Focus: The Mirror Of God!

Text: Gen.1:27

"So God created man in his own IMAGE, in the IMAGE of God created he him; male and female created he them."

God made man in His own image. In all of creation man is the only creature that bears the image of God. Paul declares, "And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly" (1Cor.15:49). On the earthly realm, man is the image-bearer of God, and the same is true of him in the heavenly realm. So wherever man is found, he fits into the role of God's image-bearer.

Paul makes clear a very powerful truth, "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the SAME IMAGE from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2Cor.3:18). 

Transformation happens to us as we look into the mirror of the Lord's glory. We are changed into the same image that we are beholding from glory to glory.

In Romans 8, Paul writes, "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the IMAGE of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren" (Rom.8:29). Christ is the original image of God, and man was created to reflect the image. Paul says, "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them" (2Cor.4:4). Paul emphasizes that Christ is the image of God; man is created to serve as the image-bearer of Christ. 

Paul describes Christ as He "who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature… And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the IMAGE of him that created him" (Col.1:15; 3:10). The writer of Hebrews says, "Who being the brightness of his glory, and the EXPRESS IMAGE of his person…" (Heb.1:3). Christ is the express image of God. As for the believer, Paul declares, "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be FORMED in you" (Gal.4:19). Through his travailing prayer, Paul hopes to have Christ fully formed in the Galatian believers. As man bore the image of God in creation, so is the believer in Christ to bear the image of his redeemer.

The Greek word for 'image' is eikon, and it is from this word that we got the English word 'icon.' Man is God's iconic symbol. Image deals with what the eyes can see. It means resemblance or representative.

The bottom line of this lesson is that man had been designed to resemble, reflect and represent God upon the earth. Man is God's mirror. Any time God looks at you and fails to see a reflection of Himself in you, then you have failed Him. As Christ is formed in us, God begins to see Himself through us. God made man in His own image. God has His own image, and Christ is that image. So man is not the image of God, but he is the one who reflects the image. Don't fail God! Reflect Christ to the world! Represent God on the earth. You have been redeemed and made to conform to the image of Christ. When we live a life of lies and deceit, we fail to reflect God. When we live unholy lives, we fail to reflect God. When we lead lives devoid of love, we fail to show the world what God is like. We are God's mirror. When God looks at us and sees nothing of Himself in us, then we have failed Him. Let's not fail Him!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter