are healed.  You are forgiven. You are re-created. You have the image of God.

Genesis 1:26-27 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.