A Drop In The Digital Ocean

On the Image of God

08/02/22 07:31 PM Filed in: Christianity

Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
So God created humankind in his image,
  in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.
      – Genesis 1:26-27, NRSV

When we think of the "imago Dei", we typically think of things like:

Self-awareness
Rationality
Creativity
Infinity
Universality
Community (i.e. the Trinity)
the Ideal. (Beauty, Quality, Utility, and Goodness all compare something to an ideal. Beauty is ideal appearance, quality is ideal construction, utility is ideal fitness for use, goodness is a general comparison to an ideal).
Self-replication. God adopts us as sons and conforms us to the image of Christ.

All of these are positive attributes. And because we like to accentuate the positive, I believe that we overlook the most important aspect of all: uncontrollability. God is controlled only by Himself – He answers to no one and no thing. No being can tell Him what to do; no external rule places any demand upon Him. There is no external code of morality to which He is subject.

Being made in this image explains the entire arc of redemption: the Fall, the failure of [the] Law, and the necessity of the Spirit.

This idea is clearly undeveloped, but given that I put it out on Twitter, I decided to publish this little bit.

imago_dei_tweet