Made In God's Image

Question: What does Genesis 1:27 mean when it says that "God created man in His own image"?

We are told in Colossians 3:10 that the regenerated man is "renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him." In Ephesians 4:24, we are told that it is in "true righteousness and holiness" that the "new man" is created in the image of God. It is evident, then, that the words "image" and "likeness" in Genesis 1:26-27 do not refer to visible or bodily likeness but to intellectual and moral likeness in "knowledge" and "true righteousness and holiness." However, we are taught in Philippians 2:6 that Christ Jesus existed originally ("being originally,") "in the form of God" - that is, in a visible form that was divine. Similarly, in our ultimate state of blessedness, we will be like Christ in our bodily appearance as well as intellectually and morally (1 John 3:2; compare Matthew 13:43 with Matthew 17:2).

Marriage

Question: Should a Christian ever marry an unbeliever?

Most assuredly not. To do so is to disobey the plainest directions of God's Word. God says in 2 Corinthians 6:14, "Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers." Undoubtedly, many do this through ignorance, but that does not make it right. When a woman and a man marry, they are yoked together in the most complete and intimate sense. By "unbelievers" in the above passage, God clearly does not merely mean outright "pagans," but all who have not definitely received Jesus Christ and surrendered their lives to Him.

More promising lives are shipwrecked by a marriage contrary to the Word of God than in almost any other way. Some women marry men for the purpose of converting them. Such marriages result in inevitable and unutterable misery. You cannot hope to convert another by disobeying God yourself.

Question: Do you believe in marriages between Catholics and Protestants?

While both Roman Catholics and Protestants may be real believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, the differences between them are so radical that a marriage between the two cannot but result in friction and misunderstanding. This will especially be true when children are born into the family and the question of rearing the children comes up. If the two parties in question cannot come to see eye to eye on the fundamental questions of difference between Catholics and protestants before their marriage, then they had better not marry.

~R. A. Torrey~