# What Can We Learn About God by Being Made in His Image?



## Ed Walsh (Mar 17, 2018)

Friends.

It occurred to me this morning that I do not know the answer to the question in my title. The Lord Yahweh is so far above us that it seems that any comparison between Him and us is impossible. Yet he said that he created us in his image. How is it possible that creatures so sinful, so mutable, so hopelessly earthbound can still in some way be made after his likeness? I see many more ways that are different between God and fallen man than I see similarities. What then is the real image of God in man?

Thoughts.


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## RamistThomist (Mar 17, 2018)

Ed Walsh said:


> Friends.
> 
> It occurred to me this morning that I do not know the answer to the question in my title. The Lord Yahweh is so far above us that it seems that any comparison between Him and us is impossible. Yet he said that he created us in his image. How is it possible that creatures so sinful, so mutable, so hopelessly earthbound can still in some way be made after his likeness? I see many more ways that are different between God and fallen man than I see similarities. What then is the real image of God in man?
> 
> Thoughts.



As Berkouwer notes, we make a distinction between the broader/narrower aspects of the image: man, despite his fall, was not beastialized (38). By narrower man lost his communion with God.

Schilder, anticipating some of Kline's better moments, argues that the term image highlights man's officium, and not some abstract metaphysics. 

Thus, the image is dynamic and is rooted in the Covenantal God’s Relation with man.
the word “image” implies “making visible.”
Schilder resists any abstracting the image.
The glory of the image shines forth in service to God (56).
Scripture doesn’t talk about man in the abstract, but man in his relation to God (195).

I strongly recommend Berkouwer's book on Man: The Image of God. I took extensive notes on it.

https://negatingthevoid.wordpress.com/2017/07/04/notes-on-berkouwers-anthropology/

Reactions: Informative 1


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## Ed Walsh (Mar 17, 2018)

BayouHuguenot said:


> I strongly recommend Berkouwer's book on Man: The Image of God



I have it opened in front of me on Logos.
Thanks for the advice.


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## RamistThomist (Mar 17, 2018)

Ed Walsh said:


> I have it opened in front of me on Logos.
> Thanks for the advice.



It's probably the best thing written on doctrine of man. Berkouwer kind of gets lost in explaining Dooyweerd, but he is very good in expounding and getting us to think in Covenantal categories.


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## earl40 (Mar 17, 2018)

In my most humble opinion this area is the most misunderstood area of theology today. We must limit our understanding that unregenerate fallen man cannot do what is right in the eyes of God. Regenerate men can do what is right in God's eyes because he has faith. Most people think unregenerate fallen man can do what is good without faith because they believe all men are made in His image which is true *only* so far as what they know is right vs. bad. It all comes down to the appearance of what man is...to God. The distinction between God and man is not of distance but of essence, and that distinction is a true separation even with regenerate man. We cannot be like God (in essence) even if regenerate, and even much less know about the divine essence of God. I know this is hard to compered, for even many good theologians goofed this up, to worse or less degree, like Frame, Clark, and Van Til.

Reactions: Like 1


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## ccravens (Mar 17, 2018)

Some ideas, mostly related to soul/spirit:

*self-consciousness
*personality
*capacity for love and self-sacrifice
*free-will to make choices and discern right from wrong
*the ability to think critically, logically, creatively, with imagination


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## ccravens (Mar 17, 2018)

Some thoughts from Bavinck's RD:

*the following that are in God find a limited analogy in man: spiritual essence, virtues and perfections, immanent self-distinctions, self-communication.

"..humans are the supreme and most perfect revelation of God."

"So the whole human being is image and likeness of God, in soul and body, in all human faculties, powers and gifts."


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## Ryan&Amber2013 (Mar 17, 2018)

1. We are able to create and build, and use the sciences and math, etc., to in a sense replicate our God in how He designs and creates.

2. We are able to exercise wisdom. We have a moral compass and are naturally endowed with what is right and wrong.

3. We are beings of love. Love is of God and only those created in His image are able to truly comprehend it and express it in fullness.

4. The area of work. God is a working God and those created in His image are made to work as well.

These are just a few.

Reactions: Amen 1


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## jwithnell (Mar 17, 2018)

Answers including "faculties, powers, gifts," and "think critically, logically ..." include functional definitions and suggest that the mentally disabled are excluded from the Imago Dei.


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## ccravens (Mar 17, 2018)

jwithnell said:


> Answers including "faculties, powers, gifts," and "think critically, logically ..." include functional definitions and suggest that the mentally disabled are excluded from the Imago Dei.



Since those categories you quoted would not be the only ways in which man is in the image of God, I would say that the absence of those in no way denies the mentally disabled from reflecting the image of God.


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## Ryan&Amber2013 (Mar 17, 2018)

Jesus is the image of the invisible God. Maybe we should look to Him to see.

As well, those who say humans are made of body, soul, and spirit would see the Trinitarian nature at work in humanity.

Reactions: Amen 1


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## RamistThomist (Mar 17, 2018)

Herman Bavinck: the image of God is not a static entity but extends and unfolds itself in the forms of space and time. It is both a gift and a mandate….Only humanity in its entirety--as one complete organism, summed up under a single head, spread out over the whole earth, as prophet proclaiming the truth of God, as priest dedicating itself to God, as ruler controlling the earth and the whole of creation--only it is the fully finished image, the most telling and striking likeness of God” (RD II: 577).

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## ccravens (Mar 17, 2018)

BayouHuguenot said:


> Herman Bavinck: the image of God is not a static entity but extends and unfolds itself in the forms of space and time. It is both a gift and a mandate….Only humanity in its entirety--as one complete organism, summed up under a single head, spread out over the whole earth, as prophet proclaiming the truth of God, as priest dedicating itself to God, as ruler controlling the earth and the whole of creation--only it is the fully finished image, the most telling and striking likeness of God” (RD II: 577).



I love HB's prophet/priest/king analogy. I thought about quoting it, but opted for the smaller quotes instead. Must be getting lazy in my old age..


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## jwithnell (Mar 17, 2018)

Over the years, functional and relational (Barth) definitions predominate. The other approach weakens the effect of the fall and claims disability as a separate but equal way to be human.

Here's a critically important resource:
https://www.amazon.com/Appeared-What-Shall-Reconsideration-Dissertations/dp/162995313X

Reactions: Informative 1


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