This writing is going to start with the time-honored tradition of cherry-picking scriptures to support my point. (Actually, I don’t have a point needing support. The topic speaks for itself.)
Gen 1:26-27 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 creeps upon the earth. (27) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Gen 1:31 And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.
Gen 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eat thereof thou shalt surely die.
Gen 3:9-11 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? (10) And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. (11) And he said, Who told thee that thou was naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
Mat 7:1-5 Judge not, that ye be not judged. (2) For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. (3) And why beholds thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considers not the beam that is in thine own eye? (4) Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? (5) Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
Joh 7:24 Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
Joh 8:15 Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man.
Joh 12:47 And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.
The Foundation
Man was, and is, created in the image and likeness of his Creator, God, Awareness, Consciousness, Love. This confounds many simply because no one has seen God. The Master, Jesus, clarified this for us when he stated how the Father is Spirit and if you have seen him (Jesus), then you have seen the Father. Within these two claims we come to understand Genesis’ terms of image and likeness.
Image is what the form appears as. Think of what a mirror offers to all who look at it. They see an image. This image is exactly a portrayal of the object which is before it. The image is based on the physical ability to see a material substance, object, or form. The image is therefore sense based. For those individuals who don’t have the sense of sight, the image can be assessed through any of the other four senses.
Likeness is the nature and characteristics of the form, substance, or object. Likeness is not based on material sense. Likeness is just as God is. Likeness is the innate interior property of form, substance, or object. We perceive likeness as it is demonstrated. We often claim how a child is like their parent within the context of a particular action. This, however, is only a singular aspect of likeness since it is only viable through the senses. Since God is spirit, mankind too is spirit. This is the likeness beyond the senses.
The Birth of a Pair of Opposites
In the beginning of all creation there were no opposites. God is one. God is All in All. God is omnipresent. God is. We like to say that God is love, or God is good, or a whole treasure trove of adjectives based upon our thoughts. Truth declares God is. Every characteristic springs from there.
All of creation is determined and declared to be very good on the sixth day. That proclamation is the decisive act of grace upon ALL. Good is the likeness of grace.
Opposites are two or more. This puts a real chink in the thought realm of mankind. It creates God “and” thinking. Since God is one there can be no God “and.” However, there is still the belief of it being so. Every belief is based solely upon a pair of opposites, but I’ll address this later.
We have been instructed how the creation of the man and the woman made the first pair of opposites. This is not so. It is clearly stated that the man and woman shall be one. This might lead some to say then mankind and God are opposites. The Master, Jesus, clearly dismissed this when he proclaimed that he and his Father are one.
Consider this: God is good (without opposite); all creation is very good (without opposite). To make the distinction of “without opposite” is rather jarring to your sensibilities. It forces you to take out of the narrative the opposite you naturally assume is lurking in the shadows.
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