Who am I? Getting our bearings.

What are the things that make me, me or you, you? Our family, background, job, reputation, location, accent, political outlook, nationality, moral framework, experience, physical and psychological make-up together with myriad other elements all mix into a unique recipe that makes each of us unique. You may be like me, but you’re not the same as me.

In fact, you’re not the same today as you were last year and won’t be the same as you will be next year. At each point in time the things that make you, you are changing – some for good, some for ill. We are creatures in constant flux. The implications are vast. How we view ourselves and each other and what value we place on ourselves and what roles we see for ourselves during our lifetime are constantly changing. The assertion of the age, to ‘be yourself’ or ‘be the authentic you,’ begs the obvious question, which you shall you be? My physical and psychological form together with my circumstances are changing all the time. If my self image is fundamentally built on this – my sense of self worth or esteem or even the fundamental roles I play in life – then how am I going to fare when things go wrong with my body, or my mind or my circumstances?

Christianity asserts that there is a fundamental and unique part of what we are which is not located in us or our circumstances. It’s located in God. That when God chose the creature Homo sapiens out of creation, he gave them a unique attribute ‘made in the image of God.’ But what is this image of God that the book of Genesis asserts that we bear and what does it say about our relationship with God?

First the term both humbles and exalts us. We are the image of the imaged – we are not God, only His image, we the creature not the creator. Human hubris constantly drives us to think more of ourselves than we ought.

But we are also supreme amongst creation, chosen to be God’s image – no other creature has this role.

But what is it? If it is a particular human capacity, for example the ability to reason, or create, or communicate through language then that brings peculiar challenges. Virtually all the traits associated with humans are in some form or other displayed in rudimentary form in the wider animal kingdom. Without doubt there is a vast gulf between animals and humans when it comes to the degree to which these capacities are displayed, but are we merely saying that the difference is in degree?

New Caledonian Crows can use and adapt tools and reason when faced with puzzles. Though none have yet constructed an airplane to make that flying business so much easier - at least to my knowledge. However, if it is only a matter of degrees of capacity that mark us as different there are numerous animals with some capacities that far exceed humans, whether it be sensory or physical abilities. More than that, if the image of God is tied up with human capacity, what of those individuals with reduced capacities, the newborn baby, the severely impaired or the diminished elderly person. It does not seem that the image of God as described in the bible is tied up with our physical or psychological capacities. Rather it is a functional role, and this is firmly supported by the textual and cultural context of the Genesis accounts of creation.

The grand picture of creation portrayed in the first part of Genesis (1.1 to 2.3) is that of ordering creation, creating domains that are then filled with the ultimate purpose of God taking residence – or resting – within it on the seventh day, which according to the text is different from the other days; it doesn’t seem to end. It is a description of temple construction, on the grandest of scales, and of God residing in his temple.

Placed within this temple, as with any other ancient near east temple, is an image of the deity. Not a carved statue, but a living, breathing image, the human couple. Taking the lead from how ancient near east temples with their imaged deities functioned, humans are called to represent God’s presence in creation. They are to act as royal ambassadors, undertaking the responsibility of God in creation, continuing the creation mandate of ordering (exemplified in the work Adam is given) and acting as priests reflecting praise back to God from creation. As the New Testament scholar NT Wright says, “It is the call to be an angled mirror. Reflecting God’s wise order into the world. And reflecting the praises of all creation back to the creator.”

Put differently, the question might be asked – what is God like? Genesis answers – look at humans; that is what God is like. And what of God, what does He want for his creation? That his royal kingdom is managed by his good stewards.

The calling to be God’s image does not end in Eden but continues further into the early chapters of Genesis. Genesis 9. 5 & 6 asserts man as being made in the image of God. With this comes a very high value; do not kill him as you would animals, because he is made in the image of God. But by this point the imaged wants to become the image, the ambassador the king, the steward of creation freed from his duties and responsibilities to become autonomous. So, the man wishes no longer to be accountable to his creator turning in on himself and becoming enslaved to his own desires.

There is a need for a new and perfect image bearer. One that can be the perfect angled mirror, reflecting Gods order into the world and creation’s praises back. The New Testament can’t be clearer, wherever the image of God is mentioned it always references Jesus. When Philip asks Jesus to show him the Father, Jesus replies, ‘Don’t you know me?... Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.’ That Jesus is the image of God, does not so much reflect his deity as it reflects his perfect humanness. He is the human image bearer who does not turn back from his calling.

And there’s more. He does not just reflect God’s image he is making us into the image bearers we have failed to be. The culmination of all that Christ does on behalf of those he calls is to make them into the image bearers they were called to be originally. So, Paul says, ‘For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.’ (Romans 8.29). Taking up the theme of being priests for the praise of God, Peter writes, ‘But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.’ (1 Peter 2.9).

Christ procures for us our salvation. But if that is the start and end of our understanding of the great work of God, we have missed the big picture and relegated Christian belief to a sort of personalized insurance policy. The great theme is about God and what He made us to be, unique amongst creation, made in His image and likeness in the world – his kingdom. We have failed to carry out what our image status required of us. But he is making and will make us into that which he created us to be, his image bearers in His Kingdom – with work to do to fulfill His calling.

When Jesus prayed, ‘Your Kingdom come, your will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven,’ this was no wishful thinking prayer. It was a clear assertion that God’s Kingdom will come, there will be a renewed Heaven and Earth, and within it will be his good, created order where as John writes in Revelation his servants ‘will reign for ever,’ in a new temple ‘because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.’ Then we shall still to be made in his image, but finally to fulfill our elected role.