The Hills of Humanity–Anthropology

Introduction

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History has a division called “The Human Origins Initiative.” This group has an online forum that you can submit an answer to a very simple question:

Question: What does it mean to be human?

Here are some people’s answers:

To be human is to be creative.

A human is a lucky organism whose genes worked for the environment.

A human is a bipedal hominid with a specialized jaw for communication.

To be human is to be more civilized than other species.

To be human is to be original and want to do thing that you might be judged for.

To be human is to not be entirely influenced by instinctual emotions, but also by the light of reason.

To be human is to live life, make mistakes, and to gain knowledge and understanding through those mistakes.

The problem we face in today’s Church is that this has never been a question that has been answered throughout Church history. There are numerous creeds of the early church that detail doctrines such as the Trinity of God and the hypostatic union. There have been theologians such as Augustine, Luther, Calvin that have helped clarify and detail the doctrines of salvation, the Holy Spirit, and Sin. Even in the past hundred years, theologians such as J. Gresham Machen and B. B. Warfield have fought for a proper view of the Scriptures.

Yet there has been no definition ever given to the doctrine of anthropology! For two thousand years, the church has never spent a lot of time talking about what it means to be human. Why do you think that is? Why is it that no one has tried to articulate the doctrine of anthropology with as much precision as other doctrines?

The answer is this:

Orthodoxy (true teachings) are forged in the fires of heresy (false teachings).

When false teachers arose in the early church saying that Jesus only appeared to be a human or that he wasn’t God, the true church was forced to clarify what the nature of Christ was. When false teachers began to say that salvation was through faith and good works, God rose up Martin Luther to direct the church back to faith in Christ alone. In the mid-to-late eighteen hundreds, false teachers began to teach that the Word of God is full of errors and that prophecies and miracles couldn’t happen. So the church rose up to articulate the doctrine of inerrancy—that God’s Word is perfectly reliable, authoritative, true, and sufficient in everything that it teaches.

But the church has never faced a big onslaught of false teaching on what it means to be human. That is, until the last sixty years. False teachers are now rising up in the church and are teaching that many errors about what it means to be human. So let me ask the question again,

Question: What does it mean to be human?

Open your Bibles to Genesis 1. We will be camping out here this morning. It’s only fitting for us to start at Genesis 1. Because if we want to understand what it means to be human, we must let God tell us what it means. The Creator determines what the purpose and proper functioning of his creation is. So how did God create humans? Let’s read starting in Genesis 1:26.

Genesis 1:26–31 CSB

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.” So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female. God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.” God also said, “Look, I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the surface of the entire earth and every tree whose fruit contains seed. This will be food for you, for all the wildlife of the earth, for every bird of the sky, and for every creature that crawls on the earth—everything having the breath of life in it—I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good indeed. Evening came and then morning: the sixth day.

So what does it mean to be human? Interspersed within the answers I read from the Smithsonian forum was an occasional response from a Christian. And they were typically some of the shortest responses to the question. And their answer is taken directly from this passage!

According to this passage, a human is an image-bearer of God.

Question: What is a human? Answer: A human is an image-bearer of God.

This is what separates humanity from everything else in Creation. No intelligent octopus, communicative whale, or powerful angel is made in God’s image. Only humans are made in God’s image. When God created humanity, he intentionally placed his image on them. And we praise God for that! God created us in a special way. We read in Psalm 8 earlier that God crowned us with glory and honor! God stamped us with his image.

But what does that mean? What does it mean to be human is a great question, but an even better question is this:

Better Question: What is the Image of God?

If we can answer this question, we can also answer the question, “What does it mean to be human?” So what is the image of God? Let’s pick up our backpack, tie our shoes, and set off on a hike through the Hills of Humanity. Each of the Hills we are going to hike over represent one of the main views that people have taken throughout church history in an attempt to define the image of God. And we’re going to take these views, compare them to Genesis 1, and see if it holds up!

So we set off on the hike through the hills of humanity and the first hill we start to climb is Mt. Substance.

