Body & SoulSample

Understanding Imago Dei

It feels quite significant that the Creator of the universe would choose for us to be made in His likeness.

So, what is imago Dei? Why did God create us in His image?

GOD CREATED YOU IN HIS IMAGE . . .

1. For relationship: to connect with Him.

In the Old Testament, the temple was how the Lord dwelt with His people and how He would be close to them on the earth.

Then, in the New Testament, God sent His Son to take on flesh, to live as a human with a body.

And bringing it up close and personal, incredibly, He created each of us—made our bodies in His image—and upon our salvation/conversion, our bodies become a place where the Spirit of God resides, much like the temple in the Old Testament.

2. For representation: to bear His image to the world.

To be a representative of someone includes relaying that person’s convictions and character to others. A representative is one who is loved and trusted. To ask someone to represent you requires confidence in them and the deposits you’ve made in his or her life to carry out the work.

The Lord desires that we, as Christians who bear His image, will bear it well to a lost and dying world. In fact, He commands it.

3. For resemblance: to be personally transformed.

Oh, I love this aspect of being an image bearer so very much.

That I can change and be transformed is such a hopeful thought to me. That I don’t have to live in my body the same as I always have, mainly because I don’t have to be a slave to working on it like I once did. For someone who has been a prisoner to working hard on my body for so many years, it is literally freedom-producing. Instead, I can experience a true heart transformation as I’m conformed to be more and more like Christ.

In Colossians 3:1-17, Paul writes about being transformed to reflect the image of God. In these verses, he mentions different parts of our whole selves—some mind things, heart and soul things, and body things—all parts of what it means to be imago Dei.

We are called to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus (v. 17). We are called to be renewed in the image of our Creator (v. 10).

We are imago Dei; this is an incredibly big heritage we have received. Every last one of us. In whatever body we have, in whatever physical condition.

When will we see the vastness of being made in the image of God—the grace of it, the beauty of it, the love and kindness of it, the joy and intention of it—and live well within the fullness of it? For so many of us, our mindsets have been narrow in light of the heritage of imago Dei.

Our bodies are waiting for our minds and souls to catch up so we can be treated differently by ourselves. God has been waiting for us to see and hear what He has created us to be and do, not from a place of judgment but from love and desire for us to use our lives for His glory.

Are you getting the picture? We are inextricably bound to our Creator in a full and complete embodied way. We cannot separate ourselves from ourselves, and even as we may not image God in the way we live, think, and move, we cannot separate ourselves from our imago Dei. No matter what, we were made in the good and right and pure and true image of Him.

Read Colossians 3:1-17. Spend some time thanking God for creating all people in His image and for the special joy of becoming more like Jesus for those of us who have received His gracious gift of salvation.