The High Call to Bear the Image of God

Open in word of prayer.

This won’t necessarily be an isolated sermon. In fact, I tend to make this something like a series of sermons that starts in Genesis and ends in Revelation. I want to discover with you and the Lord a common thread that I believe answers some of the longings that exist within our human hearts.

Tell a story about myself and purpose. “Then what?”

Purpose is in every man’s heart to ponder. After we enter into covenant, “Then what”.

Western Civilization has sold short the Good News and made it about “getting to heaven.”

When I think about purposes, I love referring to Genesis. Genesis is packed with incredibly relevant theology.

One of the important things about Genesis is that it speaks about a time when mankind was walking within the functions that God had intended us to.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27  So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

When Yahweh says, “Let us make man in Our image,” who is the “us” that Yahweh is referring to?

There has been lengthy discussion over the issue, but there are three prevailing views.

The first view is that the “Us” are the heavens and the earth. This seems to be a prevailing rabbinic view:

Torah through Time Creating Pluralism

Rabbi Joshua said in the name of Rabbi Levi: God consulted with the work of the heavens and the earth.

(Genesis Rabbah, Rabbinic compilation edited by 5th century, Land of Israel)

The second view is that this is a reference to the Godhead. This tends to be the prevailing Christian view.

A sixth line of evidence concerning the plurality of the Godhead in the Old Testament is the fact that plural pronouns are used of God. One example is Genesis 1:26a: And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

Fruchtenbaum, A. G. (1983). The Messianic Bible Study Collection (Vol. 50, p. 8). Tustin, CA: Ariel Ministries.

The last prevailing view is that here Yahweh is speaking with the angels. This is another historical Jewish view, and this view has also gathered a lot of favor amongst Christian scholars as well.

Here God is pictured talking to the angels, the only allusion to other supernatural beings in this chapter. This remark implies that man is like both God and the angels. (Traditionally, Christians have seen us and our to allude to the other persons of the Trinity. While this is a quite legitimate fuller interpretation, it is not the words’ primary meaning.)

Wenham, G. J. (1994). Genesis. In D. A. Carson, R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, & G. J. Wenham (Eds.), New Bible commentary: 21st century edition (4th ed., p. 61). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press.

This is the view that I hold for a couple of reasons. One of them being shortly after the fall of man, Yahweh refers to “us” again and places a cherubim to guard the entrance to the garden. Genesis 3:22

Naturally the question arises, in what way are we made in the image of God and the image of angels? What is this likeness that we share with our Creator and the heavenly beings? So, whatever conclusion we land on with regard to this image, we know that we must share this property with God and the heavenly beings. Let us turn our attention to these two words “image” and “likeness”.

So much of Christian literature seems incredibly vague on this point. They will define this likeness as being “unique from the animals” or having “moral intuition” or having “will”, but none of these answers seems obvious from the text. There is a nondescript “otherness” that Christians have difficulty actually pinning down. Of course, we’re different from the animals, but in what way? Let’s break this passage down and see if we can get some idea.

Because of this ambiguity, interpreters have had to look for clues in the context of these passages that might be decisive for determining the exact meaning of these descriptions of humanity. Unfortunately, commentators have not been able to agree on what the decisive clues are, and the interpretation of the image of God has often reflected the Zeitgeist and has followed whatever emphasis happened to be current in psychology, or philosophy, or sociology, or theology.

Curtis, E. M. (1992). Image of God (OT). In D. N. Freedman (Ed.), The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (Vol. 3, pp. 389–390). New York: Doubleday.

What we are disccussing here is not a physical property. God is Spirit (John 4:24). We know that whatever this likeness is, it must not be a physical property, but a quality or character property that we share with God. We also know, based on the descriptions of heavenly beings throughout Scripture, that if we should see a human that looks like a heavenly being, we all ought to run in terror. Therefore, this shared image we have with Yahweh and the angels simply can’t be physical.

We might be able to look at one of your children and say, “Your kid is the spitting image of you.” Yet, you would know that your child behaves immensely different than you do now or ever did when you were their age. Physically, your child and you share a similar image, but your character traits that make you individuals are incredibly different. That’s not the kind of image we’re talking about here. What we’re talking about is more likened to someone younger than you, and you observe their thoughts and behaviors and think, “You remind me of myself when I was your age.” Physically, you may look nothing like this person, but you carry similar qualities to this person.

