Image

What does it mean that Jesus is the express image of the father? And that we, too, are created in the image of God?

Once again we are brought back to basics. Who is God? Who is man?

"Of the many magnificent purposes served in the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, one great aspect of that mission often goes un-celebrated. His followers did not understand it fully at the time, and many in modern Christianity do not grasp it now, but the Savior himself spoke of it repeatedly and emphatically. It is the grand truth that in all that Jesus came to say and do, including and especially in his atoning suffering and sacrifice, he was showing us who and what God our Eternal Father is like, how completely devoted He is to His children of every age and nation. In word and in deed Jesus was trying to reveal and make personal to us the true nature of His Father, our Father in Heaven." Jeffrey R Holland, The Grandeur of God, October 2003

I have heard people make comments that Jesus and the Father look exactly alike. How shallow a reading of what is a significant truth!

So how then is Man created in the image of God? Yes, God is a glorified man and it is wonderful to know He is not that being described by early Christians - a God who is "unknown and unknowable, formless, passionless, exclusive, ethereal, simultaneously everywhere and nowhere at all."

And yes, we His children are like Him in that our bodies are like His. But that is only a part of what it means. Our divine nature (see that section for more on this) is in its essence what it means that we are created in God's image. We can become like him.  We have within us the potential to become the same kind of being that He is. 

Jesus not only showed us what the Father is like; "merciful, and gracious, slow to anger, long-suffering and full of goodness." (Joseph Smith Lectures on Faith), he showed us what we are to be. "Come, follow me" was not an invitation to just allow him to lead us - it was an invitation to live like Him, take his attributes upon us.

His Image in Your Countenance

"We seek for light and learning as followers of Christ

That all may see His goodness reflected in our lives.

When we receive His fullness and lose desire for sin

We will radiate His perfect love, a beauty from within.

Have you received his image in your countenance?

Does the light of Christ shine in your eyes?

Will He know you when He comes again because you shall be like Him?

When He sees you will the Father know His child by His everlasting image in your eyes? "

Janice Kapp Perry

Also check What Heaven Sees in You by Doug and Sherry Walker

"And the father looked

And the angel surrounded that place

They knew the truth, all that you could

And you will, too, if you have eyes to see

What heaven sees in you."