#79 In God’s Image: Not Just Adam and Eve Gen. 5:1-3

It was not just Adam and Eve who were made in the image of God. All of humanity has access to this claim. By way of inheritance we are all made in the image of God. This claim is supported in Genesis 5:1-3, “This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and He blessed them and named them Man in the day when they were created. 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 5:1-3). We can deduce from this that since Seth is created in Adam’s likeness, he is also in God’s likeness as Adam was created in God’s likeness. This has two issues to consider, is our likeness in the image of God reducing through the generations? And does this likeness carry other baggage.

Our likeness in God is not being reduced through the generations. This is less of a Biblical claim than a practical one. It would seem to me that God has the same expectations of us today as he had of Adam. Furthermore our actions still reflect this fundamental bent towards God. In that we still desire justice, power, authority, and to worship something. At the least we may look at James 3:9 “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). This shows that even in the New Testament being made in the image of God still means something. This does not prove the same level of likeness to God as Adam had. But this does prove the ongoing relevance and fact of our likeness to God.

Through generations we receive more baggage than just being made in the image of God. Jeremiah says of God, “who shows lovingkindness to thousands, but repays the iniquity of fathers into the bosom of their children after them, O great and mighty God. The LORD of hosts is His name” (Jeremiah 32:18). This verse showcases the fact that more than just God’s likeness is passed down through the generations. Seth received the likeness of his father Adam. Adam, “became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth” (Genesis 5:3). Seth is like his father and like God. And Adam became a sinner thus all of humanity is now born sinful.