The Vanishing Image

"God created man in his own image. And man, being a gentleman, returned the favor."[1]

It is true that God has made us in the divine image. But returning the favor by making God in our own image is not an expression of gentlemanly manners, but rather, a reflection of our inner darkness. It is our shame, not our glory. We are made in God's image; God is not made in ours.

In the sacred scriptures, making a "god" in our own image is called idolatry. "Thou shalt not make for yourself a graven image" (Exodus 20:4; Deuteronomy 6:15-18). It is a grave sin. Indeed, one could make a case that idolatry is the sin that Israel wrestled with throughout the entire Old Testament.

Idolatry is forbidden because it diminishes our view of God. God is always greater than we can conceive. The prohibition against idolatry protects us from limiting God to our own human intellect, imagination, or understanding. Our images, concepts, and words may point to God, but in the process, they also misrepresent God. This much is certain, whatever you say about God is more wrong than right, for God is always greater than we can conceive or communicate.

But this is not the only reason idolatry is forbidden. Idolatry not only diminishes one's view of God, but also because it corrupts and diminishes one's view of oneself and others. Through idolatry, we organize our lives around that which is less than God, and then use our self-made god for our own purposes. Since our self-made god makes no absolute claim upon us - simply being an extension of ourselves - we can control and use it for our own immediate ends. Instead of reflecting God's image, we reflect only our own selfish and limited ends.

When we make God in our own image, we darken the image. We put the cart before the horse. God is God and we are not. We reflect God; God does not reflect us. God is forever the uncreated light. As "mirrors of God" our light derives from God. Without God, we are in the darkness. Therefore, we do not dictate to God who God is.

We need God to reveal to us who God is and what it means to reflect God's image. Without a clear vision of God, how can we know what it means to reflect God as God's image-bearer? The answer remains a mystery until the coming of Jesus, who is the Word of God and the image of God. God's clearest revelation comes not on the stones and wood of the Temple or in the words of the law, but on the canvas of human flesh. In order to fully grasp the significance of Jesus as the image of God, we must trace this theme through sacred scripture.

Old Testament Background

The foundational passage appears in the opening chapter of the Bible: "God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27). It is significant that the key to understanding who we are is wrapped up in the evocative and provocative phrase, "image of God." Being made in God's image, we cannot possibly understand ourselves apart from God. We are "mirrors of God" created to reflect God's glory. What does this mean?

Tragically, we know more about what it does not mean. We are given little insight on the positive aspects of bearing God's image because early in the biblical story God's image-bearer falls into sin. Adam, representing humankind, sins by turning away from God, and consequently, fails to reflect God's glory. The consequence of this action, as God had warned, was death (Genesis 2:16-17). The image of God was not lost, but the fallen image was passed down through Adam to all humankind.

The next occurrence of the phrase is found in Genesis 5:1-3: "This is the list of the descendants of Adam. When God created humankind, he made them in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them "Humankind" when they were created. When Adam had lived one hundred thirty years, he became the father of a son in his likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth... and Adam died." Failing to reflect God's glory, Adam passed on the fallen image, and eventually succumbed to corruption, decay, and disintegration - to death.

Notice in the passage above that the image indicates a father-child relationship. In ancient culture, it was assumed that children - especially sons - would resemble and obey their fathers. We preserve traces of this in the saying, "Like father, like son." Eastern Christians communicate this passing on of sin from one generation to another as "ancestral sin." Unlike the West, that focuses (misguidedly, in my opinion) on inherited guilt, the East focuses on how sin infects and corrupts the whole human family. In the West, we all are responsible for Adam's sin, inheriting his guilt. In the East, we all suffer because Adam's sin, being born into one vast dysfunctional family. In both traditions, the wages of sin is death. The life we were meant to live has been corrupted and twisted from God's original intention. This "fall" into sin continues in every subsequent story in the Old Testament, giving rise to Paul's summary of biblical history in Romans 3:23: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

What does this mean for the image? Have we lost it because of sin? Has our failure to reflect God's glory resulted in extinguishing the image? The next reference to the image found in Genesis 9:6 seems to indicate that the image of God remains, in spite of sin. The passage is found after the account of the judgment of the flood. Noah and his family, preserved by the ark, are blessed by God in language that reflects God's original blessing in Genesis 1: "God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth" (Genesis 9:1). Things have changed, however, because of sin. Bloodshed, violence, and injustice are now a fixed feature in the human landscape. Therefore, God says to Noah: "Whoever sheds the blood of a human, by a human shall that person's blood be shed; for in his own image God made humankind" (Genesis 9:6).

