The Divine Image: Exploring Humanity's Role and Duality

This week, I was thinking about the idea that we (Humans) are made in the image of God. Amid a week of traveling to do some training for work as we prepare to deploy some new technologies into our field operations group. There is a persistent question in my mind of how we are made in the image of God. When I was younger, I always imagined it more in the physical realm that we, as a creature, had a physical form similar to that of God with two hands and feet, with eyes and a nose, but the older I’ve gotten, the deeper this idea has become for me. We are a creature uniquely made and capable of rational thought. We are creatures capable of defying our natural inclinations and recognizing when those natural inclinations should be obeyed and when they are immoral. A lion does not feel guilt when it kills the fawn, and it does not mourn when the innocent perish. We as human beings have been given to ability to reign over the earth and subdue it. We have, through creative enterprise, built empires and technologies that harness parts of creation that no other being can. We captured lightning and through logic, reason, and mathematics, we gave the rocks of the earth an imitation of life. We were called to subdue the earth and have dominion over all creation. We were called to be good stewards of creation, a call we still often fall short of. Thinking through this, the idea that I have most often found myself caught on is that man and woman were both created in the image of God. We were both created with a certain set of characteristics that reflect our creator. We were made to be different from one another to have certain strengths. When brought together in unity, we have the opportunity to become the closest earthly reflection of the image of God. Today’s culture chooses to try and ignore our differences and often will go so far as to say that there are no differences between us. I want to spend time highlighting some of these differences and seeing the beauty in these differences while also seeing how we often pervert these differences and take the virtues of each and make them vices.

Often, when I speak on this subject, I will repeatedly use the words “in general” as there are many things in this world that can be defined in this way. As an example, in general, men have a stronger sense of justice, while in general, women often have a much stronger sense of mercy. Another example is that most men have a very strong sense of duty to protect, while women have a very strong sense of nurturing. We each have these complementary characteristics. Each of these proclivities is a blessing of God, and each is a part of what makes us “made in the image of God.” We are each naturally inclined to have a bent toward these things. Our world today might say that I should not stereotype as we are all different, and it’s not fair to put anyone in a box. Yet what we see is no matter how hard we try to rebel against these “stereotypes,” they persist as they are gifts endowed upon us by our Creator. He made the sexes different in these beautiful ways, and these differences are often what lour us together. The mystery of the creature that is like us yet different than us. We crave to understand and know a part of the image of God we often do not have. The phrase “opposites attract” holds true. We are biologically and psychologically attracted to the things that we do not possess. We are attracted to that which is different than us.

This is such a beautiful picture in my mind; we are creatures made to know God. So often, we find that part of the image of God that we do not understand is found in other people, and these differences are most pronounced in the differences between men and women. This, again, is such an incredible blessing. As someone who finds himself very much bent toward justice, I often find it harder to be merciful. So often, what happens is when I make a mistake or say something stupid, which I often do. I can often easily understand the consequences of those actions because the natural and right/correct result of bad actions is called justice. On the flip side, when I do or say something stupid, and rather than suffering the consequences of my actions, someone instead chooses to forgive and forget and be merciful, I find it much harder to understand. This is the beauty of God’s creation and the beauty of us being made in His image, we often get to see in others the character of God. And often, the thing that is alluring about someone romantic or platonic is that they tend to manifest the image of God in a way that we struggle to do. A dear friend of mine, her name is Danae. Danae has this incredible ability to make people feel welcomed, important, and valued. When I read the gospels and read how Jesus always loved people and always made outsiders feel valued and important, I can’t help but see this gift in my friend. She is made in the image of God, and so she has certain characteristics of her Creator that she naturally exudes as a result. We all have a variety of gifts, as we are each made differently in His image. As God is an infinity God so too there are an infinite variety of ways that His character can be revealed in each of us. Some of these characteristics are sexed and seem to naturally be stronger in the male, while others are naturally stronger in the female. While our culture would try and destroy and deny our differences, we, as Christians, should each praise God for these differences as they are part of His divine design. If He wanted us to be the same He would have made us so.

