Have you noticed that the newspapers are filled with stories of death – death in accidents, death in war, death in terrorist activities, and the special death pages entitled “obituaries?” Then consider your own family – how far back can you go until your ancestors are all dead? Do you have a great-grandparent, or a great-great grandparent still living? The generations of man die off pretty quickly.

Have you ever considered how and why death started? It started with our original ancestor,Adam, and his wife, Eve. Get out your Bible and open it to Genesis chapter 1. This is the account of God’s creation of “all.” There are a few things that I want to call to your attention.

And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them: and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food: and to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for food: and it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good (Genesis 1:27-31 ASV).

Man was created in the image of God. What does this mean? Well, it doesn’t mean that when you look into the mirror you see an image of God looking back at you, because God is Spirit. What the meaning does include is the moral and righteous character of God.

Man was created by God as someone special. God blessed man, which means he was in a state of happiness, prosperity, free from want, free from harm,free from fear, in a state of bliss. Wouldn’t that be a wonderful way to live?

“In the image of God” describes what a man is. By “man” is meant “male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27). He was created very good – body, spirit, soul, and image.A better translation of verse 1:27 is that God created man as His own image. Man’s purpose was to be God’s image bearer upon the earth.

Notice that the image of God is a constituent part of man. Without the image, man is not man. The image is part of man’s nature. It is as much a part of man as is his mouth and head, or his arms, legs, and torso.You cannot take the image of God from man and still have man be man.

Another important aspect of man is his status. “Status” means his position in regard to law. What law? The law, or rule of God is the intention, or purpose, for which God created all things. Man was created good. In this regard,“good”signifies righteous. God created Adam good, and this placed Adam in the state or status of righteousness. Adam was created righteous or just. He had to be if he was to bear the image of God in his dominion over the earth (vv.1:28-30) and act within the will of God.

Understand that “righteousness” and “just” are forensic or juristic terms. That means they are legal or law terms. They define a man’s actions from a legal viewpoint. They do not define his physical, spiritual, or soul makeup. (Consider this aspect very carefully as it will come up later when salvation is considered. There is at least one great heresy practiced today that relates to this.)

Man had the right to live and exercise such character over his domain, and therefore rule with moral goodness, exhibiting the will and image of God to creation. Man had it made.

God’s creation was so good that He took a rest (see Genesis 2:1-3). God rested from His work of creation – and rests to this day. His work was perfect; no further “creation” has been needed. He does, however “recreate.”