I thought all people were made in the image of God. Didn’t God say, “Let us make Adam/humanity in our image”? Did they do it? Was it progressive or immediate? Is it still progressive? Why did Jesus say, “If you’ve seen Me you’ve seen the Father”? Did God’s image take time to be fleshed out? God is Spirit. How can we see God’s image in a human body? Why were the Jews forbidden to make a statue to represent the image of God? Weren’t the Jews supposed to be human imagers? Were there people that weren’t being made in God’s image? What image were they made in?

Why were only a few chosen Levites allowed to enter the temple? And why, when the imagers of God did enter, was it accompanied with fear of death? How is it that people from all nations (nationalities) can boldly be in God’s presence today? Are we better imagers than they were? And how is it that Jesus is the Firstborn of all creation (every nationality) today? Jesus was a Jew in the flesh, but He wasn’t called firstborn Adam. He was called eschatos Adam. First Adam was still the firstborn of the imagers when Jesus was born and grew up. Jesus was called last or fulfillment Adam, not first Adam. Jesus was son of Adam not father of Adam.

Adam was a type of who Jesus was about to be. Jesus was about to be the consummate firstborn imager of the Holy Spirit’s new creation. When Jesus took Adam’s place in death, He wasn’t firstborn; not by genealogy; not in the flesh. He was born into the old creation late, in the waning time of the old covenant. A true imager appeared nearing the end of the old covenant.

Colossians 1:1-17

LITV ¹ Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Timothy the brother, ² to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ in Colosse: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ³ We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying continually about you, ⁴ hearing of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love toward all the saints, ⁵ because of the hope being laid up for you in Heaven, which you heard before in the Word of the truth of the gospel, ⁶ coming to you, as also in all the world, and it is bearing fruit even also among you, from the day in which you heard and knew the grace of God in truth; ⁷ even as you also learned from Epaphras our beloved fellow-slave, who is a faithful minister of Christ for you, ⁸ he also showing to us your love in the Spirit. ⁹ For this cause also, from the day in which we heard, we do not cease praying on your behalf, and asking that you may be filled with the full knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, ¹⁰ for you to walk worthily of the Lord to all pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work and growing into the full knowledge of God; ¹¹ being empowered with all power according to the might of His glory, to all patience and longsuffering with joy; ¹² giving thanks to the Father, who has made us fit for a share of the inheritance of the saints in light, ¹³ who delivered us out of the authority of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption through His blood, the remission of sins; ¹⁵ who is the image of the invisible God, the First-born of all creation. ¹⁶ For all things were created in Him, the things in the heavens, and the things on the earth, the visible and the invisible; whether thrones, or lordships, or rulers, or authorities, all things have been created through Him and for Him. ¹⁷ And He is before all things, and all things consist in Him [But He wasn’t born yet].

Jesus became the firstborn of the new humanity by being born again. The new humanity came to include all nations. But Jesus was the image of the invisible God in the old testament too, before He died and was born again. After being born again, He could breath His image into others as the non-typical (un-fallen) Firstborn. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit into the old covenant body of flesh and blood and He was born again of the same Holy Spirit into the new covenant body, no longer in the flesh. He became firstborn of all creation in the heavenly realm of the new covenant, not the flesh and blood realm of the old covenant. He was resurrected into a heavenly realm covenant. The body of Christ is a heavenly body that first appears on earth. No one in this new covenant body dies. Your flesh body still dies but you are not destroyed.

After the Jews joined Him in His new covenant they too were no longer in the flesh. People from all the nations were being birthed by the Holy Spirit into the new creation body before it was fully reformed. Some of the Jews who were sons of the god of that age chose to stay with the god of that age. They persecuted the born again Jews who were being delivered from their realm of darkness. People from the entire creation were also entering the Jewish transition of covenants. People from all nations were awaiting the sonship, along with the Jews. The body of God’s people was being delivered from the flesh by rebirth. People from the entire creation were joining the body of Christ that was travailing. The 12 tribes of course were the firstfruit of the Holy Spirit. The 12 tribes as a body was the national creation that came from Jacob (called Israel or the human nation). They typically already bore the image of God to all the nations before the post-resurrection Pentecost. The fruit of the law pointed to the need for Christ. The fruit of the Spirit exemplifies Christ Himself.

