GOD CREATES US IN HIS IMAGE

     God creates men and women in His own Image. Everyone may be like God, pure, holy, perfect and righteous. These are moral characteristics. What Fox seems to be saying is that we may be like God in that we may live good moral lives. We are in God's Image in that we know right from wrong, good from evil. We are capable of loving others, of living a peaceful life, of being pure and chaste.

     Because God creates us in His Image and lives within us as the Light, we have great value and may be truly human. Our decisions need not be completely selfish and self-serving but may consider other people’s wants and needs. We may live a full life and use the gifts that God has given us.

     It is possible to lose the Image of the Creator and to be driven from God on the earth. For some people are out of the Image of the Creator and set up images of strange gods made of stone and wood. But if we dwell in the Light and wait upon God, He will renew His Image. Christ Jesus redeems men and women up into the image of God as we were before we fell. In Christ it becomes clear what being in the Image of God means.

WE ARE CREATED IN GOD'S IMAGE

     The biblical underpinning for this belief is Genesis 1: 27: So God created man in His own Image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.

     This means that we may be like God, pure, holy, perfect and righteous. These are moral characteristics.

     What Fox seems to be saying is that we may be like God in that we may live good moral lives.

     
     Of course, Fox believes that God creates both men and women in His Image.


     In marriage men and women are restored and sanctified in the image of God. The couple are help-meets in righteousness in the image of God. Everyone is to be a new man or woman, renewed in the Image of God.


        An image is a copy, not the real thing. For we certainly are not God; God is radically different from us. However, we are in God's Image in that we know right from wrong, good from evil. God is Love. One way in which we are in the Image of God is that we may love Him in return.

    
     Part of being in the Image of God is that we share in the day-to-day process of creation, have children, do a job well, write a story, have a garden. We have a responsibility for the environment, are kings and queens over creation and all creatures.

    
     We may lose or fall from the Image of God, if we turn away from His pure spirit.

     But if we dwell in the Light and wait upon God, He will renew His Image.

     Then we may be made like God, created anew in His Image, pure, holy, perfect and righteous. Sinners may be healed if we dwell in the Light and wait upon God for He may renew His Image.

     Christ Jesus restores faithful men and women into the Image of God and makes them as kings and priests to reign upon the earth. Everyone may be renewed into the Image of God by the Seed Christ. For He redeems man and woman up into the image of God as we were before we fell.

     We are not only created in the Image of God but also “bear” the image of the Just Christ who suffered by the unjust. It would seem to follow that we may be just, too. In 1656 Fox writes in letter 110 to Friends in prison to be examples, patterns to the other prisoners in the Image of the Son of God. In Christ it becomes clear what being in the Image of God means.

    
     Being created in the Image of God means that we are truly human. It means that we are of value because God lives within us. Our decisions are not completely selfish and self-serving but do consider other people’s wants and needs. We may live a full life and use the gifts that God has given us.

    
     To live a complete life we, "should know the Power and Life of Christ’s resurrection, have fellowship with Him in His death so that we will be comfortable to His Image.”