The Spirit at Work in the World

There's an ongoing tension in Christian theology over the extent to which the Holy Spirit is operative in the world. For example, Justin Martyr argued that since the Greek philosophers had found truth, they must have been indwelt by the Truth.

Calvin too comments on this:

The swift and versatile movements of the soul in glancing from heaven to earth, connecting the future with the past, retaining the remembrance of former years, nay, forming creations of its own—its skill, moreover, in making astonishing discoveries, and inventing so many wonderful arts, are sure indications of the agency of God in man.
Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1.5.5

The question is how this can be squared with the clear fact from Scripture that the Holy Spirit only indwells those who trust in Christ.

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.
Romans 8:14-15, TNIV

So what are we to make of the way that non-Christians often do things that lead to truth and goodness and so on? And it's important to recognise that they do - all too often, Christians tend to forget that. The stereotype I guess is that conservative evangelicals forget that non-Christians do good stuff at all, charismatics see it as the work of the Spirit and get on board with it and liberals go one step further and conclude that those people are ok without knowing Jesus.

I was pondering this tension a few weeks ago, and I came to the conclusion that it makes most sense if the work of the Spirit among those who aren't Christians is primarily to maintain what is left of the image of God in them. We were created good, and though our rebellion against God affected every part of us so that nothing we do is ever wholly perfect, it didn't affect every part of us totally - it is rare that anything anyone does is ever wholly evil either. When non-Christians do what is right, it is reflecting a bit of the glory of the God who originally made them and continues to sustain them.

I think that by identifying the work of the Spirit in the non-Christian world primarily with maintaining the remnant of the image of God in people, we get rid of what is otherwise a difficult tension.

What are People Like in Hell?

Overview of my stuff about Hell.

I've finished my essay on hell now. It turned out that one of the key questions was what people were like in hell. Here are some quotes on that which I found helpful.

To enter hell is to be banished from humanity. What is cast (or casts itself) into hell is not a man: it is ‘remains’.
C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

When human beings give their heartfelt allegiance and worship to that which is not God, they progressively cease to reflect the image of God... it is possible for human beings to so continue down this road.. that after death they become at last, by their own effective choice, beings that once were human but now are not, creatures that have ceased to bear the divine image at all... they pass simultaneously not only beyond hope but also beyond pity.
Tom Wright, Surprised by Hope

Sometimes people ask me: "In heaven how can I be happy, knowing that my fellow human-beings - maybe the people I love best - are in hell?" And the answer is simple. No human being will be in hell. The creatures in hell are not human beings any longer... The person you knew and loved will not be in hell. That person had so many lovable qualities - the remnants of the image of God - but now, the image of God has been obliterated... You could not love the creature in hell if you tried - God cannot love that creature - there is nothing there to love.
Stephen Rees

Hippolytus - Image of God

When I think about something, and come to a conclusion that's different to what everyone else seems to say, but that I'm sure is right, it's always nice to find someone writing a very long time ago who agrees with me.

These things then, concerning spiritual gifts, which are worthy of note, we have set forth. God gave these gifts to people in the beginning in accordance with his will, presenting them with his own image, which had been lost.
Hippolytus, The Apostolic Tradition

Hippolytus died in AD 235, and assumes here that people naturally are not in God's image - we've lost it, but Christians are being restored into it by God's action. Cool...

(see what I've written about the image of God)

In the Image of God 3

Part 1
Part 2

I've written a bit over the last couple of months about whether we are in God's image, what that means, etc. Over the last few days, I've thought some more about it, largely spurred on by hearing a talk by Phil Keymer and reading a book by John Piper.

To summarise what I've said so far then:

Part 1:

• Adam was made in God's image
• Adam fell from that image
• We are made in Adam's image, which is a corruption of God's image
• Christ was perfectly God's image
• Christians are being restored into Christ's image

Part 2:

• God's image in Adam consisted in ruling
• Adam fell from that image
• Christ perfectly exhibited God's image in ruling
• God's image will be restored in Christians

God's Image - Relationships

Back to Genesis 1:26-28:

Then God said "Let us make man in our own image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number... Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the ground."
Genesis 1:26-28 (NIV)

Part of what it means to be in God's image is that we are in relationship with others. God is of course the perfectly relational God - Father, Son and Spirit all existing in eternal, perfectly loving relationships. In the same way, people are made male and female, and told to increase in number.

