The Garden of Eden was the operation, it was the connection of Heaven with Earth. But sin - which originated in the pretense of one of the angels being like God - brought destruction, resulted in tragedies. Humankind knew chaos (Judges 21.25). The men were contaminated, they moved away from the original plane (Isaiah 59.2). They did not look more like their Creator. The Lord of all things yearned to have back the friendship and intimacy that he had with men (Genesis 3.8). But how? Is there a way for sinners to be close to the One who is Holy? How could they enjoy the presence of God?
The first solution of God was the tabernacle (Exodus 26.1). So that humanity would not be lost forever, the Lord created a way to establish contact, to know its laws (Exodus 20.1-17). Things related to heaven and earth begin to work together once again. Unfortunately, men kept moving away from God. Sin resulted in people having pleasure in evil, in the suffering of the other, in lying, in gossip (Proverbs 6.17-19). They lost the divine essence, they no longer reflected the nature of heaven. They had no resemblance to the Creator.
Christ, then, lived among us (John 1:14). He established the Kingdom of God where it came. He suffered the death of the cross, for the sins of humanity. He restored the connection with God (John 14.6). He forgave our mistakes and deviations, and left us a challenge: to be as He is. We have been trained in the image and similarity of God, the devil has deceived that, and Christ has made possible the redemption through the cross, we could be conformed to the image of God!
This means representing the eternal purpose of the Lord. It is not experience, it is a trajectory. It is opening the right to lead our own lives (Matthew 16.24). To seem with Jesus means to allow his characteristics to dwell in us (Galatians 5: 22-23), to let divine dominion take over, and not our nature. (Galatians 5.24-25) To be the image and similarity of God is to manifest coherence between our character and what God has operated in our lives. The cross allowed us to be participants in life, in a new life.
We must observe well what God does, and do the same! Act like His imitators (Ephesians 5.1), and what God does is primarily love us. We need to learn from Him the life of love. The love of Christ was not contained, repressed or moderate. It was extravagant! He did not love us to receive something in return, but to give us all of himself. We need to love in the same way. Manifest softness in the place of bitterness, embrace the suffering of the other, help the weakest, demonstrate mercy, forgive as many times as necessary. We have to fight for what Christ was fighting. Die for what we believe.
To be in the image and likeness of Christ is to allow the love manifested on the cross to transform our lives every day (Philippians 1.6), and to live in love.
