The Image of God

In the beginning, we’re told that God put man in the garden and said that, in some mysterious way, he would be like God—not equal but “like”—and bear God’s image. “‘Let us make man in our own image and in our own likeness.’ So God shaped man out of the dust of the earth and breathed life into him” (Genesis 1).

Some theologians say that this image-bearing means that we have a consciousness, will and desires because God has these attributes; but it’s unlike anything else in creation. There’s a focus on the emotional element, but if you examine Scripture, there isn’t much evidence for that interpretation at least in the early chapters. Initially, it has to do with dominion. “God blessed them and said, ‘Be fruitful and multiply. Subdue the earth’” (Genesis 1:28). Maybe this image has more to do with our duty to spread God’s dominion and build his kingdom.

There are some who speculate that Eden was in the middle of the world, and God’s plan was for mankind to help the plants and animals spread beyond the garden of Eden into the rest of the land. We can’t know for sure, but it gives a different dimension to how we bear God’s likeness, and that would match with some of what we see in Revelation, where we will be given rulership in some place of heaven.

In the fall, of course, that image of God was tarnished and corrupted by sin. Genesis shows this with such brutal clarity. First, we have Cain who uses his might and ingenuity, that ruling power, to kill his brother. Cain’s descendant Lamech also kills someone and then brags about it to his two wives, an even further distortion of dominion. A few chapters later, Cain’s descendants build a city, subduing the earth in a new kind of way, which was probably a sort of inspiration for another city called Babel that gets built later. They’re achieving a crooked, tainted version of what God intended.

I believe that image is in all people, but we lost the goodness in dominion, at least until Christ came. “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, he is before all things, and in him all things hold together so that in all things he may hold preeminence” (see Colossians 1:15-18). Jesus came to bring back God’s original intentions for his image in us.

Through humble submission, we overcome the dangers of pride.

Part of this restoration of God’s idea of our image-bearing will be completed in heaven, obviously, but part of it starts with humble submission in this life, just as Christ submitted to the Father, even to the cross. That humility and love among the Trinity is the image that we are being made into by the Spirit. This requires our participation, too. It means constantly checking where our heart is, if we’ve slipped into building our own kingdoms, defending our own image, worrying about our benefits.

A self-promotional attitude can seep so easily into the church, particularly if leaders feel the pressure to keep the church growing or even help people grow. We know we’re called to do this work! The worst part is that calling can mostly be for God’s glory, but also a little glory for us. We want God’s people to grow, but we also might pray for someone we’re discipling in a way that we know they’ll praise us for or add a little flare and jokes to a sermon or conversation that we know people will laugh at, which will make us feel more important or influential.

When we catch ourselves using the same tools as the world—self-promotion, manipulation, anger, controlling behavior—to achieve “great good” for the church, that’s when we know we’ve started building our own kingdom. We’ve started trying to manage God’s redemptive processes for ourselves because we think he’s acting too slowly or not in the way we would do it. This is when we introduce a Babylonian, unbiblical culture to our churches.

Jesus invited his followers, and continues to invite us all, to step back and reacquaint ourselves with the differences of a heavenly kingdom. His whole ministry was introduced with this call, “The kingdom of God is at hand, so repent!” (see Matthew 3:2 and 4:17).

We step back. We humble ourselves and bow to the true King. 

When we are on the wrong path, repentance turns us around and draws us back to God.

The kingdom of God seems so subtle in Christ’s teachings. It’s a treasure buried in a field or a mustard seed falling into the ground. That small decision to humble ourselves is the starting point that God is looking for to build something so much larger than whatever we’re envisioning. On the other hand, that seemingly small decision to glorify ourselves, a little “humble brag” moment, is a different kind of seed dropped into our hearts. It’s an easy, terrible thing to slip into justifying anything poisonous like that because “it’s for the greater good.”

Sometimes it sneaks up on us so easily. I had a moment not long ago where the Holy Spirit caught me. I had just been talking to a friend, and he asked me what my take was on revival. I basically said, “The most important thing is to preach the Word of God, walk in holiness, pray and love your neighbor. That’s just basic Christian life, so I don’t seek out revivals. I don’t hear about one and fly across the country to experience what’s going on.” When I got off the call, the Holy Spirit really convicted me. I felt strongly like he was saying, “Gary, how arrogant. You don’t need revival? You can just read your Bible, and you don’t need me to move in supernatural power on your behalf, on the behalf of others?” I had to repent and ask God to replace that pride with humility in my life.

Pride always shows itself through comparison and competition, even in the most unexpected places in our hearts. It sneaks in with thoughts like, “I’m not like those people chasing revival. I don’t need those sorts of things to feel close to God because I have a rigorous Bible reading schedule that I’m faithful to, and I pray X number of hours a day,” etc.

Also, pride robs integrity from Christian life and ministry; humility restores it. This is a constant work that we must return to repeatedly. Many of us idolize the places where God has worked on our behalf and dust off our hands, thinking, “Well, I got the big one out of the way.” God lifted that burden off us, and there is far more work in our hearts, and part of that is returning to our pride, our deepest need to build our own glory. It creeps up on us the moment our back is turned. We must constantly test our own motives.

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3-4, ESV). Amen.