1. God declares his intention to make man in his image according to his likeness (Genesis 1:26).
   • To become like God, man should develop in him the character of God.
   • To develop the character or image of God, man will be subjected to tests and trials.

2. God anticipates that physical man could succumb to the Devil’s temptation and sin. The penalty of sin is death. Should man sin, man would die. Unless there is a way for man to escape the penalty of death, his creation is thwarted. But God should succeed.
   • God and the Lamb decided that should man sin, he should be saved from death (Revelation 13:8).
   • The Lamb’s death would be sufficient to pay the death penalty of mankind.

3. Genesis 2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
   • The first phase of man’s creation shows that he is made of dust (Gen. 1:27) with the potential to become immortal or merely a mortal (Gen. 2:16-17). What he will become depends on his exercise of his freedom to choose.
   • Man chose to do that which God had forbidden him (Gen. 3:1-6) and his death became a certainty as God warned him previously (Gen. 2:16-17).
   • Man was banished form the Garden and the 2^nd phase of his creation, the spiritual or character development phase, was stalled until he is cleansed of his spot or wrinkle. God being a perfectionist wants his creation to be spotless.

4. To implement the salvation plan, the Word became flesh (John 1:14).
   • When the hour of his slaying became imminent, the human Jesus struggled as to whether or not to lay down his life (Luke 22:41-44).
   • Jesus overcame and decided to lay down his life (John 10:15).
   • Jesus died and declared, shortly before he breathed his last, that as to man’s salvation, as far as God and Jesus Christ are concerned, “It is finished!” (John 19:30).

5. Man, “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16), was excused from dying for his sin. Man was saved from dying.
   • To keep and maintain his being saved, man has to believe “in Him”, Jesus (John 3:16).
   • If man does not believe “in Him”, Jesus, he will perish (John 3:16).

6. Having been freed from the death penalty and cleansed by Jesus’ blood, the saved man could now proceed to the character or godly image (Romans 8:29, Colossians 3:10, 2 Corinthians 3:18) development process.
   • Man is gifted with the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22) for which he becomes Christ’s (Romans 8:9), a Christian.
   • The Christian is in effect, “a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
   • Jesus instructs Christians to “do business till I come” (Luke 19:13).
   • This “business” or “works”, Jesus makes specific as his commandment to “love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34, 15:12).
   • Paul counsels Christians to have the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5), that we should put off our old man and to put on the new man (Ephesians 4:22-24, Colossians 3:8-10, 12-14), etc.
   • To be able to produce good works, the Christian would simply set aside his ego and let Jesus live in him to live his life in him (Galatians 2:20).
   •  God is love (1 John 4:16). God’s image and the “image of His Son” (Romans 8:29) is love “for God is love” (1 John 4:8).

7. At Jesus’ return there will be a “performance evaluation” of each Christian (Luke 19:15).
   • The Christian who had developed God’s image by “works” enters the KOG by being changed to spirit to become immortal (1 Corinthians 15:51-53) “like Him” (1 John 3:2).  
   • The Christian who chose to be barren by not using the power of the Holy Spirit previously gifted him is disqualified to be changed to spirit and remains a mortal and will be condemned (John 5:28-29).
   • The Holy Spirit he kept “in a handkerchief” (Luke 19:20) unutilized, would be taken back from him (Luke 19:26).  

When God finishes his creating man in his image according to his likeness, man will be changed to an immortal spirit (1 Corinthians 15:51-53). “We shall be like Him” (1 John 3:2), spirits, as “God is Spirit” (John 4:24).

As a being which is already “like” God, man’s creation ends. Man’s life, the real LIFE, begins!