Created Beings: Imago Dei

HUMAN BEINGS IN THE IMAGE OF GOD

Summary: God created human beings in his image, making them of all created things the most like him, and endowing them with dignity and significance.

MAIN THEMES

• God created human beings in his image; thus, they are the imago Dei (image of God).

• The church has various understandings of the image of God.

• Jesus Christ is the perfect image of God.

• Christians are being progressively renewed into the image of Christ.

• Full restoration is a future blessing and reality.

UNDERSTANDING THE DOCTRINE

Major Affirmations

Creation in the image of God is the foundation of the doctrine of humanity. When God purposed to create a being more like him than any other creature, he created human beings. The imago Dei (the image of God) is our essential reality: we exist as either male image-bearers or female image-bearers. Everything else—for example, height, eye color, and body type—is a secondary characteristic. Creation in the divine image means that all people have dignity and significance.

Throughout its history, the church has developed various understandings of the image of God. The substantive view considers the image of God to be some characteristic such as rationality, free will, or moral consciousness. A particular method is often used: by examining the rest of creation and focusing on the attribute that distinguishes human beings from other creatures, the church can identify the image of God. It is some quality or attribute of human nature.

The Relational View

The relational view considers the image of God to be the experience of community that men and women enjoy among themselves and, derivatively, that human beings and God enjoy. The key idea is that God experiences a relationship within himself (“Let us make man in our image”), and humanity reflects this experience on two levels: people in relationship with people, and people in relationship with God. The key support is Genesis 1:27, which emphasizes that God created humanity in his image as “male and female.” Appealing to this passage, and relying on the idea that God experiences an “I-Thou” relationship within himself, Karl Barth developed this view. Relationally is the image of God.

The Functional View

The functional view considers the image of God to be some human activity. In creating human beings in his image, God designed them to exercise dominion over the other creatures (Gen. 1:26). When he actualized his plan, God commanded them to “have dominion … over every living p 123 thing that moves on the earth” (1:28). This exercise of dominion—being stewards of the creation—is the image of God.

Old Testament scholars appeal to the concept of the image of god(s) in ancient Near Eastern literature: the image is a king or a statue of a king representing the god(s), whereby the god(s) exercise(s) dominion over its/their territory.15 Assuming that Genesis reflects this background, the functional view takes shape: the image of God is humanity’s exercise of dominion over the creation.

The Holistic View

The holistic view finds the other views to be reductionistic and considers the image of God to be people themselves in the totality of their being, relationships, and activities. Again, the key support is Genesis 1: having deliberated about the creation of image bearers (v. 26), and having actualized that plan (v. 27), God created human beings—not just a part of them (as in reason or free will), not just in terms of relationships (though maleness and femaleness are essential to the image), not just for purposeful activity (though they exercise dominion), but in their wholeness. Developments in neuroscience, demonstrating the intimate interconnectedness of all aspects of human existence, provide additional support. Human beings as individuals, and humanity as a whole, are created in the image of God.

The biblical concept of the image of God is developed in a handful of passages. Genesis 1:26–28 is the foundational text. It begins with the divine intention: “Let us create man in our image, after our likeness.” This deliberation is then actualized: God creates man in his image, specifically as male and female. To his newly created image bearers, God gives the mandate to build society through extending humanity (procreation: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth”) and ruling the creation (vocation: “and subdue it, and have dominion …”).

A holistic view considers what an image is—namely, a reflection of something—and what it does—that is, it represents something. Accordingly, the image of God means that human beings reflect God: his attributes of knowledge, power, goodness, faithfulness, truthfulness, and more. And they represent God: as coregents, they are stewards of the rest of creation as they build civilization through procreation and vocation.

Two other passages highlight the importance of people being created in the divine image: it is the reason for the prohibition of homicide (Gen. 9:6) and for the prohibition of cursing human beings, “who are made in the likeness of God” (James 3:9). Because all human beings are created in the divine image, they are to be treated with dignity and respect.

Jesus Christ is the perfect image of God (2 Cor. 4:4–6; Col. 1:15). The incarnate Son makes visible the invisible God, as Jesus himself affirms: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:8–9). Indeed, the Son is “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Heb. 1:3).

With their Savior being the perfect image of God, believers are being restored into his image. Full conformity to the Son’s image is the divine design for believers (Rom. 8:29–30), and they experience this progressive renewal through the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18; Col. 3:9–10). Still, this renewal is incomplete in this lifetime. Rather, full restoration into the image of God is ultimately a future blessing and reality (1 Cor. 15:48–49). Though we are already children of God, “what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

Major Errors

1. The image is reduced to some human characteristic or the experience of relationships or the activity of exercising dominion (reductionism). This oversimplification neglects the biblical presentation of human beings as holistic image-bearers.

2. The image of God is only spiritual in nature. This gnostic heresy believes that the physical is inherently evil and the spiritual is inherently good. Thus, the divine image cannot include something material; the human body is not part of the image of God. But Scripture does not denigrate the physical as does gnosticism. Indeed, God created humanity as embodied beings.

3. Evolution can fully account for the existence of human beings, who do not hold a special position over other creatures from which they have evolved. Naturalistic evolution overlooks the many difficulties with the theory of evolution, and it contradicts the biblical worldview of God’s creation of human beings as distinct from the rest of creation.

4. While generally employing the mechanism of evolution to develop the world, God intervened to form the first human being in his image. Theistic evolution maintains that prehuman beings (hominids like homo erectus) evolved according to natural processes, and at a certain point God instilled a soul or spirit into them, thereby creating human beings in his image. Theistic evolution is challenged by the biblical account of creation and the problems of evolutionary theory.

ENACTING THE DOCTRINE

All human beings are created in the image of God, consequently possessing dignity and significance. Accordingly, all people should be treated with respect, with appreciation for God’s excellent design. Racism, sexism, classism, and ageism are categorically excluded. Additionally, according to God’s mandate for his image bearers, the vast majority of human beings will be married, the vast majority of those will have children, and all able-bodied people will work in their vocation. Though still sinful, Christians should rejoice that they are being restored into the divine image, and they should look forward with hope to the future blessing and reality of being fully conformed to the image of Christ at his return.

What’s at stake in this doctrine? The fundamental identity, dignity, and significance of human beings. Through his creation of humanity in his image, God has designed people to reflect and represent him. This reality p 126 prompts us to understand our identity and purpose in this world as image bearers of God.

15 J. Richard Middleton, The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis 1 (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2005).