God's Image Spoilt at the Fall

Once again, we see that this aspect of what it means to be in God's image ruined.

To the woman God said,
"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you."
Genesis 3:16 (NIV)

God's Image Restored

Once again, also, we see God's image perfectly restored in Jesus. He was perfectly loving in human relationships; he could not be fooled by people's masks; he was in a perfect relationship with God.

Once again, also, we see that God's image in terms of relationships is being restored in Christians as we love one another and are united with one another in Christ and will be perfected in us in heaven.

The Purpose of God's Image

The purpose of God's image is to display God's glory - to show the world what God is like. Why else would he need or want an image?

So what is the application of all this stuff about God's image? We as Christians, who are being restored into Christ's image, should be displaying that image so that the world can see more and more what God is like by looking at us.

In the Image of God 2

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post thinking about whether we were in God's image. As far as I can remember, what I wrote can be summarised like this:

• Adam was made in God's image
• Adam fell from that image
• We are made in Adam's image
• Christ was perfectly God's image
• Christians are being restored into Christ's image

In the meantime, the intimidatingly clever Daniel Hill has asked me some questions about the authority over creation implied by God's image. That got me thinking, so I'm revisiting the topic.

The Essence of God's Image in Adam

As I mentioned last time, the essence of God's image is that it is to do with ruling. Here are the key verses from Genesis again.

Then God said "Let us make man in our own image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number... Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the ground."
Genesis 1:26-28 (NIV)

We can see that the verse referring to God's image (v27) is bracketed by v26 and v28, both of which are God telling the people to rule over the world.

God's Image Ruined by the Fall

But that isn't the way it stays. Adam and Eve sin, and then God speaks to them.

To the woman, God said,
"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you."

To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'
"Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.
Genesis 3:16-19 (NIV)

Adam and Eve's rule over creation is removed. God's words to Eve affect his command at the start of 1v28 - to be fruitful and increase in number - it now comes only with pain. As we see in chapter 4 with Cain and Abel, it is also now not automatic - the number reduces in Genesis 4.

God's words to Adam, though, remove his dominion over the ground - it now produces thorns and thistles, it requires sweat and at the end it will claim Adam, who was meant to have mastery over it. Adam's dominion over the animals is also removed with God's words to the serpent, which instead of being subject to Adam is now the enemy of him and his descendants (3v15).

That does not mean that the image of God was totally obliterated, just that it was so corrupted and twisted that it is no longer the image of God, but the image of Adam, which is the image we all bear.

When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.
Genesis 5:3 (NIV)

So we, in Adam's image, still have some degree of mastery over the world, but not the degree that Adam had before the Fall, when he was in God's image.

Absence of God's Image seen in the OT

Throughout the Old Testament, we see that people are not ruling over the animals and the earth in the way they were meant to. The most disgraceful death is to be eaten by dogs (e.g. Jezebel), as that has nature ruling over people.

God's judgement on his faithless people sees their cities replaced by briers and thorns. For example,

Now I will tell you
what I am going to do to my vineyard:
I will take away its hedge,
and it will be destroyed;
I will break down its wall,
and it will be trampled.
I will make it a wasteland,
neither pruned nor cultivated,
and briers and thorns will grow there.
I will command the clouds
not to rain on it."
The vineyard of the LORD Almighty
is the house of Israel,
Isaiah 5:5-7a (NIV)

Again, we see nature overcoming people specifically as a sign of his judgement on them but also as a clear indicator that they are not in his image.

God's Image Perfected in Christ

Of course, it is in Christ that we see God's image perfectly, and it is in Christ that we see his perfect rule over his creation.

One day Jesus said to his disciples, "Let's go over to the other side of the lake." So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger.

The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Master, Master, we're going to drown!"

He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. "Where is your faith?" he asked his disciples.
In fear and amazement they asked one another, "Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him."
Luke 8:22-25 (NIV)

Jesus' perfect rule over creation showed that he was in God's image.

[This raises a few interesting but pointless questions to which I don't know the answer, nor do I especially care. Could Adam and Eve have performed what we would call miracles before the Fall? Why would they have wanted to?]

God's Image Restored in Christians

We also see that God's image will be restored in Christians. How does this work out in terms of rule over creation?

