Imago Dei With The Gospel CoalitionSample

 Imago Dei and Missio Dei 

A remarkable story in John 4 illustrates the connection among the imago Dei, the gospel, and missio Dei--or God’s mission. It happened when Jesus was passing through Samaria, a place where Jews weren’t welcome and where religious and ethnic tension abounded. Jesus, weary from His journey, stopped by a well outside a village to rest. His disciples went into the village to look for food, and while Jesus waited, a Samaritan woman came to the well to get water. 

It was a scandalous act because as a Jew, Jesus shouldn’t have been associating with a Samaritan. But Jesus looked past this ethnic difference, recognizing her inherent dignity and identity as an image bearer. When the woman balked at giving Jesus water, He told her about “living water” (v. 10) that would quench her thirst forever. 

Jesus then revealed that He knew this woman’s whole life story, including the shame that drove her to the well in the heat of the day, when she could be alone. The rest of the village would have drawn water in the cool of the morning. Jesus knew she had been married five times and was currently living with a man who wasn’t her husband. When Jesus talked about a future in which true worshipers would worship “in Spirit and in truth” (v. 24), the Samaritan woman asked about the Messiah. Jesus told her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he” (v. 26). 

Already we have a story about the imago Dei and the mission of God. Here God incarnate reached across a social boundary to reveal Himself to a lost, shame-filled soul. This profound act of love showed that God is a missional God, moving in loving-kindness toward the broken and the outcast. But it wasn’t the end of the story. 

In response to meeting Jesus, the Samaritan woman went back into town to tell the people about Him. Earlier this woman had been ashamed to draw water in the company of these townspeople, but her enthusiasm over meeting Jesus exceeded the power of her shame, and she became His witness among the village. 

This is the way the gospel moves throughout humanity. It moves across differences. It frees from shame and fear. And it sends image bearers into the world ready to tell others about what Jesus has done from sheer enthusiasm for the way He set them free. 

Jesus’ Great Commission is as much an invitation as it is a duty. Jesus called us to “make disciples of all nations” (v. 19). The gospel is for everybody, not just one group of people. The phrases “make disciples” and “teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you”(v. 20) indicate that the Commission doesn’t just share that Jesus saves; it teaches people how to enter the new way of life He inaugurated. This point is key to the connection between the imago Dei and the missio Dei. The gospel, as it goes out, should be transformative. People shouldn’t just know something new; they should become something new.