Genesis 5:3 establishes the notion that within humanity, a son bears a likeness to his father.
And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth: (Gen 5:3 KJV)
We all understand this with physical features, where a son may physically look like his father bearing the same skin tone, hair and eye color, build and facial features.
But because he was taught by his father, he also may carry similar traits found in his:
- temperament
- work ethic
- love/compassion towards others
- integrity/moral character
And similar interests like:
- a love of the outdoors
- being an avid reader
- sharing a preference for types of foods, books, friends and even women
- being a fan of sports and even of a particular sports’ teams
And engage in similar occupations:
- doing a common trade or working in the same industry
- carrying forward a generational business
- following in the same footsteps regarding military service or being men of the cloth
When a child mirrors his father in all of these ways, we often say of him: He is his father’s son.
We’d even go as far as saying: He is his father.
Why?
Because he is a cookie-cutter image of the one who fathered him.
Does that mean he is truly his father?
Of course not. It’s clear they are two separate beings: one begotten of the other, but they carry the same spirit (attributes, habits, tastes, interests, skills, etc) in them. The son truly bears the likeness of his father.
That’s how I think it is with men being called sons of God, and particularly Yeshua being called the Son of God.
To Be Called the Son of God
Genesis 1:26-27 establishes the notion that man was made in the image and likeness of God.
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Gen 1:26-27 KJV)
However, over time the generations of men that followed Adam took on other traits, strayed from God’s instructions, fancied other things, developed other habits, chose other occupations, etc, and they became unrecognizable as God’s children.
It seems to me that what is written concerning the children of Israel is a model to help us understand on an individual basis what it means to be “our Father’s son”…and what it looks like when we stray from Him.
We are given instructions on how to live, and we are expected to love our Father with everything we have and obey Him. When we falter, he corrects us. As we continue to learn, walking in obedience to the best of our ability, we begin to conform to His image.
We take on His attributes. His interests become our interests. His passions become our passions, and His occupation becomes our occupation. We become the ideal model of Him in all of our individual diversities.
But if we stop learning from Him, if we begin disobeying Him, taking on wayward ways, we can lose sight of His desires, His wisdom, His mission, etc. And we can become nothing like Him.
We need to understand whose we are.
Mankind is made in the image of God. We are not God Himself, but we are made in His image.
Many of us have been raised with different attributes, passions, interests, and occupations modeled for us than those of our heavenly Father. So we may not recognize how to become His children in every sense.
But as we come to learn about and from Him, by first acknowledging He exists (and that He’s far superior than any man, to include the Messiah Jesus), and understand He desires for us to be like Him to mirror Him in all of our ways, we can become recognizable as His children.
I believe He wants to honor us, provided we behave in an honorable way, bringing glory to Him,
We don’t need to earn our way into His presence; He is our Father. But we do need to reject all other mighty ones in our lives and submit to Him, and do our best to obey Him.
Enter Our Big Brother
We have an advocate in the Righteous One, the obedient-even-unto-death Messiah man Jesus.
He is our “big” brother — our fellow man, yet chosen to rule over us (as Joseph was chosen to rule over his brothers).
He acted as mediator between God and man during his ministry on earth, when he taught further from God’s instructions, speaking His words and will for us, opening our eyes to better understanding, bringing comfort and healing to the broken, and restoring life to all of mankind who heed him.
He demonstrated to us how to live righteously in an unrighteous world, speaking of the hope for a future kingdom, the Kingdom of God, where he will rule in righteousness and justice, and we can enjoy peace and rest.
He interceded on our behalf to the Father, and still does, having suffered the same things we suffer and overcoming those sufferings through his continued obedience to the will of the One who made us.
And one day, after this heaven and earth pass away and a new heaven and earth come to pass, God Himself will then come down from heaven in all of His glory and dwell with mankind. Until then, we as His children are to tarry as a light in this world.
Know Your Father, God
Jesus/Yeshua taught us to keep the LORD God’s instructions. Yes, we are to love one another, but we also need to get a clearer understanding of who our Father is and what He stands for.
The Maker of heaven and earth is holy. He is a jealous God and will not stand for the putting of other gods in His face, idolatry or the like. He will not stand for willful disobedience, to include turning a deaf ear to instructions He made abundantly clear by etching them in stone. And He will not stand for the maligning of His name.
Those who claim to be His, to bear His name, need to act like it. We need to uphold His name, His character, His being.
The Maker of mankind is not, was not, nor ever will be a man. He made man. And we are truly special having been made in His image.
We need to not heed the Father of Lies who seeks to belittle our existence — to make us think we are the scum of the earth, nothing special, that we can never truly please our Maker, and/or that we can never know what our Father has for us to know.
We can be like our Maker…in due time.
Be encouraged brothers and sisters. We all can be called our Father’s son, when we mirror Him in every way.
