The Image of God, Part 2

THE IMAGE OF GOD, PART 2

By Dr. Stephen Jones: Aug 17, 2019

Blog Post Date: 8-22-2019

We come now to the most controversial aspect of our sequence. What does the Father-Son relationship mean in terms of the nature of God? This is the main issue that wracked the church in the early fourth century between the Trinitarians and the Subordinationists. More important is what Jesus believed about Himself and how He presented Himself to the public as the Messiah.

If words have any meaning, a Father-Son relationship implies that the Son has a beginning point. One can have an unbegotten Father who has no beginning, but is it possible to have a “Son” who is coeternal, as the Trinitarians declared? In other words, was the Son a derivative of the Father or not? Was the “firstborn” Christ a second generation from the Most High God, or was God somehow bringing Himself to birth?

From a Jewish perspective, the basic truth of “one God” is paramount, and a Trinity of Gods is totally unacceptable. There is little doubt that on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, the 3,000 who were converted to Christ knew nothing about a Trinity. If Peter had preached the Trinity to them, their converts may have been few. Yet just three centuries later, this was made the litmus test for salvation, something which Paul Himself did not even think to include in Ephesians 2:8.

From the early church writings, we find that “orthodoxy” in the first three centuries believed that Christ was subordinate to the one true God. Christ was the mirror “image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation” (Colossians 1:15). To them, an “image” was not the same as that which it was imaging. Sonship meant being an “heir” of another’s estate (Galatians 4:1), and therefore, the Son of God had been “appointed heir of all things” (Hebrews 1:2).

They taught, according to Paul’s theology, that Christ was called to “subdue” the earth (Genesis 1:28), and for this reason, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:28,

²⁸ And when all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, that God may be all in all.

Authority is not sovereignty. Authority on every level is authorized by a higher power and is therefore accountable to the one that has delegated that authority. Men often delegate authority to those who are unworthy, but God gives authority to those who have proven themselves to be faithful. Jesus was “obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8), and for this reason we read in verse 9, “Therefore also God highly exalted Him.”

Though salvation is freely given, the authority of sonship first requires faithfulness as a servant. A son in Hebrew thought is one who follows the pattern of his “father,” regardless of biology. Children of light are those who are enlightened. Children of wisdom are wise. Children of the devil act like the devil. Sons of thunder have thunderous personalities or are loud mouthed.

Children of God are like their heavenly Father. An ideal son is a mirror image of the Father. In other words, he is in the image of God. Through sin, Adam lost that image, but Jesus Christ was obedient in every way and was an "exact representation” (Hebrews 1:3) of His heavenly Father in every way. He did not lose the “image” as Adam did.

The sons of God too are begotten through their ears by receiving the seed of the gospel (living word). That which is begotten in them is also in the image of God. The sons of God, by “beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image” (2 Corinthians 3:18). These have a glorious destiny.

Take note that Paul speaks of a mirror when he discusses the topic of images. Images look like the real but are only mirror images. If both Christ and the sons of God are destined to be in the image of God, then is it feasible to say that such terminology makes them coequal, coeternal, and part of the Godhead?

The subordinationist view itself was not highly developed, because the Trinitarians had not emerged yet. Disputes and objections push all sides into defining their positions more carefully. The dominant discussion, brought about by Jewish monotheism, was whether Jesus should be considered a perfect human being or a subordinate God (as in a derivation of the Father).

What is a God?

From the Jewish standpoint, the Messiah was an agent of the one true God, and as such he might be called “God.” Such was the case when God told Moses in Exodus 7:1,

¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I make you (as) God [elohim] to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet.”

The Hebrew text does not include the word as in this verse. It reads, “I make you God to Pharaoh.” Adding as to the verse is done according to the judgment of the translator attempting to interpret the apostle’s mind and intent. Seeing Moses as God (or a god) did not scandalize the monotheistic Jews, for they understood that it meant that Moses was speaking for God as a divine agent (or prophet).

So Moses could be considered to be “God” within the context of the law of agency, which says that a man’s agent is equivalent to himself. Hence, to reject Jesus is to reject the One that sent Him. Not even Athenasius “The Hammer” would have included Moses in the Trinity.

The God/gods and “ruler” were not two different things. This is a Hebrew parallelism, where a matter is stated and restated in another way. So the rulers were called elohim. A god, then, is a subjector, one who subjects, a master or ruler who has power or authority over servants.

