The Image of God

By the Rev. Chad Bird

When God starts something, it almost always seems as if nothing will come of it. Take, for example, His creation of Adam and Eve. Masterpieces are not crafted from brown dirt and a white rib, no matter how resourceful the artist. Yet there stands God, dirt in hand, then rib in hand, ready to make a man and woman in His own image. That, however, is the way God works. He deliberately chooses what we think is silly, foolish, or downright worthless to pull off His most important acts. He is the God who makes everything out of nothing.

So from the "nothingness" of dirt and a rib we have a very good man and a very good woman. They are made in the image of God, according to His likeness (Genesis 1:26-27). That means, simply put, that who they are reflects who God is. So, for example, that as God is righteous and holy, so they are righteous and holy; God loves so they too love; God rules over creation as they also rule. They are what God wants them to be – like He is. They are creatures that mirror the Creator. Divine fingerprints cover every inch of their bodies and souls as proof-positive of whose they are.

Well, not quite. Make that, instead, whose they were. In no time at all, the Snake had coiled himself around the neck of their souls and strangled spiritual life from them. They broke God’s word, and when they did, they also shattered themselves as the mirror of God. They stood, naked and ashamed, around the broken shards of the image they had been. Later, when fallen Adam fathered a fallen son, Seth, we are told he became "the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his own image" (Genesis 5:3). Like father, like son, but no longer like God. It really did seem as if nothing would come of what God had done. Nothing, that is, except chaos and bloodshed – funeral after funeral after funeral.

God’s solution to the problem was not, however, to crumple up the whole ruined mess and toss it into a cosmic trash can. If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself. So God did. The Virgin’s womb became the new Garden of Eden. From the "dust" of Mary’s flesh, a New Adam was made. And not only a New Adam, but a Better Adam, an Adam who is not only dust but divinity. He, the Creator, Jesus the Son, became what He had created.

This Divine Son is the Image of God (2 Cor 3:18; Col 1:15). Adam and Eve were created IN the image of God but Jesus IS the image. "He who has seen Me has seen the Father," Jesus tells us (John 14:9). In Him the broken image is restored and improved. And in Him you see not only one who mirrors God; you see God Himself, wrapped in flesh and blood, your flesh and your blood, just like you and just like God.

So do you finally get back what Adam and Eve lost? No, you do not. You get something better. You get God and Adam in one person. You get the Godman. In Him you see God and in Him God sees you as He wishes you to be. You’re back in the image of God for you’re in the Image Himself. Just as He became what you are – a human being – so you become what He is – sons of God. He’s holy so you’re holy; He’s alive so you’re alive; His God is your God; His Father is your Father.

To be in the image of God, then, is to be in Jesus. You are brought to Him as nothing and you leave as everything. Sins are banished. Death is killed. You come to Him naked and He dresses you with Himself at the baptismal Font. You slip into His skin. You sink into His Body. You assume His identity. God calls you, "My son," and you pray, "Our Father." You are given all, and then some.

In the beginning, there was brown dirt and a white rib. What God made from that was very good. But in the end, there was the Babe in the manger, the Sacrifice on the tree, the Man on God’s throne. And what God has made from that is not only very good – it is perfection, and it is all for you.

The Rev. Chad Bird is professor of Old Testament at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He will be the main speaker for the IN HIS FACE Lutheran Youth Conference in 2003.