Virtue & Vice

Since the moment of the fall, we have seen these differences in male and female perverted. We have seen the capacity of mankind to take what is good and make it corrupt. In this section, I want to highlight some of these examples and observe how we take these natural virtues given to us by God and how, as a product of the fall, we make them vices. What we see is justice is perverted when it becomes revenge. God says, “Revenge is mine.” For God alone can enact perfect justice. We are called to enact justice in the world, not to take revenge. As best as I can imagine it, it is because we, as fallen human beings, can not manage perfect justice, for God alone knows every detail of the human heart. So He alone knows when and where mercy is appropriate, when justice is, and in what measure. Some might think then that the obvious solution is always to grant mercy in all things. Here, too, we can pervert mercy to become permissive of all things. We take mercy to the extreme and believe we should no longer enact justice upon anyone. We fail to enact justice upon anyone, saying we should “not judge anyone.” This is an extreme view, for we are called to judge. To judge is to enact justice; we are, however, called not to judge hypocritically. But if we do not judge at all, then we erode all standards as we excuse all things. This is how the pedophile comes to be seen as a victim rather than the villain. We say that he is mentally ill (which they are), and so rather than prosecute them and judge them instead, our culture would say that we should love them and be merciful. Some might think this hyperbole is not. We have organizations that exist today, such as NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association). At the same time, other groups choose to use terms such as MAPS (Minor Attracted Persons) to seek to use terms that do not stigmatize these people. In other words, they do not want to be judged. They want permissive mercy. We are called to be protectors, to be defenders, and to maintain order and law. We are called to protect the innocent and speak on behalf of those who can not defend themselves.

Here, too, the protective instinct can become perverted. The protector can become an oppressor. The one called to protect instead becomes a tyrant, taking control and denying freedom; he claims to do so for “the good of the people.” Oftentimes, when you hear stories of domestic abuse often times the abuser will claim his actions as justified as he was seeking to “protect” them, often making claims of protecting them from themselves. This is a perversion of the protective instinct.

The final example I’ll give of perverted virtue is that of perverted nurture. In my view, this is one of the most common in today’s American culture. My observation of this is not new; I am only putting it in my own words. Often in literature, it is called “The devouring mother.” It’s the mother who does not allow the child ever to suffer or hurt. She protects and keeps at bay all dangers. Nurture is a good thing, but it can become infantilized if overly nurtured. In my view, this is the problem of much of today's. Much of today’s activism stems from a perverted nurture. This perverted nurture denies others autonomy and claims them to be a victim. We, as a human creature, are much more interested in claiming to be a victim than in taking account of our actions. We are predisposed to it, so when someone with a desire to nurture, while often well-intended, we can often inadvertently deny them the solution through the nurture we give. We are a creature that even when we try to do good, we often harm. Even our good deeds are dirty rags stained with selfish intent. Sometimes, those selfish intentions are buried under a litany of supposed virtuous deeds. I am reminded of the story of “the widow mite” found in Luke 21. Jesus sees the rich giving extravagant gifts, boasting loudly of their good deeds, ensuring others see how virtuous they are. Yet the gift of the widow is proclaimed as far greater a gift unto God. It is not the amount given that makes it a virtue. But instead, it is the heart with which it is done that separates virtue from vice.

Our social media-fueled culture insists on documenting and recording how virtuous they are. They take pictures and record videos declaring their extravagant good deeds. They beg for attention, signaling to all their virtues, when often it is nothing more than a form of self-worship. The heart is deceitful above all else, and if not properly submitted, all that flows from it will be vices disguised as virtues. Often managing to deceive even ourselves. With the fall, we are natural sons and daughters of the devil. We, just like him, are naturally inclined to worship ourselves. We, just like him, seek to make much of ourselves and little of God. We, just like the devil, often claim ourselves to be God.