Humanity Made In The Image of God

Humanity Made In The Image of God

The Catholic View

How does this apply to us?

Man's natural gifts such as the spirituality of the soul, the freedom of the will, and the immortality of the body constitute the image of God.

"In order to enable man to hold his lower nature in check, God endowed man with a supernatural gift, called original righteousness. This is supposed to constitute man's likeness to God." -Berkhof

We were gloriously created in God's own image.

We still resemble Him partly.

We, through Adam, broke covenant with God.

We should respect ourselves and others.

We should look for another way to life.

Covenant of works still in effect

Leviticus 18:5 You shall keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the LORD.

Elements of the Covenant of Works

The covenant of works is still in effect but no one can abide by it. Therefore we need another righteousness.

God,

binding himself

by condescension

Adam

conditioned on obedience, representing man

Life, bliss,

eternal glory,

life with God,

permanent holiness

Two parties:

Promise of the Covenant

Condition of the Covenant

Penalty of the Covenant

Sacrament of the Covenant

Pure obedience

by not eating

of the tree

of knowledge of good and evil

Death.

physical, spiritual, and eternal.

separation from the source of life.

separation from the body.

separation from God.

Perhaps eating from

the tree of life

was the sacrament

perpetuating their union

Genesis 3:22

The Lutheran View

Adam cut and transgressed

a covenant with God

"But like Adam they transgressed the covenant;" Hosea 6:7

"Have I covered my transgressions like Adam, By hiding my iniquity in my bosom, Job 31:33

Romans 5:12-21 (vs. 15)

But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.

The image of God consists only in the spiritual qualities man was endowed with at creation, called original righteousness: true knowledge, righteousness, and holiness.

But have we utterly lost our image then with the fall?

And have we no essential difference than the angels who share this righteousness, yay hold it now when we don't?

If Christ is the new Adam,

Adam was a covenant representative.

The Covenant of Works:

bliss contingent on obedience

Gen. 2:16-17 Genesis 2:16-17 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."

What does it mean that man is God's image?

The Reformed View

Gen. 1:26,27 God made man after his own image/likeness

Gen. 5:1, Gen. 9:6 made in God's image

1 Corinthians 11:7 man is the glory of God,

Col. 3:10 the icon of God

Jas. 3:9 the same likeness as God

Angels are not image bearers of God.

Eph. 4:24 the image of God is righteousness, holiness, & truth

Col. 3:10 the image of God is true knowledge

The image of God is also understood in a broader sense that man is spiritual, rational, creative, moral, and immortal. In this way the image is not wholly lost. Gen. 9:6

Gen. 1:26 immediately connects the image to ruling.

1 Cor. 15:49 we bear the image of "Dusty man" we will bear the image of "Heavenly man."