How We Lost God’s Image And How Christ Restores It

What if the phrase “made in God’s image” is more than a comforting slogan—and the reason your soul longs for peace? We walk through Genesis with open Bibles and open questions, tracing how the image was given, how it was fractured by doubt and disobedience, and why a promised Savior changes everything. Starting in the garden, we unpack the serpent’s strategy—sowing distrust of God’s word—and the deep consequence that followed: spiritual separation, exile from the garden, and a world shaped by Adam’s fallen likeness.

From there, we turn to the hope that reframes the story. Colossians calls Jesus “the image of the invisible God,” and that’s our doorway back. We talk about new birth from John 3, the simplicity and certainty of salvation in Romans 10, and the honest tension we live with now: renewed in spirit and soul, still waiting for the redemption of our bodies. Along the way, we offer a practical approach to Scripture—read slowly, notice who God is addressing, and let the text interpret the text—so the Bible becomes a source of clarity instead of confusion.

If you’ve wrestled with assurance, identity, or how to reconcile Genesis with the gospel, this conversation is a steady guide. You’ll hear how the Holy Spirit restores what was lost, and where real peace begins: trusting what God has said. 

whosoever.me

Enjoying the conversation? The WhoSoEver Podcast is just the beginning and we are thankful you're a part of it.  Learn more at WhoSoEver.me, and email your questions or topic ideas for Vince and Susannah to explore in future episodes to Welcome@WhoSoEver.me.

Transcript

Welcome And Purpose

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Whosoever Podcast, where we study the Bible with clarity and confidence in context by rightly dividing the word of truth, the key to unlocking the joy when we're searching the scriptures. Let's go. Welcome on in to the Whosoever Podcast. My name is Vince Hodges, and I'm joined by my wife Susanna. And here we go, starting with the new year and a new podcast. But um, if you're listening to it in the January of 26 or December of 26, it's this is this is the uh second podcast we've done. And today we're just gonna start off with very early in Genesis because we hear all the time about how we are designed and built in God's image, and that is so correct. But also, something happened early on, many years ago, and that's kind of what we're gonna talk about today. So I guess we titled it like what happened?

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Yeah. What happened?

SPEAKER_01 0:57

What happened?

SPEAKER_00 0:58

That's right. What happened?

SPEAKER_01 0:59

So, where were we, and uh what happened, and then what happened after that, I guess.

The Command And The Fall

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Yes. So when you start off right off the bat, uh Genesis 1, 26, and 27. And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness. And then in verse 27, so God created man in his own image. And I think it's important that we define what is that image. I mean, we know we look like God, he he designed us and created us to be in his image, but what does that mean? And I think the best place to go for that is 1 Thessalonians 523. And this is where Paul is writing a letter to the Thessalonians, and he says, And the very God of peace sanctify you holy, and I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we have a body, a soul, and a spirit. And I that is that is the image of God because he is three in one. Father is the soul, the body of God is Jesus, and the spirit of God is the Holy Spirit. So when he created Adam and Eve, he gave them a body, a soul, and a spirit. And that is the image of God. But something happened uh in the garden, as we know. There was uh a disobedience on the part of Adam and Eve. And um, I think it's important to kind of go through what that looked like. Uh, the Genesis uh in chapter two is where this all goes down. Um and in verse 17, God has given them instructions, and really the only rule they have is not to eat of the uh tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Verse uh 217, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in that in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. So I kind of want to have you kind of think about your your own children and how you deal with with children. Don't stick your finger in that outlet, it's gonna hurt you. Well, they're innocent, they have no idea what that means. They're just expected to obey, and that's what God expected them to do. He couldn't explain what the knowledge of good and evil was. Uh, he couldn't explain what that death would be. Just don't eat of that tree. Well, uh, we know that Eve was deceived, and the first thing that uh Eve, uh, well, the first thing that Satan does in his deception of Eve is to get her to doubt God's word. He says, Yea, hath God said that doubting, not trusting God's word there uh is what he did. He caused her to doubt the only authority in their lives, which was God, and doubt his word. And so uh the first thing, you know, you need to watch out for yourself is and it's a common problem.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Yeah, every day.

Doubting God’s Word

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Not trusting God, you know, we always like doubting God's word, and that's exactly what she did, and it and it got her in a lot of trouble. Um Satan says in uh Genesis 3:5, your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And he was lying. Obviously, she didn't become like gods, right? In fact, it was she lost something huge when um she ate of that tree. So when we look at what um God's answer to all of that was, uh he in verse uh 15 of Genesis chapter 3, I'll put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. And so that's the very first indication that there would be a savior.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

And that's what happened. We uh we messed it up.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

And so he's coming in trying to fix it.

Promise Of A Savior

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Trying to fix it, and uh that's what we're doing here, basically. You know, the Who Shoever Podcast is it's just simply for anyone who wants to understand the Bible as it was written. You know, many of us love God's word, but we struggle with verses here and there that seem to contradict each other. And in this particular discussion we're having today, um, yeah, people are right when they're saying they when we hear people say we're all made in God's image. We are, but here is where that separation, and here's where we kind of aren't. And we're gonna get into that, you know, in our next step here. But the problem always is not scripture, it's just really how scripture is handled. And at the Whosoever podcast here, we're just gonna read the Bible slowly. We're gonna ask honest questions and learn to recognize who God is speaking to in each passage. And there's no pressure here, no debates, just scripture, conversation, and then really ultimately when you have that together, you get clarity. So if you have any questions and want to send us a quick note, let us try to walk through it together and send us an email to welcome at whosoever.me, and maybe we can talk about it right here. But moving on to the separation, that happened. There has to be something now in response to all that. So going ahead, it's early as in Genesis, still in our first few chapters of the Bible. What happens next?

