The Old Testament for Christians, pt. 2 - A Study by Scott Sperling   [Here we continue a series that deals with references to Christ, to the Christian life, to Christian doctrine, etc., as found in the Old Testament writings. A goal of these studies is to convince ourselves that the Bible is one unified book: a single book, with unified themes, and a consistent Theology.] Created in God’s Image - Genesis 1:26-27 26  Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27   So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Man, a Special Creation of God In the previous study, we focused primarily on the plural pronouns in vs. 26, the “us/our/our” in that verse, and concluded that the best explanation for the use of plural pronouns there is that the three persons of the Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—were all involved in the act of creation described in these verses. That there is a consultation among the three persons of the Trinity here, implies that this act of creation was performed with special deliberation and care. All three persons of the Trinity were involved; they consulted with each other; man created in the image of God was to be the crowning act of the creation of the heavens and the earth. “Man is that great piece of work, concerning which God is described as taking forethought and counsel, as making him in His own image, and (see ch. 2:7) as breathing into him the breath of life” [Cook, 35]. The importance of what’s said in these verses, Gen. 1:26-27, specifically the concept that man was created in God’s image, cannot be overstated. These verses make a Biblical declaration that God has specially set man apart from the other creatures. “The questions of the origin and of the nature of man are inseparably connected… This grand declaration that man is made in the image of God, after His likeness, is determinative of the whole Biblical idea of man… It is, in truth, the presupposition of the history of God’s dealing with man from the first to last” [Orr, 33, 36]. Man was created in God’s image in order that man may have a special relationship with God, not only here on earth, but throughout eternity. Paul spoke of God’s desire that we would have a relationship with Him, that we would seek Him and find Him: “From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any one of us” (Acts 17:26- 27). We are unique among the creatures of the earth, in that we relate to God in a personal way. We seek Him; we find Him; we communicate to Him; He communicates to us; He loves us; we love Him, and we show our love for Him through obedience to His written word. And so, man was created to be, in effect, God’s representative on earth, relating to Him, made in His “image”, and “ruling over” the other creatures. This made the action of creating humans a more important act of creation than the others; an act worthy of divine deliberation. In What Ways are We Made in God’s Image A question that we may ask: in what ways are we humans made in the “image” and “likeness” of God? We certainly are not made in the exact image of God, for we lack many traits that God has: His omnipotence, His omniscience, His perfect holiness and righteousness. We are limited, at least on earth, to reside in a human body, and God is not limited in this way. So, again, we may ask, “In what ways are we made in the image and likeness of God?” Clues to answering this question can be found in the reasons that we were made in God’s image. As stated above, one reason is that God desires a relationship with us. So, we may infer that any traits that we have, which other creatures lack, and which facilitate our communicating and relating to God, these traits we may venture to say are part of being made in God’s image. Another clue to answering this can be found in the reason given in vs. 26 for humans being made in the image of God: “…so that they may rule over the fish… the birds… the livestock… all the wild animals… and over all the creatures…” This implies that humans were given special traits that none of the other animal creatures have. We humans are set distinctly apart from all other creatures that God made on earth, given certain traits that God has, in order that we may “rule over,” and have dominion over, all of the other creatures on earth. Certainly, we have fulfilled this God-given commission. Humans are in complete control and dominion on earth. No other creature comes even close to exerting the power and dominion that humans have. There are no competing cities or countries that are run by, say, chimpanzees or dolphins, which challenge the dominion of humans. Any of the strongest, the most intelligent, the most talented of other animal species, are far, far, far inferior to humans with respect to exerting power and control on earth. Yes, a tiger may maul and kill a single human in the jungle, but after doing so, the tiger must flee and hide from humans to avoid the repercussions of doing so. The race of tigers cannot compete with humans in having complete power and dominion over the jungle. Humans do what they please, and no animal can stop them. We may answer the question of how we are made in the image of God, by exploring what God-like traits we have that allow us to have a relationship with God, and also what God-like traits we have that set us apart from other creatures, especially those traits which enable us to “rule over” all other creatures. Given these guidelines, let us venture to summarize some of the ways that we are created in the image of God: We are intelligent, reasoning beings. Through our God-given intelligence, we have the ability to communicate through spoken and