In the Image of God

What Are We Here For?  

When you flip through the pages of the Bible, it may feel like any other book off your shelf. I assure you – it is not. 

The Bible changed the world, and not just the modern one. 

In the ancient world, during the time of the Bible’s writing, empires ruled: Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Rome. Throughout the Bible, the writers use “Babylon” as an archetype of these empires, from the Tower of Babel in Genesis through Babylon’s Dragon in Revelation. But Babylon isn’t just a metaphor. Babylon was a mighty empire in its own right, and a very real civilization with its own culture and government and religion. 

And their own creation story.

The story of creation told in Israel, recorded in the book of Genesis,  proclaimed that God made humanity in His image and was made to rule alongside Him, But the story of creation told in Babylon was far different. Polytheistic Babylon believed their gods had a problem a long, long time ago. Their poor gods had to gather all their own food, cook for themselves, and clean up after themselves… And what is the point of being a god if you can’t just relax all day?  

So the Babylonian gods hatched an evil plan. They took one of their own, a god named Kingu, and they brought him down to the newly formed earth, where they killed him, mixed his blood with the dirt, and formed a brand new kind of creature: 

Human beings. 

In the Bible’s origin story, humans are the image of God. But in Babylon’s origin story, humans were made from death and violence to be slaves for the gods. 

But here’s the fascinating thing: Babylon also talked about “the image of god.” So if humans were nothing more than slaves, what was the image of god in Babylon? 

A Lifeless Image 

Babylon’s gods rested in the heavens. They didn’t have physical bodies here on earth, but they still needed to be physically represented. They needed “images” on earth as in heaven. 

So Babylonian priests and craftsmen would create a statue, then they would symbolically breathe a god’s life into the statue in a temple garden ritual, before finally installing it in the god’s temple where it would represent them and rule on their behalf. 

This temple statue was the image of god in Babylon. 

Babylonians would make sacrifices and pray to these statues. When they worshiped these statues, they believed they were worshiping the gods themselves. Because the statues were in Babylon, the gods were with them in Babylon. And this isn’t just a Babylonian thing. Most religions all over the world throughout history have made statues of their gods. This is how most of the world worships. 

Yet in the Ten Commandments, Israel’s God says, “You shall not make for yourself an image.” 

Because our God already made images of Himself: 

You. 

Me. 

Us. 

We don’t worship idols because God’s images are living, breathing humans. In Genesis 1 and 2, God makes statues that look like Him: human bodies. 

Then, unlike the symbolic breath of Babylonian priests, our God breathes true life into His statues so they stand up to walk and talk. We are the living, breathing physical representation of God on earth as in heaven. 

And honestly, this is a little risky.  

Maybe other religions are smart to represent their gods with statues, because do you know what a statue never does? 

Fail. 

A statue will never let you down because a statue is going to act like a statue 100% of the time. Humans aren’t like that. We can and do fail. And because we are God’s image, our failures reflect poorly on the God we represent. 

But that is precisely what makes our God so different from the gods of pagan religions: Our God is love. 

He wants you more than He wants to protect His reputation. He wants relationship with us more than He wants to look good. He puts His honor on the line to identify with people who will reflect poorly on Him. 

This is what Jesus is all about: our God doesn’t just rest in heaven and receive glory from His slaves down below. The Son of God left His heavenly throne and humbled Himself to enter into one of the statues He created. Our God-made-flesh neglected His reputation all the way to the cross where He was utterly humiliated to restore His relationship with His people. 

Let me tell you what this means for you: You are loved by God. You are a Child of God. You are a Reflection of God. Before you are anything else – before you need to find your identity in anything else – this is who you are: 

You look like God because God made you that way.  

What about your insecurities and the things you don’t like about yourself? Yep, those too. You look like God. 

But those who are different than you also look like God. God is represented by humanity. This is why racism is egregious. This is why we respect and dignify people with disabilities, from dyslexia to Down syndrome and everything in between. All people are worthy of dignity and respect as the image of God. 

Did I mention the Bible changed the world? 

See, the Image isn’t a certain kind of person. The Image isn’t something we earn. The Image is something we are simply because we’re created by God. Every human being is the image of God and nothing can take that away from you. 

