Who Invited Sarah?

The “Image of God” is something that I feel Christians hear, but are not able to easily comprehend. What does it really mean to be made in the image of God? I have a lot of thoughts this week and only on the first two episodes of the series, so props to you if you make it through all of it.

The creation story is where we begin to hear about this statement in Genesis 1. God is depicted as a royal figure. God is speaking and things happen, just like a king in ancient Israel would have.

It was interesting to look at this through the perspective of time and if you were a reader in ancient Israel. They discussed how it wouldn’t necessarily be a surprise to people that God is a King and is able to create things through authority, but it would be hard for them to comprehend that God created human’s and says that they are supposed to be in His image.

Then God said ” Let Us make man in Our image according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth…”

Genesis 1:26-28

Creation stories of other gods have similar themes of the creation of life and humanity out of violent conflict and war between gods and the life that is born is a slave to them. God is different because He is there amid darkness and chaos and pursues no conflict. He makes us in His image and gives us this amazing task to rule the earth on His behalf. Now obviously we kinda mess this up, but this is the vision that God has for humans when he created us, which I think is pretty cool.

The three human tasks that are given in Genesis are as follows:

1. Rule
2. Have Dominion
3. Subdue

The context of time is definitely needed here, because, as Tim and Jon discuss we don’t refer to each other as ruling in our lives today. I mean I guess where there is monarchs, sure, but in my life, I have never ruled anything. They bring up Adam Sandler and the movie Billy Madison, which I have not seen. (This is definitely just a side note but I love the energy in which they discuss these complex topics. They are so informative but also don’t make me feel like I am “dumb” for not getting things right off the bat. There is a level of fun that they bring into the podcast which makes it truly enjoyable to listen to.) Anyways back to the topic at hand. So ruling or having dominion is not a word that humans are used to and to me, it would almost feel wrong to rule over something. Like I do not have nearly enough authority or power to do that. Essentially Tim and Jon describe these tasks as a reflection of what God has been doing. Therefore, ruling is just bringing your will and intention to the earth to allow it to flourish.

Subdue is also a word that we don’t use super positively today. It is normally thought of as “taking or exerting power over.” To describe how it is meant here, they used the metaphor of gardening. We have to cultivate and put in lots of time and energy to make that patch of dirt do something it wouldn’t normally do. We were given a vocation to mediate God’s rule. When we do this, we are said to be in God’s image.

This got me thinking of how I imagine God. The first words that popped into my head as I wrote this are powerful, all-knowing, slow to anger, and love. I feel like as I have grown in my faith over the last year or so, I have realized for the majority of my life, I did not picture God this way. I pictured him as an authority who I needed to be perfect for. In church this weekend Peter talked about how lots of times we feel the need to show up to God like we would for an interview, boasting in all our accomplishments and in our best clothes. I related to this so much. I have focused so much on being perfect and never having a miss-step that I completely skewed who God is. I thought that if I did go above and beyond every day God wouldn’t want to bless me, or if I didn’t get the best job, or get into school, or get an A that it was because I wasn’t good enough for it in God’s eyes. Now to be completely transparent I am still very much working on letting go of this view of life and while I am still working on it, I am also so proud of how far I have come. I know that I can let go of control of my life and have faith that God has a plan for me. However, knowing and actually letting go are two completely different things, but like I said working on it.

With all that being said. I wonder if my view of God previously would have skewed my opinions and thoughts about being made in the image of God? I have never thought prior what I think it means. Humans are obviously set apart from other creations. We have emotions, morality, and creativity that allow us to be expressive and communicate at a different level. This is what Tim and Jon describe as the metaphysical interpretation of the image of God.

The functional interpretation, in Genesis 1, of the image of God is linked to the fact that God has uniquely given us the tasks that we discussed above. God rules the world, not through kings, etc. but instead through humans, building their lives on earth. This is such a beautiful concept that I am currently realizing is something I have never been able to put into words. Throughout my life, I have struggled with the concept of evangelism and felt I wasn’t gifted with it, but I have always been very sure that the way I spread the good news of the Gospel, was to just be myself and let the light of God shine through me. I feel like this interpretation of the image of God confirms that, at least for me. God is ruling through me because I have accepted him into my life and put my faith in Him. It is an honor to be able to be made in His image and a part of Him.