Grammatically speaking, any legitimate ruler or judge was an elohim. So Exodus 22:28 says,

²⁸ You shall not curse God [elohim], nor curse a ruler of your people.

The King James Version of Exodus 22:28 reads,

²⁸ Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people.

This is made clear in Exodus 21:6,

⁶ then his master shall bring him to God [elohim], then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him permanently.

The KJV renders the phrase, “unto the judges.” The judges were in a position of authority, so they were “gods.” From God’s perspective, of course, only those that He authorizes are true elohim, for they must be in agreement with Him and be in His image to be called “gods.” The Second Commandment prohibits images of God, but this obviously applies to imperfect images. Jesus Christ is exempt from that prohibition, because He is “the exact representation of His nature” (Hebrews 1:3).

Compare also the biblical prophecies of the Messiah as God’s “servant.” This concept was best promoted by Isaiah in the messianic “Servant Poems.” The Gospel of Mark also presents Christ as the Servant, even as Matthew presents Him as the King. Peter says in Acts 3:13,

¹³ The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus…

Like a son to his father, a servant is subordinate to his master. Malachi 1:6 says, “A son honors his father, and a servant his master.” The servant pattern for the Messiah was pictured by Isaac, the son of Abraham, who was dedicated to God on an altar on Mount Moriah (Genesis 22:2, 3). Isaac was a son with a servant’s heart, making him a type of Christ whom the Father would offer up as a sacrifice. Isaac was 37 years old at the time, according to the book of Jasher, and he could have fought his father to save his own life. However, he submitted to his father’s will and allowed his father to bind him.

So also, Paul says in Philippians 2:8 that Christ was “obedient unto death.”

The Elohim

It goes without saying that the Old Testament teaches monotheism. First and foremost, this was set forth in the great Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4,

⁴ Hear, O Israel! Yahweh is our Elohim; Yahweh is one!”

Some have interpreted the plural term Elohim to indicate a trinity yet to be revealed. This is often brought up in the context of the “Us,” and “Our,” that the Creator uses in Genesis 1:26 and 28. These are applied to a trinity rather than to the heavenly court. In the context of verse 27, however, we see that “in the image of God HE created them; male and female HE created them.” Scripture does not use the plural “they” as if to say that man was created in THEIR image.

The Hebrew language sometimes uses plurals in ways different from other languages. For example, paniym means “face, presence,” as we see in Genesis 4:14, “the face of the ground.” Genesis 17:3 says that “Abram fell on his face.”

The same word can be translated as “faces,” as in Genesis 40:7, “Why are your faces so sad today?” Again, in Exodus 25:20 speaks of “the faces of the cherubim.”

Translating the word properly depends upon its context. The same is true of the Hebrew word ne’urim, “youth,” as used in Psalm 127:4, “So are the children of one’s youth.” To render it “youths” would not be grammatically correct, even though the word is plural.

In the same way, Elohim can be either singular or plural, depending on its context.

Translators must also look for singular or plural verbs and nouns surrounding elohim. Deuteronomy 5:6, 7 uses the word in both contexts,

⁶ I am the Yahweh your Elohim, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ⁷ You shall have no other elohim before Me.

In verse 6, Elohim refers to the one God; in verse 7 it refers to other gods. The other gods are explained further in verse 9, “You shall not worship THEM or serve THEM.”

The imprecise (Hebrew) language alone gives men cause to disagree. But Malachi 2:10 says, “Do we not all have one Father? Has not one God created us?” The prophet knew nothing of multiple creators. But if that was the case, then what role, if any, did the pre-existent Christ have in creation? Was He actually the “one God” who created all? Were all things creation BY Him or were they created THROUGH Him? Did He provide the Father with the double witness establishing all things? Why is Jesus called “The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the beginning of the creation of God” in Revelation 3:14?

Did the “one God” Himself need a double witness to create all things?

The Image of God, Part 1

THE IMAGE OF GOD, PART 1

By Dr. Stephen Jones:  Aug 16, 2019

Blog Post Date: 8-21-2019

Genesis 1:26, 27 says,

²⁶ Then God said, “Let Us make man [awdawm] in our image [tselem, “shadow, profile, image”], according to Our likeness [demuth] … ²⁷ And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Let us define our terms briefly. The word awdawm refers to mankind in general. When the writers were talking about Adam specifically, it is ha awdawm, “the Adam,” denoting a specific man. In Genesis 1, the purpose is not to describe Adam as an individual but the whole of mankind in general. Hence, the image of God applies to all men.