I don’t think we can overestimate how radical Genesis was when it was written. Remember, Babylonians believed human beings were nothing more than slaves, but God says, “actually, you aren’t a slave of God, you’re an image of God!”  

But it gets even crazier, because there actually was one person who wasn’t considered a slave in Babylon: The king. 

A Royal Image 

In Babylon, the king wasn’t a slave of the gods. The king was the gods’ chosen one. While the gods relaxed in heaven, the king was responsible for ruling the world down below on their behalf. 

And just like temple statues, the king was called “the image of god,” because his purpose was to represent the gods, rule Babylon, and conquer the world. Babylonians believed the king was infinitely important while the rest of us were disposable, so it comes as no surprise that Babylonian kings were ruthless and violent. They did whatever they wanted no matter who they had to hurt. It was a hard world to live in for anybody except for the king. 

In this ancient world, Genesis 1 was outrageous. So let’s read verse 27 line by line and imagine how it sounded through Babylonian eyes. 

“So God created man in his own image…” 

If you’re a good Babylonian, you’re thinking, “Ah I see! This god is making himself a king! A man in his own image!” Then you keep reading… 

“in the image of God he created them…” 

Wait a minute… them?! Who’s them?! In Babylon, there’s only one king and one human image of god, and he doesn’t share his authority with anybody! You read the final line: 

“male and female he created them.” 

Let me say again that the Bible changed the world. 

In the ancient world, men were in charge. They dominated kingdoms, they dominated families, they dominated one another, and they dominated women. This was just the way the world was. 

In Genesis 1:27, God says, “Not on my watch.” 

The King of the universe didn’t make one king in His image to rule over everybody else. God made male and female in the image of God as kings and queens over creation. Men who assert dominance over women act like Babylonians, not Christians. Men who diminish the roles of women act like Babylonians, not Christians. Men who live like Jesus refuse to degrade women. They treat women with respect, honor women, and listen to women. They treat women as equals, because God made men and women as equals. 

Dr. Sandra Richter says, “In Genesis 1, we have Adam and Eve standing shoulder to shoulder in a text that’s all about authority.” 

In Genesis 1, God makes men and women as kings and queens: co-rulers. 

“God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’” – Genesis 1:28 

Out of all the creatures God created, only the humans are told to subdue and rule. 

Just like Babylonian statues and kings represented the gods and ruled on their behalf, now in Genesis 1, we represent God and rule on His behalf. 

Psalm 8:5-6 says: 

“You have crowned humans with glory and honor. 

You made them rulers over the works of your hands; 

    you put everything under their feet.” 

What is a human being? The living, breathing image of God. 

What is our purpose? To rule on His behalf. 

God made human beings – not statues – to go out to the world and reflect His blessing to all creation. We’re living, breathing, walking, talking statues with a job to do. Adam and Eve weren’t made to stand still in the garden. God gave them legs to bring the beauty of the garden everywhere. This is how we rule as the image of God. 

But let’s be clear: Genesis 1 does not say to rule and subdue each other. 

Our job is to subdue the land and rule the animals. Ruling in Genesis sounds a lot more like good farming than world domination. Babylonians dominate. The Christian call to “rule” is a call to treat people the way Jesus treats people. To treat the world as God would treat the world. 

Ruling Creation 

The late Tim Keller said that human work is “rearranging the raw material of God’s creation in such a way that it helps the world in general, and people in particular, thrive and flourish.” (Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work) 

Our job is to take what God has given us and shape it in a way that blesses the world and the people around us. 

You can rule and subdue by planting a garden. By encouraging someone. By singing a song. By building something. By doing the dishes. By making art. By mowing the lawn. By helping someone in need. By treating others with respect. 

A Christian’s job is to bring heaven on earth for the people around us. To show the world what God’s love looks like. 

Sometimes we think our work doesn’t matter unless it’s “spiritual” work like preaching or leading worship or sharing the gospel. But we need images of God to build bridges and clean teeth and teach children and create art and pick up trash and research cancer and fight against injustices and cook food and on and on. 