Mt. Substance

This is a very big hill that we’re climbing right now. This view of the image of God states that what we are as humans is the image of God. Within this category are more specific views. Some have taught that image of God is the body. After all, God made, fashioned humans in his image. They would say that we were created in our bodies the way God is in his nature: God hears, we have ears. God sees, we have eyes. God knows, we have brains. God speaks, we have mouths.

So is the body the image of God? Let’s look at the Creation account. When God created everything else in creation, he created them physically. The moon is composed of matter. The cow is composed of cells. The fish are composed of atoms and molecules. To create humans in Genesis 1 then, must also be physical. So when it says God made man in his Image, it can be seen to encompass the body.

When God created humans, however, he did not just create bodies. Genesis 2:7 details how God brought him to life.

Genesis 2:7 CSB

Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.

The “breath of life” that God gave to humanity is not just air moving in and out of our lungs. God created us with a soul as well. If you want to know what a human is, you have to understand this: we are not simply a mass of cells that will one day return to the dust from which we came. God created humans as both body and soul. There is the natural and the supernatural. The material and the immaterial.

And because this is one of the things that differentiates humanity from animals, some say that the soul is the Image of God. After all, God is spirit. God created us with a soul. So could we say that Genesis 1 supports the view that the soul is the image of God? Yes! Moses went through a lot of work to right Genesis 2 and distinguish humans from animals that were created in Genesis 1.

As part of the Mt. Substance, others say that the image of God is in the intellect, the rationale of a person. You can also see this prevalent throughout Genesis 1-2. God created everything with intentionality, thoughtfulness, and creativity. And from the moment of creation, God expected humans to act with intelligence. He commanded us to “rule” in Genesis 1:28. Adam gave names to all the kinds of land animals and birds. And God allowed Adam to go through the process of naming all the animals so that he was also able to rationally deduce that all the boy animals had a lady friend—but he did not. Genesis 2:20 says,

Genesis 2:20 CSB

The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal; but for the man no helper was found corresponding to him.

So could one legitimately say the image of God is in the intellect? Once again, yes.

Now after hiking down the backside of Mt. Substance, we find another mountain peak:

Mt. Function

On this mountain, we find the teaching that the image of God is not in how we were created, but in what we were created to do. On this mountain, people teach that we are in the image of God because we have been given a job to do. The image of God is found in the action of humanity.

The main verse that supports this view is simply found in Genesis 1:28

Genesis 1:28 CSB

God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”

God created us and gave us a command. This also implies that humans are moral. We were created to be able to choose between right and wrong, obedience and disobedience. God gave these commands to humanity in Genesis 1:28, but he also goes on and gives more commands to Adam in Genesis 2:15-17

Genesis 2:15–17 CSB

The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

God created humans with a moral obligation to obey, follow, and serve him. So can one say the Image of God is found in Genesis 1-2? Absolutely.

And now we’re in the home stretch of the hike, we’ve summited Mt. Substance and traversed Mt. Function. We now begin to climb the final peak of the hike:

Mt. Relation

On Mt. Relation, theologians teach that the image of God is not found in what we are, it’s not found in what we do. Instead it is more dynamic: it is in our relationships. With whom, you ask? There are a couple of sub-views under this category:

First, the image of God is found in relationship with God. This harkens back to Genesis 1:26 where God says, “Let us make man in our image.” Because God exists in relationship with himself, to be in God’s Image is to relate to God. This is also inferred from the commands we previously discussed as well as in Genesis 3:8-9,

Genesis 3:8–9 CSB

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

God created us for relationship with himself.

More than that, some who teach that the image of God is in relation say that the image of God is found in relationship with other humans. This is why God created us “male and female.” God created us to relate with other humans. In particular, this view teaches that the image of God in humans is primarily seen in the relationship between a husband and wife. And from Genesis 1-2, we can see that God clearly links being male and female with the image of God: Genesis 1:27 says,

Genesis 1:27 CSB

So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female.

And from these passages, you could definitely say that the Image of God is found in Mt. Relation!

