Failure to Launch (Imago Dei part 3)

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In the last article we laid down a case from the ancient world for understanding what the image of God really is. Genesis 1 shows us YHWH building a glorious cosmic temple with humanity serving as the "image" displaying the glory of God and ruling over all creation.

This is why David would say,

"What is man that you are mindful of him? And the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands, and have put all things in subjection under his feet." (Ps 8:4-5)

David's reflection on creation drove him to praise God for endowing humanity with glory, honor, and dominion. This is what it means to be made in the image of God. We are made with a glory to rule!

Failure in the Garden

What we see play out almost instantly in the biblical narrative is failure.[1] Genesis 3 introduces us to a serpent that deceives Eve into ruling over creation for her own glory. She takes and eats, then gives to Adam who eats. This failure to rule left a mess in its wake. God made us with physical bodies to rule creation and display his glory. Our bodies are the means by which we convey who we are - glorious rulers for YHWH. But after this stunt, humans begin to hide their bodies in shame (Gen 3:10) (Carmen Imes, Being God's Image, 51). The harmonious relationship between man, woman, and God would never be the same - physcially and spiritually. For the first time a human will "rule over" another human (Gen 3:16). The creation that was designed to be harnessed for God's glory will now fight against human rule, recoiling within its own curse of corruption (Gen 3:17ff; Rom 8:19ff), and God would separate from His treasured creation longing for the day that He will restore it and return to it (Gen 3:22ff; Rev 21-22).

Failure in the Community

When YHWH made His covenant with Israel he told them that they would become a "kingdom of priests" (Ex 19:4-6). This language combines both aspects of what we have seen in the "image" - glory to represent as priests and rule as kings. God told them that they would be a light of glory to the nations around them (Is 42:6; 49:6). The nations were to see the glory of YHWH in Israel and be drawn to Him (Dt 4:5-8).

But we know the story don't we? The golden calf shows us that Israel exchanged their glory for "the image of an ox" (Ps 106:19-20). The rebuke of the prophets was that Israel had forsaken their glory and exhanged it for something else (Jer 2:11), and because of this God's name and image were profaned among the nations (Ezek 36:20-23). The community followed in the footsteps of their Edenic ancestors, casting aside their glory for something inferior.

Falling Short of Glory

All of this ought to shed light on Paul's words in Rom 1:21ff where he described the sinful nations as having known God, yet "exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man" (Rom 1:23). In chapter 2, Paul doesn't let the Jews off the hook. He tells them that they practiced the very same things, yet cast judgement upon the nations (Rom 2:1-2). Then he reminds them that those who do good receive "glory and honor" (Rom 2:7, 10) echoing the words of David about what God made humanity to be in the first place (Ps 8:4-5). Then the famous line we all know:

"For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." (Rom 3:23)

You see the pattern? Sin is a failure to launch. Sin is a failure to be what God designed humans to be. God made us to rule over creation and represent his glory to the world. There is a passive element of our representation that will never go away. We are God's glorious image wether we like it or not. However, this imaging is also a task we are called to - one that we utterly fail at and thus we fall short of the glory God has given us.

The One Who Never Failed

The New Testament is crystal clear about Jesus being the ideal human who perfectly rules and represents God's glory as YHWH intended humanity to do.

Listen to the picture John paints of Jesus:

"And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14).

"No one has seen God at any time... but He has made Him known" (John 1:18).

"Whoever sees me sees Him who sent me" (John 12:45)

"Whoever sees me has seen the Father" (John 14:9)

John was crystal clear about his view of Jesus being the human representation of God's glory! This is why He is fit to be called "Christ" (King) - beacuse He, through imaging God ideally, has taken on the image-related task of ruling. The ideal human, perfectly displaying God's glory through creation, is now ruling over creation just as God intended humans to do from the start (Acts 2:33ff, 7:55ff; Eph 1:20ff; Heb 1:3; 8:1). This is why the rest of the New Testament speaks of him in this way:

"...Christ, who is the image of God..." (2 Cor 4:4)

"He is the image of the invisible God" (Col 1:15)

"And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature... After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high." (Heb 1:3)

You notice the language in these? Glory. Representation. Ruling kingship. Nature of God seen in a human. All of this is imaging language borrowed from this backdrop of the imago Dei. This is why Jesus is called "the image of God" throughout the New Testament. Jesus was the ideal human in his humanity, imaging God in all of the ways humanity had failed to. And because of this, He is seated at the right hand of God ruling over creation!

What is left to see is how God, through Jesus, is restoring this glory to rule among humanity. Stay tuned.

-Kolton Ballance