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By Tyson Thorne

September 26, 2017
 
 

As you may recall, a few weeks ago I had some visitors at my door, visitors with strange theology. One of the examples I mentioned previously is their view of the image of God. They believe that the image of God is gender, and that since we were created male and female that the Holy Spirit must be female -- despite the fact that Jesus refers to the Spirit as “he” throughout John chapter 14. Furthermore, the language of Genesis 1.26-28 draws the distinction of the image between man and animal, not male and female. Gender has nothing to do with it.

The reason for the confusion is simple, the “image of God” is not a cut and dry doctrine. No matter how much you search the Bible, there is no definition of what the image is. We are left, therefore, to construct a definition based on context and other Biblical texts. In fact, there are a couple ways to look at what is meant by “image”.

Traditionally, it has been used to describe attributes that we share with God, attributes common to all humanity and not just Jesus-followers. For example, we live eternally, share in God’s creativity, we have a sense of justice, we love, we have intellect, emotion and will. It can even be argued that part of the image of God may be found in marriage (the two becoming one). These are attributes that both God and humanity share and that differentiate us from the animal kingdom.

The other way to look at the “image” concept is as a status. Those who take this view argue that since many of the attributes alleged by the previous view do not apply to the unborn (a baby in the womb), the “image” must be something else. After all, many pro-life evangelicals argue that abortion is wrong because it destroys the image of God. For this reason, God bestows the status of image upon humanity. This status permits us to be “imagers”, a people capable of promoting or reflecting God in creation.

Of the two views, Think-Biblically.com promotes the traditional view of the image of God. The idea of the image being status has some merit, but doesn’t fit the flow of Genesis chapter one very well. Also, it seems to contradict Paul’s teaching in Ephesians chapter four:

You were taught with reference to your former way of life to lay aside the old man who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and to put on the new man who has been created in God’s image – in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth.

This would appear to indicate that the attributes of righteousness and holiness are significant components of the image of God. Also, the Hebrew words in Geneses 1 are for “image” and “likeness”, not status. Either way you look at it, though, one thing is clear: God made (or declared) man unique from all the rest of creation when he decided to make us – and only us -- in his own image.