Handling Scripture With Clarity

SPEAKER_00 6:16

Right, what happens next? And um, so Eve has uh eaten of the tree, she has convinced Adam to eat of the tree, but I think it's important to note to talk about Adam for a second here. What did he do? Um, he uh God says to him in Genesis 3, verse 17, and unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife and has eaten of the tree. So another thing we do, we tend to listen to voices we shouldn't be listening to. He knew he was responsible, and he knew that was not God's word, but he still listened to a false narrative, and it came from Satan through his wife to him, and he chose. I you know, sometimes I think he chose, I know what I'm doing is wrong, but Eve has already stepped in that direction, and so he went along with her. I like to imagine, obviously, this is not biblical, but I like to imagine that he knew that if he went along, then the Lord would rescue both of them. And so he does do just that. The Lord decided, okay, I've got to we've got to rectify this situation. There's gonna be a savior. So the result of this was they got kicked out of the Garden of Eden. And uh, we learned of that in Genesis 3.24. He drove out the man and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden cherubims. They had flaming swords, and they keep the way of the tree of life. So they had no longer access to the tree of life, and um that tree of life uh incidentally comes back during the millennial reign of Jesus on the earth, and that is in a future date, time period. So, what happened to the image? Why was it destroyed there?

SPEAKER_01 8:10

How do we get it back?

Consequences And Exile

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Yes, so let's take a look at Genesis chapter five. We start to get some idea here in chapter three. So Adam and Eve created in God's image, but then in Genesis five, we see, and Adam lived 130 years and begat a son in his own likeness after his image, Adam's image, and called his name Seth. So we know Adam has a problem with his image, he lost it some, he lost it by disobeying God, and so he generates children in his image, a fallen image. And that's where we are. We are all from Adam, and we are all created in Adam's likeness. So we need to get back to God's likeness. So when we look at that, uh Colossians, let's go to Colossians here, chapter one, verse 14 and 15, talking about Jesus Christ, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who he's speaking of Jesus, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. So if Jesus Christ is the image of God, that's how you get it back. Because when you accept Christ as your savior, you're restoring at least partially the destruction that happened in the Garden of Eden. So when you accept Christ as your savior, you get that image back. And that's why the Holy Spirit can dwell within you, is because that part has been um has been corrected there.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

And that was one of those deals that Nicodemus had such trouble with in John 3 that gets us right back. And he explains to Nicodemus exactly how it's a it's a spiritual birth. Right. And that's uh basically the salvation, and the that's how we get the image back. So yeah, we are born in the image of God, and when we get born, when we are decided to be born again, that's right, there we are.

Adam’s Image And Our Need

SPEAKER_00 10:14

That's right. Uh so salvation is very simple. Uh, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's Romans 3.23. We know that we're born in sin because we're born of Adam. Uh and we know that our the result of that in Romans 6.23, for the wages of sin is death. Now, when you look at Adam and Eve and you say, Yeah, thou shalt surely die, right? She didn't drop dead right then, right? But what happened was her body was damaged in the sense that it uh we we do have death coming for us, all of us. So that death is inevitable. But what really died was a spiritual death. That connection, that spiritual connection to God was severed. And that's what you get back with Jesus Christ. Now, Paul says we're waiting for the redemption of our body. So that's it's a part, when I say it's a partial salvation, it is at this point in time, because we still have a third part to get corrected, and that's our body. And so we're living with a sinful flesh, but our soul and spirit has been saved and secured. So when you look at yourself, I like to tell people, I'm looking out at you, you're looking out at me, but we're not seeing each other because we are our soul. Paul says to reckon your body dead because it is. It's sinful and it's dead. So you need to understand that you are not your body, you are a soul, and what you want is that that soul to be restored spiritually to God.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

And so I think after that, then that that just drives you right to when you when you understand that and see where the separation happened thousands of years ago in Adam and Eve, that knowing that you can have that restored relationship-wise, spiritual-wise, that just provides peace, wonderful peace, just absolute peace.

Christ As The True Image

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Romans 10 9, I think, is one is one of the very best verses on how to get how to get that risk restoration. Yep. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Very simple. There's no mention of losing it or anything like that. It's you believe that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, that he died for your sins, he was buried and rose again, you're saved. And uh that partial restoration and your soul gets secured, and that Holy Spirit can live within you. And uh now all we're waiting for is for God to fix this body that is full of sin and death.

New Birth And Restoration

SPEAKER_01 13:04

Well, the Whosoever Podcast is just getting going. Any questions, comments, things you'd like to have discussed here, by all means send us an email, welcome at whosoever.me. And um if you would like the whole, all the list of uh, you know, we only hit about 10% of the the uh scripture references here. If you'd like that uh PDF of all the references talking about the God's image, what's happened, and kind of how we got to the end of at least our time here together today, send us a note. We'll send that to you when you ask. Thanks so much for listening to the Who Shoever podcast. Please remember to subscribe so that we can stay connected. If you haven't left the rating yet, please do so. It helps incredible people like you find all of us, Who Suever, right here.