Paul speaks of
man as 'the likeness and glory of God.' And St. James says of the
tongue, 'Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith' (to
our shame) 'curse we men, which are made in the likeness of God.'
But the great proof that man is made in the image and likeness of
God is the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ; for if human nature
had been, as some think, something utterly brutish and devilish, and
utterly unlike God, how could God have become man without ceasing to
be God? Christ was man of the substance of his mother. That
substance had the same human nature as we have. Then if that human
nature be evil, what follows? Something which I shall not utter,
for it is blasphemy. Christ has taken the manhood into God. Then
if manhood be evil, what follows again? Something more which I
shall not utter, for it is blasphemy.
But man is made in the image of God; and therefore God, in whose
image he is made, could take on himself his own image and likeness,
and become perfect man, without ceasing to be perfect God.
Therefore, my friends, it is a comfortable and wholesome doctrine,
that man is made in the image of God, and one for which we must
thank the Bible.
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