Romans 8:22-23

CLV ²² For we are aware that the entire creation is groaning and travailing together until now. ²³ Yet not only so, but we ourselves also, who have the firstfruit of the spirit, we ourselves also, are groaning in ourselves, awaiting the sonship, the deliverance of our body.“

The first fruit of the Spirit was Jesus and His people. Jesus was resurrected on the day of Firstfruit barley harvest. His people joined Him on the day of Firstfruit wheat harvest, which was Pentecost. This was the beginning of the deliverance of the Jewish body. The Adamic body was awaiting the new sonship in Christ. All of creation started to join the Firstfruit body after Peter had his sheet vision that contained all of creation to the four corners (or to the four origins). Who could argue with the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is the perfect image of God in us. He makes us imagers from within, which unites the whole genesis of creation into one body, in heaven and on earth.

Jesus didn’t have a different faith. He had an unfailing faith. He was clothed with the full amount of their belief. He died unclothed because He took their place on the cross. They stopped trusting in their own faith when they saw Jesus living it out, even unto death. They shed their belief and fled when His death became imminent. Their faith under law could not keep them clothed. It exposed them, like the first person the soldiers tried to seize when they arrested Jesus. He fled naked. Even His own apostles fled (symbolically naked) in fear at the threat of death. They weren’t transitioning from covenant to covenant yet. They denied their belief, until after they saw Jesus alive again and they were born again. Then as martyrs, they all faced their fear of death fully clothed in the faith of Christ. Notably, the one apostle who didn’t flee from Jesus’ side died of natural causes in old age.

2 Corinthians 5:4-5

YLT ⁴ for we also who are in the tabernacle do groan, being burdened, seeing we wish not to unclothe ourselves, but to clothe ourselves, that the mortal may be swallowed up of the life. ⁵ And He who did work us to this self-same thing is God, who also did give to us the earnest of the Spirit;

What effects your image more than clothing? The Holy Spirit does. Those who were covered by the dying covenant wished for the better clothing of the undying covenant. Fig leaves to leather was a type of the transition to the better clothing as provided by God. God temporarily clothed them in animal skin until further revelation. The fruit of the Spirit conveys the true image of Christ.

Romans 3:21-25

CLV ²¹ Yet now, apart from law, a righteousness of God is manifest (being attested by the law and the prophets), ²² yet a righteousness of God through Jesus Christ’s faith, for all, and on all who are believing, for there is no distinction, ²³ for all sinned and are wanting of the glory of God. ²⁴ Being justified gratuitously in His grace, through the deliverance which is in Christ Jesus” ²⁵ (Whom God purposed for a Propitiatory shelter, through faith in His blood, for a display of His righteousness because of the passing over of the penalties of sins which occurred before in the forbearance of God),

The penalties of sins which occurred before the new testament were for those sins that occurred under law. The penalty for everyone under law was to inherit the death of the firstborn, both nationally and individually. God forever passed over that penalty under law by sending His only begotten Son to become the Passover sacrifice. He was the perfect Lamb of God who came to finally rescue His first born people from the death penalty of the law. Jesus became the reborn firstborn. He did not rescue them from the image of the Father as conveyed by the law. He rescued them from the penalty of failing to be God’s imagers under law. The same righteousness of God that the law and the prophets attested to is now being manifest by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is a true imager, like the law was, but more personal and enabling. Nobody conveyed the perfect image as Jesus did under law, so He sent a gratuitous perfect imager to live in us. We now have the full image of God living within us. The new covenant breath never expires. The typical temple housed the image of God, in the two tablets given to Moses. In the ark were the tablets of stone and a dead stick that miraculously budded. That image of God for His people is being written on the heart, post-pentecost.

