6 Implications of Being Made in the Image of God
Imago Dei
The importance of the imago dei cannot be overstated. Its significance ought to touch every area of life. Let me mention six implications of being made in the image of God.
1). Being made in the image of God, human beings are unique among all God’s creatures. We are qualitatively and constitutionally different from plants and animals. We have been made a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned with glory and honor (Ps. 8:5). The highpoint of all creation was not a mountain, a river, a badger, a beetle, a volcano, a fish, or a star. We were the climax, because we alone bear the image of God.
2) The image of God means that all human beings have inherent worth and dignity. This is one reason abortion is wrong. A person is a person no matter how small, no matter her development, no matter his environment, and no matter her degree of dependence on another human being. Innocent human life must be protected, even when that life is old or sick, even when the person wants to end his own life. Because every human being is made in God’s image, descended from the same human pair, there is no place for racism, partiality, or feelings of ethnic superiority.
Daily Doctrine
Kevin DeYoung
To make systematic theology clear and accessible for the everyday Christian, this one-year guide breaks down important theological topics into daily readings. Each reading features concise and accessible writing and verses for meditation and application.
3) With a proper understanding of the image of God, we can see what it means to be fully human. We live out our deepest identity not in self-expression or sexual fulfillment, but in obedience to and love for the one who made us. When the serpent told Adam and Eve they would be like God on the day that they ate of the forbidden tree, he lied: they were already like God, made in his image.
4) The doctrine of the image of God reminds us that the world belongs to God. In the ancient world, a conquering king might put his statue in different locations throughout his realm to make clear that this was his dominion. In the same way, pagan temples in the ancient world always included images of the god who was said to dwell there. Our presence in the world as God’s image bearers testifies that this is God’s world. The God who made everything does not live in temples made by man (Acts 17:24). We are God’s “idols,” spread across the face of the earth (Acts 17:26), because the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof (Ps. 24:1 KJV).
The image of God teaches us how to truly worship.
5) The image of God in us means that we belong to God. When Jesus asked the Pharisees whose likeness was on the denarius, they said Caesar’s (Matt. 22:20–21). They should have also stopped to consider whose likeness was on them. “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matt. 22:21). Caesar can have his taxes. Human beings belong to God, not to Caesar.
6) The image of God teaches us how to truly worship. All throughout the Old Testament, God’s people were warned not to worship graven images (Ex. 20:4–6, 23). The God of Israel could not be seen. Until one day, he was. Worship now must be focused on Jesus Christ, a man like us (except for sin), the Son of God the Father, and the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15).
This article is adapted from Daily Doctrine: A One-Year Guide to Systematic Theology by Kevin DeYoung.
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