In the Likeness of God

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness..." (Genesis
1:26)

Every human being has been designed by God. We have been created in the
image and likeness of God. One of the results of having been made this way
is that every individual has a desire to be like God. It's a natural thing
for us to want to be like God. We've been given the God-ability to choose,
to make our own decision, to decide for ourselves what we will and won't do,
what will and won't think, even - to some degree - what we will and won't
feel (our feelings are often determined by the attitudes with which we fill
our minds). In the sense that we have the ability and the authority to make
these kinds of choices, we bear God's image. When in the act of choosing we
choose to act as God would act, then we demonstrate our God-likeness. When
we do not act like God, well... that becomes self-explanatory.

But the only way in which we can make God-like choices, the only way in
which we can truly act as God would act is by our connection, our intimacy
with God himself. Look at Jesus. That is exactly what he did. He said, "I
do not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what
to say and how to say it." (John 12:49) Even the Holy Spirit doesn't do
anything except for what he's been instructed in by the Father. "But when
he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will
not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears..." (John 16:13) It
is by their connection with the Father that the Son and the Spirit do the
things God does. Certainly if it is true for the Son who is divine and the
Spirit who is divine, how much more so is it true for us that, the only way
we can act like God is by a direct and intimate connection with God.

Sin is the attempt to be like God apart from God.

Every human being wants to be able to make decisions for his/her life that
are good decisions that make for a good life. Jesus never made any
decisions that were contrary to what the Father wanted. As long as we make
choices that are consistent with what the Father wants, then we act like
Jesus and therefore act like God.

In John 15, Jesus spends a fair bit of time talking to his disciples telling
them to "remain in Me." This is more than just a figure of speech. To
remain in Christ (he refers to himself as the True Vine in verse 1) is to
maintain a vital and intimate connection that enables the Christian to "bear
fruit." To bear fruit is a metaphor for acting like God and getting the
results that God-like living brings. In being "in Christ" the Christian can
then act "like God." What does it mean to act like God? How is it that God
acts? John 5:9 tells us: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.
Now remain in my love." The result? "My command is this: Love each other
as I have loved you." (John 15:12)

To love others as Christ has loved us is to act in the likeness of God.