Why were we made in God’s Image?

In this article/video we will examine why we were made in God’s image. The video on this topic can be found here.

If we had to explain why were created in God’s image, there are three words which we would use: deification, glory, and love.  

I. Deification

For some Christians, the word deification raises red flags because of the negative implications associated with religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism, and heretics such as Kenneth Copeland who claim to be ‘little gods’. So let me be clear from the very beginning. When I use the terms deification or deified I am not referring to religions that teach a person can achieve perfection or god status as in Buddhism, Hinduism, Scientology and New Age philosophies, or that we are ‘little gods’. All of these are grounded in human pride and ego and are the opposite of what the early church theologians meant by these terms.

By deification I am speaking of the goal of God to conform us to the likeness of Christ, a process which must begin with our being crucified with Christ, our self-rule and rebellion surrendered to Him, our recognition and repentance toward sin, and His bringing us into perfection as children of God. Irenaeus, one of Christianity’s first theologians, wrote a great deal about why we were created in God’s image, and used the concepts of deification, glory and love often in explaining God’s purpose.

For Irenaeus, that purpose is a gradual growth toward perfection. Denis Minns, in his book entitled ‘Irenaeus’, explains Irenaeus’ doctrine in this way;

… it is the God given destiny of humankind to grow towards perfection by gradual stages, and that God guides this development in a loving, patient, ever-vigilant, and non-coercive manner…that the goal is the exaltation of the creature formed by God from mud until it comes to share in the  uncreated glory of God: it is the coming to be of humankind in the image and likeness of God.

Denis Minns, Irenaeus ( London:  Geoffrey Chapman, 1994) pp39-57

For Irenaeus, although we have been 'made' perfect by grace, through faith in Christ (Hebrews 10:14), we are as infants 'becoming' gradually what we have been declared to be. 

If, however, any one say, What then? Could not God have exhibited man as perfect from beginning? …Created things must be inferior to Him who created them, from the very fact of their later origin; for it was not possible for things recently created to have been uncreated. But inasmuch as they are not uncreated, for this very reason do they come short of the perfect. 

Because, as these things are of later date, so are they infantile; so are they unaccustomed to, and unexercised in, perfect discipline. For as it certainly is in the power of a mother to give strong food to her infant, [but she does not do so], as the child is not yet able to receive more substantial nourishment; so also it was possible for God Himself to have made man perfect from the first, but man could not receive this [perfection], being as yet an infant. (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book Four, Chapter 38.1)

Buddhism, Hinduism, Scientology and New Age religions all testify to human beings having a desire for perfection, but also, a desire grounded in insisting on gaining perfection our own way rather than God’s way. This desire to make ourselves like God, to rule our own lives, is the very root of sin and the form of temptation Satan used to deceive Adam and Eve. 

It is only when we recognize the suffering, evil and destruction caused by our rebellious egos that we are ready to admit that ‘there is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death’ (Proverbs 14:12). 

II. Glory

Genesis 1:26 tells us that God made humans in His image and gave us rule over everything He created.  Psalm 8 expands on this theme tying God’s glory to ours.

Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens…3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them. 5 You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. 6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands; and put everything under their feet.

Our being made in God’s image is tied to our being made rulers over all creation. David writes that we were ‘crowned with glory and honor’. Our crown is a reflection of God’s crown, for it is those who rule who wear a crown, and our honor is in that we have this crown by virtue of being made in God’s image.

Hebrews 2:5-13 quotes the same verses we read from Psalm 8 and gives us even more clarity. The passage begins by stating that it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, but mankind. In verse 8 we read that God left nothing that was not subject to us, yet ‘yet at present we do not see everything subject to them’. The writer to Hebrews is referring to the fact that we have become subject to death and in the next verses he goes on to say that Jesus became one of us to free us from the slavery of death.  Christ took on human nature and flesh, a corruption of mortality and death. In verse 9 we read that Jesus Himself was made for a while ‘lower than the angels’, but is now ‘crowned with glory and honor’, the same words as Psalm 8.

The writer of Hebrews goes on to say that in bringing many sons and daughters to glory, God made the pioneer of our salvation perfect through suffering. Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters’ (Hebrews 2:10-11).

Paul takes up in the same theme and context in Romans 8. In 8:16-18 we are called ‘children of God, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory’. Paul writes that our present suffering is not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us’. 