The “image” is tselem, because mankind was to resemble the Creator. In mathematics, we might use the word “fractal.” This is essentially the characteristic of a “son” who is a smaller version of his father yet resembles him in every way. I believe this is where the Hebrew concept of sonship was derived originally. A son could mean a physical offspring, but the word was also applied to those who followed someone’s example, such as the children of light or children of Abraham.

The word demuth, “likeness,” is from damah, which is closely related to awdawm or Adam. The key word in it is dam, “blood.” If I say, “He is my blood,” I mean to say that he is my son, of my bloodline, and I imply that he resembles me or acts like me.

So we see that Adam was an unbegotten son of God, whose purpose was to manifest the nature of his heavenly Father in the physical world on earth. He was called to bring heaven to earth. He had a job to do because the creation was either unfinished or it had fallen into chaos in a previous age. (Genesis 1:2 says literally, “the earth became formless,” but the reason is unstated.)

As a son of God, Adam was also the potential heir of all things and the king of the earth, a steward, trustee, and manager of all that God had created. But sin of any kind is a violation of the First Commandment: “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me” (Deuteronomy 5:7). When Adam and Eve were tempted by fruit, their own desire for wisdom and pleasure broke this commandment. The fruit became more important to them than their Father, and they violated the Fifth Commandment as well: “Honor your father and your mother” (Deuteronomy 5:16).

If you worship anything in nature, it will rule you. Thus, Adam gave away his position of authority over the earth and put himself in subservience to nature and its creatures. The sentence of the law was in kind, and Adam would have to continue serving that which he once ruled, until he and countless of his descendants learned the futility and bondage of such idolatry.

Adam failed and thereby became part of the problem, so another Son of God was sent to do what Adam failed to accomplish. Adam’s sin brought death upon all; Christ’s righteousness brought life to all (Romans 5:18; 1 Corinthians 15:22).

Christ is the Image of God

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 4:4,

⁴ in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

This is explained more in Hebrews 1:2, 3,

² in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world [aion, “age”]. ³ And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation [character, “engraving”] of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power…

Even as Adam, the original son, was given dominion over the earth, so also Christ the Son has been appointed the “heir of all things.”

The implication also is that Adam was the original son who was supposed to radiate His glory and be the exact mirror image (or “engraving”) of God’s nature. But when he sinned, he no longer could radiate that glory, nor was he able to manifest the nature of God in the earth. Hence, Christ came to do what Adam could not do. There are many other examples in Scripture where the first-born son was disqualified as the heir of the birthright, and so it passed on to a younger son. All of these examples follow the original pattern of the two sons of God: Adam and Christ.

Manifesting the Father’s Glory in Earth

The Gospel of John was written specifically to show how Jesus Christ manifested His Father’s glory in the earth. There are eight miracle-signs (semeion) recorded in John’s gospel, and these are arranged in a typical Hebrew literary pattern known as a chiasm, or parallelism. There are seven recorded miracles prior to Christ’s crucifixion, and one afterward.

The purpose of these eight miracle-signs are given at the beginning in John 2:11,

¹¹ This beginning [or “first”] of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.

In other words, John was showing us how Jesus fulfilled the calling that Adam was supposed to do at the beginning—manifest the glory of God in the earth. These eight miracle-signs were like a cross-section of His work and ministry, representing everything that He did. His overall purpose was to bring heaven to earth, so that the glory of God would cover the earth as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:9; Habakkuk 2:14). Only when His glory fills the whole earth will the vow of God be fulfilled that He made in Numbers 14:21.

The connection between the eight semeion and the eight days of the feast of Tabernacles shows that the prophetic purpose of that feast is for the sons of God to manifest the glory of God as well.

This adds definition to Jesus’ prayer in Matthew 6:10,

¹⁰ Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Christ’s purpose—and ours as well—is to bring the glory of heaven into the earth, so that the earth may be transformed by His glorious Kingdom. The far-reaching goal is given in 1 Corinthians 15:28, “that God may be all in all.”

The purpose of creation is not to provide a temporary, physical earth experience for the sons of God or to give them a place to suffer before graduating to a higher glory in heaven. No, the earth is a “good” place that is temporarily out of alignment with the nature of God. Because of sin, the earth has been unable to see the glory of God, except for brief moments at a time. However, Christ’s appearance ensured victory for the divine plan, and by following Christ’s example, the sons of God will bring God’s glory to the whole earth.

