Genesis 1:26, commentary and pictures

God the Father spoke to His Son when He said let us make man, for Christ was with the Father from the beginning, equal with Him and Creator with Him. Man, male and female, was then made by direct creation in God's own image and likeness, not evolved by slow degrees from lower forms. That image meant a perfect, noble, sinless being in body and mind, with moral character like God's in love, goodness and holiness, made to represent Him and to rule under Him over fish, birds, cattle and all the earth. Adam forfeited that dominion by sin, and the moral image was marred and almost obliterated, passing under Satan's power. Through Christ as second Adam all that was lost is redeemed, for He came to restore the Maker's image in righteousness and holiness and to renew the earth for the eternal home of the redeemed.

Divine Counsel Behind Creation

The plural in the saying is the Father speaking to His Son Jesus Christ, who was with the Father from the beginning. That Son stands next in honor to God in heaven, Commander in the heavenly courts, equal with the Father. He is Creator of the world and of man together with the Father. The decision was formed in the councils of heaven to carry out a purpose laid before the fall of Satan. After the earth and the beasts upon it were made, the Father and the Son, who had worked together in making the earth and every living thing upon it, made man in their own image to inhabit the earth and to reign as ruling monarch.

Satan heard the Father consult the Son and not himself, and became envious and jealous of Christ. He wished to be consulted about the formation of man and to receive the highest honors next to God. He was filled with envy, jealousy and hatred. Because human beings are made in God's image he hates them, opposed their creation, and brings suffering upon their bodies, sparing no pains to destroy as many as possible by every species of deception. His bitterest enmity is against God and His only begotten Son.

Man was made last in creation so that no human being could claim any part in creating the world or anything that has the breath of life. Man so made was placed upon probation to be tested and proved in loyalty before being rendered eternally secure. If he bore God's first test and remained loyal and true he would have God's favor and converse with angels. He would no longer be beset with continual temptations but would be exalted equal with the angels and made thenceforth immortal. God did not see fit to place him beyond the power of disobedience.

Creation Week and Setting

The making of man belongs to the six-day work by which heaven and earth and all the host of them were made, six literal days just like every other week and not vast indefinite periods covering thousands or millions of years to allow evolution of the earth from chaos. That first week was measured off as the sample for every week to the close of time, each day generating some new portion of the work, the whole of which with man included was seen as very good and then ended. When finished God rested on the seventh day from all His work which He created and made, and blessed the seventh day and sanctified it and set it apart for the use of man in commemoration of His rest. The six days of creation work are why man is given the first six days of each week for labor and God's rest on the seventh is why man is to refrain from labor on the seventh, thus proclaiming His will to all the earth as the reason to keep the Sabbath as a holy sign and perpetual covenant. To make the six days of work and the day of rest vast indefinite periods makes senseless the fourth commandment, and stretching them to accommodate geology rests on inferences erroneously drawn from facts observed in nature, makes a supposed conflict between science and revelation, and undermines and destroys the force of the word of God. Just how God wrought in that creation He never revealed to mortals and it remains as incomprehensible as His existence, and human science cannot search out the secrets of the God of Heaven or explain creation from natural causes.

The verse plainly sets forth the origin of the human race, male and female, by direct creation in God's own image, with no mystery and no evolution by slow degrees from lower forms of animal or vegetable life. That origin traces back not to a line of developing germs, mollusks and quadrupeds but to the great Creator, so that though formed from dust Adam is the son of God and has dignity as a being worthy of the hand that gave him life. Man is in this the crowning work of creation, brought forth after the earth with its animal and vegetable life was fitted up for him, and given dominion over all that his eye could behold on earth.

The earth came forth from the Creator exceedingly beautiful, like a noble palace, with pure and healthful air, holy and beautiful from His hand. Its surface was diversified with hills, mountains, and plains, interspersed with rivers and other bodies of water regularly dispersed, not one extensive plain, the hills and mountains regular and beautiful in shape, not high and ragged as now, with bare rock hidden beneath the surface like bones to the earth. Hills, mountains, and plains were adorned with plants and flowers and tall, majestic trees of every kind, many times larger and much more beautiful than trees now are, and angels beheld the wonderful and beautiful works and rejoiced. Every flower, shrub, and tree answered the purpose of its Creator, everything upon which the eye rested was lovely and filled the mind with thoughts of the love of God, and every sound was music in harmony with the voice of God.

The account is the authentic, pure history of creation and of the human race found in God's Word alone, coming fresh from the fountain of eternal truth with its purity preserved through all ages by the divine Mind and Hand, to be the chief study in schools. It beholds the power that laid the foundation of the earth and stretched out the heavens, and its light shines into the far distant past where human research seeks vainly to penetrate, making it the most comprehensive and most instructive history men possess. Its great facts as presented by the inspired writers are pillars of the Christian faith, yet they are practically rejected, either wholly or in part, by a large share of the professedly Christian world. It is given as plain Scripture fact with sufficient evidence for faith so man is left without excuse, and geology without Bible history can prove nothing, while human reasoning opposed to plain Scripture, infidel fables, suppositions of geologists, and suppositions about what God has not revealed cannot explain creation or dispute the Mosaic record. Faith should not rest on suppositions about what God has not revealed when His revealed will is rejected as difficult, for God's ways are not as our ways nor His thoughts as our thoughts, and secret things belong to the Lord while revealed things belong to us and to our children. God spoke and His words created His works in the natural world, His creation is a reservoir of means made ready for Him to employ instantly to do His pleasure, nothing He made is useless but the curse caused tares to be sown by the enemy, and rational beings alone should not cause confusion in the world but should live to God and honor Him.

Men at creation and before the Flood were much larger in size than men now living or for many generations past, and animals and trees were likewise larger, and great changes took place in the earth at the Flood. Bones of men and animals, instruments of warfare, petrified wood, and other wonderful things found in mountains and valleys are relics of that original created state differing from the present, not proof that the earth was populated long before the creation record by a superior race or existed tens of thousands of years, and the time of their existence can be learned only from Bible history.

