Imago Dei
The Claim
"Let us make man in our image, after our likeness... male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:26-27). In the ancient world, kings set up images of themselves in conquered territory, and idols were "images" of gods in temples. Genesis democratises the concept explosively: every human being — not just the king — is God's image, His living representative installed in the temple of creation.
What the Image Involves
Scripture suggests the image is less one trait than a fourfold vocation:
- Representation — humans stand in for the King, exercising dominion as stewards, not owners (Genesis 1:28; Psalm 8:5-6).
- Relationship — "male and female"; the image is lived in community, echoing the God who is eternally relational.
- Resemblance — capacities for reason, morality, creativity, worship.
- Sonship — Adam begets Seth "in his own likeness, after his image" (Genesis 5:3), the same phrase: image language is family language.
Defaced, Not Erased
The Fall marred the image; it did not delete it. After the flood, murder is outlawed precisely because "God made man in his own image" (Genesis 9:6), and James forbids cursing people "made in the likeness of God" (James 3:9). Every ethic of human dignity — the unborn, the disabled, the enemy, the stranger — stands on this doctrine or on nothing.
The True Image
The New Testament's move: Christ "is the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15) — not made in the image but being it. Salvation is image-restoration: renewed "after the image of its creator" (Colossians 3:10), "conformed to the image of his Son" (Romans 8:29).
Kingdom Connection
Imago Dei is a royal commissioning: humanity as the King's vice-regents. The Kingdom of God restores people to the job description of Genesis 1 — worshippers who represent, cultivate, and reign with the true Image forever (Revelation 22:5).