In the Image of God

Genesis 1:26,27

In The Image of God

God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

our times in two verses the Word of God says man is created in the image of God.  Three times God states that man is created, as I pointed out in the previous study.  One would suspect that there is more than a little emphasis in this repetition in but two verses.  Related to these observations is the fact that man, created … created in the image of God, was appointed to rule over God’s creation.  This emphasis of man’s appointment to reign over all creation is given twice in these same two verses.  These truths are somehow related.  If we will understand the responsibility of man within God’s creation, we must grasp the relationship between these two pieces of information.

Man Created by God — Man was created in the image of God.  This clearly involves the fact that man is a being possessing personality, a sense of morality and spirituality.  The fact that man is created means that he bears responsibility to the One who created him.  If man were his own creator he would owe allegiance to no one.  If man is simply the product of chance, he is not responsible to anyone.  Man, uncreated, has neither responsibility for the environment nor stewardship over the creation.

Man is created, however.  Moreover he is created by God who calls all things into being.  Therefore, man is responsible to God as a created being and responsible for the environment, bearing a stewardship over that which God has created.  The statement of the Living God as He prepared to create man imposes this awesome responsibility.  Our text states that God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule…”  Man was created and as a condition of creation he was specifically appointed to rule and the realm over which he was appointed a regent was the realm of creation.  The realm over which man is to exercise his reign embraces the sea, the air, domestic animals, the earth and all wild animals.

When God had created man He blessed the couple He had created and commanded, Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.  Rule over…  Again, man is appointed to exercise dominion over the realm of the creation, especially the creation as it relates to this earth.  Dominion of a scope such as detailed here implies responsibility for the creation.

Despite the protests of outsiders to the Faith, it is the believer in the Word of God and in particular the Creationist who is submitted to the Creator, who is most likely to bear responsibility for the creation which God made.  Bible believing Christians who understand the mandate of God cannot rape and pillage the earth.  Instead they understand that they are responsible for the earth and responsible to the Creator to exercise dominion over the earth, nurturing and caring for it in a manner reflecting their relationship to Him as Creator.

Contemporary psychology and modern biology unite in a strained effort to deny mankind’s responsibility either for himself as an individual or for civilisation.  Modern scientism says that either man is not responsible for himself because he is the product of genes and body chemistry or that he is not responsible because of his environment or because of earlier events in his life.  The individual is excused for all actions and choices, regardless of the rationale.  Criminal behaviour is thus often viewed as a sickness instead of being seen as a failure to accept responsibility.  Consequently, criminals are often regarded as victims of their environment instead of being seen as victimisers.  Even the wife of the President of the United States excuses his sexual deviancy because his mother and his grandmother once fought over him.

No less tragic are national attitudes which excuse criminal behaviour because of events from millennia past.  Japanese politicians (and even ordinary citizens of that island nation) to this day excuse the inexcusable actions of their military for the rape and pillage of innocent people throughout the Orient.  The excuse is based upon either attempted oppression by Mongol invaders or because of Western interference in their cultural determination during the early part of this century.  To this day there has never been an apology for using Canadian soldiers as slave labourers to further their war effort fifty years ago.  Serbs and Albanians still justify the most horrible actions imaginable on the basis of environment and genes.  Thus corporate national behaviour is seen as unfortunate concurrence of genetics and environment for which no one bears responsibility.

Similarly, national policies respecting the environment are driven less by a sense of responsibility to act as wise administrators of the environment over which God has given us dominion than by a desire to maximise profits from that same environment.  As a nation we alternate between a desire to obtain the best profit from tourism and a desire to maximise profit from cutting the trees, mining the minerals, damming the rivers, or through other commercial use of that same environment.

The biblical view could hardly be different.  Man is created in the image of God and thus man is responsible to the God whose image he bears.  Man is not at the mercy of his environment.  Rather, man is so great, standing as he does at the apex of God’s creation, that he can influence history for himself and for others.  Man can influence the future both for himself and for those who will follow.  Man can determine how the environment will be used instead of surrendering to the environment.  Though man is fallen, he is nevertheless responsible to the Creator and for the creation.  Man can do great things, or man can act in such a way that even the wicked are aghast.

