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Image of God

Genesis 1:26-31
Key Verse: Genesis 1:26-27

IMAGO DEI. The term ‘imago dei’ is a Latin term that means ‘image of God’. The ‘imago dei’ is something all people look for: perhaps none ever find it exactly. Indeed, it is hard to envision abstractly. Specifically, this image of God sets man apart from all the other creatures of the earth. Some say the image of God is a mere idea; for others, it is the manifestation of God in man. But the basic concept is this: that man is endowed by his creator with a divine ‘image,’ which establishes his or her value apart from their benefit to society. In our times, society discriminates according to your physical traits, race, background, and intelligence. However, the Bible proclaims that individuals have inherent value because they are created in the image of God, the IMAGO DEI.

Part I. And God said, “Let us make man in our own image” (1:26a)

When God first formed man from the dust and ‘breathed’ the breath of life into him, this was the ‘inspiration’ (or Latin ‘inspirare,’ literally ‘breath’ of God) in the Genesis record. God literally ‘breathed’ the breath of life into man. (Gen 2:7) He became a living being, capable of natural speech. Perhaps, often we take for granted that God created us so that we could make intelligible sounds. We assume that the details of our words do not reach God’s ear. In fact, the Bible says that God is intimately aware of every aspect and detail of our lives – to the very number of hairs on our head. (Matt 10:30) Thus, man was made to reflect the image of God, since God was the source of everything.

If God is good, and we are all in the image of God, then why has God’s creation gone wrong? Before we said that man reflects God’s image, yet everywhere we look we see the opposite. Man takes advantage of fellow man. Man is ruthless, heartless, and faithless. Each morning’s newspaper renews our disappointment. Life is full of pain, loneliness, misery, suffering, and poverty. From problems within the church to problems from without, wrong is called right. Sin, squalor, and disease infect; malnutrition, famine, & drought dominate. Those who discredit God point to these, since apparently God is unable to stop these misfortunes. Yet, it is not God who had moved, as if God could change; rather, man had ‘lost’ the glorious image of his creator.

God meant for man to rule over all the animal kingdom for a divine purpose. Thus, God created man not to shamelessly ruin the earth he had given man, but rather that he would watch over and manage the resources God has given him. There is creation order: just as man is over birds, animals, and reptiles in the creation order, so God is above men, such that man cannot perceive God’s thoughts. Isaiah 55: 9 reads: “as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” God’s ways are perfect, pleasing, and good. But we on the lower part of the hierarchy of God’s universe should acknowledge the Most High God as the source of all that is good, right, and just; all that is holy, worthy, and true. But too often, people blame God for their status in life. Thus, how can we ‘rule over’ these important aspects of our life? Only by trusting in God. (Prov 3:5) It means to trust him in the intimate detail of our speech that we might reflect his glory.

The Bible is unequivocal in one point: that each man has a stamp image of the DIVINE. The Hebrew word for ‘spirit’ is the same as the one for ‘wind.’ The spirit which we receive from God is not small: it makes up the essence of our being: gives us the character traits that we don’t perceive. This is set apart from man’s animal nature: fundamentally corrupt and self-seeking. A man was asked: “Does your dog bite?” “No,” his neighbor replied. Then, the dog bit the man. “Hey, I thought you said he doesn’t bite!” His neighbor scoffed: “He’s not my dog.” We need a divine outlook to change our attitude.

One commentator has said: “In any case, there can be little doubt that the image of God in which man was created must entail those aspects of human nature which are NOT shared by animals – attributes such as a moral consciousness, the ability to think abstractly, an understanding of beauty and emotion, and above all, the capacity of worshipping God” (Morris 1976). The image of God is what sets us all apart from the ruthless chaos of a world lost to God. Let us never depart far from the divine awareness. Henry Morris, an engineer and accomplished scientist, saw the same dilemma. Without God, our reason is arrogant, selfish, and futile. It is self-seeking. The mean dog we don’t own bites others. Incidentally, we usually don’t care if it does.

Genesis 5: 1-2 reinforces what 1:26-27 has told us. The image of man in what was the ‘likeness’ of God. When God created man, he made them male and female. Then the Bible says “he called them ‘man’. Or in Hebrew: ‘adam’. Thus, in each male and female is an inner ‘adam.’ It is a person made of dust – the elements of the universe – ‘adam’ means in Hebrew ‘ground’ or ‘dirt.’ But as we see the later chapters of Genesis, Adam’s descendants did not reflect the image of the godly. Rather, everyone became marred by the sin that Adam committed in Genesis 3. Now, we live in a world contaminated by sin, which destroys the original ‘imago’ he once had.