Why are humans God’s pinnacle creation? Why did He pick us to be made in His image? This is so interesting to think about, and I have lots of questions about it that I don’t think could ever be answered. Why not pick a different creation to make in Your image? There are so many, why us? I could go on and on and even be like why create any creatures at all if you are God? While I have these questions, I don’t think that they cause me to doubt anything I believe, if anything I think they make my faith stronger.

The Hebrew word for image references idols the most throughout the Bible. I never thought about the phrase image of God in this way, but God repeatedly says that we shall not make images of Him in idols. Tim and Jon discuss how because of this the Bible starts with a paradox of God making an image of Himself in us.

“Let’s not confuse anything we can make with something that God has already created.” Love this!

And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illuminate them; and they will reign forever and ever.

Revelation 22:5

In Revelation 22, the vision that God originally had for humanity in Genesis 1 is discussed again. The thought that the purpose of humans is to reign is so foreign because as they discuss, a modern Christian narrative is that humans are terrible and God is going to make us good enough to join him. The way this is set up is different. God wanted to share His world with us (I guess this kind of answers my why create anything at all question) and instead, we dishonored this image and rebelled. Jesus was then sent to renew and heal humanity so that we could eventually fulfill the original calling God had for us. This is a doozy to understand because this is not how I learned it. I am definitely going to need to listen to this one again.

Tim and Jon went on to discuss how since we are made in the image of God we are ” reflecting mirrors of God’s glory”. Most of the time we are poor reflections and a diminished form of what we are made to be. Part of the good news is that we have an opportunity to live back into the glory, even though we as humans have tarnished it. Piggybacking on this, Paul the Apostle is the first one to describe Jesus as the image of God, and then in Colossians, he discusses us becoming new humans according to the image of God through Jesus.

and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him-

Colossians 3:10

We are being recreated as the kind of humans that Jesus showed us we should be. Jesus is the most true and accurate representation of God. Paul links this to Jesus’s authority. I keep saying this, but listening this week has been blowing my mind on so many things. Like what do you mean Jesus came to show us how to honor being made in the image of God and live in a way that restores our humanity as God imagined it in the first place. It is just a whole different perspective that I have never had when hearing about the creation, the coming of Jesus, and the crucifixion. I definitely do not have all the information but it’s given me so much to ponder.

What went wrong with the image of God? This is an interesting way to start a discussion because to me I have always pictured that God does not do anything wrong or make any wrong decisions. So how could the image that he intended go wrong? Technically, it went wrong because of humans and I am not sure if there is another answer to why. Tim and Jon discussed that because we are made in the image of God, there is a tendency to take the idea too far and try to interpret good and evil on our own. This usually ends up with us taking something as evil and trying to make it look good. I feel like there are a lot of examples of this in the world today which just makes it easier to justify things as not evil because it is convenient for us to do so.

Back to the idea of perfection. They reworded the idea that everything was perfect and then we ruined it and now God is trying to make everything perfect again. As a perfectionist, this wording gives me great anxiety. Of course, I know I will never be perfect but to sit and think that humans were the reason that a perfect world didn’t exist doesn’t make me feel very good. They reworded it as everything was great and there was potential for it to be much better, but we made it bad instead, and God wants to change us so we can do what he originally called us to do. Work with him to make it awesome. I like this version much better.

To go back to my question about God’s image going wrong, I always was under the impression that everything that God made was perfect. I guess I could just look at humanity and that would disprove my statement, but I have never thought of Him as creating things that are great but not perfect. Tim and Jon talked about how He created sea monsters, which were part of His good creation but kind of gnarly, and that there is no claim of perfection made in Genesis 1. Even after the fall, the curse was just how humans operate will be full of more conflict and difficulty than it could have been. In both Hebrew and Greek the words for perfect mean completed or having fulfilled their purpose and in Genesis, it is just the beginning of the story and not even close to being completed. The end of this episode was a large debate on perfection and I know what I said above, but I still don’t have my mind fully wrapped around whether God meant to create a perfect world or not before humans disobeyed.

My brain was like jdslfusyerlkwbadf after this episode and I have way too many thoughts on this, so I am saving the next two episodes of this series for next week.

Thank you for reading, you’re the best!