Philippians 2:6-8

CLV ⁶ Who, being inherently in the form of God, deems it not pillaging to be equal with God, ⁷ nevertheless empties Himself, taking the form of a slave, coming to be in the likeness of humanity, ⁸ and, being found in fashion as a human, He humbles Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

Romans 8:3

CLV ³ For what was impossible to the law, in which it was infirm through the flesh, did God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sin’s flesh and concerning sin, He condemns sin in the flesh,

God condemned sin in the old covenant flesh body of Jesus, who actually fulfilled the old covenant law. He was inherently the perfect imager even growing up under law. Jesus died in the flesh-realm covenant so He could live again and convey that life to His people in the spirit-realm covenant. It is finally conveyed by the new covenant breath of God that remains in us.

If the reborn body of Jews nonsensically returned to the old covenant (was un-reborn) it would again be an old-covenant-breaking body of Jews. Will they be born again a different way? Maybe they will be born again in the flesh the way Nicodemus imagined. Will Jesus return to the old covenant and die again to set them free again? Maybe God will send His Holy Spirit to the Hebrews again as they celebrate their national birthday so their nation can be born again again. Hebrews 9:15 addresses the called into the new covenant Hebrews. They were about to covenantally live to the age rather than die to the age. They were redeemed from the transgressions of their first covenant. That obviously means that they got a new covenant. The promise of the age-lasting inheritance is the covenant of the living firstborn.

Hebrews 9:15

YLT ¹⁵ And because of this, of a new covenant he [He] is mediator, that, death having come, for redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, those called may receive the promise of the age-during inheritance,

God condemned sin in an old covenant flesh body. The Jewish body (that re-entered the land for their second 490 years of sabbath breaking) was prepared for Him. There is no sabbath breaking body for Him to rescue them from. Their thousand-year condemnation has passed. The new covenant that was promised to the covenant breaking Hebrews in diaspora was received by them on Pentecost. It is now never-ending and unbreakable. What are we waiting for? We should get to work since we are the blessed body of Christ.

Old covenant death was thrown into the lake of fire, typified by the old covenant land in AD 70. It was the second death of the old covenant. The firstfruit of the body was not at all harmed by the second old covenant death. We are no longer called firstfruit. We are in a 2000 + year old covenant that never dies. We aren’t waiting in Hades (the place where the covenant breakers waited for grace) for the thousand year judgement to arrive. Jesus overcame the tree of death and fulfilled the tree of life and He finally sabbatized His people with His covenant marriage. Pentecost was the sabbatism of betrothal. They were sealed with His image that day for the final day of redemption.

He is the tree of life who defeated the tree of death. The tree of death in the garden was an old covenant threat. The full display of good and evil on Christ on the tree can’t be repeated. Jesus won’t die on a tree again in His new covenant and He won’t leave His re-born people to return to the old. Their second national death still in the flesh was their final destruction.

1 Corinthians 15:44-55

LITV ⁴⁴ It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body; there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. ⁴⁵ So also it has been written, “The” first “man”, Adam, “became a living soul;” the last [eschatos] Adam a life-giving Spirit. Gen. 2:7 ⁴⁶ But not the spiritual first, but the natural; afterward the spiritual. ⁴⁷ The first man was out of earth, earthy. The second Man was the Lord out of Heaven. Gen. 2:7 ⁴⁸ Such the earthy man, such also the earthy ones. And such the heavenly Man, such also the heavenly ones. ⁴⁹ And as we bore the image of the earthy man, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. ⁵⁰ And I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood is not able to inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. ⁵¹ Behold, I speak a mystery to you: we shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed. ⁵² In a moment, in a glance of an eye, at the last trumpet; for a trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall all be changed. ⁵³ For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. ⁵⁴ But when this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality, then will take place the word that has been written, “Death was swallowed up in victory.” Isa. 25:8 ⁵⁵ “O death, where is your sting? Hades, where is your victory?” Hosea 13:14

Not everyone in that generation died before old covenant death was defeated. Those who chose to remain in the old covenant during the transition to the new died the second covenant death of the nation. Those in the new covenant were being rescued from the dead and dying old covenant. The transition of course ended at the last moment. In the end, the ‘olded’ covenant went away. The never ending covenant remains. The moment of the consummation changed all God’s people in the blink of an eye.

