Image is not left entirely to the imagination. While there is great speculation about what the “image of God” stamped into each and every human might include—reason, communication, conscience, intellect, love, freedom, compassion, trichotomy of body, soul, spirit, immortality of the spirit, creativity, capacity to receive the word of God—there are some definite pieces we can know for certain.
Sprite® ads suggest that “image is everything.” Life coaches might suggest that image is anything you can think it to be. But God communicates that image—His image, which He has woven into us as integral to our being as DNA is to our body—conveys dignity, ownership, responsibility, and a unified plurality that is above gender, above ability, above productivity, above culture, and above time.
Whatever it might be—and many speculations are probably part of the recipe, no doubt—the “image of God” at a bare minimum carries these characteristics (my working definition):
· The image of God makes humans unique to all of creation in essence, long before human behavioral traits were even in operation.
· The image of God is bestowed upon males and females together.
· The image of God privileges all humans with such inherent dignity that if a human life is taken, the human life of the aggressor is forfeited (Gen 9).
· The image of God makes humans more like God (in a non-physical sense) than the rest of creation; yet without making humans mini-gods in any sense.
· The image of God transfers the unified plurality of the Godhead to the unified plurality of humans in some sense, particularly in the marriage bond.
· The image of God makes relationship with the Trinity possible, desirable, and enjoyable in a way that no other created thing understands or participates; not even the angels. And likewise, somehow the image of God makes relationship with spouses possible, desirable, and enjoyable in a way that is unparalleled in any other corner of creation.
· The image of God is also functionally connected to the role given to man and woman to rule and subdue the earth—in other words, humans were specifically designed to be God’s vice-regents on earth, uniquely connected to the earth yet specially inbreathed by the breath of God and imprinted with the image of God.
The person on your left, on your right, speaking into the microphone that is relayed through your radio, teaching your children, washing your car, sharing your name, getting mail at your mailbox, looking back at you in the bathroom mirror—each one bears the “image of God.” The question then is this—how are you bearing that Image? How are you relating that Image in your spider-web of relationships? How are you fleshing out that Image at work, at play, at home, at church, at large? We were imaged for a reason.
Sprite® ads suggest that “image is everything.” Life coaches might suggest that image is anything you can think it to be. But God communicates that image—His image, which He has woven into us as integral to our being as DNA is to our body—conveys dignity, ownership, responsibility, and a unified plurality that is above gender, above ability, above productivity, above culture, and above time.
Whatever it might be—and many speculations are probably part of the recipe, no doubt—the “image of God” at a bare minimum carries these characteristics (my working definition):
· The image of God makes humans unique to all of creation in essence, long before human behavioral traits were even in operation.
· The image of God is bestowed upon males and females together.
· The image of God privileges all humans with such inherent dignity that if a human life is taken, the human life of the aggressor is forfeited (Gen 9).
· The image of God makes humans more like God (in a non-physical sense) than the rest of creation; yet without making humans mini-gods in any sense.
· The image of God transfers the unified plurality of the Godhead to the unified plurality of humans in some sense, particularly in the marriage bond.
· The image of God makes relationship with the Trinity possible, desirable, and enjoyable in a way that no other created thing understands or participates; not even the angels. And likewise, somehow the image of God makes relationship with spouses possible, desirable, and enjoyable in a way that is unparalleled in any other corner of creation.
· The image of God is also functionally connected to the role given to man and woman to rule and subdue the earth—in other words, humans were specifically designed to be God’s vice-regents on earth, uniquely connected to the earth yet specially inbreathed by the breath of God and imprinted with the image of God.
The person on your left, on your right, speaking into the microphone that is relayed through your radio, teaching your children, washing your car, sharing your name, getting mail at your mailbox, looking back at you in the bathroom mirror—each one bears the “image of God.” The question then is this—how are you bearing that Image? How are you relating that Image in your spider-web of relationships? How are you fleshing out that Image at work, at play, at home, at church, at large? We were imaged for a reason.
