The Nature of God–Part Two: Created in the Image of the One God
What does the Bible tell us about the nature of God? Does Scripture present to us a “oneness” about God whose existence is defined in the context of two or three distinct beings who constitute “one” God? When the Apostle Paul taught the oneness of God in contrast to the belief in many gods, he made it clear to the developing first century church that there was only one God, the Father, which affirmed the agreement held by the prophets and the apostles regarding the oneness of God. But some may question God’s “oneness” based on a statement found in the book of Genesis, which at first glance seems to imply there is more than one being who is God: “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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Gen. 1:26-27). This is an intriguing statement given that God is said to be the “invisible God,” and his existence and nature—respective to his image—are indiscernible by us except as we may perceive them in the work and purpose of his creation. A point that was made by the Apostle Paul who wrote that: “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Rom. 1:20). And, notably, one of the things that God “made”—leaving scoffers without an excuse—was “man,” that is to say humankind, beginning with the first man Adam. Which gives us reason to pause and consider how the “invisible things” of God are understood in the image that is God’s physical human creation. Now the Apostle Paul tells us that we are to come to the: “unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ,” which implies that even though we are in the image of God like Adam we are not yet complete respective to the measure of Christ (Eph. 4:13). With the understanding that Jesus also was in the image of God like Adam and was himself “made perfect,” that is complete, by his human experience and the indwelling of the logos of God and the spirit of God (Jn. 14:6-7; I Jn. 2:5). [Author’s emphasis throughout.] Revealing to us then—by Jesus’ life—the way to spiritual maturity and eternal life in the kingdom of God. Which brings us to consider this. That the physical human creation that was Adam was not a complete representation of God, because he did not have within him the nature of God—and would not—because Adam had rejected the authority and judgment of God. Consequently, the nature and eternal power of God, though understood in the work of God’s creation—which included the first man Adam—was not given to Adam. Revealing then the certainty of another Adam. One who would bear in himself the power and nature of God, whose beginning was determined before the first man Adam. And this “Adam” was Jesus. For the Apostle Paul tells us that: “The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man [Jesus] is the Lord from heaven” (I Cor. 15:45-47). Which is a statement that allows us to say that the “first man” had his origin from the material world, but the “second man (human, ἄνθρωπος, anthrōpos)”—the “man” from heaven—had his origin in a living soul by the power of the eternal spirit of God. Therefore we could say that by having the knowledge of Jesus’ human beginning, and by witnessing the indwelling of the eternal logos and spirit of God in Jesus, the disciples were able to attest that Jesus “came out from” God (Jn. 16:27-28; 17:8). Meaning then that even though Jesus was observed to be in the “likeness” of a man, that is to say like Adam who was in the image of the invisible God, he was also, according to the Apostle Paul, understood to be in the “form of God” (Phil. 2:6). Which brings us to ask an age-old question. How could Jesus—being born human—be in the form of God? Commonly it is thought or assumed that Jesus was fully God in mind, but was also fully man in that he had a human body—making him a supposed “god-man”—with this conclusion being based on an interpretation that the person of the logos that is God was Jesus. Or, stated another way, Jesus was assumed to be a God—the logos—distinguishable from the Father, who transformed himself into a man and then came among his creation as a human being, while retaining the nature of God. However, this was not the explanation of the Apostle John or the Apostle Paul. Because they taught that Jesus was the son of God. Affirming then the witness and testimony of John the Baptist. Which testimony became the foundation for what the Apostle Paul said about Jesus being in the form of God, for Paul wrote: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). Conveying to us then that the logos of God was observed to be in Jesus, and by the miracles performed through Jesus the disciples became witnesses to the eternal spirit of God that was also in Jesus (Jn. 14:10; I Jn. 1:1; 5:11). Establishing then—from the testimonies of the prophet John and the Apostle John—a context for what the Apostle