written language. God relates to us, and has communicated His will to us, through His written word (and, at times, His spoken word). We are unique among His creatures in that we communicate abstract ideas through a spoken and written language. The importance of language to God is demonstrated by God’s use of language to create the universe. He brought forth the universe through language, saying “Let there be light” (Gen. 1:3). We are beings who have free will. The actions of other creatures are entirely constrained by their instincts, as driven by their bodily desires. Humans, through their reasoning abilities, rise above their natural instincts, and make decisions which may conflict with their natural instincts, and bodily cravings. We have the freedom to make choices based on right and wrong, good and evil. We can choose to act based on love, over against our own bodily self-interest. In the absence of free will, the commandment not to eat of the fruit in the garden would have made no sense, and would have had no purpose. Humans, on Judgment Day, will be held accountable for how we exercised our free will. A corollary to having free will, is that we also have the capability for abstract thought: the ability to understand morality; the ability to understand love; the understanding of concepts such as justice and righteousness, etc.  We also have the capability to understand abstract thought as communicated through literary devices: typology, symbolism, metaphors, parables, etc. All of these devices, which are used in the Bible, enhance our understanding of God and His ways. And so, the understanding of these and other abstract concepts are important in our relationship to God. Because we are unique among the creatures in having the capability for abstract thought, we uniquely can understand God’s righteousness and holiness, and so also, we (uniquely among the creatures) can understand our need for a Savior, the meaning of Christ’s sacrifice, and the great love of God for us in giving His Son for us. Who else among the creatures could understand the words, “For God so loved the world…” (John 3:16)? Just as God created the heavens and the earth, so we humans have been endowed with creativity. All animals create certain things by instinct (hovels and such; things needed for their survival). Humans alone have creativity: the ability to foresee, plan, design, and build great buildings, cities, factories, etc. Through science, we study and learn about God’s great creation, and this learning aids in our ability to build great things through our creativity. Our creativity  has played a large role in our ability to “rule over” the other creatures on earth. God created Adam as an eternal being, in order to have an eternal relationship with Him. However, man destroyed through sin this aspect of being created in God’s image. After his sin, Adam’s body was subject to death. Let us now draw on the writings of some scholars, in order to summarize the creation of man in God’s image: “It is best to take the term [of being created in God’s image] as referring to the whole dignity of man, in virtue of his fundamental affinity to God. It implies the possession by man of a free, self-conscious, rational and moral personality, like unto that of God – a nature capable of distinguishing right and wrong, of choosing the right and rejecting the wrong, and of ascending to the heights of spiritual attainment and communion with God. This involves a separation of man from the beast, and his supremacy as the culmination of the creative process” [ISBE, on Image]. “The image of God intended in Scripture is a mental and moral image. It is to be sought for in the fact that man is a person—a spiritual, self-conscious being; and in the attributes of that personality—his rationality and capacity for moral life, including in the latter knowledge of moral law, self-determining freedom, and social affections; highest of all, in his capacity for fellowship with God” [Orr, 57]. The Spirit, Soul, and Body of Man All of us humans know that we have a physical body, and we all have a sense that there is more to us than this physical body. We sense that there is a non- physical aspect to us, and this is commonly known as the soul. The soul consists of our intellectual capabilities, and controls the voluntary actions of our physical bodies. The soul makes a decision, and the body puts the decision into action. In the Bible, we learn that there is another non- physical aspect to our beings, besides the soul. This is the spirit. According to the Bible, humans consist of spirit, soul, and body. Paul points this out, in blessing the Thessalonians: “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23). Our spirit is the part of ourselves that interacts with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, through our spirit, reveals things to us. Paul gives an example of this: “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (Rom. 8:16). Our spirit, at times, communicates to God, in prayer and praise, through the Holy Spirit: “For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding” (1 Cor.14:14- 15). Our spirit is that part of our nature that is in line with God’s will, receiving spiritual instruction, and influencing the soul and body to live our lives under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Through and by our spirit, we receive spiritual blessings (Eph. 1:3), increase in spiritual understanding (Col. 1:9), and offer spiritual  sacrifices (1 Pet. 2:5). And so, we are compound beings, interacting with the natural world through our bodies and souls, and interacting with the spiritual world through our