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Genesis 9:6
“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.”
Adam’s sin in Eden, we have seen, brought all people, except for Christ, into a condition of original sin from conception. Only God’s saving grace can change this. Some important questions remain: Do human beings retain the image of God after the fall? Do human beings retain the image of God before His saving grace renews us?
Various theological traditions have answered this question in different ways. The Roman Catholic answer involves making a distinction between the image and the likeness of God, teaching that we lost the likeness of God, which includes the supernatural virtue of love, but retain the image. This distinction and its conclusion cannot be maintained, however, because the words “image” and “likeness” in Genesis 1:26–27 are synonyms. No such distinction can be made between them.
Reformed theology offers a different answer. Dr. R.C. Sproul explains that we must “distinguish between the material image, the image of God in the wider sense, and the formal image, the image of God in the narrower sense.” The image of God in the wider sense concerns whether human beings are still human beings after the fall. After sin and before regeneration by divine saving grace, we retain the image of God in the wider sense. We are still human beings. We still think, make choices, create art and literature, and so on. While every part of us is tainted by sin, meaning that we sin and err in whatever we think, say, do, and feel, even the most depraved sinner is still a human being. Genesis 9:6 says that we are still made in God’s image after the fall.
The image of God in the narrow sense refers to our capacity to obey the Lord and reflect His character to the cosmos. When Adam fell, the image of God in the narrow sense was shattered. Human beings are now unable to obey the Lord and to reveal with utmost clarity who He is to all creation until He sovereignly intervenes to give us new hearts. Even after we have been renewed, our ability to obey God and even show forth His character remains partial until we are glorified. Believers can obey God sincerely but not perfectly. We can reflect God’s character truly but incompletely. Thus, we are daily to seek to be conformed to the image of Christ so that we will more and more clearly point creation to God.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
We remain human even after the fall, but since we have lost the image of God in the narrow sense, our humanity is not all that God intended it to be. We become more fully human as God gives us new hearts and daily renews us by His grace. This should make us not haughty but humble. May we tell others also that they can become all that God made them to be only through faith in Jesus Christ.
For further study
- 2 Corinthians 4:16
- James 3:9
The bible in a year
- Job 10–12
- Acts 8:1–25
- Job 13–17
- Acts 8:26–9:31