After His Image and After His Likeness

    God did indeed create us in His image and after His likeness. In Hebrew, this is understood as צֶלֶם (image) which is literally "form". And דְּמוּת (likeness) which literally means similitude. The Hebrews recognized that as His image, they were created as having dominion over all that the earth gives. That all humans were designed to mimic their creator and have lordship over that which He gave. And in His likeness, we were fashioned to model our existence after His.

    In the midst of this Edenic setting, God placed a test. He created us as sentient beings that were free to choose to love and worship their creator... or not. He had long ago created a host of beings designed for service and now sought fellowship with those that would love Him for who He is. And to underscore that desire, He placed a single cluster of trees in the depths of a perfect picture that would reveal our forefather's heart. To this point, there is no death, no pain, no suffering, no hunger, no war, no hate, no race, no worries...no sin. But then the fall occurs, judgments are pronounced, and mankind is left outside of its former utopia.

    And from that very moment, all of creation began to war with mankind and each other. Our bodies, the climate, other living organisms...everything began to decay; the dying process had begun. And to make matters even worse, the enemy was there to show us his better way, and many followed. Now given over to our own lusts, desires, minds - cruelty and war became commonplace. Though created equal, our fallen state began to propagate caste systems and hierarchies. Power became the forbidden fruit of mankind and its offspring has culminated into the unfortunate setting we now see.

    But God made a Way to overcome the morass, He gave Himself over to us, and allowed us to judge Him. Looking back at the fall, Adam attempted to cover what had become the symbol of his sinful state by the use of a leaf. Adam tried to make his own way to cover his own sins, and again find himself worthy of appearing before a Holy God. But nothing any of us do can give us back what Adam lost at the base of the Trees of Knowledge, of Good and Evil, and of Life.

Adam lost our innocence.

    And the only recompense for innocence lost was an innocent offering. God removed the leaf and replaced it with the skin of an innocent animal. Establishing the model that the descendants of Seth used for millennia afterward. But we were created in His image and had dominion over the beasts, and therefore no animal could ever perfectly redeem a man. Only a man could be an adequate sacrifice for his fallen brethren. But, no man embodies the very thing Adam lost; innocence. The only perfect being was our creator Himself, so therefore our creator veiled His Glory in the flesh of a human. We call that man, Jesus of Nazareth. And that perfect, innocent man had one goal, and that goal was to fulfill a promise He had made in that very same garden that saw mankind fall. He would be sacrificed to make us whole again. God, Himself finds us all significant; so much so that He willingly became one of us, and died for us.