The Image of God

Internal (Scriptural) Examination

When commencing on a study of the Word of God I believe it to be best to start with the Word of God.  Before consulting outside sources, I will survey the Scriptures to see what information can be gathered that pertains to the image of God and what it means to be made in that image.  

“God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (KJV Gen 1:27).  Based on the immediate context of this verse, it seems that being made in the image of God has something to do with the dominion given to man in verses twenty-six and twenty-eight.  In the same way that God has rule over all creation (including all that is in and beyond the earth), so man is created to be a ruler over certain things, but only over those things that God told him to rule over (since God is the Lord of lords, He has the authority to delegate).  So, God’s image seems to involves lordship.

It also appears from the context of Genesis 1 that the image of God involves reproduction.  Just as God told man to subdue the earth, He also commanded him to reproduce.  So, as God is Lord, so man is to be a lord of the earth; and as God replicated Himself in man (making man in His image), so man would replicate himself through his offspring.  The image of God seems to involve replication.

“Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man” (KJV Gen 9:6).  The penalty for taking the life of another man would be death for the offender.  But why?  Because in the image of God made he man.  This does not tell us what the image of God is exactly, but it does tell us that inherent in the image is great value.  Value such that the penalty for destroying that image is punishable by death - the ultimate price.  We read also in James 3:9 that one man ought not curse another man because of the fact that he is made “after the similitude of God” (KJV).    So, the image of God entails great value.

When man sinned, something happened to the image of God in man.  The Bible does not say in exact terms how the image was tainted or affected, but we know that it was affected in some way (in a negative way) based on the overall message of Scripture.  Little is said of the image of God in the Old Testament outside of Genesis.  It is not until the New Testament that this idea of the image of God is emphasized.  Contrary to man in Genesis (prior to the fall), man in the New Testament is seen conforming (or being conformed) to the image of his Creator (KJV Rom 8:29).  The New Testament makes it clear by its message that the image of God in man is not the same that is was before the fall.  

“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son” (KJV Rom 8:29).  There are a number of things that one May draw from this passage.  One thing to note is that the Father has determined that all believers will be conformed to the image of His Son.  It seems that what was the image of God in the Old Testament makes a shift to the image of Christ in in the New - Christ, the mediator between God and men (1 Tim 2:5), “who is the image of the invisible God” (KJV Col 1:15).  So the focus now is on being conformed to the image of Christ, rather than the image of God.  This May not be of extreme significance since Christ and the Father are one (thence the image of Christ and the image of God must be the same thing), but the text makes a distinction regarding whose image is the focus, so it should be noted.  In addition to this, Romans 8:29 tells the reader that God has determined that all believers will be conformed to the image.  This statement implies that man, in his natural state, is not in the image of God (at least not fully).  So, man is not a complete representation of the image of God, but he does have some “resemblance” even in his fallen state (this is clearly seen in the reference to the death penalty and James’ words against cursing men - both proclamations being made after the fall).  

“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (KJV 2 Cor 3:18).  The context of this passage speaks of Moses, whose face reflected the glory of God as a result of his time with the Lord receiving the law on the mountain.  When Moses returned from the mountain, his face had to be veiled because of the brightness (the glory) of it.  Paul says here in 2 Corinthians 3:18 that, as we behold the glory of the Lord (through the Word of God, vv. 14-15), we are changed into that same image.  So, the image of God involves glory.  Does this mean our faces will be brighter like Moses?  To some degree, I believe so.  Proverbs 15:13 says that “a merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance” (KJV).  What better way to produce a merry heart than by communing with the God of the universe?

“Put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him” (KJV Col 3:10).  The image of God involves knowledge.  The word knowledge here is translated from the Greek word epignosis and refers to “the knowledge of things ethical and divine” (Strong 1922).  Being made in the image of God, therefore, means that one is made with innate knowledge and awareness of divinity and morality.  This explains why even unbelievers have some standards of right and wrong (thought they May be inconsistent standards), not because they are arbitrary, but because they are made in the image of their Creator.  It appears from this passage that “the new man” is synonymous with the image of God.  One who is “putting on the new man” is being conformed to the image of Christ.  

“Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Eph 4:24).  The image of God involves righteousness and true holiness.  This righteousness refers to “correctness of thinking, feeling, and acting” (Strong 1343).  “Holiness” here means devotion and faithfulness (Strong 3742).  Therefore, the image of God involves righteousness and holiness as they are here defined.  

