What if I told you that He has answered this question from the beginning though perhaps we have not seen it?  Not only that, but God is using all of our lives to accomplish His purpose in us.

In Genesis 1, God said that He wanted to make man in His own image and AFTER His likeness.

Genesis 1:26 - Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

However, man was not satisfied with only the image and wanted to be like God instead.  So, when Adam was tempted by the devil who promised him God-like control over the world, man sinned and fell, losing God’s image in the process.  We truly don’t know how much of God’s image fallen man has at birth, if any. But we do know there is a spark and a moral code written on the hearts of all mankind.

Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of time (Acts 15:18).  He had planned from the beginning that man’s transformation into God’s image would be a life-long process, and He tells us this by the apostle Paul in Romans 8:28-30.  Scripture does not tell us to what level of Christ’s image we will progress before God takes us home, but we do know that we will not reach the fullness of Christ’s image on this side of the grave, as man continues to have a sin nature.  Further, we know that God is using every event, every minute of our lives, to transform us more and more into the image of His Dear Son.

What about His likeness? From 1 Corinthians 13:12 and 1 John 3:2 we can see that in this life we can have only a reflection, a poor reflection … but in the next life we will be like Him.

If we can let this sink in, that God is using even the hardest times in our lives to conform us more into His image, we should never despair, but know that the Lord has a divine purpose in all the events in every believer’s life.  What a wonderful God we serve.

Genesis 1:27  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 

Genesis 3:1-5 - Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

2 Corinthians 3:18  And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. 

Romans 8:28-30 - And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

1Corinthians 13:12  For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 

1 John 3:2  Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when He shall be revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 

The purpose of man is to conform to the image of God, through Christ. We will not obtain that goal, nor come close to it in this life. However with the Holy Spirit in our hearts we should become more and more like Him as we approach the point where our mortal bodies are replaced with spiritual ones, on the other side of the grave. Our sins will be wiped away, never to be replaced and we will worship the King of Kings and Lord of Lords face to face.