To be the image of God is equivalent to holding authority. To be in the likeness of God, is to actually hold dominion as God’s representative on the earth.

This word for “image” is typically used of idols. The idols are the physical representation of the authority of the gods on earth. They were the symbols of worship. Enemy armies would desecrate the images of a conquered city to show that the god and his authority had been defeated.

Gen 1:26 introduces the account of humanity’s creation with God’s statement, “Let us make man in our image (bĕṣalmēnû) according to our likeness (kidmûtēnû).” Gen 5:1 talks about humanity’s creation “in the likeness of God” (bidmût ʾĕlōhı̂m), and this suggests that the prepositions used with the nouns “image and likeness” are interchangeable in meaning. It has been suggested by some that the preposition b is used as bet essentiae, and that it indicates identity. Thus, the meaning is that man and woman were created not “according to” the image of God but rather “as” the image of God. Many have denied that the preposition k ever has this meaning, though certain considerations suggest that this may be the meaning intended by the biblical author.

Curtis, E. M. (1992). Image of God (OT). In D. N. Freedman (Ed.), The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (Vol. 3, p. 389). New York: Doubleday.

Creation Narrative → Image of God and heavenly beings; creation of man; dominion over animals

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

4  what is man that you are mindful of him,

and the son of man that you care for him?

5  Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings

and crowned him with glory and honor.

6  You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;

you have put all things under his feet,

7  all sheep and oxen,

and also the beasts of the field,

8  the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,

whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

9  O LORD, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

(Ps 8:3–9). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Categorically, we can see the Psalmist here using the same themes that exist within the creation narrative. The Psalmist seemed to view, that as a part of God’s creative work, “Man” had been placed over all the handiwork of the earth. Scripture specifically says we have been given dominion over the earth. Now, remember, we’ve said that whatever quality we land on must be shared by both God and the heavenly beings. As we know, God certainly possesses dominion over both heaven and the earth. Given that, the man was made just a little lower than the angels, we can deduce that the angels must have dominion as well.

There are other sources we can look to to acknowledge what this image is. In fact, the concept of image-bearing is totally familiar to other ANE cultures.

The words used here to convey these ideas can be better understood in the light of a phenomenon registered in both Mesopotamia and Egypt, whereby the ruling monarch is described as “the image” or “the likeness” of a god. In Mesopotamia we find the following salutations: “The father of my lord the king is the very image of Bel (ṣalam bel) and the king, my lord, is the very image of Bel”; “The king, lord of the lands, is the image of Shamash”; “O king of the inhabited world, you are the image of Marduk.” In Egypt the same concept is expressed through the name Tutankhamen (Tutankh-amun), which means “the living image of (the god) Amun,” and in the designation of Thutmose IV as “the likeness of Re.”

Without doubt, the terminology employed in Genesis 1:26 is derived from regal vocabulary, which serves to elevate the king above the ordinary run of men.

Sarna, N. M. (1989). Genesis (p. 12). Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society.

As we can see here, the ANE viewed image-bearing as equivalent to having dominion or authority. When Genesis was written, this was certainly language that would have been familiar to Moses and the people of the time.

The pagan nations reserved image bearing to only kings and royalty. However, Yahweh is giving, if you will, a sense of kingship, not just to one man, but to all humanity. What makes us in the image, is not some abstract or elusive sense of otherness, but the idea that we are the embodiment of God’s authority over all the earth.

Reference Perelandra

This is Adamic Dominion.

In the Bible this idea has become democratized. All human beings are created “in the image of God”; each person bears the stamp of royalty. This was patently understood by the author of Psalm 8, cited above. His description of man in royal terms is his interpretation of the concept of the “image of God” introduced in verse 26. It should be further pointed out that in Assyrian royal steles, the gods are generally depicted by their symbols: Ashshur by the winged disk, Shamash by the sun disk, and so forth. These depictions are called: “the image (ṣalam) of the great gods.” In light of this, the characterization of man as “in the image of God” furnishes the added dimension of his being the symbol of God’s presence on earth. While he is not divine, his very existence bears witness to the activity of God in the life of the world. This awareness inevitably entails an awesome responsibility and imposes a code of living that conforms with the consciousness of that fact.

