Created in His Image

God created humankind to be something more than what it is. So what was that, and what are its implications? Graeme Loftus explains.

The atrocities committed by humanity in Africa, the Balkans and Middle East have shocked us all. We felt human nature was incapable of such degenerate inhumanity. At the same time we marvel at the nobility of ordinary people who labour selflessly in the midst of gross injustice and personal peril to make the world a better place. So, we ask, how can the two coexist in the same nature?

It’s a question people have been asking for a long time. The psalmist, recorded in Psalm 8:3, 4, asked it: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?”

Anthropology is the study of humankind, but it can be correctly understood only in the light of theology, the study of God. To base our studies of humankind on an atheistic outlook will lead us to wrong conclusions about many things, including our origins, how we got in our present situation and evil condition, and our ultimate destiny.

The Bible tells us that we’re made in the Imago Dei—“the image of God” (Genesis 1:27). That expression encompasses a wide range of God’s attributes. God has a mind to think (1 Corinthians 2:16), emotions to feel (Hosea 11:8) and a will to choose (Romans 9:15). In the same way, we have been created with these abilities. In our capacity to reproduce children, we reflect the creative aspects of God’s image. In the multitude of arts, music and drama, we reflect the delightful spectrum of God’s expressions of beauty.

The tragedy of humanity is that Adam gave his authority, representation and rulership away to Satan.

Even though “God is spirit” (John 4:24) and we must not reduce Him to our human categories as did the ancient Greeks with their plethora of gods, there are passages of Scripture suggesting that we are created in the actual physical image of God (see Exodus 33:22, 23; Daniel 7:9). There is certainly something about our maleness and femaleness that reflects the image of God (Genesis 1:27). The Bible at times portrays God with traditionally male characteristics—a fierce warrior, protector and provider (see Revelation 11:19-21); at others, it presents God in more traditionally feminine ways, as a nurturing, caring person (see Isaiah 49:15; Matthew 23:37).

Similarly, there’s something about our need for community that reflects the image of God. There’s never been a time when God existed in magnificent isolation. The very triune nature of the Godhead means that God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit have always lived together in community. When God said of Adam, “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18), He was expressing, it seems, a fundamental part of His own nature. It’s no coincidence that the New Testament places enormous emphasis on living together in community (see Acts 2:42-47). We need each other to function and make our unique contributions to society in a balanced way.

In Genesis 1:28 God told humankind to “rule” over the works of His hands. In so doing, He appointed the man and woman to be His managers or stewards, His governors and representatives. They were assigned the responsibility of governing the earth in all ways. Humans were forever to be God’s link to authority and activity on the earth. God chose to limit Himself concerning the affairs of earth to working through human beings, which is perhaps why we don’t see His overt actions so much these days.

Adam and Eve were to be God’s representative and as such to represent God in everything in this earthly domain. It is in this sense that humankind also reflects God’s image in His rulership over the whole universe.

No wonder, then, the psalmist cried out in amazement at the relationship between the Creator and His created. The term, “image of God” means that humankind was an “illusion” or “shadow” of God. When other created beings looked at our first parents they would have seen the glory of God (1 Corinthians 11:7). God was recognisable in humans.

It’s moving to contemplate the way this creation took place. The Bible is clear that while God the Father was present and the Holy Spirit was the creative power behind all that happened, it was Jesus who spoke everything into existence by His word (see Genesis 1:1-3; John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:1, 2).

The account in Genesis is quite brief, but full of import and meaning: “The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being [soul]” (2:7).

The picture painted is one of Jesus bending over the inanimate form of Adam, “kissing” him in love, breathing into him the breath of life. The Hebrew has two words for “breath.” Nephesh refers to the air we breathe, while ruach refers to the life of God. It is “ruach” that is used here in Jesus’ creation of the first human. As God breathed His spirit (“ruach”) into Adam, he became a human soul, a living human being.

This corresponds exactly with the New Testament’s most comprehensive description of our threefold human nature—body, soul and spirit: “May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

These three aspects of our humanity do not exist in isolation from one another.

The Bible is a thoroughly Hebrew book in its way of looking at life, and views human nature as one of concrete unity rather than abstract dualism as did the great Greek philosophers, who have influenced world thinking for so long. Socrates and Plato, for example, split everything into two. They believed that all matter, including the human body, was essentially evil. Only the world of spirit was pure. As a consequence, the Greeks spent their life’s energies either trying to negate the body with all its functions or indulging it with great excess, because in the long run, it would be essentially irrelevant in comparison to the human spirit, which alone would last forever.

The glory of the gospel is that authority and rulership was wrested out of Satan's hands and handed back to Jesus

In contrast to this, Jesus looked at His material creation and declared that it was “very good” (Genesis 1:31). The human body with all its functions is portrayed in Hebrew Scriptures as something sacred to celebrate and restore from sickness and disfigurement. When Jesus was resurrected, He went out of His way to reveal the physical, corporeal nature of His glorified body (Luke 24:38-43). Moreover, in the future, humans are told that their present lowly bodies will be transformed so that they will be like Jesus’ glorious body (Philippians 3:21).

Jesus wants us to care for all aspects of our humanity. We have a moral responsibility to look after its physical wellbeing as much as possible. Our eating habits, sexuality and exercise are to be kept blameless.

In a similar manner we are urged to let Jesus transform our minds (Romans 12:2). The Greek word for “soul” is psuche, or psyche, and would include our thinking patterns, our emotional responses and our behavioural choices.

Our human spirit would include those aspects of our being such as worship, conscience and intuition that can be energised by the Spirit of God.

The tragedy of humanity is that Adam gave his authority, representation and rulership away to Satan (see Genesis 3:1-15; Job 1:6, 7; Luke 4:6, 7). Three times in the Gospel of John, Jesus called Satan “the prince of this world” (12:31; 14:30; 16:11). The impact of this is that our human spirits became dead to the things of God (Ephesians 2:1-4).

The glory of the gospel is that authority and rulership was wrested out of Satan’s hands and handed back to Jesus as the Second Adam (1 Corinthians 15:22, 45). By virtue of His obedient life, His atoning death and His victorious resurrection, Jesus wrenched control of this earth from Satan, becoming the new representative head of the human race (see Matthew 28:18). As a consequence of that, the Holy Spirit is able to bring our human spirit back to life again—if we respond to his wooing and convicting work (John 3:6; Romans 8:15, 16).

The Bible promises that when Jesus returns again His ultimate authority will once again restore our humanity to its original nature (1 Corinthians 15:51-54; Romans 8:22, 23). It’s only then that we will be fully human.

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