Nobody in the new covenant covenantally dies and goes to wait in Hades today. Believers in the new Firstborn joined the body of Christ, who ascended and went to the real temple in heaven when His time on earth was over. We were not born again into the body of Adam, who descended and was temporarily and graciously put on hold in Hades.

You can’t break the new covenant. The new agreement is between God and His faultless firstborn Son. His Holy Spirit re-birth sanctified His people. No-fault divorce doesn’t even make sense. Incompatibility is at least the fault of a bad attitude from one or both individuals. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law; even a ‘no fault law’ can’t separate us.

In Christ we have a clear conscience from the head of the body. We are the sanctified temple of the living God. Our eyes are opened by the ever obedient one. There is no tree of the knowledge of good an evil that can kill the Firstborn of the new covenant. He voluntarily hung from it until He died as the cursed firstborn of the old covenant. His death on the tree was condemned by His Holy Spirit resurrection.

On the first day of the new Firstborn, Jesus didn’t say, Where are you? Why are you hiding in fear? Who told you you were naked? His people were no longer to be addressed like disobedient Adam who died on the tree in the garden. He walked in on them and said, “Peace to you”. He breathed His new covenant breath on His people, saying, “receive the Holy Spirit”. At that time they were still acting like Adam, hiding and taking cover. They were still in the body of Adam. Jesus not only knew where they were, He walked right through their closed doors and blessed them with His undying faith.

John 20:19-23

LITV ¹⁹ Then it being evening on that day, the first of the sabbaths, and the doors having been locked where the disciples were assembled, because of fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, Peace to you. ²⁰ And saying this, He showed them His hands and side. Then seeing the Lord, the disciples rejoiced. ²¹ Then Jesus said to them again, Peace to you. As the Father has sent Me, I also send you. ²² And saying this, He breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ Of whomever you forgive the sins, they are forgiven to them. Or whomever you may retain, they are retained.

Of course it was not the decision of the Jews who did or did not come into their new covenant. If it was up to Jews there would still be no Gentiles in their new covenant. The persecuted Jews only spoke the gospel to Jews. It was ‘their’ promised covenant.

Acts 11:19

YLT ¹⁹ Those, indeed, therefore, having been scattered abroad, from the tribulation that came after Stephen, went through unto Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the word to none except to Jews only;

Titus 3:5

YLT ⁵ (not by works that are in righteousness that we did but according to His kindness,) He did save us, through a bathing of regeneration, and a renewing of the Holy Spirit,

Acts 4:8-13

LITV ⁸ Then being filled of the Holy Spirit, Peter said to them, Rulers of the people and elders of Israel, ⁹ if we are being examined today on a good work of an infirm man, by what this one has been healed, ¹⁰ let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazaraean, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, in this name this one stands before you whole. ¹¹ This One is the Stone counted worthless by you the builders, which has become to be the Head of the Corner; Psa. 118:22 ¹² and there is salvation in no other One, for neither is there any other name under Heaven having been given among men [humanity] by which we must be saved. ¹³ But seeing the boldness of Peter and John, and having perceived that they are untaught and uneducated men [humanity], they marveled. And they recognized them, that they were with Jesus.

Acts 10:45

LITV ⁴⁵ And the faithful of the circumcision were amazed, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out on the nations also.

Peter’s very disinclined argument to his fellow Jews was based on the Holy Spirit’s decision of who to bring into their new covenant, certainly not his. Jesus (a Jew) promised the Holy Spirit to His own people (Jews) while they were still in Jerusalem. His own people were amazed when the Holy Spirit included the uncircumcised. This was the mystery being revealed to them. The one new body was not a flesh body.