Sarna, N. M. (1989). Genesis (p. 12). Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society.

We beg the question, what do image bearers do? I will submit to you, brothers, 2 things.

Genesis 1 Mandate: Collective and Long Term

Image-bearers increase in the tens of thousands to cover the earth and bring the earth into submission. “And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28)

Image-bearers settle down and have families. Men cleave to a wife. Wives join themselves to a husband. They become one flesh, they have children, and they raise those children well. They disciple those children, teach them how to live their own lives with wisdom and strength. They send them into the world with their own husbands and wives. And these children do the same and do it well. These men and women build image-bearing families, image bearing-communities, image-bearing villages, and image-bearing cities.

Subduing the earth isn’t literal in the sense that humans are wrestling with the dirt or grapple woodland creatures, instead it means that means that mankind explores, discovers, tames, possesses, and builds across the face of the earth that God has given Him.

Genesis Mandate 2: Individual and Immediate

Image-bearing men tend, work, and cultivate the things God has given him. He oversees, preserves, and guards (if necessary, with force) what God has given Him. And image-bearing women with wisdom and strength assist their men in this endeavor.

The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. (Ge 2:15)

Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” (Ge 2:18)

It is important to note that in both of these mandates, it is man and woman working together, not against one another.

As I’ve already stated, mankind perverted this high call of bearing His image, and as a result mankind was punished. It’s important to note that God did not revoke His image. Instead, He still intended mankind to do all the image-bearing work he was called to do before, except now it would become difficult.

16 To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” (Ge 3:16)

Genesis 3:16 can be compared to Genesis 4:7. Woman was made to be a helper for man, but as a result of the fall, man and woman will struggle against one another.

17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Ge 3:17–19).

We know that the image and dominion granted to all of humanity wasn’t revoked after the fall, because Yahweh is still referring to mankind being in His likeness in Genesis 5:1 and 9:6. Adamic dominion remains in all humans.

This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ge 5:1). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

“Whoever sheds the blood of man,

by man shall his blood be shed,

for God made man in his own image.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ge 9:6). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Just as marriage is given to all humanity, dietary laws, Sabbath, all humanity is also given dominion over the earth. People can enjoy marriage, enjoy the health benefits of the dietary laws, and enjoy the rest of a Sabbath day off, and have no devotion to God. In this way, all mankind holds dominion and can do so without attachment to God. And just like marriage, dietary laws, and Sabbath, man can and has perverted their dominion.

In spite of the fall, God in His common grace has granted all men the glory of His image. All men, not just kings or mighty ones (gods). This is a revolutionary idea in the ANE world, because other than kings who were the only image bearers of the gods, men were seen as slaves to the gods.

When Marduk hears the words of the gods,

His heart prompts (him) to fashion artful works.

Opening his mouth, he addresses Ea

To impart the plan he had conceived in his heart:

“Blood I will mass and cause bones to be.

I will establish a savage, ‘man’ shall be his name.

Verily, savage-man I will create.

He shall be charged with the service of the gods That they might be at ease!

(Creation Epic of Marduk of the Mesopotamians)

Pritchard, J. B. (Ed.). (1969). The Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (3rd ed. with Supplement, p. 68). Princeton: Princeton University Press.

God, in His love and charity, invites all men to bear His image and take dominion in His name.

All humanity bears image of God on the earth, which is why God’s immutable Law applies to all mankind. When we sin, we defile the image of God, and therefore invoke condemnation. This is why God punishes nations and individuals, even though they do not abide within His Kingdom Covenant, because all of mankind represents God’s authority on the earth, they are His image, and therefore have defiled the image of God.

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ro 1:18–25). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

They exchanged the high call of being an image bearer of God, and instead placed that image on things that we were called to have dominion over.

Why does God tell us not to make graven images? Because God has already chosen His image, and it’s US! It’s a high call God has given to all humanity.

All the people we know are image-bearers of God, and because of this, are accountable to Him in a way the rest of creation is not. This is true of Buddhists, Wiccans, and atheists. As Romans 1 states, they have “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”

There is Good News, God sent a second image-bearer to make right what the first image-bearers perverted.

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (Col 1:15–20).

This will leads us into the next sermon which will be about Kingdom Dominion as opposed to Adamic Dominion.