Skip to content

Course 10 · Lesson 1.1

Human beings in the image of God

13 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 10 outline

Module 1: Sin and Human Nature

  1. Human beings in the image of God
  2. The fall in Scripture: Genesis 3 and Romans 5
  3. Original sin in Augustine and the Western tradition
  4. Ancestral sin and mortality in the Eastern tradition

Module 2: Grace and Free Will

  1. Pelagius and Augustine
  2. The church responds: semi-Pelagianism and the Council of Orange
  3. Luther and Erasmus on the bondage of the will
  4. Monergism and synergism across the traditions

Module 3: Justification and Sanctification

  1. Justification in Paul and James
  2. Justification by faith alone in the Lutheran and Reformed traditions
  3. The Catholic teaching and the Council of Trent
  4. Sanctification, holiness and theosis
  5. Recent ecumenical discussion of justification

Module 4: Predestination and Election

  1. Election and predestination in Scripture
  2. Augustine, Aquinas and Calvin on predestination
  3. Arminius, Wesley and conditional election
  4. Eastern and Catholic views on election and foreknowledge

Module 5: Atonement, Redemption and Adoption

  1. Atonement and its extent: for whom did Christ die?
  2. Redemption: the images of ransom, freedom and return
  3. Adoption: sons and daughters of God
  4. The order of salvation across the traditions

Module 6: Death, Resurrection and Judgment

  1. Death and the intermediate state
  2. The resurrection of the dead in Scripture and the creeds
  3. The final judgment: Christ the judge
  4. Purgatory, the Orthodox practice of praying for the dead, and the Protestant objection

Module 7: Heaven, Hell and the New Creation

  1. Heaven and the vision of God
  2. Hell: eternal torment, annihilationism and universal hope
  3. The fate of those who have not heard the gospel
  4. The new heavens and the new earth

Module 8: The Millennium and Christian Eschatological Traditions

  1. Revelation and apocalyptic literature
  2. Premillennial views, historic and dispensational
  3. Amillennial and postmillennial views
  4. Preterist, historicist and futurist approaches
  5. What the traditions hold in common about the end

All courses

Program / Course 10: Salvation and Eschatology / Lesson 1.1

What you will learn

  • Define the image of God and the related word likeness in plain language.
  • Describe the three classic ways of reading the image: structural, relational and functional.
  • Explain why the doctrine of salvation depends on what human beings were made to be.
  • Compare how Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Reformed and Arminian writers describe the image after the fall.

The big idea

Before asking what is wrong with humanity, Christians ask what humanity was made to be. Genesis says that God made human beings in his image and likeness. Churches agree that this gives every person dignity, and they agree that sin has damaged something. They differ on what was lost. Some say the image was marred but not destroyed. Others distinguish the image from a further likeness that was lost. Those differences shape each tradition’s later teaching on sin, grace and salvation.

Key terms

Image of God (imago Dei)
The Latin phrase for the biblical teaching in Genesis 1:26-27 that human beings are made in God’s image.
Likeness
The second word in Genesis 1:26, ‘after our likeness.’ Some early writers treat it as distinct from ‘image’. Many modern scholars treat the two words as near synonyms.
Structural view
The reading that places the image in something human beings have, such as reason, will or an immortal soul.
Relational view
The reading that places the image in the capacity for relationship with God and with other people.
Functional view
The reading that places the image in a task: to rule and care for creation on God’s behalf.
Original righteousness
A Western term for the holy and rightly ordered condition in which Adam and Eve were created, before the fall.
Theosis
An Eastern term, also called deification or divinization, for the process by which human beings come to share in the life of God by grace.
Anthropology
In theology, the doctrine of human nature: what human beings are, how they were made and what has happened to them.

Background

Courses 5 and 6 described the doctrines of God, the Trinity and Christ. This course turns to the human side of the story: what has gone wrong with human beings, what God has done about it, and where history is going. Every account of salvation assumes some account of the person being saved. If a person is only slightly damaged, a small repair is enough. If a person is dead in sin, as some read Ephesians 2:1, something far greater is needed. So the study of salvation begins with a short account of the human being as God made him.

