In this message I would like to give a very brief word on the resemblance of God and man in their images and likenesses. We may think that we are very clear regarding this matter. Actually we may not be at all clear. Therefore, I would encourage you to study all the following points very carefully. As we consider these we may wonder whether man resembles God or God resembles man.
There was no “mankind” created by God in His creation. Genesis 1 tells us that God created all the fish, the birds, the beasts, and the cattle after their kind (vv. 24-25). Although God created everything after its kind, God did not create “mankind.” In God’s creation there was not such a thing as “mankind.”
If God did not create “mankind,” then after what kind was man created? Genesis 1:26 indicates that man is after God’s kind. This verse says, “Let us [the Divine Trinity] make adam [Heb. adam, denoting red clay] in our image, after our likeness.” Hence, what God made here was after His own kind, that is, God-kind. The word man is not used in the Hebrew text of Genesis 1:26. Here we are told that God created adam, which means “red clay.” God created something of red clay in His own image and after His own likeness. Having the image of God, this work of red clay looked like God. At least we can say that this clay was a figure of God, made after God’s kind. Therefore, it was God-kind.
In Genesis 1:26 God created something according to Himself. What He made was a reproduction of Himself. If God had made ten thousand pieces of clay in His image and after His likeness, those ten thousand pieces of clay would all have been figures of God, the mass reproduction of God.
In Genesis 18:2-13 three men appeared to Abraham. One of these men was Christ—Jehovah—and the other two were angels (19:1). The appearing of these three men to Abraham took place before Christ’s incarnation. This means that two thousand years before His incarnation, God appeared as a man when He visited His friend Abraham. Abraham prepared water for Him to wash His feet, and Abraham’s wife, Sarah, prepared a meal that this man ate. This is a mystery. When did Christ become a man—at the time of His incarnation or before the incarnation?
The angel of God (God, Jehovah, a man of God—Christ) appeared to Manoah and his wife before Christ’s incarnation (Judg. 13:3-6, 22-23).
According to Daniel 7:13-14 Daniel saw a vision of a Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven, and He came even to the Ancient of Days—the God of eternity—and they brought Him near before Him. There was given Him dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. Daniel saw such a vision of Christ as the Son of Man before Christ’s incarnation.
Adam was a type, a prefigure, of Christ (Rom. 5:14).