Man In the Image of God

The following post is my 3rd presentation in Round Table (March 2, 2009).

What happened to the Image of God when Man Sinned?

The Image of God in man was marred when Adam sinned. It was not lost or erased, but as Ryrie says it was “defaced”. In the Genesis account of creation God said “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”. This is what set man apart from the rest of creation. If this Image and Likeness were lost or erased man would no longer be different than the rest of creation.

The reason we know that the Image of God was not lost or erased is the fact that the Scripture continues to teach that Man still has the Image of God after the Fall (Gen. 9:6, 1 Cor. 11:7, James 3:9).

After God had created Man he saw that all he had created was good (Gen. 1:31). But because of the entrance of sin we are less fully like God. The sin left man in a place of no longer having a righteous standing before God. The Scripture continues to unfold God’s entire plan for salvation and sanctification; a plan to restore man to a right standing before God. This restoration would take place through one man just as the Image was marred through one man. “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” 1 Corinthians 15:21-22 (Also See Rom. 5:12-17). Hebrews 1:3 states Christ is the perfect image of God. And Romans 8:29 says We are being transformed into Christ’s image. (Other examples 1 cor. 15: 21-22, 47-49; 1 John 3:1-2 ; Col. 3:10).
Wayne Grudem in his Systematic Theology sums this up nicely. He says “it is encouraging to turn to the New Testament and see that our redemption in Christ means that we can, even in this life, progressively grow into more and more likeness to God.” Grudem also says “the full measure of the excellence of our humanity will not be seen again in life on earth until Christ returns and we have obtained all the benefits of the salvation he earned for us.”
One of the major aspects of the Image of God that was marred in the fall was man’s spirit. God is a Spirit being and man was created with a spirit. This is one of the distinguishing factors between Man and Animal. Man was created with the ability to have relationship with God. Daniel Akin defines the spirit as the part of man that gives him “the capacity for a relationship with God”. Before the fall man walked with God; he had fellowship with God. His Spirit was alive to God. After the fall man no longer would seek relationship with God. Romans 3:10-12 “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” Colossians 2:13 “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven all our trespasses.” (Also see 1 Peter 4:6) John 14:6 says that no one can even come to the Father except through Christ. The Spirit of man was dead to God once sin entered the world. God’s plan is a process of restoring his Image in us. This process is begun through Christ in Salvation, continued through sanctification (Rom. 6:19), and ultimately will be completed upon our glorification (Romans 8:30; Phil 3:20-21).

How is the image of God transmitted from one generation to the next?

The answer to this question has been formulated in three prominent views. We all know that the material part of man was transmitted through Natural Generation or Procreation. We all come from our parents just as they came from theirs. As far as the immaterial part of man there have been the following different explanations for how it is transmitted.

The first view is preexistence. This view basically believes that in “the beginning God created all human souls, which were confined in physical bodies as punishment. Souls go through various incarnations throughout history and in the process incur sinfulness.” This view has no scriptural basis and therefore has never been held to by Orthodox Christianity.

The second view is Creationism. This view believes that “God creates the soul at the moment of conception or birth and immediately unites it with the body.” This view often cites Numbers 16:22 and Hebrews 12:9 which call God the Father of Spirits. It also states that since the nature of the soul is immaterial it could not be transmitted by natural generation. Another one of its points is that Christ’s sinlessness could only be true if His soul were created.

The third view is Traducianism. This view believes that the soul is transmitted along with the body through the processes of natural generation. Arguments for this view are that on the seventh day of creation God rested because his work of Creation was finished. No where in Scripture are new acts of Creation recorded. Also, if God created the soul then it would be a perfect soul because God could not create a sinful one, so at some point it would have to fall just as Adam did. Also Genesis 5:3 says “he (Adam) fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.” Logically if Adam was made in God’s image and then Adam’s son was in Adam’s likeness and image then the Image of God would be transmitted through Natural Generation.

Ryrie sums up his position with a quote from J.O. Buswell:

“In our ordinary thinking when we observe such perfect uniformity and regularity in other matters, we usually ascribe the results to the secondary forces which God has created and which He maintains by His divine providence. For this reason, and for this reason only, I am inclined toward the Traducian view, but I do not feel that it can be firmly established on the grounds of any explicit scriptural teaching.”

I will close my presentation by mentioning the tremendous implications the doctrine of Man being created in the Image of God has. Every single human being no matter the age, sex, race, illness, religious belief, weakness, or disability is God’s image-bearer. If this truth is lost, we will begin to depreciate the value of human life. Man will be seen as an animal and treated as such. This truth is vitally important.