And with that we have finished our hike. We have seen numerous ways that people have tried to define the image of God. Many people set up camp on Mt. Substance. Others set up on Mt. Function and still more set up camp on Mt. Relation. But who is right? Is the image of God substance, function, or relation?

Let’s take a step back and look at the various views from another perspective. Instead of asking what the image of God is, let’s ask if these categories can be applied to all humanity. And if not, what humans are excluded from the equation? Which humans do not possess the image of God if category is correct? In other words, if we get the image of God wrong, we open the door for dividing humanity and make it so that humans can justify the abuse and mistreatment of others.

Let’s look at Mt. Substance. Within Mt. Substance are three views: body, soul, and intellect. If the body is the image of God, then you could legitimately question if people born with missing body parts or siamese twins have the image of God. In a different way, this doctrine was abused by slave owners as a way of justifying their ownership of black slaves because the color of their skin meant that they did not contain the image of God. If the image of God is just the body, then numerous abuses can occur.

As for the soul, you could say that all humans have a soul. And you would be correct! But when does a human gain a soul? Some churches today teach that the soul, as the image of God, is not given to someone until they draw their first breath (Genesis 2:7: God gave humans the breath of life). And they use this to justify abortion as a civil right. If the image of God is just the soul, then abortion could be seen as something that Christians should support rather than condemn.

What about the intellect? Well, that leaves most of us out! I’m kidding. But what about the cognitively disabled? There are countries in the world today that pride themselves on having “cured Down Syndrome.” And what they actually mean is that they have not had a child born with Downs because they have aborted all of them.

We move on through the list. What about function? Are the disobedient to God in God’s image? Or are people who mistreat the environment in God’s image?

What about Relation? Are only Christians in God’s image since they alone have fellowship with God? Or are only married people fully in God’s image?

If any of these views are correct, then a significant portion of the human population is arguably not in God’s image! But this can’t be the case.

So What is the Image of God?

Key Truth: All of Humanity is Made in God’s Image.

Not one of the views given can be correct by themselves. But they all are correct together. Everything about humanity is the image of God. From what we are to what we do to how we relate. God created us in his image. But when sin entered the picture, the image of God was blurred.

After Noah and his family survived the flood, God communicated with Noah and starts again with a new humanity. The humankind destroyed in the flood was only wicked all the time. But God saw righteousness in Noah. And he started a new humanity after the flood through Noah’s family. After sin entered the world and caused all of humanity to fall into turmoil, Bodies now die, souls become troubled. Marriages are broken, minds are distorted. All of this is a result of the Fall. So when sin entered the picture, did humans lose the image of God? No, we did not.

We read this in Genesis 9:1-6

Genesis 9:1–6 CSB

God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear and terror of you will be in every living creature on the earth, every bird of the sky, every creature that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the sea. They are placed under your authority. Every creature that lives and moves will be food for you; as I gave the green plants, I have given you everything. However, you must not eat meat with its lifeblood in it. And I will require a penalty for your lifeblood; I will require it from any animal and from any human; if someone murders a fellow human, I will require that person’s life. Whoever sheds human blood, by humans his blood will be shed, for God made humans in his image.

So we have this dichotomy.

We are all in God’s Image. But God’s Image is distorted in all of us. The Image is marred. The picture is blurred. But God’s Image is still there.

So is there hope of the Image of God ever being completely restored to how it was in the Garden before sin? Only in the True Image of God. Jesus is the image of God. In Colossians we read,

Colossians 1:15 CSB

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

And in Hebrews we read,

Hebrews 1:3 (CSB)

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word.

Because the image of God is marred in us because of sin, Jesus, God himself, is more human than we will be until he returns. But even now, he is restoring the image of God in us by the power of his Holy Spirit. In 2 Corinthians we read this:

2 Corinthians 3:18 CSB

We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.

And one day, the image will be completely restored! Romans 8:28-30 says,

Romans 8:28–30 CSB

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.

When Christ returns, the Image of God in us will be completely restored to how it was at the dawn of Creation. And with that, everything that is true of Christ in his humanity will also be true of us.

Connect Card: What does it mean to Be Human?