The man and woman formed in that image came forth noble, perfectly proportioned, and very beautiful in symmetry, features, and complexion. Adam was more than twice as tall as men now living, well proportioned, perfect and beautiful in features, ruddy in complexion and glowing with health, and Eve was not quite as tall with her head a little above his shoulders, noble, perfect in symmetry and very beautiful. While obedient they wore no artificial garments but were clothed with a circle of light and glory such as the angels wear. Out of love they were given a garden as their special home reflecting heaven and the love of God, with beautiful fragrant flowers, fruit trees bearing precious treasures for man's good, and birds singing praise in untainted purity for their delight. Part of their time was spent in pleasant and invigorating work dressing it and part in receiving visits from angels, listening to instruction, and happy meditation. God's purpose was for men and women to rejoice in these sights and sounds of nature today, not to be crowded together in cities in terraces and tenements in continual worry.

Marriage is an institution God Himself formed in the beginning. When the Sabbath law was given to man the marriage law was also given, and God bestowed on man His two great gifts — woman as a helpmeet and the Sabbath as a day of rest. Christ's presence at the marriage at Cana sanctioned marriage because He recognized it as an institution He Himself had formed and had sanctioned in Eden.

Adam as formed in God's image was pronounced good by the Creator Himself. God instructed Adam in all the wisdom pertaining to the material world, teaching him the history of creation. Adam lived for hundreds of years among his descendants and imparted what he had learned from God to them.

Meaning of Divine Image

Man came from the Creator's hand perfect in organization and beautiful in form, in perfect soundness and health with full vital force and vigor and glory, physically noble with grandeur, symmetry and well-developed body and organs, intellectually great and free from sin, for in making man in His image Jehovah gave a specimen of Himself. The present feeble, suffering, short-lived, diseased condition is not the work of Providence nor the appointed lot of humanity but was brought by man through wrong habits violating physical and divine law, continual transgression bringing suffering and premature death. That original perfect bodily race was developed not stunted, beautiful not deformed, healthy not diseased, without congenital blindness, deafness, malformation, consumption, fever, cholera, plague, corruption of blood, or high infant mortality, utterly unlike the enervated, dwarfed, gangrenous, pain-filled race now found, whose state was generated by abuse of appetite and passion in a series of falls from Adam onward and not implanted by providence through law, so that to suppose the words spoken of such a diseased race would be indignity, blasphemy, sacrilege and impiety. God meant the earth to be populated with intelligent beings only a little lower than the angels, but He would first prove the holy pair and test obedience, for He would not fill the world with beings who would disregard His laws.

Man is the highest and noblest of all God's creatures and the crowning work of creation, made in the beginning in God's image and likeness for His glory, designed to be His counterpart to represent Him, express His thought and reveal His glory. Those so formed derive life from Him as Creator and Source of all life, belong to Him by creation, and are to acknowledge Him in every word and act and to live the higher life of which He is Author, without exalting self as God. Making man in the divine image gave intelligence given to no other creature, blessing Adam and Eve crowned as king and rightful sovereign in Eden over every living thing and all works of God's hands, enabling them to contemplate and appreciate the glorious works of God in nature. That crowning work was made as male and female with personal form like God's own form, blessed to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and given dominion over fish of the sea and fowl of the air and every living thing, a work God saw as very good when heaven and earth were finished, followed by His rest on the seventh day and His blessing and sanctifying of it, with man's obedience afterward tested in Eden.

Creation in God's likeness proves God is a personal, self-existing being with real personality, form and feature like the personality humans have, not merely an all-pervading principle, essence, perfume, intangible energy or actuating force. Though God is a spirit, humanity's creation in His likeness proves He has personality, and the mighty power working through all nature and sustaining all things is this personal God. The things of nature express God's character, love, power and glory, but nature is not God Himself, just as a work is not the workman; it is the God of nature who is to be exalted, not nature. God first formed the human body perfect in all its arrangements but without life and without vitality, then through Jesus Christ the Word breathed into that form the breath of life so man became a living, breathing, intelligent being and a living soul. At that breath heart, arteries, veins, tongue, hands, feet, senses, perceptions and faculties of mind began work under law, endowed with intelligence and power, and man's substance yet being imperfect when made in secret was not hidden from God, with all members written in His book when as yet there were none of them.

The image includes moral faculties and physical powers as a sinless transcript of God with holy attributes, decided in the councils of heaven and made by the hand of Christ, which sin alone could ruin and deface. It means character like God's in love, honor, perfection, justice, goodness, benevolence and self-sacrificing liberality, innocence, serenity, loyalty and royal character fully seen in Christ's face, who as image of the Father stands as copy to study and imitate, meaning goodness and love for fellow men as instinct, loving God supremely and men impartially. It means being made to be like God in righteousness and holiness, with hands for labor as well as mind and heart for contemplation, made to find happiness in work as well as meditation, with mind capable of continual cultivation, expansion, refinement and noble elevation, having God for teacher and angels for companions, with reason and speech, knowledge of God and duty, conscience, affections and virtue to be exercised and kept supreme. The image includes ennobling mental powers and noble qualities with well-balanced mind and harmonious powers of body and mind and soul to be developed to highest excellence for high and noble purposes engaging angels and for higher holier enjoyment than this world affords, given to help form character for future immortal life, so that true elevation of mind expresses what man was created to be. That likeness to be received is God's character of benevolence and love, a liberal self-sacrificing character like God's in heaven shown when God in heavenly courts gave His Son and in Christ's self-sacrificing love on the cross giving all to save, to be employed for His glory and uplifting of fellow men by directing mind to the Creator to know Him and become like Him, seeking development of gifts to fulfill His purpose rather than from pride, selfish ambition, emulation, earthly standards, desire to excel others or self-exaltation, in contrast to the worldly principle of getting for happiness ending in misery and death.

