What Does the Bible Tell Us about the Imago Dei?
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The Imago Dei is perhaps one of the simpler theological terms to define. The complexity mostly comes from its implications. What does the Imago Dei mean for us as humans? Did the Fall affect how we express it? Does the Imago Dei mean that humans are more valuable than animals? All of these are important questions to wrestle with. Understanding the Imago Dei helps us understand who we are as God’s creation and interpret the rest of the Bible’s revelation about humanity.
What Does Imago Dei Mean?
Imago Dei is a Latin phrase that means “image of God.” Christians use this phrase to describe the uniqueness of humans within the created order.
Genesis 1 lays the foundation for this idea by singling out the creation of humanity as being distinct from the rest of God’s creation. This chapter uses repetition to create a structure, so we see phrases like “God said,” “let there be,” and “according to their kinds” over and over. However, when we come to verse 26, we see a break in the poetic flow of the passage. The break is meant to grab our attention and emphasize the rest of the chapter, in which God shows us what it means that we are made in his image.
How Are We Created In the Image of God?
When we think about something being made in the image or likeness of something else, we may think in physical terms. When a person says a little boy is “the spitting image of his father,” that person would typically be referring to the boy’s outward appearance. However, we cannot think of ourselves as having some of the physical characteristics of God because God is a spirit (Col. 1:15; 1 Tim. 6:16). Instead, humans being made in the image of God is a functional reality rather than a structural reality.
God placed within humans the ability to reason, love, problem-solve, imagine, and care in a way that no other created thing can. Human beings, male and female, have a capacity for relationship that reflects the character of our creator. Humans are the crown jewel of God’s creation, and we serve a glorious purpose within that creation. Genesis 1 and 2 explain the role God has given to humans as his image-bearers through three relationships all humans have.
The first relationship we are told about is between humans and creation. Genesis 1:26 and 28 tell us that God gave humans dominion over the rest of creation. In Genesis 2:15, God placed Adam, the first man, in the garden of Eden to “work it and keep it.” These verses do not depict tyrannical abuse of creation; instead, they depict care and nurture. Humans are specially designed to understand ecosystems and cycles, allowing us to maximize the production and flourishing of our environment. Ultimately, creation belongs to God; we are just managers.
When we turn our attention to Genesis 2, we find another crucial relationship: humans relating to one another. The Lord made the first man, Adam, and put him in the garden of Eden. Then God brought all the animals he had made to Adam and let him name them. Out of all the creatures that God had made, none of them were like him. None of them could give him the help and companionship he needed. Adam needed someone else who shared the Image of God. Therefore, God created Eve, and Adam was ecstatic when he met her.
Humans are built for relationships with one another. Being made in the Image of God, we have a capacity for mental and emotional expression that no other created thing can match. As much as we love our plants and pets, those things will never meaningfully enrich our lives in the way that other image-bearers can.
The final and most important relationship we see in the opening chapters of Genesis is the relationship between humans and God. Multiple times, we see God interacting with Adam and Eve, giving them charges and commands. Humans are the only created beings capable of having a relationship with God. God gave humans the special privilege of knowing him and bringing him glory. Before sin, Adam and Eve had perfect fellowship with the Triune God.
Sadly, it did not take long for the first man and woman to rebel against God. In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve decided they wanted to be their own masters, bringing sin and death into the world. Sin marred the Image of God in them, like acid thrown on the Mona Lisa. Because of Adam’s sin, every human born on this earth is born with sin embedded in his heart. There was once peace and harmony. There is now strife, judgment, and death (Rom. 5:12-14).
However, sin could not totally destroy the Image of God present in humans. Though warped and enslaved by sin, humanity still bears the creator’s mark. Even after the Fall, the Bible emphasizes the sanctity of human life (Gen. 9:6).
Gloriously, God had a plan to save his creation and restore it to its original state. By sending the eternal Son, Jesus Christ, to die an atoning death, God made way for people’s sins to be forgiven. When we repent of our sins, God begins the work of renewing his image in us (Col. 3:9-10, Eph. 4:24). With the rest of creation, Christians await the day that God will finish his work (Rom. 8:22-23).
Where Does the Bible Talk About the Imago Dei?
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him; male and female, he created them (Gen. 1:26-27).
This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female, he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created (Gen. 5:1-2).
Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image (Gen. 9:6).
Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator (Col. 3:9-10).
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18).
And to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Eph. 4:24).
With it [the tongue] we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God (James 3:9).
Why Does It Matter that We Are Made In the Image of God?
When we consider doctrines like the Imago Dei, we may not immediately realize how critical they are to how we interpret the world around us. How we understand our origins has a massive impact on how we should live. If we are truly made in the Image of God, even though that image has been twisted by sin, then each person is created with inherent dignity, value, and worth that cannot be ascribed to any other created being. We know this instinctively, even though we live in a world that diligently works to undermine and attack this truth.
If we believe that human beings are made in the Image of God, then we should interpret cultural issues through that lens. This lens will apply to issues like abortion, sex trafficking, immigration, war, civil rights, pornography and prostitution, criminal justice, and many more. Many Christians on both sides of the political aisle have allowed these topics to become partisan issues rather than Imago Dei issues. When wrestling with topics like these, we must commit to thinking through the principles we find in the Bible regarding human life and dignity.
In a world that increasingly suppresses and manipulates the truth of us all being made in the Image of God—mostly by saying there is no God to make us in his image—Christians must be bold in their defense of God’s good design. We must proclaim that every human being is valuable, from the tiniest baby to the oldest, sickest hospice patient. We must never tire of serving and giving to the causes that seek to honor the dignity of human life.
Of course, we can only do these things by the power of the Holy Spirit. Let us pray for wisdom and unity among the people of God as we seek to honor what he has revealed to us. Moreover, let us pray that God would finish his work, bringing about the new heavens and the new earth, where all things will be made new (Rev. 21:1-4).
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