The notion of the image of God…sheds light on the value of human reason, volition, and agency. If humans are understood as just another animal, devoid of the dignity and purpose derived from the Creator then the discussion of religious liberty becomes arbitrary as in whether one ought to dress up their poodle in a polka dot sweater. The dog’s taste doesn’t really matter.

For the Christian, every question of human ethics begins in one way or another with the character of God before flowing inevitably to the beliefs and behaviors of humanity which has been made in the image of God.

What we believe concerning God necessarily forms our understanding of the duties he requires of us. The doctrine of Imago Dei is intensive and extensive at once, in that it says something about the whole of the human and the whole of humanity. It speaks to more than one human faculty such as reason or creativity or language by speaking to all that is human.

Understanding the Image of God

What is the image of God? It is what the human is. Whenever we consider the unique qualities of humanity, we are recognizing aspects of the image of God that find expression in his image. As such, we can acknowledge human sense of meaning and purpose as derived from the human status as a creature that bears the image of the creator.

The creation account in Genesis 1 retells the origin of the cosmos as if it were an ancient Near Eastern building program. Depicted as a king constructing his throne room, God completes the two-part construction of the heavens and the earth, with each domain in good order and properly populated and furnished. The final phase of the program is to place his tselem, “image,” in the sanctuary, much as a representation of the deity would have been placed in sanctuary complexes around the ancient world.

Like the creator God in whose image they are made, man and woman are commissioned to have dominion over the world as stewards of the cosmos and to continue in the furnishing of creation with other images of the creator (Gen. 1:28; Ps. 8:3-9). In this way, it is the responsibility of the image of God to continue in the work of the divine creator and sustainer, filling out the throne room in a way that is fitting for the king.

The totality of the command to fill and subdue the earth gets at what it means to be the image of God, that is, to be human.

The Dignity and Responsibility of Humanity

There are two significant implications for our focus here. First, the dignity and the responsibility of humanity as the image of God is necessarily derived from the Creator, meaning that it does not reside in humanity itself but rather in the God whom humanity images.

Second, it follows from the first that humanity’s status as the image of God is irrevocable. The image of God is part of God’s creation which he has declared “very good” and he has not rescinded that judgment (Gen. 1:31). Even the condemnation of the Fall of humanity does not turn back the quality of humanity as images.

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