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

This is the first promise God makes to mankind and it is the reason for creating our physical world. God wants us to be in His image but we currently are not so, except for the ability to act beyond instinct. Sometimes people use the concept of acting without inhibition or self-control as a positive development in ones life rather then the step backward it actually is.

In creating mankind God started with Adam and then created Eve from Adam and together they were to be fruitful and multiply. Eve wasn’t able to be fruitful without him and he needed her too. This whole creation account was meant to picture what God intended spiritually in Christ.

"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This is a profound mystery--but I am talking about Christ and the church." Ephesians 5:31-32

Here Paul quotes from Genesis 2 as to Jesus being like Adam. The church is His Helper and Mate. He also demonstrates the love and respect they ought to have for each other so that together they may be fruitful and multiply.

Paul further explains this in 1 Corinthians 15:45-49 "So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being" ; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven."

This is an obvious truth in a physical sense; we are man just like Adam was. We contain his genes and have no new DNA to this day. Paul does explain what does happen to us though. We change and become a spirit being like Christ, in his image, but he retains the pre-eminence always. It is also obvious that we have currently not become this spirit body since we die and corrupt in the earth – unlike Christ. The only man who has currently become immortal is Jesus – if you believe the Word of God.

"In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time--God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honour and might forever. Amen." 1 Timothy 6:13-16

No one else before Christ was born again as a Spirit being with immortality (we don’t have an immortal soul we are quite mortal). This is why he is called the Firstborn (from the dead as a Spirit being). The question is: when will we receive this promise.

"Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed-- in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:51-57

This passage of scripture refers to people asleep which early in the chapter refers to those who are dead. Just as when you are asleep. You are aware of nothing but everything you are is immediately there when you wake up. It also explains what is meant by the last trumpet – which isn’t your last breath.

"But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death." 1 Corinthians 15:20-26

Jesus died as the Passover Lamb and was Resurrected and offered as the Firstfruits during the Days of Unleavened Bread. The physical Israelite practice was intended to represent a future spiritual one in Christ. It goes on to describe when those who died in Christ will be resurrected, when he comes, this is also the last of the seven trumpets in Revelation – hence the last trump. This chapter is consistent with the rest of the scriptures.

Remarkably some attempt to twist these scriptures and read into them their immortal soul belief. They state then when you died you went to heaven and this passage then refers to a physical resurrection when Christ returns. No ten year old would get that understanding from these verses. It clearly states we will be like Him when He returns. We need to put on immortality like Him and we will be born from the dead in that spiritual body upon His return.

This is what God predestined for mankind – to be in the image of Him.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16 Of course this passage also implies that without such a belief you will perish – cease to be.

This is the first and greatest promise He holds out to you – life forevermore in the image of Christ.

"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:17-18

In this physical environment we all grow old and die, some with many sorrows, pains and hardships along the way but these temporary trials are nothing compared to the promise of eternal life without pain, sorrow or death. Choose life!