IMAGE - 20 Amazing Bible Words To Know: (eikon) - Part 2

IMAGE - 20 Amazing Bible Words To Know: (eikon) - Part 2

The Greek word for image is eikon. It represents two types of images that we find in the Bible. There are the false idols that some people worship and it is also used to refer to the image of God that has been placed into each one of us.

The Apostle Paul writes about this image in his letters. In 1 Corinthians 11:7, man is “the image and glory of God.” In 15:49, we “bear the image of the heavenly.” He makes his key point in 2 Corinthians where he writes:

2 Corinthians 3:18

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”

Paul is telling us that the image of God lives in us. That is an amazing thing to know but in a broken world, our sin has perverted that image. Sin has turned the tables on us. Instead of living as men and women who are made in God’s image, we have created our own images of our own gods.

We, who were created to worship, pursued our own glory by creating our own gods to worship. The result is that in effect, we have recreated God in our own image. Could there be anything more offensive and appalling to God? Paul writes about this phenomenon in his letter to the Romans.

Romans 1:21-23

“For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.”

Paul goes on to say that “they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.”

Tomorrow: how can we restore that image and regain God?