What Does "Made in the Image of God" Actually Mean?
"To worship an idol is not only to blaspheme God but also to demean human beings as God’s image."
by Tim Perry
I think there are four notions intertwined in the idea of image in Genesis 1:26-27. First, it communicates that human beings are the climax of creation. Only humans are created in God’s image. Where other ancient creation stories portray human beings as slaves of the gods, this one exalts humanity. This exaltation lies close to the heart of the Hebrew (and Christian) prohibition against idol worship. Humans ought not to create images of God and bow before them because God has already made God’s image: human beings. To worship an idol is not only to blaspheme God but also to demean human beings as God’s image.
...Jesus both makes us into something new and at the same time makes us into what God had intended us to be... |
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Which brings me to the second notion: image also communicates the idea of rule. “Let us make human beings in our image . . .” is followed by “so that they may rule over. . . .” God has made human beings as His image to rule (or “have dominion over”) the creation on His behalf and in the way He wants. The rule over creation that human beings exercise, in other words, is itself under the rule of God. This is explored further in the second creation account of Genesis 2:4-25, where rule is expressed as tending (rather than, say, exploiting) God’s garden.
Third, image communicates the idea of relationality: “God created human beings in His own image . . . male and female He created them.” In the capacity of the woman to relate to her “other,” the man, and in the capacity of the man to relate to his “other,” the woman, we see reflected God’s ability to relate to creation. Indeed, some Christian exegetes have gone further to say that, in the relationship of male and female, we see reflected God’s triune relationality in which the Father loves the Son and the Son the Father in the Holy Spirit.
Fourth, Christian theologians have understood image to include rationality. Human beings reflect God, in other words, in our unique ability to reason. This ancient reading is not obvious in the text but can still be justified, I think, by implication. A being incapable of reason cannot rule in God’s name and is not capable of meaningful relationships; therefore reason is implied in the previous two ideas. Admittedly, however, it cannot be read directly from the text in the same way rule and relationality can.
Finally, a word about Him whom the New Testament calls the fullness of God’s image: Jesus Christ. Insofar as Jesus is the image of the invisible God (see Colossians 1:15), He not only discloses to us the nature of God but also the true, exalted nature of humanity. In saving us from sin, Jesus both makes us into something new and at the same time makes us into what God had intended us to be from the beginning: the climax of creation.
Tim Perry is associate professor of theology at Providence College and Seminary in Otterburne, Manitoba.
Used with permission. Copyright © 2006 Christianity.ca.