The Image of God in Me
Written by: Andy Steen
Who am I? What am I worth? What defines my neighbor’s worth? Am I defined by my class, my gender, my career, my race or something else?
The world tells us to look within for these answers, but the deeper within we look, the more confused we will become (and have become). Fortunately, God authoritatively declares our identity within the first few pages of the Bible. There we find that we have been created in God’s image; you could even say that we have been created as God’s image. We were made to be his representatives on the earth. Over the course of three posts we’ll look at what this meant, what it means now, and what it will mean in the future. I’d like to break it down like this: the image of God in me, the image of God in you, and the image of God in Christ.
So first, what does it mean that I am (we are) created in God’s image? In Genesis 1:27 we read “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” We’ve all heard this before, but we underestimate our created status if we think of God’s image as just a stamp of God’s likeness upon us. Theologian Herman Bavinck put it like this: “a human being does not just bear or have the image of God, but he or she is the image of God. As a human being a man is the son, the likeness, or offspring of God.” Your child does not just have your nose or hair color; they are your child through and through. To be human is to be God’s image; without God’s image we are no longer human. This also means that although sin has seriously tainted it, we are still God’s image after the fall into sin.
What does it mean that we are God’s image? Let’s look again at the creation account. God spends the first days “separating” or “forming” - he separates light from darkness, sky from water, and water from land. Then he moves on to “filling” - “let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky,” “let the land produce living creatures.” And each type of creature is called upon to be fruitful and increase in number. But for his final act, God himself is described as being more intimately involved: “let us make man in our image.” Just as all the birds, fish, and livestock were all created “according to their kinds,” so humans are created, but according to God’s kind, according to his image.
God’s image is both who we are and what we are called to do. It’s who we are - both “male and female,” created distinctly but equally as God’s image bearers. We are created and able to be in relationship with our creator, a special relationship that no other created being has. We are designed for intimate relationship with him, as a child with a parent. We can relate to God, in our finite way, because of our rational and moral nature, and because he uniquely built us with both a spirit and a body.
But God’s image is also what we were called to do. We can break down man’s original duties under three categories: the kingly, the priestly, and the prophetic:
The Kingly
After creating humans in his image, “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’” According to Greg Beale, “Adam was to reflect God’s kingly actions of subduing and ruling over creation, creating, and filling the world with his creation.” Adam and Eve were created to continue God’s kingly work as his royal representatives on earth. They were to multiply and send out more image-bearers, thereby filling the earth with God’s reflected glory.
The Priestly:
God put them in a special, holy place: the garden, where Adam was commanded “to work it and take care of it” (Gen. 2:15). These two Hebrew verbs are used later to refer to the job of Israel’s priests: to “minister” and “keep guard” over the work in the tabernacle (Num. 3:7-8). The ESV study Bible says “the man’s role is to be not only a gardener but also a guardian. As a priest, he is to maintain the sanctity of the garden as part of a temple complex.”
The Prophetic:
Before Eve’s creation, God also gave Adam his word in a specific command: “you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Gen 2:17). Adam should have served as God’s faithful prophet in passing along this word to his wife, but he either failed to do it accurately or failed to ensure Eve remembered. When she was tempted, she misremembered. Adam, “who was with her,” did not object. They did not act as God’s royal representatives, did not protect the garden as his priests, did not faithfully remember his word in their role as prophets.
Because of sin, we have lost the righteousness that God created us with. Our special relationship with God was broken, our status changed from God’s offspring to his enemies. We retain the image of God because we are his image, and God did not give up on us, or on his original plan to fill the earth with his glory. Because we retain God’s image our hearts are restless until they rest in him. We are still meant to live in a special relationship with him. We are still meant to recognize the dignity of the image in others. Is there anyone who can fulfill God’s original plan of an image bearer who can be a perfect prophet, priest, and king? Yes; yes there is.
Stay tuned.