Again, what does Genesis Ch. 5 tell us in this matter? First, we have ‘image’ or ‘likeness’. “When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.” (v. 2). However, in this verse, we have ‘likeness’ that means that it bears the stamp of the Father. When we think about a little baby, we notice that through a miracle of life, the young one’s genes combine the traits of the mother and father to create a new person. (Little Julia seems to have the image of both Abe and Sue Jung!) Her eyes belong to Mom, and her cheeks belong to Dad. In the same way, God made man originally to be in the image of God. It is a ‘likeness’ (i.e. a familial resemblance).

Second, God did not entirely finish his creation. 800 years after the birth of Cain and Abel, Adam died. Adam and his life are of little interest to us here, but we do understand that God himself was behind the life of Adam. If Adam was perfect, then his children would be perfect. But as we know, Adam’s son Cain killed his brother Abel. Thus, the image of God in man was marred, and the seed of sin was planted. Should it come as a surprise that murder exists today? In sin, Cain killed Abel. Sin brought death and pain, not God. Yet, without sin, there is no death: just as Abel’s other great grandson Enoch “walked with God” and never died.

Part II: So God created man in his own image (1:26b)

Verse 26 repeats itself for emphasis. Clearly, God’s spirit, his image, and his likeness are all related, but exactly how is a divine mystery. Nevertheless, the image of God that we speak of all is revealed in God’s son, Jesus Christ. 1 Co 11:7 tells us that “a man ought not to cover his head because he is made in the image of God.” God reprimands sinful man not necessarily for his head covering, but man’s tendency to love religious symbols more than the word of God.

We come to the upshot: that Christ himself is the glorious image of God revealed in the New Testament. Colossians 1:15 tells us plainly: “he is the image of the invisible God.” In Christ, we have an exact replica of the glory of God. Clearly, he is over all, just as he is in the original image that God intended for man, discussed in Genesis chapter 1. The image of Christ has the power to save us from all kinds of useless images. Images on the internet seem so enticing, but they are really worthless. For example, internet pornography promises intimacy, love, and pleasure, but delivers only unfulfilled lust and dirtiness. Also, images of material wealth promise to make our life exciting and more comfortable, but they cannot save us from selfishness. I was enslaved by these evil images until I submitted my life before God in Christ.

Hebrews 1:3 makes this even clearer: “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory, and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.” Thus, in the son, Jesus we can find the picture or snapshot of God’s being. The mediation on the Godhead ruptures us out of my sin of complacent living, and enables me to transcend political and racial barriers in order to give God the glory. No longer am I enslaved to lust or selfish ambition. Rather, I can BE TRANSFORMED. This is the title of the conference. This is the very image of God that we have been discussing.

Yet, there is a problem. No sooner do I realize that I must conform to the image of God that I realize I cannot do it alone. Yes, I must do something, but God has his part too. I see so graphically in my own heart: sin, idolatry, complacency, lust, and pride that belong to the man who loves the dirt: the ‘adam.’ The sinful nature is an overpowering force. So I cannot do what I want to do; rather, I do what I hate. I am trapped in my sin that cannot please God. Fortunately, God has a part in this: He is absolutely sovereign. Just as my characteristics were decided for me by God, so He also controls my destiny. He had foreknowledge of all my features, good and bad. There’s one animal nature, and one divine nature. One bad, and one good. One worldly and the other godly. (M. David Lee will talk about the DIVINE person on Sunday.) Since I did not choose whether I would be male or female, I also did not choose necessarily to be a sinner. But nonetheless, because of the ‘adam’ nature, I sinned. I need to be renewed each day in order to be completely transformed in to the image of God.

Thus, we have an inner ‘adam’ and the image of divine. 1 Co 15: 47 may shed some light on this subject. There is a duality in me: “The first man is of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven.” Thus, we are all in the natural unable to even closely resemble the awesome second adam, who is Christ. So it is that we need to undergo a radical transformation. It means that I need to make a substantial change in my lifestyle. The good news is that God has provided us His Son, the perfect image: Jesus the crucified for our sins, dead, and buried – who rose to life again.

We must realize that apart from Christ, there can be no TRANSFORMATION. For just as God made humankind in male and female, and made them from the elements of the earth; so he provides the only one who is in HIS PERSON the perfect image of God in man – who reflects God’s glory with undiminished splendor. This is the LORD CHRIST, he is the only way out of the cycle of sin and death. Thus, we have an obligation, but not to the sinful nature. Rather, it is to God, that his spirit would overcome our weakness and conform us to the image of the heavenly man. (Ro 8:29)

By Andrew Lamb

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