At creation man bore the image and superscription of God as a coin bears the stamp of the reigning power, giving every soul infinite worth measured by the life of the only-begotten Son given to save him. Sin has marred, dimmed, defaced and well-nigh erased that image but has not erased it, leaving traces of the inscription upon every soul however degraded and lying among dust and rubbish, so every soul high or low, rich or poor, white or black remains precious in God's sight and none is to be treated with contempt, and God seeks the lost to recover and retrace His own image in righteousness and holiness while Satan works through intemperance and sin to lay it in ruins and obliterate every trace. The image was written in heart and marked on countenance in pure thoughts, elevated words, clear reason and right judgment, including true manhood with self-control and power over will. Seeking indulgence of appetite and passion as chief good fills heart with vileness and well-nigh effaces it, debasing nature with depravity written on countenance, earthly thoughts, low words, drowned reason, perverted judgment, will surrendered to Satan and heart opposing truth, while giving way to uncontrolled temper, insubordination, passion, self-rule and letting feeling run away with judgment forgets creation and sadly defaces it, and such impulsive unsubdued carnal heart strengthened by outbreak cannot live among pure angels nor enter heaven unless evil is seen in true sinfulness and corrected by conversion becoming as little child, lest it fail of a seat by the suffering Man of Calvary.

That similitude in mind and body means man must be active in obedient action to fill his appointed place, after the pattern of constant activity in heaven, Jesus' going about doing good, and silent ceaseless creation in ocean, grass, wind-stirred leaves, sun, moon and stars, even as bodily machinery works continually with heart throbbing to force crimson current to all parts, so idleness is sin against the likeness. Adam created pure, holy and healthy was given something to do to use organs God gave him, so brain must work actively not mechanically under the same law of obedient action governing all creation. God's purpose from the beginning joined useful physical employment in caring for the earth with exercise of mind, giving newly created man the work of tending what God made to find employment and happiness with wants abundantly supplied from Eden's fruits, for man created a gentleman rich in all the Owner of the universe could supply was not to be idle, and wealth and authority as monarch over beautiful abundant Eden did not mean idleness.

The original vitality allowed nearly a thousand years of life with corresponding size and strength, men, animals and trees much larger than now, with Adam physically noble standing in glory of manhood with grandeur, beauty, perfect symmetry and intellectually great mind unaffected by curse, walking and talking with God, communing face to face with His Son and holy angels as companion of highest intelligences, matter and mind closely connected, pronounced very good in highest sense. Bones of men and animals, instruments of warfare and petrified wood found in mountains and valleys are relics of that original state and of great Flood changes, not proof the earth was populated long before creation by superior race through tens of thousands of years, learnable only from Bible history since geology without Bible history can prove nothing, for creation was accomplished in six literal days about six thousand years ago by a method never revealed remaining as incomprehensible as His existence, not vast indefinite periods lest the fourth commandment be senseless. The present sickness, suffering, debility, premature death, disease, decrepitude and imbecility with dwindled brief existence comes from long-continued violation of physical law through corrupt appetites, lustful passion, accumulated transgression and flesh eating begun by Noah and sons after which days rapidly declined, the original vitality so great it was more than a thousand years before violations were sensibly felt, while vital forces since weakened so recent generations feel infirmity more rapidly and heavily.

It was wonderful for God to create mind so every faculty might be of the divine mind, with God's glory revealed in creating and redeeming man through Jesus as Author both of being and redemption, one soul exceeding a world in value, and only those developing a counterpart character and bearing His likeness as overcomers elevated, pure, one with Christ can dwell with God in holy heaven, so bodies, lives and faculties belong to God not to treat as pleased or cripple by decaying habits making perfect service impossible, human beings absolutely dependent every moment as He cares and keeps machinery in action, left to run it one moment they would die. Adam was made pure and upright after God's character with no corrupt principles, propensities or tendencies to evil, as faultless as angels before the throne, so the assault that felled him lay not in indwelling sin, which remains unexplainable until heaven. Being made in the image means man endowed with reason and speech and gifts that if improved can be enlarged may be elevated, ennobled, fitted as co-laborer with Christ and the greatest Teacher to live to God and honor Him and reflect Him who did all things well, unlike clouds, rain, grass and fruit obeying without resistance, for man alone can choose disorder and remain imperfect incomplete hampered by world-bound habits and unholy practices, yet imperfect man through grace with Christ's perfection revealed may do all things well unto Christ's benediction to the good faithful servant, forming his own character after God or Satan as mind becomes God's workshop cultivated into beautiful building or Satan's.

Man was made perfect reflecting the moral image, left free to choose good or evil with the high prerogative of his nature, and abusing freedom by choosing evil must have the evil, yet through Christ giving His life human nature is placed on vantage ground before heaven and fallen world so all may become wise virgins, partakers of divine nature, complete in Jesus, perfect without spot and blameless. The Word that created man still imparts power and begets life by creative energy, and every command accepted by will and received into soul brings the Infinite life, transforms nature and recreates the soul in God's image, sustained by every word proceeding from God's mouth.

Dominion Entrusted to Humanity

Let them have dominion gives mankind under God's supervision dominion over the fish of the sea and the fowl of the air and the cattle and all the earth and every creeping thing upon the earth. Man was God's last crowning work, made male and female in God's own image after His likeness with personal form like God's own form, blessed to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it, and the work was seen as very good when heaven and earth were finished before rest on the seventh day with its blessing and sanctifying and the testing of obedience in Eden. Adam was appointed monarch of the world and crowned king in Eden as rightful sovereign over all the works of God's hands and over every living thing God had created. Adam and Eve were given joint unlimited rule and control while true to God.

That dominion was peaceful and happy and harmless, making them very happy in Eden. The lion and the lamb sported together around them or slept at their feet without fear, and birds of every color and plumage and variety flew among the trees and flowers and around them with sweet music joining in praise to the Creator. Adam and Eve united with the glad songs of creation in thanksgiving to the Father and the Son, and the peaceful beasts in happy innocence played about them obedient to their word. Adam stood in perfection of manhood as the noblest of God's work, a little lower than the angels, without taint of sin, with all organs and faculties equally developed and harmoniously balanced and every want supplied in sinless Eden.

The kingship over the lower creatures stood only so long as man remained loyal to God, for all nature acknowledged Adam's rule on that condition. The dominion was conditional and was forfeited when Adam transgressed, and Adam and Eve were continually reminded of that lost dominion. The rebellion let in by sin extended throughout the animal creation, so the beasts no longer submitted to him.