spirits. Now, since God is a Trinity, made up of three persons, and humans consist of three parts—body, soul, and spirit—it begs the question: Is man’s tripartite nature an aspect of being made in the image of God? I would say, yes, though (I must admit) there is not full agreement among scholars on this point. The idea goes back to the early Church fathers. Augustine said, “Man has three parts—spirit, soul, and body. Man, therefore, is an image of the sacred Trinity” [Augustine, in Heard, 138]. For me, there is an analogy between the soul, the body, and the spirit of humans, and the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit, which make up the Holy Trinity. To understand this analogy, it is helpful to review the roles of the three persons of the Holy Trinity: God the Father has the authoritative role, with the Son and the Holy Spirit (and indeed, all creatures) submitting to His will (see John 6:38; 14:31; Gal. 4:4-6; et. al.). Jesus the Son has the physical role as the mediator between God and man. He is God incarnate, and interacted face-to-face with people when He was on earth. The Holy Spirit is the invisible force of God, the influential aspect of God, indwelling us, teaching us about God, and guiding us to carry out God’s will. For humans, the soul has the authority. It makes decisions, and controls the actions of our bodies. So the role of the soul in humans is analogous to the role of the Father in the Trinity. The body of humans interact with others; it is our physical and visible aspect. The body is analogous to Jesus the Son, who is the physical aspect of the Trinity, interacting with humans in a visible form. The spirit of humans is analogous to the Holy Spirit of the Trinity. As mentioned, our spirit  interacts with the Holy Spirit, and through this interaction, influences us to do God’s will. For me personally, meditating on this analogy has helped me to understand part of the mystery of the Trinity. A human person is a unified being with three aspects, and (being a human) I understand the different aspects (body/soul/spirit) of my being, and how these different aspects form one person. In my mind, this helps me understand how the three aspects of God’s being—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—can at the same time, be united to form the one True and Living God. Granted, the analogy isn’t perfect. We humans, of course, are entirely limited on this earth to reside in our bodies. The Holy Trinity is not limited in this way. God is an infinite being, and we are not. But the Bible says that we are made in the image of God, it does not say that we are exactly like God. So, of course, the analogy is not perfect, nor is it meant to be. Nevertheless, I believe that it is significant that there are three aspects to each human, just as there are three persons in the Holy Trinity. Even if you disagree with the analogy, I think it is valuable to meditate on these things: to meditate on the nature of man, and how he relates to God; to meditate on the three persons of the Trinity, and their roles, and how they work. By the way, there seems to be an indication that humans consist of body, soul, and spirit, all the way back in Gen. 2:7, a verse which depicts in detail the creation of the first man: “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” Each of the three clauses in this verse seem to depict the creation of one aspect of man: The body – “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground…” The spirit – “…and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life…” The soul – “…and the man became a living being.” Degradation of the Image Through Sin Adam was created in the image and likeness of God. Later, through sin, Adam fell. A natural question is, then, how was the image of God in Adam degraded by the fall of Adam? One might think that this would be a difficult question to answer, because we don’t have an unfallen Adam here against which to make a comparison. And yet, there was one unfallen man that did walk the earth, and that man was Jesus Christ. We learn in the Bible that Christ is the perfect image of God. In the book of Hebrews: “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being” (Heb. 1:3). And from Paul: “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation” (Col. 1:15). The incarnate Christ, in the form of man, was the most complete visualization of God that this world has ever had. “Christ is the visible representation and manifestation of the invisible God, the objective expression of the Divine nature, the face of God turned as it were toward the world, the exact likeness of the Father in all things except being the Father. Thus we receive ‘the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’ (2 Cor 4:6). He is the facsimile of God” [ISBE, on Image]. So we can infer that Christ, in His incarnate being, as He walked the earth under the limitations of being a man, contained in Him the full image of God, as it was originally created in Adam. “Since Christ was perfect man, he took all three parts of our nature, spirit, soul, and body. But then He took them in all their perfection, and that without any spot of sin, original or actual. Hence the human spirit  in Christ was a perfect spirit, not that feeble semi- animate conscience which stirs, and only stirs, in our present fallen nature” [Heard, 159]. “Man was not made in the likeness of any creature that went before him, but in the likeness of his Creator; yet still between God and man there is an infinite distance. Christ only is the express image of God’s person, as the Son of his Father, having the same nature” [Henry, 6]. Consequently, in