Conclusion of Internal Examination

Man is made in the image of God.  The image of God in man gives him authority over the living things of earth; it enables him to reproduce the image in his offspring; it gives him great intrinsic value; it is tarnished as a result of sin’s entrance into the world; all believers will ultimately be conformed to it; it involves glory (causing the face of its possessor to be brighter?); it causes man to know and be aware of morality and divinity; it involves thinking, feeling, and acting correctly (in a way that is acceptable to God); and it involves devotion and faithfulness (holiness...as He is holy).  To bring this all down to a simple statement, it could be said that to be made in the image of God is to be made just like God without actually being God.  Man is designed to be just like God, but man is not all-knowing; he is not all-powerful; and he is not here and everywhere else all at the same time.  Man cannot create ex nihilo because there is nothing new under the sun  (the laws of thermodynamics would have issues with this as well).  While man May be described as holy or becoming holy, he can never attain to God’s level of holiness - that is Holy, Holy, Holy!  Therefore, man, created in the image of God, is (or is becoming) just like God barring those attributes that make God . . . God.    

External Examination

According to Harper’s Bible Dictionary, “to speak of human beings as created in the image of God apparently refers primarily to the bodily form (the Hebrew term for ‘image’ usually denotes a concrete likeness)” (Achtemeier 418).  The Scriptures do not say this explicitly,  which makes it hard for me to accept this at face value.  Based on my study of Scripture, the image of God in man has little to do with his man’s physical body.  Harper goes on to say that “the plural pronouns of Gen. 1:27-28 indicate that male and female share equally in the image of God and connect this idea to the twofold commandment (‘Be fruitful and multiply…and have dominion over…’), so that both in nature and in function human beings are understood to reflect their Creator” (Achtemeier 418).  I believe this is a statement more in line with the text of Scripture.  

The New Bible Dictionary concludes: “Though many interpreters have thought to locate the ‘image’ of God in man’s reason, creativity, speech, or spiritual nature, it is more likely that it is the whole of man, rather than some part or aspect of him, that is the image of God. The whole man, body and soul, is the image of God” (Wood 499).  I would tend to agree, but am still not sure that I would classify the human body as being part of the image of God.  We know nothing of any physical form or shape of God.  We know that He is a spirit (John 4:24), and that He dwells in “light that no man can approach unto” (1 Tim 6:16).  

Others agree that the image does not involve the body.  The Old Testament Survey Series says that “the general significance is that man is closely patterned after his Maker. The second term [likeness] is merely supplementary to or explanatory of the first term [image]. The combination of terms refers to man’s intellectual, spiritual, volitional, and ethical capacity. In short the combination “image and likeness” refers to all that sets man apart from the animal kingdom. Neither term refers to man’s body” (Smith 1:26-27).  My personal thought here is that it is dangerous to view the image of God as an aspect of man that distinguishes him from the animal kingdom.  The image of God in man does distinguish man from animals, but that is not how the image is emphasized in Scripture.  In Scripture, the image is what makes man like God not what makes man different from animals.

Conclusion of External Examination

Those who have written on the topic present a wide range of thoughts and ideas regarding the image of God in man.  It would be enough to make one’s brain spin out of his skull (if such things were possible).  A study solely based on the “comments” of others would leave the inquirer more lost and confused than when he began.  After consulting external sources, I stand by my initial conclusions based on my internal survey of Scripture.  

Bibliography

Achtemeier, Paul J., Publishers. Harper & Row and Society of Biblical Literature. Harper's Bible Dictionary. 1st ed. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985.

The Holy Bible : King James Version. electronic ed. of the 1769 edition of the 1611 Authorized Version. Bellingham WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1995.

Smith, James E. The Pentateuch. 2nd ed. Joplin, Mo.: College Press Pub. Co., 1993.

Strong, James. The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible : Showing Every Word of the Text of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books, and Every Occurrence of Each Word in Regular Order. electronic ed. Ontario: Woodside Bible Fellowship., 1996

Walvoord, John F., Roy B. Zuck and Dallas Theological Seminary. The Bible Knowledge Commentary : An Exposition of the Scriptures. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1983-c1985.

Wiersbe, Warren W. Wiersbe's Expository Outlines on the Old Testament. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1993.

Wood, D. R. W. and I. Howard. Marshall. New Bible Dictionary. 3rd ed. Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1996.

God Isn't Fair

In Jeremiah 32:28-35, God tells Jeremiah what is going to happen to the Israelites.  They would be handed over to Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, and the capitol city of Jerusalem would be burned to the ground.  God was going to judge the Israelites because they as a nation turned their back on God, worshiping pagan, man-made gods.  They put pagan idols in the Temple of God, built pagan shrines, and even offered human sacrifices to these pagan gods.  God "diligently taught them," but "they would not receive instruction" (v.33).  