We rule by bringing flourishing to others and to creation. 

The other day I was driving to work and there was a car parked in the middle of an intersection. I quickly realized it was a mom intentionally blocking traffic because her son was in the middle of the street picking up a tortoise and moving it off to the side of the road. And I thought to myself, “There it is! That’s what the image of God does! That’s what ruling over the animals on God’s behalf looks like!” 

But there are more animals than just tortoises, aren’t there? We can’t just scoop up lions and tigers and bears. Yet Genesis tells us to rule over “every living creature that moves on the ground.” And if you keep reading to chapter 3, you will see that Adam and Eve make a huge mistake. 

When a living creature moves along the ground, slithers into the garden, and hisses lies and deception, Adam and Eve have a job to do: 

Rule the creature.  

But they don’t. The snake conquers them and Adam and Eve hand over their God-given dominion to snakes. 

We live in a broken world that never got properly ruled or subdued by the Image of God. It breaks a little more each time we act selfishly, harm one another, or hurt God’s creation.  

The tragedy of the Bible is that images of God often show the world what snakes look like instead of showing the world what God looks like.  

We live in a world ruled by snakes who deceive us and convince us to do things the image of God shouldn’t do. Time after time, we fail to act like the Image of God we are. We can’t seem to stop listening to snakes. 

But our God isn’t like pagan gods. Our God is love. And no matter how many times we fail, no matter how little we reflect the God we’re supposed to represent, God will not give up on us. He keeps working through humans. 

To be honest, this isn’t what I would do. Why does He continue asking us to do something we have proven ourselves unable to do? I don’t put my toddler in charge of cooking dinner or driving my car because he can’t do it. Why does God keep giving us a job we can’t do? 

And what could possibly solve this problem? 

The Answer 

What we need is a human who lives like God. We just need one who actually reflects God. Who is one with God. Who never gives in to the snake’s temptation. Who rules the way God intended. 

The book of Hebrews says Jesus is the exact representation of God. Jesus shows us exactly what it looks like to be the image of God. 

And Jesus does the unthinkable: He conquers – not by dominating anyone – but by laying down His life. On the cross, Jesus conquers the snake that Adam and Eve failed to rule. 

Hebrews 2:14 says that “through Jesus’ death He destroyed the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.” 

Then on the third day, He rose again as the first human of a New Creation. He’s the second Adam, opening up a brand new way to be human. He’s the firstfruit of a resurrected humanity who isn’t ruled by snakes, but who rule over snakes.  

Jesus is the firstborn of a new humanity overcoming the world the way He overcomes the world, leaving the temptation to be Babylon in the ashes of history. 

So in Revelation 3:21, Jesus says: “To the conqueror, I will grant to them to sit with Me on My throne…” 

Can you even imagine what it might look like to get to sit with Jesus on His throne?! What could it possibly mean that we get to rule the world at Jesus’ side? 

But that’s not all. 

“To the conqueror, I will grant to them to sit with Me on My throne, as I also conquered and sat with My Father on His throne.” 

We conquer as Jesus conquered, and when we do, we sit on a throne just as Jesus sat on a throne. But conquering like Jesus requires learning to live like Jesus. Carmen Imes says “Scripture invites us to gaze at Christ to learn how to be ourselves.” 

We get close to Jesus, the image of God, to learn to be the image of God, and our vocation of ruling the world as a conduit of God’s love is restored. 

We conquer when we look like Jesus, because we’re conquering the darkness within ourselves, and we’re conquering the darkness that surrounds us with the light of Christ.  

We don’t conquer with weapons or strength. The snake is like Hydra – it grows more powerful when it convinces you to strike. We conquer with love, just like Jesus on the cross. As Paul says in Romans, we aren’t conquered by evil. Instead, we conquer evil with good. 

Let me conclude with Revelation 5:9-10: 

“You have made them to be kings and queens and priests to serve our God, 

And they will reign on the earth.’” 

In the Kingdom of God, human Images “reign on the earth,” but it looks like serving. 

So, Child of God, Beloved of Jesus Christ, let me give you your identity: 

You are the Image of God, made to show the world what Jesus looks like. 

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