The central text is Genesis 1:26-27. In the King James Version God says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” and then “God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” Genesis 9:6 gives the image as the reason murder is wrong, and James 3:9 gives it as a reason not to curse other people. In the New Testament Christ himself is called “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15), and Christians are told that they are being renewed into that image (Colossians 3:10). The image therefore points both backward to creation and forward to salvation.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: What the text says and does not say

Genesis 1 gives no definition of the image. It says that humans are made in it, and it places the statement beside the command to “have dominion” over the creatures. In the ancient Near East, kings were sometimes spoken of as images of a god. Many scholars read Genesis as widening that idea: every human being, not only the king, represents God in the world. This is a scholarly proposal, and not every interpreter accepts it, but it explains why the image and the rule over creation sit so close together.

Because the text does not define the image, the church has had to reason from the wider Bible. That is why more than one reading has lasted for centuries.

Step 2: Three ways of reading the image

The structural reading looks for a capacity in the person. Augustine located the image in the mind, in its ability to remember, understand and love, because these faculties reflect the Trinity. Thomas Aquinas, following him, placed the image chiefly in the intellect and will, by which a person can know and love God.

The relational reading says the image is found in being addressed by God and answering. Some point to the phrase “male and female created he them” as a sign that the image involves persons in communion. Karl Barth, a twentieth-century Reformed theologian, developed this idea strongly.

The functional reading stresses the task of ruling and tending creation as God’s representatives. Many theologians today hold that these three readings are not rivals. A human being has capacities, lives in relationships and is given a calling, and all three belong to the picture.

Step 3: Image and likeness

Irenaeus of Lyons, writing in the second century, drew a distinction between the two words. The image, he said, is what all human beings have. The likeness is the fullness of life with God toward which they are meant to grow. Many Eastern writers followed this line, and in the Orthodox view the likeness is reached through theosis. Western medieval writers developed a related idea: Adam received a gift above his natural powers, sometimes called original righteousness, which kept his lower desires in order under his reason and his reason under God.

Many modern Old Testament scholars hold that the Hebrew words are a pair that mean roughly the same thing. This does not cancel the older distinction as a theological tool, but it is a reason not to build too much on the grammar alone.

Step 4: What the fall did to the image

All the major traditions say that sin harmed human beings, and none says the image was wiped out, since Genesis 9:6 speaks of it after the flood. The differences lie in how deep the harm goes.

The Catholic Church teaches that the first humans lost original holiness and justice, and that human nature was “wounded” but not completely corrupted. The Orthodox Church speaks of the image as damaged and clouded, while the likeness must be restored through Christ. Lutheran confessions speak of a deeper loss, and Luther sometimes wrote as though the image had been lost in its true meaning. Reformed writers, following Calvin, speak of the image as ruined and deformed but with traces remaining. Arminian and Wesleyan writers teach that the image was seriously damaged and that a person cannot restore it, but they add that God gives prevenient grace to all, a grace that goes before and enables a response.

Step 5: Christ and the restored image

The New Testament does not leave the image in the past. Christ is the true image, and salvation is described as being conformed to him (Romans 8:29, 2 Corinthians 3:18). Every tradition affirms this. Western Protestants tend to describe it under sanctification, Catholics under grace and the life of charity, and the Orthodox under theosis. The word differs, but all point to a restoration that begins now and is completed at the resurrection.

  1. Which part of being human do I tend to treat as the image of God: reason, relationship or work?
  2. What follows if every person, including someone I dislike, bears God’s image?
  3. Does the image teach more about what humans are, or about what they are for?
  4. If the image is damaged but not destroyed, what remains that I can still see in people?
  5. Why might it matter whether image and likeness are one thing or two?
  6. How would my picture of salvation change if I thought the damage were shallow, or very deep?

Examples

The image and human dignity

A hospital chaplain sits with a man whose memory is nearly gone from dementia. Whatever the man can no longer do, the chaplain treats him as a person owed honor. Many Christians point to this as a practical result of the doctrine: dignity rests on the image of God, not on what a person can produce. (This is a constructed example.)

Augustine and the mind

In his work on the Trinity, Augustine looked within himself and found memory, understanding and will working as one mind. He thought this threefold unity was a faint reflection of the Trinity. Few modern readers accept every detail of his analogy, but it shows the structural reading at work.

Image restored in Christ

Paul writes that believers are “changed into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18). A reader from any tradition can underline this verse. A Lutheran might stress the gift of faith, a Catholic the life of grace, an Orthodox Christian the path of theosis. The verse alone does not settle their disagreements, but it shows what they share.