Clearly, the image of God remains. It is unique to human beings and essential to human personhood. As in Genesis 1, the image distinguishes humankind from the animals. God permits the use of animals for food: "Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything" (Genesis 9:3). But human blood must not be shed (Genesis 9:6).

A few theologians (Luther among them) teach that the image of God has been lost altogether. This seems extreme and doesn't accord with the whole of biblical revelation. Others teach that the image has been broken, shattered, or bent.[2] In other words, it has been harmed in some way. Truly, the image of God has been negatively affected by sin, but this sort of language is never explicitly used in sacred scripture.

It seems more faithful to biblical revelation to argue that the image of God remains but that it has become muddied and darkened. This language best reflects the biblical language and the biblical story. The image of God is unique to human beings and essential to human personhood. Whatever the image of God is, it is certainly not lost because of sin (Genesis 9:6). All humans possess the image of God - and continue to possess it in spite of sin (see James 3:9).

The Vanishing Image

It is at this point that the mystery of the image of God takes a strange turn. Even though we have not yet seen one human example of what it means to fully bear the image of God, the language vanishes after Genesis 9:6 and doesn't reappear again in the Hebrew Bible. Poof! It is gone! It is remarkable that this pregnant phrase which is foundational to human identity simply disappears. And without the New Testament, it would vanish forever.

There is, however, one notable exception, but it does not refer to flesh and blood. Instead, it refers to wood, stone, marble, and steel: "Thou shalt not make for yourself any graven image." It is interesting to note that the same people who wrote and preserved Genesis 1:27 also insisted in the divine law that no "graven image" must be created.

As the old saying goes, God did make us in the divine image, but we are not allowed to return the favor! Human beings are not allowed to fashion an idol or create a graven image. Humankind's "images of God" are always deficient and destructive. Only God is allowed to make an image of Godself.

And this is exactly what God does in the sending of the Son.

The secret of the vanishing image in the Old Testament is revealed in the New. In the New Testament, Jesus is the image of God. Jesus is "the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15). In some way, the key to the full meaning of the image of God remains hidden until the revelation of the true Son of God. In Jesus, we're given a true vision of God and of humankind. As God originally intended, human flesh is the canvas upon which the divine glory is reflected. In him, we see "glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Jesus is "the Word made flesh." Christ's humanity is the canvas upon which we see both who God is for us and what it means to be truly and fully human, for no human being ever completely fulfilled this divine vocation than Jesus. Because the darkened image is passed on from Adam, we never see the fullness of God's image until the revelation of Christ.

In Jesus, God has revealed Godself within the limits of human understanding. We still must possess a healthy cognitive humility, but we must not confuse it with ignorance. "What we need to know God has revealed in Jesus Christ, and that revelation we can trust and trust absolutely. But there is more. Infinitely more, that we do not know."[3]

Christ allows us to speak more clearly about God and also about what it means to reflect God's image. We see God in Christ, the true image of God. He is a living person, who walked among us in love, compassion, and humility and reigns forevermore in resurrection glory. He is the canvas upon which God's truth is delivered. Not a graven image or an idol, but the true and living Word, revealing to us who God truly is for us (the Word made flesh), and how we are meant to reflect God's glory as image-bearers ourselves (the Word made flesh).

For this reason, salvation is not simply a matter of reflecting God's image, but possessing and reflecting the image of God in Christ. Through the Spirit, we are being "conformed to Christ's image" (Romans 8:29), transformed into his glorious image (2 Corinthians 3:18). Our hope is that "we shall be like him" (1 John 3:2). Christ restores and perfects what Adam ruined. The darkened image is now enlightened by the light of Christ. The corruption, decay, and death that sin brings have been overcome by the life of Christ. "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it" (John 1:5).