Here is a trustworthy saying:
If we died with him,
we will also live with him;
if we endure,
we will also reign with him.
2 Timothy 2:11-12a

"You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth."
Revelation 5:10

There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
Revelation 22:5 (NIV)

Cool.

In the Image of God

Over at Cerulean Sanctum, Dan asks what it means for us to be in the image of God. Here are some of my thoughts...

In Genesis 1:27 (NIV/ESV), it is written

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

But what does that mean? Are we still in God's image? How does it affect us?

Meaning

What did it mean for Adam and Eve to be in God's image? We get a good idea from looking at the context of the passage.

Then God said "Let us make man in our own image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number... Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the ground."
Genesis 1:26-28 (NIV)

What it meant for Adam and Eve in part was that they were given the power and the authority to rule, under God, over the rest of creation. We see this again when we consider what the Bible says about Jesus being the image of God.

It is clearly not something physical - both male and female were created in God's image, and they are not the same as each other physically.

So, being in God's image was a gift of God to Adam and Eve. It was linked to their God-given authority and ability to rule over creation.

Consequences

Possibly surprisingly, there are only two other references in the Bible to man being in God's image.

Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.
Genesis 9:6 (ESV)

With [the tongue] we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.
James 3:9 (ESV)

Both of these references say that in some way there is a dignity attached to human life because we were made in the image of God. So therefore we should not kill others, nor should we curse them.

Are We Still in God's Image?

However, I would like to suggest that both of these verses still hold true if they refer only to the original creation of people as in God's image. We aren't now in the image of God in the same way that Adam was created. There are several reasons for this.

Firstly, we are sinful. We all reject and ignore God. By contrast, God is holy and we are forbidden even from making an image and claiming it to represent God (Exodus 20:4-6). Since God is holy, isn't it blasphemy to say that anything made by human hands is his image (Exodus 32)? Isn't it also blasphemy to say that sinful human beings are the image of God?

Secondly, it's not what Genesis teaches us. After the creation in Genesis 1 and 2, people start rejecting God and come under his wrath in Genesis 3 and 4. Then, in Genesis 5, we get a family tree running from Adam - the first man to sin - to Noah, from whom we are all descended. This is how Genesis 5 begins:

This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. When Adam had lived for 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.
Genesis 5:3 (ESV)

Genesis is explicit that Seth (Adam's son, through whom all modern humanity is descended) was made in Adam's image, whereas Adam was made in God's image. But between the creation of Adam and the birth of Seth, we have Adam starting to sin and coming under God's judgement. We see that in the family - all of Adam's descendants sin, just like Adam did.

The New Testament is very clear, as we shall see later, that we are all naturally in Adam's image rather than God's.

But Adam's image is not totally distant from God's. We still retain some of the abilities which God gave us to worship him and rule creation. We still retain a little of the dignity (hence the prohibition to kill).

Jesus is the Image of God

The next major aspect of the Bible's teaching about the image of God is that Jesus is it. So we see in Colossians:

[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created.....
Colossians 1:15f (ESV)

We see the same thing in 2 Corinthians 4:4

...Christ, who is the image of God.
2 Corinthians 4:4 (ESV)

Remade in God's Image

Before the fall, humanity was in the image of God. Now we are only in the image of Adam. But in Christ we can again become the image of God.

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son
Romans 8:29 (ESV)

As was the man of dust [Adam], so also are those who are of dust, and as is the man of heaven [Jesus], so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
1 Corinthians 15:48-49 (ESV)

[Christians] have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge, after the image of its creator.
Colossians 3:10 (ESV)

Christians will be in God's image again! It is therefore clear that we are not now naturally in God's image, otherwise we would already be like Jesus.

As Charles Wesley wrote:

Adam's likeness, Lord efface,
Stamp thy image in its place.
Oh to all thyself impart,
Born in each believing heart.
from "Hark the Herald Angels Sing"

Application

What really got me thinking about this originally, and why it matters, is because of a discussion I had with a Christian friend about why Jesus died for us. She said that God loves us because we are in his image, and that did not sound right to me.

We are not now in God's image in the way that Adam was. We do not deserve God's love at all - all we deserve is God's wrath and judgement. But praise God that he has shown mercy to us not because of who we are but because of who he is! Praise God that though we, through our own sin, are no longer in his image, he will remake us into the image of his Son, who is the image of God!