God was infuriated with Israel (v.30), and understandably so!  But the story does not end with God being angry at Israel.  It was fair for God to judge Israel for their sin.  Just as a human judge executes judgment on physical matters, so does God regarding matters of the heart (spiritual matters).  Because God is just, He must judge sin - that's only fair.  But what God does next is actually quite unfair.  

In verses 36-44, God goes on to explain His plans for a future restoration of Israel.  He says, "I will certainly bring my people back again . . . I will bring them back to this very city and let them live in peace and safety.  They will be my people and I will be their God.  I will never stop doing good for them . . . I will find joy doing good for them and will faithfully and wholeheartedly replant them in this land . . . Just as I have brought all these calamities on them, so I will do all the good I have promised them . . . I will restore prosperity to them.  I, the Lord, have spoken!"

Did you catch that?  God said, "I will find joy doing good for them."  God enjoys blessing people!  And He doesn't enjoy judging people for their sin.  God told the prophet Ezekiel, "As surely as I live, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked.  I want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live" (Ezekiel 33:11).  

These verses remind me of just how amazing my God is.  Yes, He judges sin, and He judges severely (as a perfect judge should), but His justice is so beautifully balanced by His love.  God wants to bless us!  He doesn't enjoy punishing sin, but He loves to "do good" to us.  All we have to do is listen to His instructions (and He often blesses us even when we don't!).  The ultimate example of God's love for us, of course, is His death for us, paying the penalty that was ours to pay - the punishment that was ours to receive.  Have you accepted Jesus' payment for your sin?  If you haven't, you should seriously consider it!  Know that God doesn't want to boss you - He wants to bless you!  No matter what you've done, God wants to bless you - that's not fair, but that's God.  

Living a Lie

Today I read the story of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11).  They sold a possession of theirs and gave some of their profit to the church.  They said that they gave all of their profit, but they really kept some of it for themselves.  Hypocrisy . . . it's not just telling a lie; it's living one.

The problem was not that they kept some of the profit.  They weren't required to give anything in the first place.  Their action was wrong because they purposefully tried to deceive others to think that they were more spiritual than they really were.  They wanted to appear to be a certain way.  Their concern was looking godly rather than being godly.  

My focus ought to be on being godly rather than looking, or acting, godly.  The first is a work of God; the second, a work of me (my flesh), and "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing" (Rom. 7:18).  If the first is true of me, then the second will come "naturally".

I don't want to be a "self-made" man.  I want to be a man of God, and only God can make a man of God.

Acts 4:1-4

"While Peter and John were speaking to the people, they were confronted by the priests, the captain of the Temple guard, and some of the Sadducees.  These leaders were very disturbed that Peter and John were teaching the people that through Jesus there is a resurrection of the dead.  They arrested them and, since it was already evening, put them in jail until morning.  But many of the people who heard their message believed it, so the number of believers now totaled about 5,000 men, not counting women and children."

Observations:

The first thing that I find interesting here is that Peter and John were speaking.  They weren't sitting around waiting for "the opportunity to share their faith."  They pursued opportunity rather than expecting or hoping for opportunity to pursue them.  We Christians spend so much time waiting for "opportunities."  The result is that, when an opportunity comes, we are so surprised and unprepared that we completely blow it!  We need to stop waiting for opportunities to come to us, and we need to start making opportunities.

Another observation is that Peter and John's speaking disturbed some people. There were people around who were annoyed and irritated by what they were saying. People were irritated by the gospel in the first century and people are still irritated by the gospel in the twenty-first century.  There will always be people who are annoyed by the gospel, but that is not reason enough to withhold from sharing it.  

The controversial idea being taught by Peter and John was that Jesus literally rose from the dead.  The way the apostles spoke of Christ's resurrection, for me, is strong evidence for the reality of the event.  Would these men go to prison, suffer excruciating pain, torture, and even death for something they knew was a lie?  If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then why would these men devote their entire lives, traveling across the known world, telling people that He did?  There were other men before Christ who claimed to be the Messiah.  They accrued a following, but they all eventually faded away - and died.  Jesus was different.  Jesus rose from the dead.

Even though Peter and John were taken to prison, many who heard their message believed.  Since they were taken to jail, Peter and John probably didn't even get to see those who believed nor how many.  Even when we are faithful, we do not always see the fruit of our labor, but we can trust that God will accomplish what He wants to accomplish.  Our labor in the Lord is never in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58).