This is seen as the new heavens and the new earth in Revelation 21:1. From the formless chaos in Genesis 1:2 to the divine order when the last enemy (death) is destroyed, the divine project has been to create a new heaven and a new earth. When complete, the two will be reconciled and in full agreement, so that they can be united in a New Covenant marriage.

Those who hold the Greek view that matter is inherently evil see an everlasting war between good and evil, between light and darkness, between matter and spirit, and between heaven and earth (or heaven and hell). They consider these to be coequal and coeternal within a great Wheel of Time that continually repeats the same problems with no final solution. The goal is to separate and divorce matter and spirit, but when that goal is finally reached, the problem of the two mixing together always begins anew.

The Bible presents a very different worldview, because God and the devil are not coequal. God wins in the end, because He has the power to predestine all things according to His will. The end of history crowns Christ as King and God being “all in all.” It is the full eradication of sin and the marriage of heaven and earth.

The Divine Marriage

The original marriage law in Genesis 2:23, 24 sets forth the divine plan for heaven and earth as well as for Adam and Eve as individuals.

²³ And the man said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” ²⁴ For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

Just as Eve was “taken out of Man,” so also was earth taken out of heaven’s rib. God made matter good, even as Eve was good. The entire material universe, in fact, was made out of God Particles, for Paul tells us in Romans 11:36,

³⁵ For from [ek, “out of”] Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

All things came “out of Him,” even as Eve was taken out of Adam. All things originated in God. The universe was not made ex nihilo, “out of nothing,” but out of God’s own substance. Hence, He could pronounce it “very good” at the end of His creative labor in Genesis 1:31. Further, if any particle is lost at the end of time, then God will forever be incomplete, making Him something less than perfect. This is why He must restore all things and put all things under the feet of the Son.

This is accomplished by the Son of God, the designated Heir of all things, coming to earth and bringing heaven with Him, so that the glory of the Father in heaven might be manifested in the earth. That is the key to victory, and His success ends time as we know it. Time is not a wheel that turns perpetually, nor does the war between good and evil end in a draw.

The Double Witness

In Genesis 2:18 God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” Few ask WHY it was not good for the man to be alone. Was it only because of his lack of female companionship or fellowship? Or was there a deeper reason? I believe God created marriage so that every family would have a built-in double witness by which we may establish truth and know the will of God. This is based on Deuteronomy 19:15 says, “on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed.”

All truth is verified (by law) on the testimony of at least two witnesses. In the case of marriage, husband and wife are two witnesses, each hearing the voice of God. When they compare what they have each heard, they may know the will of God in any matter. This law applies to virtually every matter of revelation, and those who think they hear so well that they need no second witness will eventually get into trouble. More often, such people will jump too soon, not realizing that God often uses the second witness to establish timing. So when Joseph interpreted the two dreams that Pharaoh had been given, he said in Genesis 41:32,

³² Now as for the repeating of the dream to Pharaoh twice, it means that the matter is determined [kun, “established”] by God, and God will quickly bring it about.

Two witnesses establish all things. A revelation (or dream) is not ready to be fulfilled until the second witness has appeared. When it is given, “God will quickly bring it about.” When Jesus’ teachings were challenged, He said in John 5:31, 32, and 37,

³¹ If I alone bear witness of Myself, My testimony is not true. ³² There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the testimony which He bears of Me is true... ³⁷ And the Father who sent Me, He has borne witness of Me…

A single always receives genuine revelation before it has been “established” as truth by the law of the double witness. The problem is that while the double witness is absent, he cannot act upon it or treat it as truth in a practical manner. So John 8:14 reads,

¹⁴ Jesus answered and said to them, “Even if I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true; for I know where I came from, and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from, or where I am going.

When we study the nature of the Son in relation to the Father, we find that the Father and the Son are two witnesses needed to establish truth. This in itself is not a problem to a trinitarian, who would readily affirm that the Father and Son are in agreement as to the truth. But it could present a problem to those who believe in “Oneness,” that the Father and Son are the same Being.

This is a popular view today that establishes a true monotheism but differs from the Jewish view of the Messiah. They do not see the Messiah as being “the one true God” but only as a begotten Son. The question is, would the law of the double witness be satisfied if the Father and the Son were just one Person?