Beginnings: Made in the Image of God
In Genesis 1, we learn God made men and women in His Image.
Genesis 1 v 27
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
This is reiterated in Genesis 5 and further mentioned in Genesis 9.
Genesis 9 v 6
Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind.
‘Made in the Image of God’ is a key doctrine in the Scriptures. Conceptually, it connects us to God and separates us from the other creatures.
What is the Image of God?
Most commentators say it’s a quality which God gives us. A spark of the Divine, so to speak.
Other commentators say it is a function. Throughout Genesis 1, God gives purpose to the different elements of Creation. Why would this be different for men and women? Our function and purpose is to be the Image of God in the World.
Considering the different ways of looking at it, I can see both can be true. There is something divine about us, and also a divine purpose placed on our lives.
What Does It Mean?
Jesus said, in John 14 v 9,
‘Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father’
The Epistle to the Colossians says Jesus is the image of the Invisible God. This means Jesus is the perfect bearer of Image of God.
In order to fulfil the function God gave us at the beginning of Creation, we must look to Jesus as the template.
Describing our purpose on this Earth in relationship to the life of Jesus is a deep and complex topic which I don’t feel today’s post can achieve So I will leave that for another time.
But by reading about and meditating on Christ we can understand our role in Creation more fully.
Idols and the Image of God
When I read about how God formed Adam out of the ground and breathed life into him, I get a strange notion that this sounds like God was creating an idol.
Idols were pretty much obligatory in pagan worship. The temples were filled with them. Israel existed in a land surround by cultures drenched in idol worship.
Ancient texts tell us how the pagan cultures created idols. They describe the rituals and ceremonies which brought a god (demon) into an idol.
Whereas man-made idols cannot move, eat or reproduce, God made Adam and Eve fully alive.
And God does not make them to be idols to be worshipped by Him, but created them to worship Him.
God’s purpose for them was to populate His temple and be His image, by bringing order, creativity and love to His Creation.
Equally, as ‘sons of Adam’ and ‘daughters of Eve’, our roles are the same. We are here to exhibit the Image of God throughout His Creation.