The Mystery of the Incarnation

In the hubbub of the Christmas holiday, with all the snowmen, reindeers, elves, shopping, and Santas, our greatest temptation is to sentimentalize Christmas and lose its sacred quality - to "focus on the cuteness of the newborn child rather than the awesome mystery of the incarnation."[4]

Christmas is about more than the birth of a child for this is not just any baby. We celebrate not just the miracle of birth, but uniqueness of Jesus' birth. The image of God, dimmed, dulled, darkened by sin now shines brightly. A light is shining. A new movement in the life of God. And a new beginning for humankind.

At Christmas, we revisit, remember, and rehearse the story of God in Christ. And that story climaxes in the incarnation - the enfleshment and embodiment of God. The moment when God becomes one of us, renewing and restoring humankind, shining the true light of God and humankind. "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us... and we beheld God's glory... and we received grace upon grace." Without ceasing to be God, the eternal Son assumes human nature.

Christmas confronts us with profound mystery, the mystery of the incarnation. Human nature is united with God and glorified. In the words of the ancient theologians, human nature is assumed but not destroyed. Jesus Christ is true God and true man - fully divine and fully human. This forever changes our perspective of God and humankind. We can never think of God or humankind in the same way again. Jesus is the image of God. He is the lens or mirror through which we truly see God. He is also the lens through which we see what it means to be truly human.

As in all redemptive acts, God's redemptive action in the sending of the Son is also revelatory. It is through the event that God is revealed to us and it is revealed to us what it means to be truly human. In the incarnation, we encounter the humanification of God and the christification of humanity.

Jesus' face is constantly turned toward God and thus he clearly and perfectly reflects God glory to us. He is a light shining in the world. And the light shines in and through his humanity. He reveals to us what it means to truly walk in the presence of God. Remember, that in ancient culture it was assumed that children - especially sons - would resemble and obey their fathers. Jesus resembles the Father so much he can say, "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father." Like Father, like Son.

Significance

There is no excuse. The gift of Christ brings the gift of clarity. God is revealed in a way that recognizes our human limitations. There is so much we still do not know, but we must not escape the responsibility of what we do now know. Pastor Tom Currie writes,

There is, on the face of it, nothing more absurd than a preacher trying to point to something quite beyond his comprehension, something as mysterious as grace. But, in fact, that absurdity does not constitute the preacher's chief dilemma. For the great mystery of grace is precisely its comprehensibility. What puts the preacher into a predicament is not the fact that God is so far beyond us that none of us can understand him, but, rather, the fact, the alarming fact, that God has come so close to us we can see with startling clarity the mysterious depth of his love... The blinding clarity of such a gift is, of course, what scandalizes us; it comes in human flesh, being born in something less than impressive surroundings, dying in rather questionable circumstances. We see all of that. But what is given in all of that is not something hard to understand but, rather, something that is hard to accept.[5]

To be sure, there is a mystery about this Jesus. The Pharisees, his family, his own disciples often do not understand him, but their lack of understanding, like our own, stems not from what Jesus refuses to say or what he refuses to disclose but, rather, from what he does say and from what he does do. "Love your enemies." "Do not be anxious." "He who loses his life shall find it." "Father, forgive them."[6]

God made humankind in the divine image. It is not a "gentlemanly" virtue to return the favor. When we fashion God in our own image we misrepresent God and darken our own image. Its just another way we corrupt and diminish ourselves.

Only God can reveal God. So God sent the Son! The temple could reveal God's presence, the law God's will, but only human flesh can fully demonstrate what it means to truly reflect God's image.

We don't attempt to explain the mystery of the incarnation, but we do proclaim it. It is our story. We stand in awe, praise, and wonder of it. The remainder of the Christian year involves learning of Jesus in order that we may better understand God and ourselves. For as we behold Jesus, we are transformed into his image: "And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18).

© Richard J. Vincent, 2009