GOD'S WILL SHALL BE DONE - EVENTUALLY!

God's desire was that mankind would be like Him.  God is Holy.  God is Righteous.  God is Just.  And had Adam not sinned, he would have remained "like God."  Ironically, when Adam was tempted by Satan, the devil told Eve that she was not yet "like God," but all she had to do was eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and she would become "like God."  The outcome, was in fact, the exact opposite:  when Adam and Eve doubted God, and ate of the forbidden fruit, they ceased to  be "like God!"  Truth be told, it was Satan's rebellious desire to be like God, that brought about his being cast down to the earth!

Genesis 1:26-27 - "And 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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.  So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them."  [Note:  v.27 does not include the word "likeness, but Gen. 5:1 tells us Adam and Eve were in fact made after God's likeness.]

Genesis 5:1-3 - "This is the book of the generations of Adam.  In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him; male and female created He them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.  And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth."  [Note:  Following the fall of Adam, his offspring are said to be "made in his own likeness," not God's.  Apparently Cain and Abel were also in Adam's image, since they were expected to offer animal sacrifices. (Gen.4:1-7)]

Psalm 17:15 - "As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness."  [Note:  The psalmist knew he would be resurrected in God's likeness; in other words, he also knew he was not yet like God.]

Isaiah 40:18 - "To whom then will ye liken God?   Or what likeness will ye compare unto Him?"  [Note:  It is clear that there is nothing found in all of creation, that is like God!]

Acts 14:11 - "And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men."  [Note:  Even though they were unbelievers, they knew that man was inferior to even their gods.]

Romans 8:3 - "For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh."  [Note:  Although Jesus is God (Jn. 1:1, 14), He became like men, a fact made more obvious in the next quote.]

Philippians 2:5-8 - "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:  Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:  but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:  and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."  [Note:  When Jesus took on human form, as a human, He was not like God, but like men.]

One day, God's desire for man to be made in the image and likeness of Himself, will become a reality once again; born again believers will be resurrected or raptured into His likeness (1 Cor. 15:50-52; 1 Th. 4:16-17):

1 John 3:1-2 - "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not.  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is."