That dominion means mercy toward the dumb creatures God made and placed under man, not taking the life of God's creatures to consume their flesh as a luxury. The wholesome and delicious food given to man in the beginning is the proper food, and those seeking to become pure and refined and holy for the companionship of heavenly angels should dispense with flesh foods and return to it, themselves practicing mercy and teaching their children to practice it. Killing and eating them injures mind and soul as well as body and destroys tenderness in those who inflict it and those who behold it. Animals have intelligence approaching human intelligence, seeing and hearing and loving and fearing and suffering, using their organs faithfully, showing sympathy and tenderness toward companions in suffering and showing affection and attachment and confidence toward humans superior to that shown by some of the human race, which no man with a human heart who has cared for them could willingly give over to the butcher's knife to devour as a sweet morsel. Rank as a creature of higher organization than the animals means scavenger animals low in the scale of organization, all flesh-eating and omnivorous with the hog at their head, were never designed to be his food but to eat putrescent animal and vegetable matter with relish and work filthy decaying matter into their own tissues, thereby preserving the life and health of higher beings, proving by that organizing and classifying of the hog outside the alimental department that man was not designed to make him a staple for food, as pure human instinct quickly decides.

Being made in the image of the Maker means uniting larger responsibilities with smaller ones, giving attention to the lesser matters of life even while engaged in business of vast importance, especially the instruction of children and the duties of home life on which happiness and eternal interests depend. Making man in the divine image blessed Adam and Eve with intelligence such as He had not given to any other creature, enabling him to contemplate and appreciate the glorious works of God in nature. Adam was appointed under God to lead the earthly family and uphold the principles of heaven for peace and happiness, and human self-rule and selfishness broke from God as center into sin and misery. Dominion as lord of creation with dominion over the earth does not make white men masters to be served by black slaves nor make manual labor degrading drudgery to be avoided. Claiming lordship while refusing to wait on oneself and to cultivate land and raise food, crowding into cities to live by scheming rather than patient toil, and keeping blacks dependent on work in white cotton fields perverts dominion and produces laziness, extravagance, and every evil, while the true gentleman worthy of the name is the humane, compassionate, Christlike man in useful physical labor, and the highest missionary work is learning and teaching it, for patient, joyous labor brings health to the mental, moral, and physical powers.

Loss Through Sin

God consigned to Adam dominion over the creation, making him its monarch and ruler over the earth and all living creatures, with Eden as his home and the human race under him. By yielding to temptation and transgressing, Adam forfeited that dominion and came under Satan's power and into bondage, so that the earth itself, the dominion of man, passed to his conqueror and was usurped by the enemy. By conquering Adam, Satan claimed Adam's dominion for himself, claimed the world God had made as his own dominion, claimed the race as his subjects, claimed Eden as his possession to make his headquarters and establish his throne there as monarch of the world in Adam's place, becoming god of this world. That lost dominion is to be redeemed through the sacrifice of Christ in the plan of salvation and given to Jesus at His second coming with power and glory when He stands on the Mount of Olives as King over all the earth, ending the groaning of creation with songs of praise, raising dead believers in the first resurrection, changing the nature of the animal kingdom and subduing it unto Him in universal peace, until the earth can again be pronounced very good and there is no more curse with the throne of God in the restored inheritance where His servants serve Him and the righteous inherit the land and dwell therein forever.

Sin has almost obliterated the moral image in man, marring, dimming, defacing and well-nigh erasing it, transforming man from God's image to Satan's similitude with Satan's attributes and selfish principles stamped where heaven's principles should be, seen in transgression which is violation of law, in violence and crime. Man at creation bore the image and superscription of God as a coin bears the stamp of the reigning power, and sin has marred and dimmed that image but has not erased it, leaving traces of the inscription upon every soul however degraded and lying among dust and rubbish, which makes every soul still precious in God's sight and sought by God to recover and retrace upon it His own image in righteousness and holiness. That image was debased in humanity by Satan through sin, leaving character ruined and marred and brought low to the dust with the will controlled by demons, and the estate possessed in Adam was lost and must be regained through a lifetime work of thorough transformation of soul, body and spirit by following Jesus Christ who is the image of the Father and the living example and copy to study and imitate. By standing before God through faith, winning back by conflict with the powers of darkness the self-control and love of God that Adam lost, living through Jesus Christ and keeping God's laws, truth refines, hews, squares and chisels character to fit men and women for God's temple and the mansions in heaven.

Man was created as a sovereign in Eden in original exalted purity with a golden character and physical and moral dignity, with noble perfection of form, clothed by God with a halo of glory as a garment and given health and fullness of blessing. After transgression that covering and light departed because the light of God's glory cannot cover disobedience and sin, and Satan brought man down, dimmed that character, and defaced and almost obliterated the image of God in man, destroying physical and moral dignity until fallen man bore only a faint resemblance in character and form to dignified Adam. The Eden sovereign was thus transformed into a slave on earth groaning under the curse of sin, so that in place of health and fullness of blessing poverty, sickness, suffering of every kind, sorrow, pain, premature death and every kind of woe became the portion of the children of Adam.

The kingship over the lower creatures stood only so long as man remained loyal to God, with all nature placed in subjection to Adam and acknowledging his rule while he remained loyal to Heaven, and the dominion was conditional and forfeited when Adam transgressed. When Adam rebelled against the divine law the inferior creatures rebelled against his rule, and the rebellion he let in by sin extended throughout the animal creation so the beasts no longer submitted to him. Sin marred that perfect work that had come from God's hand holy and beautiful, and thorns and thistles, sorrow and pain and death are all the result of disobedience to God. Under the curse of sin all nature witnesses to man in mercy of the character and results of rebellion against God, showing the sacredness of His law and leading men by their own experience to see the danger of setting it aside even in the slightest degree, while though marred the earth still reveals God's goodness, forbearance and love.