When our first parents sinned, the Creator required accountability from man.  Where are you? asked God.  Who told you that you were naked?  … What is this you have done?  [Genesis 3:9,11,13].  From the first sin, from the first rebellion against the Creator, man has been held accountable.  This is the reason for the biblical statements concerning responsibility toward others.  Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed [Genesis 9:6]. Statements such as these are not reminders of a dark day when barbarism reigned over the earth.  These are given precisely because man is too valuable to wantonly destroy.  For this reason the harshest penalties are reserved for the destruction of God’s greatest act of creation.  Related to this is the prohibition of the use of the tongue to destroy another.  With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness … This should not be [James 3:9,10].  Murder and cursing of another are forbidden because man is in God’s image and thus valuable.

Male and Female — Man was created male and female.  Modern feminism has advanced the thought that there is no difference between man and woman or that whatever differences there may be are accidental.  Were the evolutionary doctrine true this view could perhaps be supported, but even a casual reading of the text before us denies that man and woman are identical.  Sexuality was created by God.  Maleness and femaleness are good because they are part of God’s good creation.  Maleness and femaleness are meaningful since God gave this distinction as part of His gift to man.

I consider the current effort among a growing portion of the population to alter what they are as sad … a grievous insult to God who gives us gender as a gift.  A man who tries to be a woman is a sorrowful spectacle.  A woman who tries to be a man is a tragic exhibition.  That society would condone such efforts for underwriting sex change operations for members of the military or because the psyche is damage is the only thing which is more pitiful.  Perhaps you wonder who is superior?  Well, a man is obviously superior … at being a man!  A woman is absolutely superior … at being a woman!  However, let a woman try to be a man, or a man try to be a woman, and you present a monstrosity.

Feminists, and far too many evangelical theologians, have assumed that to accept this view is to deny equality.  The contemporary view is that woman must be allowed to do everything that a man does and men must become feminised in order to be complete.  May I say that woman was given to complement man, to make him complete.  Man without woman is incomplete and woman without man is incomplete.  Together they complement one another and make stronger still that which could not otherwise be complete.  To say that there is a difference is not to deny equality before the Lord.

Man and woman are equal, but they are not indistinguishable.  Within the family, and within the church, man is to lead, to protect, to oversee, to esteem, and to initiate.  Woman is to respond, to receive, to bear, to nurture and to follow.  The human family reveals a deliberate parallelism to the Trinity.  In theology we say that the three persons are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.  Nevertheless there are distinctions according to which the Second Person of the Trinity, the Son, submits Himself to carry out the wishes of the Father.  Likewise, the Third Member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, voluntarily subordinates Himself to the united will of the Father and of the Son.

Subordination of woman to man in marriage is a voluntary submission.  No woman is required to accept the proposal of any man.  However, when she enters into marriage before God with a man, she becomes, as Peter says, submissive and obedient to her husband [cf. 1 Peter 3:1-6].  By the same token, children are under divine command to obey and honour their fathers and mothers [cf. Ephesians 6:1-3].  Theologian John Gerstner, commenting on this very subject of children in submission to parents and the relationship to the Trinity through reflecting the will of God, writes:

We know from sorry experience that many [children] choose not to do so, but if they do so (as they are under a divine mandate to do), they must do so voluntarily.  So there is in the economy of the human family, which God made in his own image, a replica of the divine Trinity itself, in which there is a proper and voluntary subordination.[1]

Body, Soul and Spirit — Theologians debate to this day whether man is a dichotomy or a trichotomy.  That is, the debate concerns whether man is body, soul and spirit or whether man is body and soul.  I do not wish to debate the issue at this time.  I have made my position plain in a previous address, but I will state that all evangelical theologians are in agreement that man consists of a physical aspect and of an immaterial aspect.  The physical part of man is subject to physical death and requires a resurrection while the immaterial part continues beyond this life.  The argument revolves around whether this immaterial part can be further distinguished as consisting of a soul (or personality) and of a spirit which alone relates to God.