Acts 11:15-18

CLV ¹⁵ Now as I begin to speak, the holy spirit falls on them, even as on us also in the beginning.” ¹⁶ Now I am reminded of the declaration of the Lord, as He said that ‘John, indeed, baptizes in water, yet you shall be baptized in holy spirit.’” ¹⁷ If, then, God gives them the equal gratuity as to us also, when believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I – able to forbid God? ¹⁸ Now, on hearing these things, they are quiet, and glorify God, saying, “Consequently, to the nations also God gives repentance unto life!”

Acts 17:20-30

LITV ²⁰ For you bring startling things to our ears. We are minded, then, to know what these things wish to be. ²¹ And all Athenians and the strangers living there have leisure for nothing else than to say and to hear newer things. ²² And standing in the middle of the Areopagus, Paul said, Men, Athenians, I see how you in everything are fearful of gods; ²³ for passing through and looking up at the objects of your worship, I also found an altar on which had been written, TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Not knowing, then, whom you worship, I make Him known to you. ²⁴ The God who made the world and all things in it, this One being Lord of Heaven and of earth, does not dwell in handmade temples, ²⁵ nor is served by hands of men, as having need of anything. For He is giving life and breath and all things to all. ²⁶ And He made every nation of men [humanity] of one blood, to live on all the face of the earth, ordaining fore-appointed seasons and boundaries of their dwelling, ²⁷ to seek the Lord, if perhaps they might feel after Him and might find Him, though indeed He not being far from each one of us. ²⁸ For in Him we live and move and exist, as also some of the poets among you have said, For we are also His offspring. ²⁹ Then being offspring of God, we ought not to suppose that the Godhead is like gold or silver or stone, engraved by art and the imagination of man. ³⁰ Truly, then, God overlooking the times of ignorance, now strictly commands all men [humans all everywhere] everywhere to repent,

According to Acts 17:26 every nation of humanity was made from one blood and became without excuse, just like the Jews of Romans chapter one who were entrusted with the Word of God, the Athenians were not ignorant of God’s Word either. From the diaspora of Adam’s family out of Eden and Noah’s family from Babel to the diaspora of the 12 tribes from the land, the first century nations had a synagogue in every city preaching Moses to them. The 12 tribes from the one bloodline of Jacob, further humanized every nation just prior to the gospel.

Jesus is the one standard everyone was about to be judged by. In him alone is safety from the death. God’s indwelling image by way of the Holy Spirit is the only way to rise to the occasion. Jesus is the standard bearer and His image of God is the same as the Holy Spirit’s image of God. The Holy Spirit remained on Him at His baptism because they were one. On the cross Jesus represented His people. The darkness that came over Him was due to typical humanity’s inability to bear the image of God. The perfect image of God only dwells in His Holy temple. In the new covenant you are the temple united and made holy by the Holy Spirit of God within you.

The typical temple was put to rest. His full image dwells in you by way of His Holy Spirit. You are His imperfect/perfect imager. He does not dwell in hand-made temples or idols made with hands. Act 17:24. Humanity progressively made all nations human, from the one blood of first Adam to the one blood of eschatos Adam. The last Adam is the image of God the old covenant was judged by. They were judged to life in Him or judged to death by Him. If they had the Holy Spirit they were in His body of people. Jesus came to save His nation first, John 3:16. He then sent the Holy Spirit to all nationalities of people who had been humanized by all the diasporas: from Babel to Babylon: from Adam being expelled from the garden to the remnant of the last tribe being expelled from the land in AD 70. The end of the old covenant was the final diaspora of types.

Humanity is non locational today. It is decentralized in the realm of the Holy Spirit. We still teach our children to act human before they are born again by the Holy Spirit. But humanity is no longer located in an individual nation. All nationalities being humanized from the one blood of Adam were telosed by one blood of eschatos Adam. He shed His old covenant blood so the Holy Spirit could be sent to indwell new covenant humanity. The full image of God was breathed into the human family by the new creation Firstborn. To the humans first and then to the being-tamed animals. People from all creation were made suitable to join the national bride in the wedding to the new firstborn. Adam was married to a single Eve. Jesus rescued His whole body of humanity.