Man came from the hand of his Creator perfect in organization and beautiful in form, physically perfect, developed not stunted, beautiful not deformed, healthy not diseased, God's best work formed in His image and made lord over His works, physically noble in grandeur, beauty and perfect symmetry and intellectually great, with nearly a thousand years of life and corresponding size and physical strength. Humanity has since woefully deteriorated and dwindled from that original standard to a feeble, suffering, short-lived, diseased condition marked with disease, decrepitude and imbecility, without the high vitality of the beginning, enervated, dwarfed and filled with pain. That state is not the work of Providence nor the appointed lot of humanity nor implanted by God nor come normally through law, but was generated by man and brought about by wrong habits violating the laws God made to govern human existence, by continued violations of God's physical laws through bodily appetite and passion, corrupt appetites and lustful passion, and accumulated transgression including flesh eating begun by Noah and his sons after which length of days rapidly declined, so that violation of physical law brings suffering and premature death and continual transgression of nature's laws is continual transgression of the law of God. The original vitality was so great that it was more than a thousand years before such violations were sensibly felt upon the race, while vital forces have since been greatly weakened so that recent generations feel infirmity and disease more rapidly and heavily with every generation.

God did not after the fall give human beings a new order of energies and passions and did not implant sinful propensities in the race, though the divine likeness was lost when Adam transgressed. The present bias to evil, warped and twisted senses, perverted and wasted faculties, and debasement of sin are the perversion of the original endowment. Christ began His work of conversion immediately after the transgression so that through obedience to the law of God and faith in Christ man might regain the lost image of God, and through cultivation of righteous principles and by grace bestowed by Heaven man may gain the victory over the bias to evil, have words, thoughts and energies purified, have senses no longer warped and twisted and faculties no longer perverted and wasted on objects that lead away from God, form a new character and overcome the debasement of sin.

People can lose that likeness when they lose sight of eternal realities. Sin can so damage the likeness borne by humanity that people scarcely recognize their need of salvation or whether they have souls, having neither faith in God nor confidence in man.

Restoration Through Christ

Through the plan of salvation the sacrifice of Christ pays the penalty of sin as the second Adam, and not only man but his dominion is redeemed so that all lost by the first Adam is restored. Adam was placed at creation in dominion over the earth itself, and by yielding to temptation and coming into bondage to his conqueror that dominion passed to Satan who usurped it and became god of this world. That kingdom betrayed into Satan's hands and long held by him has been brought back by the great plan of redemption, and the first dominion will be recovered with the original inheritance restored. God formed the earth to be inhabited and not in vain as the abode of holy happy beings, and that purpose will be fulfilled when renewed by God's power and freed from sin and sorrow it becomes the eternal home of the redeemed. There will be no more curse, the throne of God will be in the restored inheritance and His servants shall serve Him, and the righteous shall inherit the land and dwell therein forever. The kingship over the lower order given in the beginning was lost, and in the future it will be restored with the lower creatures again recognizing man's sway, so that nothing shall hurt nor destroy in all God's holy mountain and the fierce become gentle and the timid trustful.

At the second coming with power and glory in the clouds of heaven with the trump of the archangel, the forfeited dominion consigned to Adam will be given to Jesus when He stands on the Mount of Olives as King over all the earth. Then the groanings of creation shall cease for songs of praise, dead believers shall rise in the first resurrection, the animal kingdom shall change its nature and be subdued unto Him in universal peace, and the earth shall again be pronounced very good.

Christ came to restore in man the image of his Maker after it was debased by Satan through sin, with character ruined and marred, brought low to the dust and the will controlled by demons. He came to expel the demons controlling the will, to lift man from the dust, to reshape the marred character after the pattern of His own divine character and make it beautiful with His own glory, and none but Christ can fashion anew the character ruined by sin. By His own divine perfection of character He has power to atone for man's sin, to elevate man and to bring him back to his first estate. When man yielded to temptation God's image was obliterated, and Christ put His hand to the work a second time to re-create man, coming in the fullness of time with divinity clothed with humanity to reveal perfection amid a corrupted world and bring all grace, all healing and the bread of life. Becoming the propitiation through crucifixion He lights up the world and reproduces and restores the defaced image, so that a family of believing saints receiving Him will finally inhabit the heavenly home in the restoration of the world. Through Christ the divine image may be restored, but only through earnest prayer and conquest of self by which man becomes a partaker of the divine nature. That likeness is restored when grace educates and molds the character, taking men as they are and working as educator with every principle of all-sided education, training the soul after Christ's methods until fierce passions and defective traits are molded with new motive power and the man is filled with the Holy Spirit after the divine likeness.

In the beginning the human family was made in God's own likeness as His children, and that likeness and sonship were lost when the first parents listened to the tempter and yielded to Satan's power. Man was not abandoned to the results of that choice, for at infinite cost provision was made to restore the human family to sonship with God. The Son of God was given to redeem the race from the destroyer, the sinless suffering for the sinful at infinite suffering to pay the price of redemption. All that was lost by yielding to Satan can be regained through Christ, and those who accept the salvation brought in Christ are restored again to the image of God and humble themselves before God as His little children. After the fall opened the floodgates of woe until the world became corrupt, God gives humanity the privilege of gaining back God-given manhood and womanhood with work that carries into eternal life, so the immortal image may be restored for eternal life.

The likeness was created not only in character but in form and feature, seen in lofty majestic Adam little below the Son of God, whose contrast with the smaller stature of later generations shows the great degeneracy of the race. Sin defaced and almost obliterated the divine image, leaving mortal corruptible polluted form devoid of comeliness with blemishes and deformities and the curse. Christ came to restore what was lost, changing vile bodies and fashioning them like His glorious body into perfect beautiful immortal form. At the resurrection all arise the same in stature as when buried yet with freshness and vigor of eternal youth, leaving all blemishes and deformities in the grave. Restored to the tree of life in the long-lost Eden, the redeemed grow up to the full stature of the race in its primeval glory with the last lingering traces of the curse removed, appearing in the beauty of the Lord and reflecting the perfect image of their Lord in mind and soul and body.

