11 aspects of being made in the image of God

Here are 11 things the early chapters of the Bible say about being made in the image of God. they all depend on God being prior, above and qualitatively different. THE primary distinction is that he is Creator and this is his creation in which we are his creatures. we are by God, for God and in the image of God. This fundamental separation is the ground of all Christian understanding of identity, meaning and morality

• Twofold variety, a community of love. In his image God created a BINITY, reflecting the Trinity, unlike the teeming animals

• Speaking. God speaks, calls, self-discloses. So do they

• Rule as vice-regents under God

• Creativity / separating / taxonomy. God makes things by kinds and calls them and separates them. He invites Adam to name things, thus doing the kind of things God does, as a child with their parent

• Walking with God

• Dependency on God rather than autonomy from him. Being God-centred

• Work. God works, he gives us work

• Innocence

• Honour

• Beauty

• Poetry / speaking exultant words

There are plenty of things that being made in the image of God is not. Theologians like to talk about God’s “incommunicable attributes” - things he does not give to others. We are called to be like him in his holiness but not in his omniscience, for example. Four things that are clear at the start of Genesis that being made in him image does not mean:

• Moral equivalence to God or being moral agents independent of him

• The right to be arbiters of good and evil

• The right to be God. The great twisting of Satan was to take being made in the image of God and use it to tempt to want to grasp godhood

• That we are just like the other creatures

Less Jesus Christ and more that Jesus is the Christ - whom Moses wrote about

When reading the New Testament its easy to assume that the story starts in Matthew 1 (half way through once you've skipped the genealogy). It's easy to think that salvation begins 2000 years ago rather than being planned before 'in the beginning'.

We need the Jesus who is the second Adam, the seed of Eve. The one in whom we take refuge like Noah in the Ark. Abraham's seed. The one and only son who was not just figuratively but actually resurrected. The one who will have a people for himself not in Egypt or in Canaan but in his rest. The one who will take his people back up the mountain, past the angels into the eternal garden. The one in whom the whole earth will be filled with disciples who will rule with him. The Jesus of Genesis.

We need the Jesus in whom the promises of God to Abraham are remembered. He who is God revealed to his people. The passover lamb. The one who spares us from the dark knight of God's wrath. The one who is the true mountain to which we come. The one to whom the pictures of the tabernacle point. The true priest and the true sacrifice. The one in whom God is gracious to whom he is gracious. The Jesus of Exodus. We need the Jesus whose death is the aroma pleasing to God. The one who is the sacrifice of the ultimate day of atonement. The priest who takes his people into the presence of God. The one who on the day of Jubilee will come out of the presence of God to sound the trumpet. The Jesus of Leviticus.

We need the Jesus who is God speaking to us. The one who takes us on into the promised land warning us not to harden our hearts. The Jesus of Numbers.

We need the Jesus who is the promised king for God's people. The one who brings us out of curse and into blessing. The one in whom we choose life. The Jesus of Deuteronomy. (And yes as you can tell I'm more familiar with Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus than I am with Numbers and Deuteronomy). We need the Jesus Moses wrote about in the Pentateuch.

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Dave Bish, still guestblogging for Marcus. More whole bible thinking at BeginningWithMoses.org. And Grand Theft Narrative, by David Capener.

What's the meaning: The Word of God with Authority

This isn't strictly just about the Old Testament, but I think the OT comes off worse in the Sunday School kind of Bible Teaching... John Walton on Hermeneutics and Childrens Curriculum, ht: Milton Stanley.

Walton observes five disturbing traits:

1. Promotion of the Trivial
2. Illegitimate extrapolation
3. Reading Between the Lines
4. Missing important nuance
5. Focus on people rather than God

And concludes: If we are negligent of sound hermeneutics when we teach Bible to children, should it be any wonder that when they get into youth groups, Bible studies and become adults in the church, that they do not know how to derive the authoritative teaching from the text?Teaching the Old Testament seems to be tricky but surely the key is to let the text contrain us. We're only at liberty to teach what it says, in it's context, within the boundaries and rules that it sets out for us. Then, and only then, will we hear God speak with authority. An authority that will be unavoidable, piercing to the heart and leading to genuine transformation to Christlikeness, or to hardening of our hearts as we're confronted by God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who has all authority.

Proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ

The preaching of the Old Testament is not a dirge that must end with a happy chord. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the melody of the scriptures from beginning to end. Apostolic preaching will always demonstrate this.

Acts 9v22 - Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ.

Acts 17v2-4 - As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. "This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ"

Acts 18v28 - For he vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.

This was Paul's evangelistic approach. Paul with his Old Testament proving, reasoning, refuting, explaining and proving that their true meaning is the gospel of Jesus.

It could be argued that this is his approach among Jews - which it was. And granted at Athens he seems to argue more from creation and culture. But when we consider his approach to the Gentiles of Galatia he says he 'portrayed Christ crucified'. He promptly goes on to spend several verses reminding them about Abraham and the law. It seems he'd quickly shown them that the gospel preached to Abraham 'all peoples will be blessed through you' was the meaning of Christ crucified.

If we only operate with a 27 book Bible we rob ourselves of the roots and foundations on which the gospel stands. Our gospel will be flimsy and appear 'new' when it is rooted in everything God has ever said, the God who reveals all this plans. Amos 3v7: For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets. That's spoken into a context where God's people were silencing their prophets, and so robbing themselves of the life-giving knowledge of God. We do the same to ourselves if we silence the law and the prophets by not permitting them to sing their true melody, about the Christ.

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Posted by Dave Bish. More thoughts on how to read the Old Testament as about Jesus can be found at The Biblical Theology Briefings.

The Old Testament is about Jesus.

That's what Jesus said to the Pharisees. They were missing it. Not because they were stupid but because they didn't believe in Jesus. And if they did they'd see that Moses writes about Jesus. It's a bit of a circular thing but what isn't. The key to understanding the Old Testament is not intellect but faith in Jesus. Through faith in him the eyes of our hearts are opened to see him clearly in all 66 books of the Bible. The question really is how did Moses write about Jesus. He didn't write the name 'Jesus' anywhere in his five books. Is it a magic trick, like those sermons we think of where someone talks about a passage for 30mins and then tacks Jesus on the end - or like the story that describes a squirrel in sunday school but the kids conclude it must be a description of Jesus because it's sunday school. Such stories are fairly apocryphal though clearly have some basis in reality. Seems to me that the way the Old Testament is about Jesus is a multifaceted thing.

• The OT is about Jesus because it's about God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
• The OT is about Jesus in that Israel is a shadow of Jesus. The OT is about Jesus in that Jesus is Abraham's seed - and so the life of Isaac points to Jesus (Galatians 3)
• The OT is about Jesus in that he is the wisdom of God that all wisdom points to (Colossians 1)
• The OT is about Jesus in that the law has shadows and models that are shadows and models of Jesus (Hebrews 8-10)
• The OT is about Jesus in that what happens to Israel is a warning to take Jesus seriously (Hebrews 1-2)

The reference points for this come from the New Testament which is fine - both volumes have the same divine authorship. In all these ways and many other ways. The answer is never predicatable or lifeless. It's not that we have to teach or read a passage and then tack Jesus on the end, each one has something to reveal of him from beginning to end. So much so that a Christian reading of the OT will be disagreeable to a (non-Messianic) Jew or a Muslim. Prayerfully as we read it, ask how does this testify about Jesus? How does this feed my heart to believe in him more?