After completing His image in them, He then married the corporate bride. The church is the eschatos wife released from eschatos Adam’s side while He was in a deep sleep on the cross. The bride of Christ came from all nationalities before the end of types arrived. It was a non-typical/typical conclusion. Typical realm Jerusalem led to spirit realm Jerusalem. The natural came first and then the spiritual. Just as we (humanity) bore the image of the earthly realm man, we now bear the image of the heavenly realm man.

Jacob addresses the 12 tribes in diaspora as one body of humanity. The 12 sons of Jacob were a typically reconstituted humanity. They became the human nation from the one blood of Jacob. The wives of the 12 sons and Rahab the harlot and Ruth did not make the nation another blood. They were all typically considered one blood from Jacob. Like Noah, Jacob was a renewed blood of humanity that originally came from Adam. God would finally reform humanity again with the one blood of Jesus.

Israel was to be a light on the hill to humanize all nations. In diaspora, Jacob addresses them as one body fulfilling their mission. They were taming the nations with the word of God they were given by Moses. Yet they were not able to tame their own tongue, which is likened to the serpent’s tongue. The Jews were either getting the peaceable wisdom from above by the Holy Spirit whom Jesus sent or they were still in the flesh, stirring up the nations against the reconstituted body of Jews. They were cursing the very people who came to be in accord with the image of God.

James 3:9

LITV ⁹ By this we bless God and the Father; and by this we curse men having come into being according to the image of God. Gen. 1:26

The image of God was being conveyed by the very Word they taught. Jews were being born again by the Holy Spirit whom Jesus sent to the them. The 12 tribes in diaspora was the final pre-evangelism before the gospel of the one life-giving blood of Christ went to all the world. The last old covenant diaspora (of the 12 tribes) further prepared the way for the new covenant humanity.

Matthew 24:3

CLV ³ Now at His sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what is the sign of Thy presence and of the conclusion of the eon?

Matthew 24:14

JuliaSmith ¹⁴ And this good news of the kingdom shall be proclaimed in the whole habitable globe for a witness to all nations: and then shall the end [of the old covenant] come.

Colossians 1:5-6

LITV ⁵ because of the hope being laid up for you in Heaven, which you heard before in the Word of the truth of the gospel, ⁶ coming to you, as also in all the world, and it is bearing fruit even also among you, from the day in which you heard and knew the grace of God in truth;

God is gracious. That’s part of His image as conveyed in the law and the prophets that culminated in Jesus who is grace upon grace. The Word fully fleshed out was the fulness of God’s grace on display to His people. That is the good news we received from the first century Jews. Jesus was indeed the first century messiah they were expecting. He came and He lived out the gospel. He died and He was buried and He rose again. His post-death appearance to His people confirmed His gospel message. If Jews didn’t believe it and preach it nobody would know it. He only appeared to His people after His resurrection.

Colossians 1:23

KJV ²³ If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

Was the gospel preached to every nation (creation) in the known world or was it preached to every individual creature? “every” means – Dodson: πᾶς – all, the whole or every kind of.

Romans 10:16-18

KJV ¹⁶ But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? ¹⁷ So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. ¹⁸ But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.

Romans 16:25-26

YLT ²⁵ And to Him who is able to establish you, according to my good news, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the secret, in the times of the ages having been kept silent, ²⁶ and now having been made manifest, also, through prophetic writings, according to a command of the age-during God, having been made known to all the nations for obedience of faith—

There was only one God who could take them to the age alive. God graciously ruled in their thousand years for them.

James 3 – Jacob warns of the final blessings and curses about to come upon the 12 tribes in diaspora; curses to destruction for those who didn’t obey their own belief. They all had faith in the first century coming of the messiah before He came. Some lost it.

