Imago Dei
You see it every morning when you get up. You walk to the lavatory, splash some water on your face, look up, and there it is – staring right back at you – your face reflected in the mirror. But that face is not really you; it is only your reflection, your “image.” Later, a friend tags you in a Facebook picture post, and there you are! But that is not really you; it is only your image that has been captured in a photograph. You are much more than your image. You are a combination of your thought processes, a spirit/soul that motivates you, and a body which transports you wherever you want to go. The image in the mirror disappears when you turn around and walk away. The image in the photograph is permanently fixed in time and space, but not you; you are free to come and go as you please.
“God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness … So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Genesis 1:26-27). What does it mean to be created in the “image of God”?
Dr. John Morris says it this way, “God has seen fit to endow mankind with qualities and characteristics which, in some way known fully only to Him, adequately reflect His image, and which totally distinguish man from any other created thing.” Richard Dawkins (a well-known atheist) on the other hand would say humans and chimps are related. If this were true, then the Bible would be wrong as it teaches that man came from the dust of the ground and woman from his side. Of course animals are amazingly well designed, but they do not carry God's image. Jesus Christ did not die on the cross for an animal – He died for you!
When you look at another person, do you see the image of God?
3 Responses
Join the ConversationDavid says:
But ... we are connected to the plants and animals (by God's design) for food ... we need the 'chemical building blocks' that they produce. And the whole creation seems to have been cursed by man's sin, to be restored after all God's elect have known their redeemtion. So ... I would have answered Dawkins that the obiousness of a designer and builder and His awesome glory is revealed by the amazing interdependencies we find all over the map. Baruch HaShem!!!
Mike says:
Great post! This reminds me of a powerful passage in the New Testament:
"Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." (James 1:19-27 ESV)
ROMANS 1:20 says:
I never thought about it like that before!