Jesus Messiah came to restore God’s true image to humanity.
One of the most fundamental yet least understood statements about humanity is found in the very first chapter of Genesis, where God says: “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness.”...So God created humankind in His own image; in the image of God He created them. Genesis 1:26,27, NET Bible
Genesis 5:1 confirms that God did not change this affirmation after the Fall from Paradise, nor after the Flood, as recorded in Genesis 9:6.
The idea of humanity being made in the image of God uniquely differentiates Judaism and Christianity from all other world religions. But what does it actually mean to be made in God’s image? For theologians, God’s declaration is especially problematic because the Old Testament doesn’t offer a direct explanation. Genesis, in particular, doesn’t define “image” but does spell out what God wants humanity to do with our lives.
Immediately after making humanity, God tasks humanity in Genesis 1:28 to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, and exercise dominion (“rule”) over nature 1 [ii], all while representing God’s image and likeness on earth. This infers being made in God’s image refers primarily to a role and functions we’re given, not specific abilities or qualities we possess.
Image or Imagers?
Sometimes it’s easier to understand something by realizing what it’s not. Here’s a short list of what being made in God’s image is not:
Abilities or characteristics unique to humans. Even animals share some human capabilities and characteristics. Which are “godly,” which are “human,” and which are animal-like?
Potential qualities. This slippery slope backs into pro-abortion logic. Is a fetus merely a potential human? If so, when does it become human? When does a human become “God’s likeness”?
Soul or spirit. These words are interchangeable in the Old Testament. Animals have “souls” (same word as human souls in Hebrew, nephesh), but the Bible never says animals are made in God’s image or likeness.
Freewill. This was long my personal way of differentiating humans from animals, by believing that our freedom to choose is uniquely God-like. But freewill is not exclusive to humans. Angels exhibit a degree of freewill, as do animals. Are humans still in God’s image when they choose to rebel against God? God set limits on human influence exercised thru freewill, so freewill is not an absolute condition of humanity.
“Image” in Hebrew implies a resemblance or shadow of something greater, but not a literal representation. This led theologian John Piper to conclude we are “not created to be the image of God” yet we’re like our Maker “in some sense.” 2[i]
Scholar Michael Heiser offered linguistic evidence to propose that humanity is created as God’s image rather than in God’s image. This treats “imaging God” as a verb or function rather than a specific human attribute. Heiser concluded: “We are created in order to image God for the purpose of creating more 'imagers' like ourselves to oversee, steward and harness earth’s resources for the benefit of all."[ii]
To me this implies we are dependent on God as a movie image is to its light source. The light remains the same but the image changes as the show goes on, always revealing God’s luminescent presence shining through us as we participate in God’s unfolding drama of life!
We are created in order to image God for the purpose of creating more 'imagers' like ourselves to oversee, steward and harness earth’s resources for the benefit of all."
- Michael Heiser, The Unseen Realm, p 42-43.
We’re on earth to project God’s image and likeness as we go about our daily lives, marry, raise children, work and take care of the earth God provided to support us. By inference, this means being made in God’s image depends in the first place on the degree to which we recognize our dependence on the One whose eternal light shines through us.
Father God
By the time Messiah Jesus appeared on earth, knowledge of God had become institutionalized and distorted through religious rules and rituals. Jesus called the religious leaders of His day hypocrites who misrepresented the essence of God. They were not projecting God’s true image!
Rather than get caught up in empty discussions about God’s rules, Jesus went straight to the heart of the matter. He taught all who would listen to simply call God “Father.” He wanted them to know for certain where they came from. Father God is our ultimate Progenitor, the true Source of our life, and Jesus is the "Light of the World" (John 8:12, 9:5).
Jesus taught His followers not to pray like the hypocrites who love to be seen by men. Instead He said to go into a private space, shut the door and “pray to your Father, who is unseen.” “Pray like this,” He said: "Our Father, Who is in heaven, may Your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:5-9, NLT, italics added).
God’s Perfect Image
Speaking at the Last Supper, Jesus directly revealed Himself as the perfect image of God on earth. He said: “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father.” He only spoke what He heard the Father say and did what He saw the Father do. (See John 14.)
The stage was set for this radical revelation very early in Jesus’s ministry when He told Nicodemus, a religious teacher of Israel, that he had to be born again:
I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again…. Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit. Do not be amazed that I said, “You must be born again” (John 3:3, 5-7, bold italics added).
We must be born again in order to conform to the Father’s image modeled by the only perfect man, Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Jesus revealed what is necessary in order to become fully alive in this world not limited by the world’s way of seeing and doing things.
In His famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus went so far as to say: “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). Christ's fundamental message is that purity of heart is only possible through being born again spiritually and remaining in Christ by faith. Then, we are enabled to see God by faith, and project God’s true spiritual image as bearers of His light.
The New Testament clarifies this transformation still further. The human body: "is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: “The first human Adam became a living being” [Genesis 2:7]; the last Adam [i.e., Jesus] a life-giving spirit. … and just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so also shall we bear the likeness of the heavenly man" (1 Corinthians 15:44-45, 47-49 Bold italics added).
This passage is a favorite of pastors to read at funerals, but it’s so much more valuable to understand it before your body returns to dust. The profundity of this transformation goes far beyond words. It’s a progressive metamorphosis of who we are that enables us to serve more and more transparently as God’s image projected on earth.
Being made in the image of God, then, is process that begins in earnest when we are born again and learn to walk by faith by following Jesus’s teachings and example. Here’s how the New Testament summarizes this process:
"So all of us who have had [the veil of our limited natural perceptions] removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image" (2 Corinthians 3:18, NLT, brackets and bold italics added).
To be born again in Messiah fundamentally changes how we understand our origin and what it means to be made in the image of God. I hope to write again soon on the connection between being made in the image of God and the battle being waged in our time for the imagination of all humanity.
[i] John Piper, “The Image of God: An Approach from Biblical and Systematic Theology”, in Studia Biblica et Theologica, March 1971. Piper ‘s paper concludes: “there is not a great interest in describing man in terms of the image of God” among the writers of the Old Testament.
[ii] See Michael Heiser, The Unseen Realm, p 42-43.
[i] Being made in God’s “likeness” presents less of a challenge than being made in God’s image. God’s likeness is widely understood to represent God’s character traits.
[ii] For clarification of what the words “subdue” and “rule” mean in Genesis 1:28, see: Genesis 1:28, To “Subdue” and “Have Dominion Over” Creation | Poiesis Theou (wordpress.com). There, the author defines these words Biblically and summarizes the passage this way: “Be fruitful and have children, filling the earth with your life so that you can have power to fight against everything in it that leads to death [i.e. subdue the deadly extremes of wild nature]. Rule with care and fairness over the natural world [i.e., exercise dominion like a benevolent ruler, not as despots], over the myriads of My beautiful creatures…every creature that is a part of this living world.”
[i] NET Bible translation. Only a few translations say “He created them” instead of “him” to acknowledge the statement refers to haAdam, which represents the male and female joined as one.