What Does It Mean to Be Made in the Image of God?
On the sixth day of creation, God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” When I laid out this series months ago, I did not realize how much controversy there is about what that means. Some say the “us” is God and his majesty, or God speaking to the angels. I have always taken it as the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, and I see the Spirit at work in verse 2 and the Word in John 1. I also believe there was a real historical Adam and a real historical Eve.
The words image and likeness mean resemblance. Genesis 5:3 uses the same words when Adam fathered Seth “in his own likeness, after his image.” Like father, like son. “God created us to resemble himself.” This truth reaches three relationships.
It Shapes Our Relationship with God
Thomas Gataker said, “The soul of man bears the image of God. So nothing can satisfy it but he whose image it bears.” Look at what God did in Genesis 1. He was creative, he loved beauty and order, he spoke and ruled, and he had fellowship. We reflect that. Mentally we make choices, morally we know right from wrong, and socially we were made for fellowship. I do not believe in evolution or in theistic evolution. I believe in what the Bible records as a special creation.
It means we were made to represent God. There is a statue of Michael Jordan at the United Center, and “that statue is not Michael Jordan. But if you know something about Michael Jordan, you would know that that statue represents Michael Jordan.” We are meant to be a representation of God, and sin has marred that. It also means we were made for relationship. As Michael Horton put it, “the image of God is not something in us as much as it is something between us and God.”
Sin did not take the image away, but it shattered it. It is like a broken windshield: you can see through it, but it is dark. Man was created holy, and he is still not. But God is at work restoring us, making us more like himself from glory to glory.
It Shapes Our Relationship with Creation
God told Adam and Eve to rule over the earth and to subdue it, and that means to cultivate it and take care of it. We are stewards. I grew up in an era of commercials telling people to stop littering. Christians sometimes make fun of people who hug a tree, but God has given us this world and we are responsible to him for how we rule.
It Shapes Our Relationship with One Another
Sometimes preachers are asked for more application, but “the application is based on your theology.” Both male and female are created in God’s image, and both are to be valued and respected. “Every living person is created in the image of God and they are valuable.” That includes the unborn, children with special needs, aging parents, and those who are dependent on others.
Two verses show what this means. In Genesis 9:6 God gives the reason murder is serious: man was made in his image. “Murder is a big deal in God’s sight because other people are made in the image of God.” In James 3, the tongue blesses the Lord and curses people made in his likeness. “What hypocrisy is that we want to bless God with our tongue, but then we want to curse man.” John MacArthur said “racial harmony is a blood issue, not a social issue.” It matters how we treat prisoners, the poor, the elderly, and people from different backgrounds.
Francis Schaeffer once greeted a young man kindly, and the man asked why. Schaeffer answered, “Because I know who you are. I know that you are made in the image of God.” Do you realize that “the people who are in front of you going slow when you’re driving, there are people who are made in the image of God?”
The Good News
The bad news is that sin has marred our image. The good news is that Jesus, the perfect God-man, came to give his life so we can be transformed. Sinclair Ferguson told a story of a father whose portrait of his son is stolen. When the police catch the thief, the father asks, “did you get my portrait back?” God wants his portrait back, and he restored it by sending the original, who was defaced on the cross. Second Corinthians 5:17 says that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
Discussion Questions
- Genesis says we were made to resemble God. Where do you see his creativity, order, or fellowship reflected in your own life?
- I described the image of God as shattered like a windshield. What would it look like this week to let Christ restore a part of you that sin has marred?
- Every person is made in God’s image, including the slow driver or the waitress who is not doing a good job. Whom do you need to treat with more dignity and respect?
May we surrender our lives and praise him for what he has done, and worship the one who made us in his image.
