In Part 1, I made the argument that humans were made to be manifestations of God’s own divine presence, an idea I owe to Crispin Fletcher Louis (See “Excursus B” in his book, Jesus Monotheism). We were created to be the images (or “idols) of God, and in being so, the expectation is that when you see another human, you are supposed to see God. Humanity was designed to make God visible.
Now, depending on your church tradition, a statement like this might seem almost heretical. In many Protestant traditions, such emphasis is placed on the depravity of man and the absolute “otherness” of God that when the image of God language is taken to its logical conclusion as I’ve outlined above, it feels like something must be wrong with it. It’s an incredibly high view of humanity, and for many of us, it feels too high.
But is it? Does this view of humanity accurately represent God’s original intentions for us? We’ve already seen that God’s feelings about humankind are polar opposite of Jonathan Edwards’ view that God sees sinners as “loathsome insects,” but is it really possible that God’s goal for humanity is to make us so like Him that when other humans see Christians, they could accurately say that they have seen God?
To be clear, as I’ve said before, I am not making a claim that humans are God (or gods)—see Part 1. I am merely restating the claim of Scripture that humans are made in the image of God. Just as a photograph of me is a representative image of me, so humans are called to be the images of God. When someone sees a photograph of me, they could adequately state that they have seen me. But the photo is not me; it is merely an image representing me. However, the existential lines surrounding who I am have been blurred—so much so that someone could say without confusion that they have seen me (in a photograph) even if they have never encountered me in person.
If this connection between humans and their Creator seems too close for comfort, perhaps it is because all humankind has failed at this. This is why God became a human. Jesus “became flesh” to make the Father known (John 1:14-18). Jesus became the visible manifestation of the God who no one has seen, so much so that He could say, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9 ESV).
As a human, Jesus is the “image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15), the “exact imprint of [God’s] nature” (Heb 1:3). As we saw in Part 1, the closest parallel to the image of God in the Old Testament are the idols of foreign gods. The pagans believed that the idol not only represented the god visually but that the god itself came to fill the idol with its presence.
While we know that “an idol has no real existence” (1 Cor. 8:4), I can only imagine that this very concept of a god inhabiting an idol arose not out of superstition but out of a distortion of the true reality that God called into existence at Creation. His own breath animated Adam’s dirt form. And while Adam, Eve, and all the rest of us failed at the original calling, God’s plans for humanity did not change. He created us to rule as His images (“idols”), and through Jesus, He would restore humanity to what we were designed to be.
Currently, we are (all of us) distorted versions of God’s image, idols that are tarnished and misshapen, perhaps even resembling the wrong gods at times. In my best moments, when the love of God flows through me to another person, they can say that they have seen God in me. But I grant that it’s hard to imagine (and intimidating to accept) that my role is to be the visible representation of God in the world. And so Christians are likely to think that this is Who Jesus was (and is), but it can’t really be what I am supposed to be, can it?
If God’s original intention was for humanity to be the visible manifestations of Himself—to make the invisible God visible—and if, as I’ve asserted, God’s plans have not changed, then what? Certainly, this makes sense when it comes to Jesus, but what about you or me?
Let’s start with the Holy Spirit. Just as God animated Adam’s lifeless dirt form (image or “idol”) with the breath of life, and just as the pagans believed that the real presence of their god came to inhabit their idols, this is exactly what the Holy Spirit does to the believer. When a follower of Jesus walks around, the indwelling presence of God walks around with him. And if this is the case, then in a sense, it would be an accurate statement to point at a Jesus-follower, indwelled by the Holy Spirit, and say, “Look, I see God present among us.”
Now, the natural opposition is to say, “But I’m not God.” And again, you would be correct. But if the Holy Spirit is in you, then God is in you. As a human, you are created in the image of God, and as a follower of Jesus, you are being “conformed to the image of [Jesus]” (Rom. 8:29), Who is the “image of the invisible God.”
God’s purposes for humanity have not changed. Although we are tarnished and misshapen images, so much so that people like Jonathan Edwards could believe that God “abhors” humans, this is not the case. Although it might be believable that God is abhorred by our “old man” (Col. 3:9), He is making us into a “new man that is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created him” (Col. 3:10 LEB emphasis mine).
Just as photographs, drawings, sculptures, or even caricatures are representative images of the real thing at varying levels of realism or recognizability, so also humans are made to be representative images of God. How well we do this varies, but God’s purpose is to continue to conform us to the image of Jesus, Who is the “image of the invisible God.”
We were made to be the visible representation of the invisible God. And while we may have failed (at least, temporarily), Jesus, as a human, became the “originator and perfecter” (Heb. 12:2 LEB) of our faith, paving the way for all that follow Him afterward to finally become what we were originally created to be.
Does God “abhor” humans? Does He find them to be no better than some “loathsome insect,” as Jonathan Edwards claimed? No, quite the contrary. When a father looks at his son, he can see himself. When God looks at humans, He sees His children. All were prodigals, perhaps barely recognizable in the mud trying to eat with the pigs. Some returned to the Father, and as time goes on, those that have returned will continue to be transformed and conformed to be the visible representation and manifestation of the Father’s own invisible, divine presence.
Epic Gospel 