No that is not what I mean. Again, you are not understanding the "Image of God."
You take the "Image" to mean that we are somehow coppies of God. In effect, we are little gods. This is not the case and the Bible sure doesn't point to that. I may have overstated things in this example....but the thought is logical.
Image of God is presented in Genesis to a people who would understand the "Image" in a representative function.
In ancient Egypt, there was a custom of the Pharoah's, when they conquered a land, they would carve their image in a large mountain or create some other large representation of themselves. This was to show his image to the people.
When the Bible speaks of us in the "Image of God," it is to the representative function of man over the creation that it PRIMARILY refers to. We, man, are the "Generals" over the "Army" of creation while staying in right relation to God "The President." Again this analogy is a bit crude but I think it gets the point across.
If you think that is what the image of God is, then you are sadly mistaken. All you are saying is that God gave man dominion over the creation, thus his function is similar to that of God, or the image that you have of God.
The true image of God is that man is spirit as God is spirit. Man has attributes as God has attributes. Man is intended to live eternally as God is eternal.
Jesus tells us, [John 4:24] God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Jesus tells us, [John 6:63] It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
We know from our own life experience, that upon our death of the flesh, the flesh is already in a state of decomposition to its base elements. Nine months after the spirit departs the flesh, the flesh is not recognizable as to what it was while the spirit resided therein.
The spirit has departed the flesh and for the believer is in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul said it. For the non believer the spirit is "in-waiting" for judgment.
The flesh has attributes that rapidly change when the flesh dies. The tent in which our spirit lived is now useless and is discarded by the spirit.
The spirit has attributes that remain with the spirit. It is these attributes by which the "fruits of the spirit" are produced. The human spirit that is submissive to the Holy Spirit produces the fruit described by Paul in Corinthians.
The Spirit of God is interested in the spirit of man, and not the flesh of man. Can God effect the flesh of man? Of course, he created it! But God does not force the spirit of man, he persuades through knowledge and truth, but because God is the Spiritual world, and man is limited by God, we either accept or reject that which we cannot see, hear or feel. The spirit of man may choose to believe or not believe.
Paul points out the distinct separation between the human spirit and the flesh:
[Rom 7:25] "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind (spirit) I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."
[1 Cor 5:5] "To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."
[1 Cor 15:49,50] And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren,
that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
[Phil 3:3] For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
[Col 2:5] For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ.
[1 Pet 1:23,24] Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
[1 Pet 3:18,19] For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; (the spirit lives after the flesh is dead)
There are other scriptures that provide insight into "the image of God". It is because we are made in the image of God that God gave man dominion over the rest of the creation. Dominion means stewardship, which is governing or controlling, and theologically dominating!
dominion, n.
1. the power or right of governing and controlling; sovereign authority.
2. rule; control; domination.
3. a territory, usually of considerable size, in which a single rulership holds sway.
4. lands or domains subject to sovereignty or control.
5. Govt. a territory constituting a self-governing commonwealth and being one of a number of such territories united in a community of nations, or empire: formerly applied to self-governing divisions of the British Empire, as Canada and New Zealand.
6. dominions, Theol. domination (def. 3).
