Satan is described as the “seal of likeness” or “seal of resemblance” (Ezekiel 28:12); that is, his description is like unto God; likeness has to do with appearance and the scripture waxes eloquently about Satan’s beauty at his creation. But his “heart was proud because of his beauty” (verse 17) and so his wisdom was corrupted. No doubt his godlike appearance, his “seal of resemblance”, was the reason one third of the angels followed him into rebellion.
Jesus, on the other hand, “had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him” (Isaiah 53:2) but He was “the radiance of His (God’s) glory and the exact representation of His (God’s) nature” (Hebrews 1:3). So it wasn’t Jesus’ appearance that showed forth the glory of God, but His character; the Greek word translated as “exact representation” is character, from which, of course, comes the English word “character”.
Likeness has to do with appearance, image has to do with character. The essence of Christ’s teaching concerning greatness was that true greatness amongst humans must be found in character, not in appearance, status or abilities. “But whoever would be great among you must be your servant” (Matthew 20:26). This runs counter to all that Adam is in us; he still feels the need for dominion; he hears deep within the heart the command pre-Fall; “increase and multiply and replenish the earth and have authority over it” (Genesis 1:28). He prefers this command to that of the Lord Jesus to be a servant. Yet man is not fit to rule until he has served a long apprenticeship as a servant; that is what the scripture teaches.
God wounds before healing, breaks before blessing and humbles before He exalts. After Christ had served in this life, and that service included death, “God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:9). That is the path that we must follow; it is the only way man can win back the dominion that was given to Adam and that he gave over to Satan.
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