Being God's Image
Why Creation still matters
The other day, at a Bible study group in the home of one of our church members, there was a discussion about humanity being the “image of God” and what it means. The general consensus was that we’re not totally clear what it means!
I’d be interested to hear in the comments what you think.
I came to Sydney to do my writing work at ADM offices and one of the Fellows here (one of my “fellow fellows”, as I like to say, haha) serendipitously showed me a new book by Carmen Joy Imes called Being God’s Image: Why creation still matters.1 She had seen it among the “new arrivals” in her library and thought I might be interested.
I had expected a fairly boring academic-type book that may have one or two paragraphs relevant to my book topic. What I found was an introduction that made me laugh out loud and was one of the clearest and most succinct explanations of Genesis 1 and 2 that I have seen. She quotes Miroslav Volf, CS Lewis, Carolyn Custis James, Douglas and Jonathan Moo and the Bible Project Videos. She’s speaking my language!
I was intrigued by the title; I hadn’t connected the idea of being God’s image to environmentalism before. But, of course, it is connected. Dave Bookless in his article in Evangelical Missions Quarterly,2 says that Genesis 1:26-28 and Genesis 2:15 contain the original Great Commission:
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” Genesis 1:26 (NIV)
Humans are made in God’s image so they can rule over the fish, birds and animals.
“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” Genesis 2:15 (NIV)
The original great commission was to bring order from disorder, to tame the wild-ness in the wilderness. Humans are made in God’s image so they can do exactly that. We often don’t think of this part of what it means to be God’s image, because we have done such a good job at taming the wilderness. Our houses, cars, medicines, buildings, shops, supply chains etc all help us tame the wilderness. Doing this is part of what it means to be God’s image.
For millennia, one of the primary concerns and dangers in most people’s lives has been the wilderness and wild animals. And it still is, in many parts of the world. When I lived in rural Asia, one of my friends inherited a plot of land on which he built a small house made from wood and bamboo. It wasn’t in a very desirable area, the land was cheap because it was close to the jungle. That might surprise some of us who love to live in isolated rural areas, a la “Escape to the Country”. The reason that bit of land was not desirable becomes clear after you hear this story:
One day, my husband and I went to visit his house. Just as we arrived, our host told us that a few days previously he had walked outside his front door, and there, less than 50m away from him, was a wild Bengal tiger! He showed us the spot where it was, naturally I quickly scanned nearby to see if there was one there now! I’ve seen tigers in zoos, where they are safely behind reinforced glass, and even then they make your heart race. But seeing one in the wild must be something else.
I asked him, “What did you do?”
He laughed and said, “I went back inside, of course!” There was nothing else to do but wait and trust it would move on.
Another time when my husband and I were staying in a village, we were woken by shouts: “It’s come back!” People with flashlights were running in one direction. Then we heard muffled explosion-type noises. We, of course, had no idea what had happened and what we should do! So we poked our heads outside and quickly asked someone about it, and they hurriedly said, “Hati! Hati!” Which means “Elephant! Elephant!” The elephants love eating their crops when they’re almost ready for harvest. They can cause lots of damage to crops and also to buildings. So when one is spotted, the people all run towards it with small makeshift bombs and anything that makes a loud noise to scare them away and back into the jungle.
Those of us that live in cities don’t have to contend with wild animals in the same way as many people do in places like that, or as many have in centuries past. I live near the forest in Australia, and I have had to contend with deadly animals, but that’s relatively easily done now - you relocate or kill the spiders, and call someone to deal with the snakes. We have spider spray available to deter them, and we have the medical knowledge to know what to do if bitten by a snake and antivenin to heal you. We have tamed the earth fairly thoroughly in many places.
No other animal can tame and bring order to the world in the same way that humanity can. We’re so good at bulldozing, building and landscaping now that we must consciously protect the remaining wild spaces.
Being in the image of God, and ruling over these creatures, doesn’t mean that we can indiscriminately dominate them; it means that we should act with wisdom, in the same way that God might rule over his beloved creation.
How do you understand the idea that humanity is God’s image? How does it impact how we think about caring for creation?
Imes, Carmen Joy. “Being God’s Image: Why creation still matters” InterVarsity Press: Downers Grove, IL. 2023.
Bookless, Dave. Evangelical Missions Quarterly. April–June 2023. Volume 59. Issue 2. Accessed on the Missio Nexus website on 23rd May 2023 https://missionexus.org/a-missional-theology-of-creation-care/#_edn2