order to understand what was lost of the image of God in man by the fall, we just need to compare fallen man to Christ in His incarnate form. On the surface, clearly the main differences between Christ and other men are His holiness, His righteousness, His sinlessness, and His morality. But the differences go deeper than that. Christ had (as He walked the earth) a close and deep relationship with God the Father, such that all He did was within the will of God. Given this, and given that the spirit of man is the part of his being that relates to God (as we discussed above), then we can infer that one of the primary degradations of the image of God in man as caused by the fall of man, is that the influence of the spirit of man within his body was greatly weakened. In other words, the fall of man can be seen as the soul  and body breaking away from the influence of the spirit. For unfallen man, the soul and the body were at one with the spirit, and so unfallen man lived in holiness, and in a close relationship to God. Sin divided the soul from the spirit (see Heb. 4:12), and this division greatly impaired man’s relationship with God. God still speaks to us by His Spirit, through our spirits, yet by his free will, fallen man often chooses not to heed the promptings of the spirit, just as Jesus pointed out to Peter in Gethsemane: “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt. 26:41). Paul masterfully describes the struggle of the spirit, against the yearnings of the unspiritual man: “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing” (Rom. 7:14-19). Here are ways that Biblical scholars have summarized the effect of the fall on the image of God in man: “The essential condition of man subsisted in three concentric circles. The innermost was his spirit; the inner, his soul; and the external, his body. With his spirit, man lived and moved in the love of God. The body stood, by means of the soul, under the potential influence of this light of love, and was thence expecting its glorification. By sin all this has now become reversed. It began by the spirit becoming dislocated from the divine love, its true life- centre” [Delitzsch, Bib Psych, 147-148]. “The spirit, that part whereby we are receptive of the Holy Spirit of God, is, in the unspiritual man, crushed down and subordinated to the animal soul” [Alford, on 1 Thess. 5:23]. “How far does man, as fallen, possess the divine image? Is it utterly destroyed, or to what extent does he retain it?  The answer to that plainly is, in part to anticipate, that so far as the divine image answers to an indestructible element in man’s constitution — reason, conscience, freedom, etc.—it still remains, but in a broken and impaired condition. As respects to the actual exhibition of that image in moral resemblance to God, it is largely destroyed; even natural virtues are at best only a shadow of it, for they lack the spiritual element and true quality of holiness in not springing from the love and fear of God” [Orr, 57-58]. In addition to the spiritual effect on man, the fall brought a physical effect: Previous to the fall, Adam was an eternal being, just as God is. Eating the forbidden fruit brought death, just as God had warned: “And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die’” (Gen. 2:16-17). Return of the Image of God Through Sanctification So, the degradation of God’s image in man as a result of the fall of man can, in general, be summarized as: 1. The spiritual effect: Our spirit was greatly weakened, such that we do not heed its promptings, and so we readily fall into sin, and as a result, we have lost our close relationship with God; 2. The physical effect: We became mortal beings, subject to death. Given this, we might ask: Is there any way to get these things back? Can the original image of God within us be restored? I would answer, as Paul did: “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:24-25). Through Christ, and Christ alone, it is possible to regain what we lost by the fall. Concerning the physical effect of the fall, that our bodies are subject to death, we can gain immortal life for our souls through Christ, and Christ alone. This is the great gift of God to us: Though we brought death upon ourselves through our sins, God has provided a way for us to regain eternal life through Christ. We learn in the Gospel of John: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). And in his epistle, John taught: “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son” (1 John 5:11). And from Paul: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). Despite this, though, one physical consequence of the fall remains: our earthly bodies will die. We can never recover what we lost by the fall with respect to our earthly bodies.  God promised that eating the forbidden fruit would bring death to Adam, and through Adam death to all, and that promise has been fulfilled. However, through Christ, after the death of this body, we will receive glorified, eternal bodies: “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Phil. 3:20- 21). “The Son of God was clothed with a body like unto ours, and will shortly clothe ours with a glory like unto his” [Henry, 6]. Now concerning the spiritual effect of the fall, that our spirits have been greatly weakened, such that we readily fall into sin: Can our spirits be restored? The answer to that is, yes, and this restoration of the spirit  also occurs through Christ, by the process of sanctification. The purpose of sanctification is to restore the image of God within us, so as to make us more Christ-like, such that we are being conformed to the image of Christ, day-by-day. Paul