The Sabbath recalls man's primeval glory in God's image and likeness, points to God as source of life and knowledge, and as a sign of creative and redeeming power witnesses to His purpose to re-create human beings in His own image. The moral image wounded by sin is to be restored, and medical missionary work heals the wounds sin has made by bringing remedies for physical suffering together with the gospel for sin-burdened souls. That restoration is the character and aim of sanitarium work carried on by true medical missionaries sowing seeds of truth, standing as gospel memorials, with nurses relieving suffering by natural methods while aiming at moral restoration. God's gifts do not restore His moral image without diligent effort, for people must cooperate by learning to care for the body and obey nature's laws, consecrating powers to God and intelligently obeying His laws to stand in the manhood God gave. Cooperation includes learning how to obtain and prepare the most wholesome food and wisely use products that can be raised or secured. Binding medical missionary work inseparably with the third angel's message, including present truth, health reform, the gospel and Sabbath reform, restores the lost moral image and prepares sanctified workers looking to Christ. The restoration takes place by divinity and humanity uniting in effort together, with human tapers lighted from the divine altar.

Restoration comes by free choice on the right side, connecting with heavenly agencies and adopting by faith the reviving restoring principles that characterize Christ's life. Received by faith those principles are in the soul as a well of water springing up unto everlasting life, overflowing with riches of grace to refresh others and shown in good works and partnership with Christ in ministry. Vital connection with Christ pledges the agent to God's glory and links him with humanity, and the Holy Spirit acting on the mind enables hallowed influence by which humanity becomes a partaker of the divine nature and works the restoration. The restoration is carried out through the influence of the Lord Jesus wielded by the Father Himself, with interests bound up with the whole world in ever-widening shoreless unseen yet intensely active influence. All heaven is interested and working for this restoration, with God and holy angels intensely desiring human beings to reach the standard of perfection Christ died to make possible, to be one with Christ, complete in Christ and heirs of heaven.

Heaven has made every provision to restore the lost moral image, yet the world has rejected every such provision ever since Cain lifted his hand against Abel. Heaven manifests intense interest in developing that moral image, for man was given reasoning powers and endowments by which he may progress, be elevated and ennobled and sanctified, and hold converse with God. God has made full provision by grace and mercy to enrich man for restoration to a truthful refined uplifted ennobled life, received through sincere conversion, bowing the will to heaven and forgiveness of sin. If obedient man is capable of immortality and may come into possession of immortality, life running parallel with Jehovah's life and living as long as God lives, which means very much as a child of God and heir of God and joint-heir with Jesus Christ, filling the heart with awe, while a soul lost is the loss of the most valuable object in the world. That restoration is made vain when men teach human commandments, sell the Lord to be in harmony with the rebellious multitude, corrupt the Lord's way, and say Lord, Lord while refusing His will and presenting good works as a claim.

Restoring the moral image calls for special efforts for the roughest lowest classes in large cities as part of proportionate well-organized labor that puts all talents to best account. The great object of life is to have that image restored in the whole man, soul, body and spirit, in the poor degraded drunkard and other sin-sick souls. This comes not by continuing liquor and indulgences but by overcoming all unnatural appetites and sinful indulgences, discarding liquor, tobacco, tea and all flesh meat, with a place in every city where souls find courage and sustaining help to overcome. By instruction developing perfect manhood those restored can become teachers of good things. The restored image means attention to God and His holy requirements, being imbued with His Spirit, being actuated by love, and revealing the divine attributes in life and character. Christ shows that image as light and life of the world by continual self-denial and self-sacrifice, valuing every human being, unwilling that one should perish, embracing the world with a great heart of love and providing complete salvation to all who believe. Being made in the likeness means having a character like God's in love, honor, perfection, justice, goodness and benevolence fully revealed in the Gospel and in His Son, and the Gospel as mirror reveals God's glory so earnest study shows what the divine likeness is and what man may become. By constantly beholding Christ's divine perfection, and as the mirror reveals defects seeking by prayer and faith to put them away to meet God's perfection, man is changed from glory to glory with the will molded to the divine will until Christ's nature appears in gentle courteous words and kind helpful ways.

The divine similitude is a character to be perfected now, and companies are to be organized and most thoroughly educated to work as nurses, evangelists, ministers, canvassers and gospel students for this perfecting. This thorough education and organized gospel work prepares to receive the higher education in the school above. The implanted Word works as leaven with vital properties in heart and character to conform the whole being to God's will and ways by converting power, eradicating evil from those who lost the image through disobedience and denial of truth, and this restored conformity fits them for entrusted work. Christ as Redeemer constantly works to restore that moral image amid a groaning creation under the curse. Even now, though present fruit and flowers are nothing compared with the earth made new, the sick can find health and gladness in field and orchard, for nature even marred is restorative and preventive, and believing repenting children availing themselves of blessing in tree and shrub and flower receive healing as from leaves of the tree of life. The kingship with dominion given to human beings included mastery of themselves, that kingship was lost, and grace restores lost kingship giving mastery of self and self-control revealed in Christlike lives as practical demonstration of the gospel's saving power.

Human Worth and Duty

Because man was formed in God's image God places a high value on the human family, pronouncing the successive works good but man very good, giving life as a costly solemn sacred trust and talents of flesh and blood, nerve and muscle, mind, intellect, reasoning powers, opportunities and abilities to be used, improved and returned with account for advancing His work and proclaiming His righteousness. Each fellow worker belongs to Him by creation and by redemption at infinite price by the blood of His only-begotten Son, deriving life from Him as Creator and Source of life and Author of the higher life, loved, watched over, cared for, capable of living through eternal ages, and therefore to be treated with respect in word and action, with sympathy and heavenly speech separate from the world's methods, never with contempt whether high or low, rich or poor, white or black, never taken soul and body under human control as a machine, dictated to or judged for another, since soul, body, spirit, conscience, individuality and identity are His workmanship with freedom to think and duty to do the Word. That forming for His glory means acknowledging Him in every word and act, revealing His character to a world sunken in sin, living not to self and perverse will but to benefit others and bless the world and honor the Creator, with those who ruin fellows by partiality, insincerity and unjust dealing and drive souls away having those souls required at their hands in the judgment.

The Scriptures reveal what God expects of beings so formed, how to improve the present life and how to secure the future life, and a perfect knowledge of His will as revealed in His Word makes known those expectations for improving entrusted time. By obtaining knowledge of God's Word and giving heed to it men may rise from the lowest depths of ignorance and degradation to become sons of God, associates of sinless angels.

