Bearing the Image of God

The image of God is one of the most important but misunderstood theological doctrines of the Bible.  It is the fundamental characteristic and trait of humanity.  Only mankind is made in the image of God and only man, used generically to mean both male and female, reflect the image of God.  Thus, the image of God is a necessary affirmation of the essential component of humanity.  But what does it mean?

Genesis 1:26-27 states, "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.' So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."

What is remarkable about these passages, among many things, is that God does not say, "let's put our image into man," or, "let's put parts of our character into man," or, "let's put some of our image into man."  No.  God says, explicitly, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness."  In a very real way, every bit of the human is the image of God.  

This is important.  There is no bit or component of man that was not made in the image of God.  Therefore, any attempt to compartmentalize the image of God to suit what humanity deems virtuous or godly is not only incorrect in methodology, it does not actually adhere to the biblical account.

The image of God is not a parsed element of God's intellect or a segment of His creativity or a portion of His righteousness.  No.  Comprehensively, in every respect, man is an image of God.  This is a feature that is utterly unique to one of God's creatures, man.  No other creation of God is deemed to be made in this image.  Nor is any other creature given this lofty and royal dignity to be so esteemed over all of creation as to be made, wholly in the image of God.

To be sure, to state that man, comprehensively, is the image of God does not diminish the Creator-creature distinction.  Rather, the image of God that is humanity is as much a reflective distinction of God as is the image that I see in the mirror is not actually the fulness of me but it, in its totality is an utter reflection.  Or, think of a photo copy.  The photo copy is wholly reliant on its source document for its existence, but it is not the totality of the book that it has been taken from--it is but an image, a reflection.

Fast forward: Adam and Eve sin, and the image is tainted.  Now every human, though still image bearers of God, bear that image through Adam and the marring of his sin.  But in Christ mankind is reborn in faith, and the image of God that is through Adam and sin is redeemed and replaced with the perfect and intended image of God in Christ Jesus.  Praise be to God for this reality!