It is conceded that throughout portions of the Bible, soul and spirit are used interchangeably.  Early in the Bible the soul (vp,N<") is used in referring to the life force both of man and animals, whereas later in the Word of God the spirit (j'Wr) becomes the more prominent terms to speak of man in relationship to God.  Likewise in the New Testament the terms soul (yuch;) and spirit (pneu'ma) are freely exchanged.  There is nevertheless several distinctions which suggest that the two components are distinct … at least to God.  Believers are said to possess the capacity for relating to God.  That capacity which allows Christians to relate to God is known as spirit (pneu'ma), whereas even the unsaved have a soul (yuch;) [cf. 1 Corinthians 2:9-16].

Hebrews 4:12, 13 may be helpful in understanding this situation.  You may recall these verses which teach that the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.  Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight.  Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.  Soul and spirit are said to be distinguishable to God, though the implication is that man would have difficulty in making this distinction.  Perhaps the soul and spirit are so intertwined that we cannot accurately point to an aspect of man’s existence, identifying it as either soul or spirit.  Nevertheless, God is able to make this distinction.

The soul, I suggest, is that aspect of man we speak of as personality.  It is the eternal aspect of man which lives on and which continues throughout eternity either in the presence of God or separated from Him.  The spirit is that portion of man which relates to God and which in the natural man is dead to God.  For this reason God speaks of saving the soul [e.g. James 5:20 NASV] and giving a new spirit [e.g. Ezekiel 36:26].

Let’s look somewhat more particularly at these three aspects of man.  The body is the part we see; it expresses physical life in the main.  We have a body in common with all living creatures.  The body is not eternal, though the body of each individual shall be resurrected either in glory or in dishonour.

The soul is the part of a person we call personality or self-identity.  The soul relates to the body through the brain which is a part of the body.  It is also related to the qualities we speak of as spirit.  In the main, soul refers to what makes an individual unique.  We might say the soul centres in the mind and includes all of one’s likes, dislikes, special abilities or weaknesses, emotions, aspirations and everything else that makes the individual different from all others of the species.  It is because we have souls that we are able to have fellowship with one another.  It is through the soul that we experience love for one another and by which we communicate with one another.  In a limited fashion we share in common a soul with animals.

Man fellowships, loves and communicates with more than others of his species.  Man made alive in Christ is also capable of loving and communicating with God and for this communication man requires a spirit.  The spirit, then, is that aspect of a man which communicates with God and to some extent partakes of the essence of God.  God is Spirit.  Therefore his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth [John 4:24].  Because man is spirit he can fellowship with God and worship Him.  However, by reason of the fall of our first parents, the spirit is dead and must be made new by the new birth.  Thus alive in Christ, that is with a new spirit, an individual can worship God.  Let me emphasise—only with a living spirit may an individual worship God.  Only by the new birth may an individual fellowship with God.

Gerstner, speaking of body and soul, has good insight.  He notes that

The quirk of human nature in its present state, unlike its original condition, is that we have a tendency to recognise that the other person is a conscious, rational and moral soul, but that we treat ourselves as if we were merely a combination of chemicals and reactions.  A boy once said to his mother, “Mother, why is it that whenever I do anything bad it’s because I am a bad boy, but whenever you do anything it’s because you are nervous?”  That is the principle.  When the boy does something bad the mother recognises that he is a spirit.  He is a morally responsible individual who can be properly reprimanded for his misbehaviour.  But when she does the same thing … she reminds her son that she is a body of nerves and should somehow not be responsible.[2]

We are responsible!  The soul does have dominion over the body.  Consequently, whatever our weaknesses may be, we are responsible to subordinate our fleshly desires and live for God.  We have no excuse!

Ruler Over the Animals — Man was created to rule over the animals.  This point is stressed in strongest fashion in these verses.  Martin Luther, in his Lectures on Genesis, opined that Adam in his original state was superior to the animals even in those points where they are strong.

I am fully convinced that before Adam’s sin his eyes were so sharp and clear that they surpassed those of the lynx and eagle.  He was stronger than the lions and the bears, whose strength is very great; and he handled them the way we handle puppies…  If … we are looking for an outstanding philosopher, let us not overlook our first parents while they were still free from sin.[3]

It was with such capacities that man ruled God’s creation.