Contemplating being made in God's likeness, living in God's world in His presence, watched over and loved and cared for by the great Creator of the universe, opens broad exalted fields of meditation, develops youthful minds to noblest development as the highest source of wisdom, lifts the finite mind to a sense of the infinite, raises the soul above what is earthly and commonplace and fixes it on what is ennobling and eternal, especially joined with contemplating God and His wonderful plan of salvation and His gift of His dearly beloved Son to redeem man from miserably perishing. Keeping this thought removes satisfaction with trivial sensational subjects, while neglecting it leaves the mind unsatisfied and drawn toward them. Nature teaches the same love and care through opening buds and blooming flowers, assuring that He who gave the greatest gift Heaven could bestow will much more delight to give those formed in His image an eternal inheritance and immortality as they connect with God and heaven, develop symmetrical characters spotless as the pure lily, take hold of heaven's blessings to have a right hold on earth, and look up through nature to nature's God.

Being formed in God's image sets man far above birds and dumb creatures, giving even a blind and afflicted man much more value than animals and tender claim to tenderest consideration, neighborly love, compassion and mercy. For that reason human beings as creatures formed in His own image have special claim on His care, and the wonderful care He gives birds and flowers learned outdoors teaches sick and weary seekers of restoration to trust the God of nature lifted up before them by physicians and helpers for soul and body.

Liquor, tobacco, opium and kindred drugs deface and deform that image by taking away reason, benumbing sensibilities of soul, destroying appreciation of sacred things and what God designed men to be, enslaving the will, exciting animal passions, drowning reason, perverting judgment, filling the heart with vileness and well-nigh effacing the image written in heart and countenance in pure thoughts, elevated words, clear reason and right judgment until thoughts become earthly, words reveal a low mind, the will is surrendered to Satan and the heart opposes pure truth. The evil spreads to children ruined and reduced to pauperism and degradation with drunken fathers' tendencies perpetuated in them, lowers character meant to reflect God to below the brute creation, and no financial revenue, wealth, power, position or human law permitting sale of poisonous drink compensates or excuses, so liquor laws sustaining brutalizing destruction dishonor beings made in that image, degrade souls Christ bought on Calvary, and bring accountability and arraignment at judgment for those leading in making drunkards without the mind of Christ. Moral pollution, the disgusting soul-and-body-destroying vice practiced by youth and children of both sexes, likewise degrades that noblest earthly being into a beast, gross and corrupt, with utter shipwreck of body and mind until professed Christians are benumbed not to recognize it as sin, so every Christian must learn to restrain passion and be controlled by principle or be unworthy of the Christian name.

Using God-given muscles and physical strength borne in the body in pugilism to fight, maim, bruise and mar fellows damages and defaces God's image and makes fighters wicked, mischievous and devilish, while watching such combat as amusement for pleasure is satanic, lawless and cruel. Fashioning the human body with no mistake beautiful, healthy and perfect amid everything lovely and glorious in nature, God established natural laws for proper control of dress, appetites and passions requiring obedience in every particular, and modern improvements upon His plan deform what He made perfect and insult the Creator.

Restoring that marred and well-nigh obliterated image and bringing man back to the perfection and harmony in which he was first created with noble qualities, well-balanced mind, harmonious powers and varied capabilities of body and mind and soul for highest excellence is the purpose for which salvation was devised and probation granted, the great object of life underlying every other and the true object of education in body and mind and soul in fidelity to the Creator's plan. The likeness to be received is God's character of benevolence and love, employed for His glory and uplifting of fellow men in purest noblest happiest exercise, found by directing the mind to the Creator to know Him and become like Him and seeking development of His gifts to fulfill His purpose, forbidding selfish exclusive culture appealing to pride, selfish ambition, emulation, earthly standards and desire to excel others and for self-exaltation which dwarfs and belittles. So important is the work of elevating and ennobling moral nature to reflect the Creator again that Christ left heaven's courts to dwell thirty years as man among men through childhood, youth and manhood enduring severest trials as living illustration, then to teach three years as Teacher sent from God before ascending where He still watches the cause for which He gave His life.

Youth as younger members of the Lord's family created in the Maker's image with God-given powers and God-like manhood to honor God, bless men and become sons of God are to be trained upon God's plan of development and growth so their spirit represents Christ's Spirit, with discipline of this life preparing for high destiny, dignity and honor. Knowing this dignity turns from low selfish aims and frivolous pleasures, and sin is to be hated and shunned not merely from hope of reward or fear of punishment but from sense of its inherent baseness because it degrades those powers and stains that manhood. That moral image must be restored by Christ through humbling of self, requiring schools of greatly changed character combining intellectual and moral powers to reach the Word's standard and mold institutions rightly, an education begun here continuing hereafter until restored man attains a glorious destiny only eternity can reveal.

The divine likeness is to be developed in the soul and impressed first in the home as first field, where children as precious plants and the Lord's property are molded and fashioned after the divine pattern for usefulness, duty and eternal welfare. With God's help a mother shares in work greater than painting, sculpture, writing or music by presenting the highest ideal in own character and training, asking what God has spoken, studying His Word, keeping eyes fixed on Christ so daily care and duty reflect the one true life, while fathers and mothers in the home as sanctified school work in harmony, giving intellectual culture and moral training, fortifying young minds with firm pure principles, laying foundations for noble manhood and womanhood, teaching love to God and to the Lord Jesus, obedience to law and strict obedience and high piety, not loving the world, becoming like Christ who came as living example and pattern for subjects of the kingdom, correcting disorderly actions and ungainly words reasonably without scolding, anger or passionate blows, labor to be rewarded a thousandfold and, if anything must be neglected, not this.

God designs to bring humanity into connection with Himself that humanity may touch humanity and men controlled by His Spirit may increase in knowledge and strengthen every principle of character according to the divine similitude, establishing centers of influence as places through which He specially works to bring restoration. Bearing that image means reflecting His character by leading minds to God and giving Him devotion and heart-worship He claims, not drawing affection, preference and worship to self by trifling with hearts, encouraging improper intimacy and centering others' affections on self, which robs God and divides devotion as erring faulty clay deceiving idolizers. Receiving it as God's work after divine image not human similitude, bearing on character in every phase and glorifying God against trusting finite man and human devisings, requires change, putting away wrong, searching Scriptures to know God's way and will, and entire consecration of soul, body, spirit and whole heart to be molded and fashioned, with character as by an artist transferred to heaven's books where the Master-artist delineates every phase and notes selfishness and greed until in judgment each stands revealed either fashioned divine or disfigured by idolatrous selfishness and covetousness.

