Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

Hebrews 1:3a He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

In a post on Monday February 15 I discussed the role of the Bible when analyzing and discussing political economy. We must realize the Bible’s primary theme is the revelation of God’s redemptive plan for humanity. Many issues we analyze and discuss today, while tangentially related, are not directly addressed in Scripture. I used the example of heart surgery on an infant (which, by the way, appears to have been successful). Detail on the specifics of heart surgery is not included as a biblical topic. I would hope that the surgeon is ordering his or her life around biblical precepts, but to expect “biblical technique”* in surgery is absurd.

How then should someone who desires Christian thinking and perspective on topics not directly addressed in Scripture proceed? We need to discover what the Bible does say directly and use biblical principles to inform our thinking on the issue. The Bible does have more to say about political economy issues than it does about heart surgery. For instance, Romans 13: 1-7 directly discusses government. From this passage we can learn some specifics and also general ideas about government. Where the Bible is more silent, such as discussion on systems of political economy, we gather biblical information, ideas, and principles and utilize the biblical data to inform our thinking on the issue. A biblical concept that I believe can form a foundation for faith integration and political economy is the image of God in man.

Last fall I had the privilege of reading Thomas Sowell’s A Conflict of Visions for the first time. In this book Sowell develops a theme that posits a relationship between our individual views of human nature and our particular perspective on whether we believe a centralized or decentralized economic system is better. I wanted to explore what the Bible says about human nature with the hopes of drawing a more clear connection between Scripture and specific economic systems. In turn, this led me into a study on the image of God in man. What I discovered was a theme introduced in the first chapter of Genesis developed in the New Testament and culminating in the book of Revelation. All of humanity’s story may be told in the context of the image of God in man. The image of God in man can provide us with a helpful backdrop for evaluating political economy. We can evaluate not only economic systems (i.e., capitalism versus socialism), but also specific economic policies in the context of the image of God in man. Which economic system enables people to better reflect God’s image? Will a specific policy help individual people created in God’s image to more accurately reflect the good that originates in God? Answers to these questions will help us develop and refine Christian thinking and “do” biblical integration.

The Image of God in Man: A Timeline for God’s Redemptive Plan

Humanity is created in God’s image. The first chapter of Genesis tells us:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

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

28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:26-28.

Much ink has been spilt over the centuries discussing what the image of God in man means. I’d like to summarize what my studies have led me to conclude. 1) The immediate context indicates that man (the Hebrew word  ‘adam can refer to “people” – I will use “man” to refer to persons) was to act as God’s vice-regent and to exercise dominion. Man was to work with God ruling the earth. We learn in Genesis 2:15 man was to both “work” and “keep” the garden. 2) Man was created to be in unique relationship and has a unique ability to communicate with God. 3) Deriving from our ability to communicate with God is man’s ability to reason, choose and be held accountable and responsible for those choices.

Such was man’s role before the Fall. The Fall changed everything. I sometimes think contemporary Christianity does not incorporate the effects of the fall deeply enough into our practical theology. The image of God in man was forever changed. Humanity’s ability to Connect and communicate with our Creator was broken. We were designed to have an ongoing relationship of dependence upon God. We chose the path of independence and our communication with God was broken. We say that the image of God and man is tarnished, and while that certainly is the case, being a tarnished image may not communicate the full perversion of the image of God in man. There is no part of our makeup that is not in some way affected. Nothing of the image of God in man is the same as it was before the Fall. The effect is completely comprehensive. We are also left with an inability to reconnect with God in the way that we had a connection before the Fall. Realization of our falleness should create in each of us a certain humility. We are very far from what we were created to be. When we consider our attempts at biblical integration one direct application of the image of God in man is that we should be very humble.

After the initial depiction of man created in God’s image in Genesis chapter 1, the Old Testament has very little to say on the image of God in man. Genesis chapter 5 lets us know that Seth was created in the image of Adam and since Adam was created in the image of God, Seth images God. Genesis 9:6 says:

Whoever sheds the blood of man,
    by man shall his blood be shed,
for God made man in his own image.

Many theologians Believe Psalm 8 is a commentary on the image of God in man. But, the image of God in man is not fully discussed in the Old Testament.

What we find in the Old Testament is that man was originally created in God’s image to act as God’s vice regents by working and keeping the earth. Because of the Fall, the image is perverted. We should be humble that we are so far short of God’s original intention.

In the next installment in this series I plan to discuss the image of God in man in the New Testament. The New Testament authors show the image of God is perfectly reflected in Christ. Christ perfectly reflecting the image of God has both theological and behavioral consequences for us.

* Although the Marxists and the Nazis once called for the “party in mathematics”. This in itself should give us pause when we consider the politicians who are explicitly attempting to take the US in a more socialist direction.