As the Bible
is a progressive revelation, showing us more and more the greatness of
spiritual truths, it represents man as starting from no high plane of
civilization and as a learner through the ages. Man is even now in the
process of making; he has not yet come to his best estate.
The Image of God.--What is the likeness of God? "God is Spirit" (John
4:24) and that part of man which counts is his spiritual kinship to
God.
Man's intelligence, moral nature and will constitute "the image of
God" in him and make it possible for him to come into communication
with God and to occupy his unique place in the universe. Only a person
can understand a person.
"Man is dear to God because he is like Him. Vast and glorious as it
is, the sun cannot think God's thoughts; can fulfill but cannot
intelligently sympathize with God's purposes. Man, alone among God's
works, can enter into and approve of God's purpose in the world and
can intelligently fulfill it. Without man the whole material universe
would have been dark and unintelligible, mechanical and apparently
without any sufficient purpose. Matter, however fearfully and
wonderfully wrought, is but the platform and material in which spirit,
intelligence and will, may fulfill themselves and find development."
The Bible seeks to show men in how many ways they resemble God and to
urge them to be worthy of their likeness to God.
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