Colossians 3:5-10 (NASB95)5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. 6 For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, 7 and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, 10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him— [1] [1] New American Standard Bible : 1995 update. 1995. LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.

-image,likeness, i.e., that which is a pattern, model, or example of something. Image and likeness here mean the same thing. -Masculine Singular Noun, First Person Plural -This subject, the human race being created in the image of God, has always been a hotly debated subject among theologians through out the ages. Just exactly what this means has been a matter of conjecture. Often, commentaries will begin comment on this with: “We don’t totally understand this but…” and then go on from there. But, we can understand this! -By means of both inference and -scriptural evidence we can nail it down and then make a -fantastic application from this. By inference, I mean that we can look at God’s attributes and character and see if He imparted any part of it to the human race when He created Adam and Ishah. In other words, can we look at Adam and Ishah in the Garden and recognize any aspects of God’s person in them? We can! By scriptural evidence, we can look at a few verses which bring up the fact of our having been created in God’s image and see what those passages have to say about His image and make further application from them. Then, finally, as to application specifically to Church Age believers, we will go to Paul’s writings.

So, in order to fully understand what is meant by “in God’s image” we need to explore the image of God in the three different conditions that the human race is described as being in: The first condition is perfection: Our original parents, Adam and Ishah in the Garden were both created perfect, equally created perfect (I might add), equally created perfect in the image of God. The second condition deals with the fact of spiritual death. Does the human race retain any aspect of God’s image after the fall, and in a state of spiritual death? We will go directly to the scripture to answer that one. The third condition is that of being regenerate. Paul addressed in Colossians referring to spiritual issues that relate only to the mystery doctrine of the Church age, that is, to you and I as Church Age believers and relates it to the image of God. Is everybody with me thus far?

-Now, let’s look at that first issue, the human race in perfection: When God created those two members of the human race, did God impart to them any part of His character or attributes? We’ve made a study of God’s attributes in the past, so these characteristics should come as no surprise! -God created each member of the human race, both male and female with a soul. That soul included several factors -the eternality of the human soul. It is everlasting in existence, deathless. You decide though, just where you are going to exist in this deathless state! If you respond to this fact, “that God loved the world so much that He gave His uniquely born so that who so ever believes in Him will have everlasting life. Jn 3:26 or God demonstrates His very own love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died as a substitute for us.” -It also includes self-consciousness of soul: you recognize yourself as a human being. -The third factor deals with that first divine institution: they were each individuals with mentality in order to understand the Words of our Lord and a volition with which to accept or reject it. This is the most important issue in the angelic conflict. The preservation of your volition and mentality are of paramount importance when it comes to the purpose that God created you for. -and trichotomy, therefore having a soul, human spirit and of course, a body. Because they both had a human spirit, they were able to understand divine phenomenon, that is Bible doctrine as our Lord taught them every day during their walks in the cool of the evening. So their being in the image of God dealt with their soul and spirituality, their ability to understand divine phenomenon.

Next, we’re going to talk about the image of God as it relates to the human race in a state of fallenness, in spiritual death. -Now, when they went negative, so to speak, rejecting, from their volition, our Lord’s teaching, they moved into the status of spiritual death. I’m sure you are familiar with the events that surrounded the fall of the human race. We will discuss that in the next section of our study. But, many theologians say that at that point, the image of God was tarnished or depraved. There are a numbers of factors which support this: we know that the human race, as fallen, is in a state of total depravity, unable to have a relationship with God. But does the human race still retain, after the fall, any aspect of God’s essence? Now let me get into some more inference here: If you take away any attribute of God’s essence, He ceases to be God. Without every part of His being He ceases to be God. We talk about Christ being undiminished deity and true humanity. Undiminished deity means that He had every attribute of His deity intact. He did not lose any attribute of His deity when He took on the form of a human. He was always and always deity because He never lost any aspect of His deity. Jesus Christ was also true humanity. He possessed every attribute related to humanity. My point here is this: if He had lost any attribute related to either His humanity or deity, He would have ceased being who He was…ceased being who He is. If you take away any attribute related to the soul of a human being, that person ceases to be a human being. Now, these next two verses take one aspect or attribute of the human soul and relate that attribute to the image of God. If one attribute of the soul is the subject, then we can infer that the total soul of a human is related to God’s image, not just the noted attribute. These next two verses talk about the protection of every person’s volition (believer and unbeliever) an attribute of the human soul, also a part of the first divine institution. The function of a person’s volition is the central issue in the angelic conflict. How do we know that this attribute of God’s image was preserved in the human race? Two verses talk about the sanctity of that soul function in every human being, whether believer or not. As with any created being, if you remove any attribute related to that being, it loses it’s integrity, it ceases to be that being. -The first verse talks about the sacredness of human life from which we can infer, the sacredness of the function of volition of soul. Again, the sanctity of human life deals with the fulfillment of that person’s volition as it relates to the angelic conflict. God imputed soul life to every human being at birth to prove a point in the angelic conflict. That person can only prove that point if his volition is protected. If you remove the soul from that person’s body, say, by murder, you are destroying that person’s volition, whether believer or unbeliever: -Genesis 9:6 “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man.” If an unbeliever is murdered, then that person no longer has the ability to express his volition and to believe in Jesus Christ, which is the purpose for which God created him or her. That person no longer has the ability to function in the angelic conflict. You see, if you are dead, then you cannot chose to believe in Jesus Christ. Nor, I might add, can their descendants. Murder of a believer means that that individual cannot use his volition to grow up spiritually. If you are a dead believer then you can’t choose to mature spiritually. So this verse teaches us that the un-bona fide removal of a person’s soul from his body destroys the function of his soul, of his volition. Now, let me head off an incorrect application here: Killing in war is bona fide, the function of the criminal justice system in capital punishment is bona fide, as taught in this verse. The killing of a criminal by an officer of the law is bona fide. A criminal has removed himself from the proper function of volition by making wrong choices. He needs to be removed from the system God has established otherwise the system develops a bug and it crashes.