At the present time we encounter a horribly tragic situation.  Man is fallen, his body subject to death, his understanding darkened and he is separated from the life of God in ignorance.  Consequently, he either tends to dominate and thus violate the creation, subjecting it to his own selfish ends, or else he tends to attempt to worship the creation, not realising that his own debasement is accomplished in this foolish effort.

As the Bible describes them, the man and the woman were made a little lower than the heavenly beings [Psalm 8:5].  That is, they were placed between the highest and lowest beings—between angels and beasts.  However it is significant that man is described as being slightly lower than the angels rather than being slightly higher than the beasts.  Man’s privilege is that he is a mediating figure, but he is also to be one who looks up rather than looking down.  The unfortunate truth is that when man severs the tie binding him to God and tries to cast off God’s reign, he does not rise up to take God’s place (as he desires to do), but rather he sinks to a more bestial level.  In fact, he comes to think of himself as a mere beast (the naked ape), or even worse, as a machine.

Marred by Sin — The last point is that God created man holy, a position he no longer occupies.  The other areas reflecting the image of God remain, though they are disfigured and distorted by sin in each instance.  Man is still a created being, though he is weak and destined to die.  Man is still male and female, though each gender struggles for supremacy over the other and competes for a superior position.  Man is still body, soul and spirit, though each aspect of his being has been touched by death and marred by sin.  Man is still dominant over the animals, though he lives in fear of those same animals.  However, man was also created holy as God is holy, and of this original righteousness not a vestige remains.  The Scriptures accurately portray man in the darkest of terms.  Every indication of the thoughts of his heart [is] only evil all the time [Genesis 6:5].

Every facet of man’s being is contaminated until even the highest thoughts of the noblest man is tinged with self as man reveals that the Creator was displaced from the throne of the heart.  This is the reason man needs a Saviour.  God made man upright and good, but man turned to pursuit of his own interests bringing ruin on the entire Creation and death to the race.

Perhaps in this context you will recall the dark words which bracket Christian hope and which Paul penned to the Christians living in Rome during that first century?  The creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.  Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.  For in this hope we were saved.  But hope that is seen is no hope at all.  Who hopes for what he already has?  But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently [Romans 8:20-25].

Now the creation groans by reason of man’s sin.  Now the world is in bondage because of our sin.  Now, not only is no individual holy, none is capable even of regaining that lost holiness.  Before our first parents fell, to use Augustine’s phrase, man was posse non peccare (able not to sin).  However, he was, as Augustine also faithfully declares in accordance with Bible teaching posse peccare (able to sin).  That is the choice our first father exploited.  Now man is non posse non peccare (not able not to sin).  It is as though man jumped into a pit where he remains trapped.  He must remain in that pit until God by grace through the work of Christ the Lord and in the power of the Holy Spirit lifts him out.  Just as our first parents were created in the image of God, we must be recreated in the image of God in order to escape the ruin of Adam’s fall.  That is the message of life which we bring to all who will receive it, even in this message.

Though it is true that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God [Romans 3:23], God has presented His Son as a sacrifice in the place of sinful man.  The Word of God declares that at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly [Romans 5:6].  By this one great act of mercy and grace God demonstrates his own love for us … While we were still sinners, Christ died for us [Romans 5:8].  What remains for us is to receive this gift of life which is found in submission to the declaration of the Creator.

Thus Scripture presents the means by which we can escape the pit, be declared holy once more and enjoy fellowship and communion with God our Creator.  If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.  As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”  For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” [Romans 10:9-13].

The message of each Christian is a plea that you would believe this good news.  The message of each church which seeks to honour the Living God and the Risen Son of God is this, that you would receive this good news of life.  The message which even now is pressed to your mind by the Spirit of God is that you will submit to Him who gave you your being and who even now invites you to life eternal.  Through faith in Christ you, also, can be born into the Family of God and be made alive to your Creator.  Amen.

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[1] John H. Gerstner, Man as God Made Him in Our Savior God: Studies on Man, Christ and the Atonement, edited by James M. Boice (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1980), p. 22

[2] Gerstner, Man as God Made Him, p. 23

[3] Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 1, Lectures on Genesis Chapters 1 – 5, edited by Jaroslav Pelikan (St. Louis: Concordia, 1958), pp. 62, 66