Whoever consents to be molded and fashioned after that similitude becomes God's noblest specimen, pervaded by a principle of divine origin binding to God which does not hinder true science, understanding creation's design in communion with the Creator and feeling accountability to employ every faculty to very best purpose seeking neither to glorify nor depreciate self but to glorify God, which is true education. Managers of God's work rest under terrible responsibility to mold minds so, calling for men of faith and prayer and elevated principle seeking God with whole heart. Each person must individually form character after the similitude by doing everything as viewing the invisible God with mind fixed on Him, earnestly cultivating mind as the Lord's garden and developing every mental and physical power in right relation to make a perfect whole amid last-day perils, so the church as building represents the great Designer's wisdom and character.

Meeting that similitude as standard requires thorough transformation for every member of the family through genuine daily conversion and the Spirit's transforming influence, without which they remain far from likeness and unfit for saints' companionship in light, and with which comes understanding of spiritual things. Being transformed to character after the divine similitude, a character like God's in love, honor, perfection, justice, goodness and benevolence fully revealed in the Gospel and in His Son, makes fallen children of wrath sons and daughters fitted for heaven's occupations and pleasures, standing as fortress impregnable to Satan's sophistries and delusions to the astonishment and joy of seraphim, cherubim and cooperating powers, while the Gospel as mirror reveals God's glory and defects to be put away by earnest prayer and faith in beholding Christ until changed from glory to glory and His nature appears in gentle courteous words and kind helpful ways. Ministers must be transformed and molded anew after that solemn elevating ennobling image free from selfishness, self-sufficiency, self-importance, carelessness, recklessness and laziness before they can exert its influence in life, conversation and deportment.

Man was formed in God's image to magnify the Lord of Hosts in contemplating His love and law's perfection, but transgression brought displeasure readable in nature's testimony, though creation still reveals Him good, merciful and forbearing. Men so formed and loved with anguished tears refuse that love and the impress of His image when doubting His Word, following independent judgment, choosing darkness rather than light at peril of souls and leaving mysteries unilluminated by light that would dispel darkness. The grace of Christ reveals and teaches the likeness as gospel truth of life to be brought from under human conjectures and openly expressed in speech, action, life and character so good works are seen and God glorified.

That moral image lost is now to be restored in man by Christ through labor in God's love, with humble workers who learned Christlike religious love working for souls of their own race to bring them back, teaching religious love and using all given power while catching His Spirit's inspiration to help souls to higher standard, improving faculties for best service to redeeming Christ, thinking soberly, consecrating self day by day, counting hours precious, purifying soul with stern resolve, using golden opportunities to reach high standard, beholding Christ and dwelling on pure clean lovely things until changed with persevering training keeping mind fresh clean uplifted, going even among lower classes amid impure defiling sights not dwelling on filth but with Christ by side and angels round watching with love and pity to relieve wretchedness and present high holy things, a cooperation without which nothing can be done, whose fulfillment gives life purpose not lived in vain with God's help. Restoration is divinity and humanity uniting in effort with human tapers lighted from the divine altar, influence from God pledging the agent to God's glory and linking with humanity while the Holy Spirit on the mind enables partaking of divine nature through vital connection with Christ. It comes through principles revealed by God's people and setting forth Bible saving truths as ordained means to stem corruption in obedience to truth by grace drawing men together, elevating and ennobling presenters themselves in deeper sanctification.

Obedience to God's commands wins eternal life while disobedience places man on Satan's side, and since the image is sadly disfigured with traces of God's love nearly obliterated by choosing darkness rather than light, the disloyal with the Lord at the door as in Noah's day must be urged to repent and render obedience to law. Man made with moral image, reasoning powers, endowments and capabilities for progress, elevation, ennobling, sanctification and converse with God is of such value in heaven's intense interest that if obedient he may possess immortality, life parallel with Jehovah's life living as long as God lives as child, heir of God and joint heir with Christ, filling heart with awe, while a soul lost through sin is loss of the most valuable object in the world. For that creation God would not leave man for Satan to rule and ruin, and against Satan's declaration none would keep loyalty one soul saved proves the claim false and demonstrates His government's righteousness, so Christ came by obedient life showing man can obey, canceling guilt and clothing Himself in sorrow's robe that sinners stand clothed in righteousness. He delights in well-doing and happiness of those formed in His image, regarding them of such value as to give His only-begotten Son as propitiation and to shameful death to save transgressors from ruin, showing tender disinterested love greater than earthly parents', affectionately studying happiness of His heritage and delighting in harmony and love among His children as objects of special care whom He longs to see reveal character like His.

The great creation work when earth came holy and beautiful from His hand, every flower, shrub and tree answering its purpose, all lovely to the eye filling mind with thoughts of His love and every sound music in harmony with His voice, though marred by disobedience into thorns, thistles, sorrow, pain and death, still reveals goodness, forbearance and love in fields, trees, sunshine, clouds, dew, night stillness, starry heavens, moon, rain and light, and is the reason for the Sabbath to be described to children amid nature's beauties with the way of salvation through Christ. Mind and body in God's similitude must be active to fill appointed place, for as body's machinery works continually with heart throbbing to force crimson current everywhere, Adam pure holy healthy was given use of organs so brain works actively not mechanically under obedient action governing all creation, and idleness is sin. Man was made to reveal God's image, which would have been revealed had he obeyed Jehovah's laws in natural laws, and in restoring it cooperating with God by all given power and Spirit inspiration to lift souls gives purpose. Remembering formation in the Maker's image gives divine relationship higher than graven images, beasts, reptiles and handiworks, joining man to infinite power, majesty and glory and keeping worship elevating, while forgetting it represents God by things no higher than man and bows to revolting senseless objects, destroying worship's efficacy, degrading man and opening way to unrestrained passions and foul license.