CLV ¹ Not many should become teachers, my brethren, being aware that we shall be getting greater judgment.” ² For we all are tripping much. If anyone is not tripping in word, this one is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also.” ³ Now if we are thrusting the horses’ bits into their mouths, so that they are yielding to us, we are steering their whole body also with it.” ⁴ Lo! the ships also, being of such proportions, and driven by hard winds, are being steered by the least rudder, wherever the impulse of the helmsman is intending.” ⁵ Thus the tongue, also, is a little member and is grandiloquent. Lo! What amount of fire is kindling what amount of material!” ⁶ And the tongue is a fire, a world of injustice. The tongue is constituted among our members that which is spotting the whole body, and setting the wheel of our lineage aflame, and is set aflame by Gehenna.” ⁷ For every nature, both of wild beasts and flying creatures, both of reptiles and those of the salt sea, is tamed and has been tamed by human nature.” ⁸ Yet the tongue can no man [human] tame – a turbulent evil, distended with death-carrying venom.” ⁹ With it we are blessing the Lord and Father, and with it we are cursing men [humans] who have come to be in accord with God’s likeness.” ¹⁰ Out of the same mouth is coming forth blessing and cursing. There is no need, my brethren, for this to become thus.” ¹¹ No spring out of the same hole is venting the sweet and the bitter. ¹² No fig tree, my brethren, can produce olives, nor a grapevine figs. Thus neither does brine produce sweet water.” ¹³ Who is wise and an adept among you? Let him show his works by an ideal behavior in meekness of wisdom. ¹⁴ Now if you are having bitter jealousy and faction in your heart, are you not vaunting against and falsifying the truth? ¹⁵ This is not the wisdom coming down from above, but terrestrial, soulish, demoniacal. ” ¹⁶ For wherever jealousy and faction are, there is turbulence also, and every bad practice.” ¹⁷ Now the wisdom from above is first, indeed, pure, thereupon peaceable, lenient, compliant, bulging with mercy and good fruits, undiscriminating, unfeigned.” ¹⁸ Now the fruit of righteousness is being sown in peace for those making peace.

Like Cain against Able, the unfaithful ones from the 12 tribes whom Jacob addressed became envious toward the faithful ones from the 12 tribes. Those in Christ received God’s approval rather than His AD 70 wrath. The city where Jesus was crucified was held accountable for all the martyrs, even Able. Outside of Jesus the Hebrews no longer had sacrificial forgiveness for their sins. Even Cain was called to account for murder if he didn’t believe in the finally acceptable sacrifice.

Romans 1:1-12 – finally blessed to covenant life

YLT ¹ Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, a called apostle, having been separated to the good news of God— ² which He announced before through His prophets in holy writings— ³ concerning His Son, (who is come of the seed of David according to the flesh, ⁴ who is marked out Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of sanctification, by the rising again from the dead,) Jesus Christ our Lord; ⁵ through whom we did receive grace and apostleship, for obedience of faith among all the nations, in behalf of his name; ⁶ among whom are also ye, the called of Jesus Christ; ⁷ to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called saints; Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ! ⁸ first, indeed, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is proclaimed in the whole world; [Jesus’ faith imbedded in the city of Rome was especially being talked about throughout the Roman empire] ⁹ for God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the good news of His Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you, ¹⁰ always in my prayers beseeching, if by any means now at length I shall have a prosperous journey, by the will of God, to come unto you, ¹¹ for I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, that ye may be established; ¹² and that is, that I may be comforted together among you, through the faith in one another, both yours and mine [The one faith of Christ was in Jews from Jerusalem and Jews in Rome and Gentiles in Rome].

Cursed to covenant death twice, for worshipping false images. Their second death was for not worshipping the image of God in His Son.

Romans 1:31

YLT ³¹ unintelligent, faithless, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful;

Romans 1:31

ECB ³¹ uncomprehending, uncovenanted, selfish, disagreeable, unmercied:

Uncovenanted – ἀσύνθετος asunthetos as-oon’-thet-os

KJV Usage: covenant-breakers

Dodson: ἀσύνθετος untrue to an agreement, treacherous not covenanting, Strong’s: ἀσύνθετος properly, not agreed, i.e. treacherous to compacts – untrustworthy [in LXX: Jer.3:7-11 (בָּגַד)* ;]
false to engagements, not keeping covenant, faithless 

Jeremiah 3:7-11

Brenton LXX ⁷ And I said after she had committed all these acts of fornication, Turn again to me. Yet she returned not. And faithless Juda saw her faithlessness. ⁸ And I saw that (for all the sins of which she was convicted, wherein the house of Israel committed adultery, and I put her away, and gave into her hands a bill of divorcement,) yet faithless Juda feared not, but went and herself also committed fornication. ⁹ And her fornication was nothing accounted of; and she committed adultery with wood and stone. ¹⁰ And for all these things faithless Juda turned not to me with all her heart, but falsely. ¹¹ And the Lord said to me, Israel has justified herself more than faithless Juda.