We were created in God’s image and crowned with glory and honor, but through sin, we brought death and decay to ourselves and all of creation, indeed, Paul goes on the say in 8:20 that the whole creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. However, verse 21 tells us that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God’.

The glory given to humanity in beginning, was restored by Christ. He was made ‘for a while’ lower than the angels’, He suffered for our sin and through His death and resurrection, restored the mortal body to immortality, corruption to incorruption, thus ‘being made perfect through suffering’. When we are united with Him in His death and resurrection, He is even more than Lord and Savior, but brother, of the same family, and we become heirs of all that is His in the new heaven and earth, including His glory, provided we are willing to be united in His suffering, in order to share His glory.  These are humbling truths which are seldom taught. Those who speak of salvation as a mere ‘fire escape’ or such thing, miss the point entirely, for we were created in God’s image to reflect and experience His glory, and thirdly, and most importantly, His love.

III. Love

Romans 8:28-29 declares:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

Loving God through knowing Him is the foundation of God’s purpose in creating us. Through being conformed to the image of Christ we join the family of God as brothers and sisters of Christ. That love and relationship are foreknown by God as I explained in the video/article the foreknowledge of God. 

In John 17:3 Jesus defines eternal life in this way. 

Now this is eternal life; that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

To know Christ is to love Christ. Jesus goes on to speak of the glory the Father has given him because of the love they shared before the creation of the world (17:24). He then goes on to say, in verse 26, that he will continue to make the Father known in order that the love the Father has for Him may be in us. By virtue of the sacrifice of Christ and our surrender to Him, we become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4) and are brought into same intimacy of holy, loving relationship as God experiences with Himself as a trinity of persons. 

Some theologians, especially among Reformed traditions, are so obsessed with God’s wrath and human depravity that the topic of love is neglected to the point of being almost non-existent. Jonathon Edwards’ infamous sermon entitled ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’ is a case in point. Such theologians claim that the image of God has been destroyed, in contradiction to Genesis 9:6 and James 3:9. One cannot destroy their primary nature any more than a cat can become a dog. 

Sin is a willful rebellion against God and therefore an offense against His holiness, but it is also that which separates us from intimate fellowship with Him and therefore an offense against the very purpose of our being created. God's holy glory is expressed in His holy love and demonstrated in the sacrifice of His Son, 'for while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us' (Romans 5:8). The glory of God, the love of God and the purpose of creation are intrinsically tied together. As Emil Brunner writes:

God creates the world because He wills to communicate Himself…As the Holy God He wills to glorify Himself in His creation; as the loving God He wills to give Himself to others…He wills so to glorify Himself that that which He gives is received in freedom, and rendered back to Him again: His love. Hence the revelation of this love of His is at the same time the revelation of the purpose of His Creation…The love of God is the causa finalis of the Creation.

Emil Brunner, The Christian Doctrine of Creation and Redemption (London: Lutterworth Press, 1952) p13

The love of God and loving God is the causa finalis, the final cause of creation. God reveals his love in creating man in His own image, created to receive His love, freely given, and to return that love back to Him. Human beings mirror this same purpose in pro-creation. God’s love is expressed from Genesis to Revelation. His heart was ‘full of pain’ by the wickedness of humanity in Genesis 6, He refers to the covenant of the law as His ‘covenant of love’ twice in Deuteronomy 7, He calls us to love Him with all our hearts, mind and strength, the greatest commandment, and Jesus rebukes those who have lost their first love in Revelation 2:4.

IV. In Summary

It is a mistake to posit the idea of God's love being conditional upon our obedience, a love we must earn. God's holiness can never compromise with sin, therefore, sin naturally separates us from intimate fellowship with Him. 

Human parents do not stop unconditionally loving their child because the child disobeys, rather, the wise parent uses discipline to teach that sinful actions bring disunity and affect the closeness of their relationship. The loving parent disciplines their child in order to develop their child as a person who can truly love, rather than one centered on them self. In the same way, Solomon writes,

11 My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline and do nor resent his rebuke, 12 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in. (Proverbs 3:11)

Deification, glory and love are the foundations on which we understand why we were created in God’s image. In this short video/article I have barely scratched the surface of this topic, but if you wish to go deeper, and especially to understand how the earliest theologians wrote of these things, they are discussed in depth in my Practical Systematic Theology: Reclaiming the Doctrine of the Early Church.

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God bless

Steve Copland