how is the image of God restored in his people?

[Daniel Marsh]

how is the image of God restored in his people?

The logic is simple enough, thru Sin the image of God in People was damaged. Christ is the image of the invisible God. As Christians we all are conformed to that image that is in Christ. Clearly the image is not physical, it is spiritual in nature.

Romans 8:29For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Colossians 1:15Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

 

[Daniel Marsh]

2 Peter 1 King James Version (KJV)
1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:

2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,

3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;

6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;

7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:

11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

12 Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.

13 Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;

14 Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.

15 Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.

16 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

17 For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

18 And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.

19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

 

[Ahermit]

how is the image of God restored in his people?
By the people being truthful.

 

[HTacianas]

how is the image of God restored in his people?

The logic is simple enough, thru Sin the image of God in People was damaged. Christ is the image of the invisible God. As Christians we all are conformed to that image that is in Christ. Clearly the image is not physical, it is spiritual in nature.

Romans 8:29For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Colossians 1:15Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

The origins of theosis. Through faith our behavior becomes Christ like. We become the image of Christ who is the image of God, therefore we ourselves become the image of God. Very few people ever attain that in this life.

 

[DNB]

Man never lost the image of God, that's how we know right from wrong in the first place.
What were Adam & Eve before the fall, why did they freely chose to sin? Thus, sin does not imply lacking the image of God.

Genesis 5:3 When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.
Genesis 9:6 "Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man.
Genesis 4:4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering,

Genesis 18:23 Abraham came near and said, "Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? (God spared Lot for this reason)
Genesis 19:29 Thus it came about, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.

Genesis 6:9 These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.
Ezekiel 14:14 even though these three men, Noah, Daniel and Job were in its midst, by their own righteousness they could only deliver themselves," declares the Lord GOD.
1 Kings 11:4 For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been.
Genesis 15:6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
Job 1:1. In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.

 

[hedrick]

The concept of a broken image, which is restored in Christ is so common that I always assumed it was Biblical. As far as I can tell, though, it's not. All the references I've seen in the Bible to the image assume that we're still in the image of God.

Paul is well known for contrasting Adam with Christ. But he talks about us coming into the image of Christ rather than the image of Adam. He doesn't refer to restoring the image of God.

Is this significant?

 

[Daniel Marsh]

The concept of a broken image, which is restored in Christ is so common that I always assumed it was Biblical. As far as I can tell, though, it's not. All the references I've seen in the Bible to the image assume that we're still in the image of God.

Paul is well known for contrasting Adam with Christ. But he talks about us coming into the image of Christ rather than the image of Adam. He doesn't refer to restoring the image of God.

Is this significant?

Is not Jesus the image of God because he is God.

 

[Daniel Marsh]

1 Corinthians 11:7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.

2 Corinthians 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Colossians 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

Does that mean that women are not in the image of God? puzzling.

 

[hedrick]

Is not Jesus the image of God because he is God.

That's not the point I was making. I only pointed out that his writing on this topic doesn't talk about us having a broken image or restoring it.