Do all people bear the image of God?

Can it be asserted that all people bear the image of God?

Having consulted numerous dictionaries, I have selected from them those concepts regarding "image" and "likeness" that recur across many of them. Within this entire collection of definitions, there is no clear delineation of the distinction between these two concepts. Consequently, one may easily become confused, failing to grasp precisely how "image" differs from "likeness." However, upon reading the Bible, one can discern that—although created man always bears a *likeness* to God—he does not always possess the *Image* of God. Thus:

Likeness: appearance, similarity; similarity, intimacy. In science, a concept, characterizing the same size of the shape of objects, regardless of their size. Like, for example, photo prints of one negative, made in different Increased. A particular case of similarity of objects is their complete Coincidence is the identity.

Image: In Philosophy: the result and the ideal form of reflection of objects and phenomena in the human mind. Appearance, the appearance of someone, something. Substantiation someone, something (obsolete. Image), a lively, visual representation of Kom-l., something. Copy, cast, imprint in the minds of phenomena objective reality.

The concept of the word IMAGE in explanatory dictionaries is too multifaceted, and sometimes It is simply inconsistent when it is referred to the Bible. So the meaning of the word Image according to Ephraim: "Appearance, the appearance of whom, something. Like who, “Something.”

It is also necessary to familiarize yourself with the interpretation of verse Genesis 1:26 Lopukhin, “And God said: We will create man in our image, according to ours. Here two related words, although they contain some shades of thought: one means ideal, a model of perfection; another is the realization of this ideal, a copy from the specified sample. The first (by the image), says St. Gregory of Nys, we have by creation, and the last (in the like) we commit at random (by our will and our desire.”

Yes, this is closer to the truth and confirmed immediately by the following verse 27, “And God created man in His image, in the image of He created him to God, and he created them man and woman. That is, the image of God in Man is the main thing in relation to the likeness. And about this Lopukhin says to us, “Consient, the image of God in man is the inherited and indelible property of its nature, and godlikeness is the free personal efforts of a person, which can achieve quite high degrees of development in man, but can sometimes Absence completely.”

To be God is to be like Him, but not in appearance, but in spirit and in business. Our deeds then become God’s things when we do The will of God. Matthew 12:50: “For who will do the will of my Father Heavenly, that brother to me, and sister, and mother. And further: "Teach me To do thy will, for you are my God; thy good spirit guides I am in the land of truth” (Psalm 14:10). When people fulfill the will of God, when We see their actions are conditioned by the commandments of God, we see in them image of God.

Before the sin, Adam and Eve did whatever they wanted to do and had God. Spirit not defiled by sin. They did not have the spirit of God, but their spirit was normal human, but not sinful. Before committing sins they were God, but when they acted against the will of God, they committed sin and defiled The spirit is yours. That is why they lost the image of God. This is confirmed 5:1.2 on the genealogy of Adam: “Here is the genealogy of Adam: When God created man, he created him in the likeness of God. The verse of Genesis :27).

It is already said only about the likeness, and then it is said that the third son He had an image and a likeness not of God, but of his sinners, Adam. “Adam lived One hundred and thirty years and gave birth to his son in his own image, and He called his name: Seth. 5:3). Only after Sifa people “began to call The name of the Lord.” 4:26). The image of God began to have sincerely believers, that is, the children of God, who love God and people, and therefore perform The will of God.

“So it is written: the first man Adam became the soul of the living; and the last Adam is the life-giving spirit. But not the spiritual before, but the soul, then spiritually. The first man is from the earth, the ring; the second man is the Lord from the sky. What is the ring, so are the rings; and as is heavenly, so are The heavenly. And as we wore the image of the ring, we will wear and the image “Keither” (1 Corinthians 15:45-49). It is said that Adam was the image and The likeness of God: the pounding, was not spiritual, did not have the Spirit of God, but did not have a sinful spirit in himself, but also as God had his own spirit human, neutral (without sin), and had the likeness of God by structure Its essence: body, soul and spirit, which always corresponds to belonging to a person and, unlike the image of God, to lose Impossible.
Here is what the Bible says how we need to understand who has the image of God: “To those who love God, called out of His own help, all things are conducive to the good. For whom He has foreseen, he has ordained to be like the image of the Son His own” (Rome 8:27-30). However, if a person is an unbeliever, but does good, if he loves people, then he in his actions in his essence does the rightness of God, that is, he fulfills the will of God, and in these actions He also becomes God’s image, though it may be an unbeliever.

Other unbelievers cannot be God, because they reject God, and therefore are Ugly, that is, do not have the image of God. The desire for holiness in life, that is, to separation from all undesirable God is the process of increasing our likeness to God, that His Image is all We found more. Hitler, lesbians, bandits, drunkards and similar to them in God’s will did not do their abomination, but only the will of the devil. Image They are not God. That’s why people call such people UGIOUS.

The Bible says of Christ as the image of God: “In whom we have His redemption is His blood and the forgiveness of sins, which is the image of God the invisible, born before all creatures; for He has created all that is in the heavens and what is on the earth, visible and invisible: thrones, dominations, Dominions, do the authorities, all by Him and for Him created; and He is before Everything, and all of them is. And He is the head of the body of the Church; he is the beginning, the firstborn of the dead, that he may have precedence in all, for it is pleasing to There was a Father that every fullness may dwell in Him.” Every fullness is all, Absolute fullness. The completeness of the image of Christ the Father of Heavenly explains to us and It means that Christ is God! And this is the Lord different from Adam, He had the image of God only before the fall!

The main thing in God, in a person, is also the SPIRIT. God is the Spirit God, and man has a human spirit that can have as the Spirit of God And the sinful spirit that man has. We cannot see the spirit, but spirit together with the soul are manifested in actions in the information emanating from the body of the one with whom we communicate and it most determines for us image of him. What is the spirit of a person - this is his actions. Therefore, the image It includes mainly not the external, but the inner: spirit and soul. All This understanding also applies to the image of God in the human consciousness, Based on the understanding of the Word of God (Bible) and practical life.

The image of someone (something) is not an appearance, but the image includes the concept of appearances for a person when he reviews someone (something) and the following storage of this in the memory of a person. I was asked earlier: “As you can see The image of the crucified Christ? “Is it look, no sense?” Here is This was my answer: I may not be able to explain completely, however, I will try in general terms. There is no mysticism here. It's not a picture, which I see all Christ, including His face. That's all In a different way. Every person always has an image of loved ones Men: mothers, father, wife (husband), children, brothers, sisters. The image of each of them there is not only a photo, but also a collection of everything in our memory about them: kindness, soulfulness, individual actions from life and our Joys and worries about something in the past. All this together merges, connects, forming some natural state the presence of their image in us.

But without a vision, a person can have the image of someone in the process creative thinking about the information received from any sources, And in the believer in Christ, this is accompanied by the Spirit of God. These Believers Christ called the BLISS, who did not personally see Him, but believed in He (John 20:29) The Apostle Paul calls their faith, acting love (Galatians 5:6), which settles in their hearts by the separation of the part of the Spirit God's. All this is not the unbelievers, nor did Adam and Adam. Eves in their lifetime before the Fall.

The main thing in the image of God is His inner essence - His LOVE, in that the great love for people, and therefore I offer all believers, if not always, as often as possible to thank God for His love for people, to relatives, including yourself. The Apostle Paul urged us to have love in itself is not platonic, but the ACTIVE business in our life the example of the acting love of Christ is always for people and a feat at the Golgothoph Cross. The love of God for people, which is the light of grace, It is felt by sincere believers, which is infothematomer Part of the image of God!