Thursday 5th January
Read Genesis 1:26-28
“Then God said,‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’” (NIVUK)
If someone asked you what it means that humanity is created in God’s image how would you respond? The answers offered by theologians are many and varied. All of them shed light in one way or another on what it means. Most of them agree that at the very least the privilege and dignity conferred on humanity by God is immense.
Discussion then focuses on what it is specifically that reflects that image, in what does it consist? Some would argue that it is rationality and intelligence, or the ability to reason, an ability that separates humanity from the animate world. The very ability to ask the question – what does it mean to be made in the image of God – is the very mark of the divine image. Others argue that it is the capacity to love. If God is love, then we approach closest to Him when we love others, when we see God’s image in them and value them accordingly.
Still others look at the context of the passage and argue that the image of God must reside somehow in the exercise of authority and rule. The ability to rule over creation, the sea and the sky and the land, subjugate it and control it, is the mark of the divine left on the human soul. It is dominion power. Unfortunately this view has led to many awful outcomes for this world.
Tomorrow we will consider the ‘Imago dei’ in more detail, but spend today reflecting on Jesus and what it actually means to be made in God’s likeness as a human…
“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death –
even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:5-8) (NIVUK)
