When you did these things and I kept silent, you thought I was exactly like you. But I now arraign you and set my accusations before you. (Ps. 50.21 NIV)

To the superficial religious folks of Asaph’s day a judgment was soon to arrive. To regard God as just an enhanced version of oneself is the typical view of those who know not God. In reality, to those who know Him, God is indescribably higher than the heavens in majesty and scale. When God created man in His image, it wasn’t a miniature of Himself. Image and likeness is limited along certain lines or aspects, I believe, such as the capacity for fellowship and worship of Him. At Adam’s fall, this image was lost to some degree, and humans began to regress to resemble the animals in behavior and moral values.

God’s Image restored in Christians

While Christians still retain “the old man” (literal translation of Eph. 4.22 and Col. 3.9) they also possess a new creation from God, the new man: and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. (Col. 3.10 NIV). This reality of the old and new self becomes the internal race and struggle for believers in Jesus, as seen in Paul’s exhortation of 1Cor. 9. 24-27:

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.