What does it mean to be made in God’s image?
I’ve heard a variety of answers to this question, the most common being that humans have the gifts of emotion, intellect and will.
This answer has never been satisfying to me. I’m pretty sure my daughter’s cat functions with all three of those characteristics.
Biblically speaking, there seems to be a much richer answer.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Gen. 1:26).
The key word here is the Hebrew word, rudah (“dominion”). It appears again in Gen. 1:28 to highlight the fact that humans were created to rule over God’s created world.
Humans were created to rule God’s world on His behalf. That’s what it means to be made in God’s image.
We are the kings and queens of the world, divinely called by God to rule on His behalf so that His created world will function and flourish as He designed it to.
God handed over His good creation to His image bearers and gave them the responsibility and authority and blessing to rule it. This is humanity’s divine and sacred task, which glorifies God as loving creator.
So the “image of God” is more of a divine calling, a responsibility and a blessing than a certain characteristic within us.
But what exactly does it mean to rule over the world God has made?
Simply put, ruling the world means serving others with our everyday acts of work in order to make the world flourish.
Humans have a variety of personalities and abilities. For example, the image bearers who live in my neighborhood consist of a nurse, two builders, a retired dentist, a truck driver, teachers, farmers, engineers and a restaurant owner.
But there’s a problem.
The image of God in humans was broken when we rebelled against God and His loving directives to rule the world and enjoy its flourishing benefits (Genesis 3:1-7).
And so now, like a cracked mirror, the image of God still exists within us, but it is terribly shattered and sometimes hardly recognizable at all.
Instead of a love for God and others, we now operate out of selfishness, envy, greed, violence and hatred toward fellow image bearers.
We rule the world for our own benefit rather than for the benefit of others and for the pleasure and glory of God.
The apostle Paul calls this falling short of the glory of God (Rom. 3).
So what’s the solution to the fractured image of God in us?
God graciously binds Himself to humanity through His Son, Jesus of Nazareth (Jn. 1:1-18).
And Jesus ruled by serving others and by giving of Himself for the benefit of others. He even loved His enemies for their benefit.
Jesus not only showed us what it looks like to be human, He also confronted all the consequences of all the evil and sin that we have created by our rebellion. He takes it all upon Himself and lets it kill Him (Mark 10:45).
His death solves the problem of sin by providing atonement and forgiveness (Heb. 7:27).
And His resurrection provides the power to fully restore the image of God in humans (2 Cor. 5:17). Because of His resurrection there is a whole new future opening up for all humanity.
Jesus is the only way to be truly human. His power and life are available for all of us through the life-giving Spirit He sends to us (Gal. 5). This is the new humanity God wants to create in us.
As we die and rise with Jesus through faith, we are becoming transformed into new humans, learning to rule with Jesus as true image bearers of God, a promise given long ago by the prophets (Dan. 7:27).
And that’s how the story will end, with God on His throne and His image bearers surrounding Him and ruling on His behalf (Rev. 22:1-5).