taught: “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (Rom. 8:29). And elsewhere: “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18). And again: “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:22-24). In Christ, through the work of the Holy Spirit, the process of sanctification is undoing the internal damage caused by the fall of man, and enabling your soul, as well as your body, to be once again under the influence and control of your spirit, such that you listen to the Spirit of God speak to you through your spirit, heed the pleadings of the spirit, flee sin under the influence of the spirit, and engender a closer relationship with God through your spirit. “Reformed theology has traditionally held that mankind was created in the image of God, which was perfect in knowledge and righteousness, suffered irreparable destruction in the fall, and is delivered only through Christ’s death and resurrection, whereby the image is being progressively transformed in the believer (2 Cor 3:18) until its state of perfection at the resurrection (Rom 8:29; 1 Cor 15:49; Col 3:9-10). Thus, the incarnate Son actualizes the perfection of the manhood which we have sinfully perverted” [Matthews]. The salvation of our souls, the eternal life we have through Christ, is such a glorious thing, that I’m afraid maybe we tend to downplay the importance of sanctification. Paul reminded us of the importance of sanctification as a continuing activity, in his startling statement: “…continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling…” (Phil. 2:12). Our salvation, as far as atonement and being saved from God’s punishment for our sins, was made complete on the cross when Christ said, “It is finished” (John 19:30); however, the salvation from being under the control of sin as we live the rest of our lives in this world began  with Christ’s work on the cross, and continues within us, with the help of the Holy Spirit, through the process of sanctification. This is the salvation that we must “continue to work out with fear and trembling.” God is still holy and righteous, even after our salvation from His wrath; God still hates sin. And so we should have a healthy fear of God, and strive to our utmost to live without sin, to be sanctified with the help of the Holy Spirit, to be conformed to the likeness of Christ, who was the perfect image of God when He walked on this earth. Bibliography and Suggested Reading (for studies in the book of Genesis, and on Christ in the Old Testament) Specific resources dealing with the creation of man in God’s image: Delitzsch, Franz. A System of Biblical Psychology.  Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1885. Heard, J. B. The Tripartite Nature of Man. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1870. Laidlaw, John. The Bible Doctrine of Man. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1895. Orr, James. God’s Image in Man. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1905. Specific resources dealing with Christ in the Old Testament: Hengstenberg, E. W. Christology of the Old Testament. 4 Vols. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1868. Resources on the Book of Genesis: Ainsworth, Henry. Annotations on the Pentateuch.  Glasgow: Blackie & Son, 1843. Alford, Henry. The Book of Genesis. London: Strahan & Co., 1872. Calvin, John. Commentaries on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis. 2 Vols. Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1847. Cook, F. C. The Holy Bible with an Explanatory and Critical Commentary. Vol. 1. New York: Scribner, 1873. Dods, Marcus. The Book of Genesis with Introduction and Notes. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1882. Fuller, Thomas. Expository Discourses on the Book of Genesis. London: Tegg & Son, 1836. Henry, Matthew.  An Exposition of All the Books of the Old and New Testament.  Vol. I.  London: W. Baynes, 1806. (Originally published in 1710). Jacobus, Melancthon. Notes, Critical and Explanatory on the Book of Genesis. New York: Carter & Brothers, 1865. Jamieson, R.; Fausset, A. R.; Brown, David. [JFB].  A Commentary, Critical, Experimental and Practical on the Old and New Testaments, Vol. I.  Philadelphia:  J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1866. Keil, C. F., and Delitzsch, F. Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament. Vol. 1. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1885. Lange, John Peter.  Genesis (A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures:  Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical, edited by John Peter Lange, D.D.).  New York:  Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1898. Mackintosh, C. H. Notes on the Book of Genesis. New York: Loizeaux Brothers, 1880. Murphy, J. G. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Genesis. Andover: Draper, 1866. Patrick, Lowth, Arnald, Whitby, and Lowman. A Critical Commentary and Paraphrase on the Old and New Testament. Vol. 1. Philadelphia: Wiley and Putnam, 1846. Spence, Rev. H. D. M., and Joseph S. Exell, editors.  The Pulpit Commentary: Genesis.  London:  Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner and Co., Ltd, 1891. Thomas, W. H. Griffith. Genesis: A Devotional Commentary. 3 Vols. London: The Religious Tract Society, 1909. Wordsworth, Christopher. The Bible with Notes and Introductions. Vol. I. London: Rivingtons, 1872. Other Resources: Bromiley, Geoffrey W., ed. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. [ISBE]. Grand Rapids, Mich, W.B. Eerdmans Most of these books, those in the Public Domain, can be downloaded free of charge from:  http://www.ClassicChristianLibrary.com