Day 35: Imago Dei

In the Book of Revelation, the Satanic beast from the sea has seven blasphemous names on its heads (Revelation 13:1).  Its chief ambition is to blaspheme the holy name of God, and one way Satan accomplishes that is by perverting and corrupting God’s design for human beings.

The phrase “Imago Dei” is a Latin term meaning “Image of God.”  It refers to the wonderful truth that humans have been uniquely and specially created in God’s likeness.

Genesis 1:27 - “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

What does it mean to be created in the image of God?

First of all, we must keep in mind that God is an eternal Spirit – he does not have a physical body.  So being made in his image doesn’t mean that we resemble him physically.  

Rather it means we resemble him spiritually by sharing to some degree in his divine attributes.  We are little mirrors that reflect God’s glory in a multitude of magnificent and mysterious ways that animals do not.  

For example…

• We have eternal spirits that will exist forever.
• We are rational beings with exceptional capacities for reason and logic.
• We are self-aware and can contemplate the questions of our existence and origin.
• We have a moral conscience and the ability to discern between right and wrong, good and evil, justice and injustice.
• We have a conscious awareness of God and the ability to worship Him. We can enjoy a personal relationship with Him.
• We have the privilege and responsibility of exercising dominion over the earth.
• Additionally, we share in a variety of other divine attributes such as love, compassion, kindness, gentleness, honesty, truthfulness, faithfulness, patience, purity, and self-control.

There’s nothing Satan would like more than to defile all of that – to pollute it, corrupt it, and distort it.  He wants to break our little mirrors so we can’t glorify God.  And that’s why he loves abortion so much.  It’s one of his favorite ways to destroy the Imago Dei.  

Suggested things to pray for:

• Today let’s pray that God bind the work of Satan and remove the demonic blinders from people’s eyes.
• Pray that people would recognize the inherent beauty, value and dignity of human life, and seek to preserve it.