Different perspectives

Catholic

The Catechism teaches that man is made in God’s image as a person who can know and love his Creator. Adam and Eve were given original holiness and justice. By the fall they lost it, and human nature was wounded in its powers but not wholly corrupted. The image remains in every human being.

Orthodox

Orthodox writers, following Irenaeus and the Greek fathers, often distinguish image from likeness. The image is the God-given freedom and reason of each person. The likeness is the goal of union with God. The fall darkened the image and blocked the path to the likeness, and Christ, the perfect image, reopens the path.

Lutheran

The Lutheran confessions teach that human beings were created with true knowledge of God and a righteousness that the fall destroyed. In earthly matters reason and will remain, but in relation to God a person is spiritually dead without the Holy Spirit. The image is restored through faith in Christ.

Reformed

Calvin taught that the image was grievously defaced but that traces survive, which is why human beings still show reason, order and a sense of God. The Westminster Confession says humans were made with knowledge, righteousness and holiness. Redemption renews the image, which is what sanctification means.

Arminian and Wesleyan

Wesley taught that the image had natural, political and moral aspects, and that the moral image was lost in the fall. Because of prevenient grace, every person is given some capacity to respond to God. Sanctification is the work of renewing the moral image, which Wesley hoped could be nearly complete in this life.

Why it matters

Every later question in this course rests on this one. A person who thinks the image is lost will read grace as resurrection from the dead. A person who thinks it is damaged will read grace as healing. A person who thinks the likeness is a goal will read salvation as growth. These pictures are not mere words. They set the terms for the arguments between Augustine and Pelagius, between Luther and Erasmus, and between Calvinists and Arminians.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: The image of God means that humans look like God physically.

Correction: The churches have taught since the earliest centuries that God is spirit, so the image is not a bodily appearance. Some writers include the body as part of the person who bears the image, but none treats the image as a shape.

Misunderstanding: The fall erased the image of God.

Correction: Genesis 9:6 and James 3:9 speak of the image as still present after the fall. The traditions differ on how much was damaged, but all major ones teach that the image remains in some sense.

Misunderstanding: Image and likeness are one idea in the Christian tradition.

Correction: Many fathers, including Irenaeus, drew a distinction between them. Many modern scholars read the words as near synonyms. Both views exist, and the lesson should name which one is in use.

Misunderstanding: Protestants and Catholics disagree about whether humans bear God’s image.

Correction: They agree on it. The disagreement concerns how deeply sin damaged human powers, and what the original gift was beyond nature.

Knowledge check

What does Genesis 1:26-27 say about human beings?

It says God made human beings in his image and after his likeness, male and female, and that they were to have dominion over the creatures. The text does not define the image, so the churches have reasoned from the wider Bible about what it means. Genesis 9:6 and James 3:9 show that the image has lasting force as a ground of human dignity.

Name and describe the three classic readings of the image.

The structural reading finds the image in a human capacity, such as reason and will. The relational reading finds it in the capacity to be in relationship with God and others. The functional reading finds it in the task of ruling and caring for creation on God’s behalf. Many theologians hold that all three belong together.

What distinction did Irenaeus draw between image and likeness?

Irenaeus taught that the image is what all humans have by creation, while the likeness is the fullness of life with God toward which they are meant to grow. Eastern Christians generally follow this line and connect the likeness with theosis. Many modern scholars read the two Hebrew words as near synonyms, so the distinction is a theological tool rather than a settled finding about the text.

How do Catholic and Reformed teaching differ on what the fall did to the image?

Catholic teaching says human nature was wounded and lost original holiness, but was not wholly corrupted. Reformed teaching, following Calvin, says the image was grievously defaced in every part of the person, though traces remain. Both agree that Christ restores the image. The difference concerns the depth of the damage and how the person can respond.

Think it through

  1. Which of the three readings of the image fits your own experience of being a person, and which seems incomplete?
  2. If dignity rests on the image of God, how should that shape the way you speak about people you disagree with?
  3. Why might the picture of the damage, shallow or deep, change the way a person prays?
  4. Which tradition’s account of the image is closest to what you were taught, and what did that tradition leave out?

Independent assignment

Three readings of the image

In your notebook, write 400 to 600 words. Read Genesis 1:26-31, Genesis 9:6 and Colossians 3:10. Summarize in your own words the structural, relational and functional readings, and give one verse that seems to support each. Then write a paragraph for each of the five traditions in this lesson, stating what it says about the damage to the image. Do not judge between them. Finish by noting one question that the lesson did not answer.

Further study