-James 3:9 “With it (the tongue) we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; James 3:9. Whenever you slander a person, which is tantamount to character assassination, you destroy that person’s volition and freedom of choice. Let me illustrate: If you went into a church with the intention of listening to bible teaching and your were being maligned and gossiped about, would you still want to go there? If, in a corporate situation, what if a peer destroyed your character in front of your boss, would that destroy your ability to function effectively in your job? Gossiping places barriers to a person’s function. Also, both of these passages declare that to sin against a human either by murder or by slander is punishable on the on the ground of the divine image being resident in every member of the human race. Human life is sacred. We, therefore are mandated to respect each other, not on the grounds of relationship or familiarity, but on the grounds that all human life belongs to God. To injure a person is to injure one who bears the image of God. (Dallas Theological Seminary. (1943; 2002). Bibliotheca Sacra Volume 100 (Vol. 100, Page 489-490). Dallas Theological Seminary.) So, from these two verses, we know that the intact soul of an human being still bears the image of God. However, one aspect is missing. That is, the human spirit. No unbeliever can have a relationship with God, without faith in Christ, which restores this function.

Now, our third consideration: via Paul’s teaching. With the proper application of these two verses, we add another factor of uniqueness to the long list of Unique Church Age Factors. Now listen carefully: We as church age believers have the potential of realizing the fullness (pleroma) or completion (teleios) of being created in God’s image! first in Colossians 3:10, “..and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him…” At the outset here, note that Paul is relating the “new self” and “renewal to a true knowledge” to the image of God. Now, hold that thought while we go back a few verses so we can place this verse into some sort of context to verse 10:

Dispensations: The Divine Blueprint of History Lesson 8 Image of God Presented by Pastor Jim Oliver to Teleios Bible Church http://home.comcast.net/~jimoliverministries/ Genesis 9:6, James 3:9, Colossians 3:10

“Be filled with the Spirit....” Eph 5:18 Name your sins to God the Father. Opening Prayer Dispensations: The Divine Blueprint of History

“Therefore put to death the members of your earthly body with reference to fornication, impurity, lust for what is forbidden, evil desire, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him—…” Colossians 3:5-10

2004 The Divine Blueprint of History 4 Outline Dispensations Defined Categorical Outline of the Dispensations The Age of Gentiles Era of Positive Volition Definition of Positive Volition Creation of the Human Race Genesis 1:26-27 Genesis 2:7-8 Initiation of Marriage Theocentric

2004 5 Era of Positive Volition “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…’” The Age of Gentiles צֶלֶם tselem: Image, Likeness, Pattern or Model Masculine Singular Noun, First Person Plural Defining Image of God Using Tools and Application Inference Scriptural Evidence Application for the Church Age Believer Creation of the Human Race

2004 6 Era of Positive Volition “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…’” The Age of Gentiles צֶלֶם tselem: Image, Likeness, Pattern or Model Masculine Singular Noun, First Person Plural Defining “Image of God” Using Tools and Application The “Image of God” and 3 Conditions of Humanity The Human Race in Perfection The Human Race in Spiritual Death The Regenerate in the Church Age Creation of the Human Race

2004 7 Era of Positive Volition “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…’” The Age of Gentiles צֶלֶם tselem: The “Image of God” and 3 Conditions of Humanity The Human Race in Perfection Soul Eternality Self Consciousness Individuality: Volition and Mentality Trichotomy: Spirituality Creation of the Human Race

2004 The Divine Blueprint of History 8 Era of Positive Volition “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…” The Age of Gentiles צֶלֶם tselem: The “Image of God” and 3 Conditions of Humanity The Human Race in Perfection The Human Race in Spiritual Death “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man.” Genesis 9:6 Creation of the Human Race

2004 The Divine Blueprint of History 9 Era of Positive Volition “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…” The Age of Gentiles “With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God.” James 3:9 Creation of the Human Race צֶלֶם tselem: The “Image of God” and 3 Conditions of Humanity The Human Race in Perfection The Human Race in Spiritual Death

Era of Positive Volition “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…” The Age of Gentiles “..and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him…” Colossians 3:10 Creation of the Human Race צֶלֶם tselem: The “Image of God” and 3 Conditions of Humanity The Human Race in Perfection The Human Race in Spiritual Death The Regenerate in the Church Age