Jeremiah 31:31-33 – the new covenant was prophesied

CLV ³¹ Lo, days are coming, an affirmation of Yahweh, And I have made with the house of Israel And with the house of Judah a new covenant, ³² Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers, In the day of My laying hold on their hand, To bring them out of the land of Egypt, In that they made void My covenant, And I ruled over them–an affirmation of Yahweh.” ³³ For this [is] the covenant that I make, With the house of Israel, after those days, An affirmation of Yahweh, I have given My law in their inward part, And on their heart I do write it, And I have been to them for Elohim, And they are to me for a people.”

Daniel 9:22-27

LITV ²² And he enlightened me and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I have now come out to give you skill in understanding. ²³ At the beginning of your prayers the word came forth, and I have come to explain it . For you are greatly beloved. Then understand the matter and pay attention to the vision: ²⁴ Seventy weeks are decreed as to your people, and as to your holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make atonement for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. ²⁵ Know, then, and understand that from the going out of a word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem, to Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks and sixty two weeks. The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in times of affliction. ²⁶ And after sixty two weeks, Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself. And the people of a coming prince shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end shall be with the flood, and ruins are determined, and war shall be until the end. ²⁷ And he shall confirm a covenant with the many for one week. And in the middle of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease. And on a wing of the altar will be abominations that desolate, even until the end. And that which was decreed shall pour out on the desolator.

Jerusalem in the flesh became the unfaithful base for their attempted desolation of the new covenant Jews. The believing Jews were scattered from Jerusalem due the unfaithful persecution by their brethren in the flesh. The unfaithful Jews followed and persecuted the faithful Jews in other cities too. Unfaithful Jerusalem was without question made desolate by Rome in AD 70. Was there any faith in the land (some translations ask, will there be faith on earth?) when the land was put to death for the second time? The people abandoned their original belief in an imminent messiah in an attempt to remain in their flesh covenant. Flesh and blood however could not inherit the kingdom. In the old flesh covenant, no son of Adam could please God, accept His only begotten Son of Adam. God’s wrath came upon those false image worshippers. They wanted to destroy the people who had the true image of God within. They worshipped their de-formed humanity.

If the Holy Spirit is in you, you have the true image of God standing in the new creation temple. You plural are the temple of the living God. If you don’t have the Holy Spirit, you are not His. As imagers we are called to teach the image of humanity to others. That is how we tame the world we live in and spread the gospel. Taming is still the pre-evangelism. The most intimate way to do that is with the help of the Holy Spirit in the church family and by raising children in your biological or adoptive family. The image of God is still standing in the temple: that is Jesus in the true temple in heaven, which is now the symbolically cube shaped new Jerusalem that reaches from heaven to earth in the spirit realm, which is the bride of Christ, which is His people as His imagers in heaven and on earth.

In the second century Irenaeus elaborated on Paul’s contrast between Adam and Christ in his Adversus Haereses . He wrote:

The Son of God… was incarnate and made man; and then he summed up in himself the long line of the human race, procuring for us a comprehensive salvation, that we might recover in Christ Jesus what in Adam we had lost, namely the state of being in the image and likeness of God” 

I would add that Jesus put the mature eschatos Adam to death as the perfect old covenant imager. He was raised from the dead ones as the firstborn imager of new covenant humanity. The same Holy Spirit that joined Him in His 30th old covenant year, after being raised under law, raised His mature image of God into the new covenant on the 3rd day. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit in order to stand God’s image in the new covenant temple.

1 Corinthians 3:16