Series Intro

Every month in 2022, I will be writing a blog post about anthropology, humanity, and sexuality. This series of blog posts will be used to foster discussion and to drive the reader back to Holy Scripture to learn about God’s grand design for men and women. I pray that these blog posts will offer greater clarity about God’s design for men and women. And I also pray that learning about God’s design for men and women will result in worship. This blog post builds off another blog post entitled Anthropology 101. 

The Imago Dei

In a previous blog post on anthropology, I touched on what it means for man and woman to be made in God’s image, also known as the imago Dei. Tomes and dissertations have been written about the imago Dei. Unfortunately, space and time do not allow for an extensive treatment, but a few more words about this essential theological concept need to be stated. 

Creature and Creator

Reformed theologian Anthony A. Hoekema develops the distinction between the creature and the Creator. God created man as a person and also a creature. A reason for drawing out the distinction is to acknowledge that God is sovereign over his creation/creature while at the same time not absolving man from personal responsibility. He states, 

Keeping in mind the paradox that man is both a creature and a person will help us do full justice to both the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man.– Anthony A. Hoekema, Created in God’s Image (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1994), 10.

The distinction between Creator and creature helps us remember man is not God but made in the likeness and image of God (Genesis 1:26). Man made in the image of God comes with tremendous responsibility, but our responsibility is given by God and under the sovereign jurisdiction of God.

What is the imago Dei?

So what is a baseline definition of the image of God? Gerald Bray offers us a great place to start. 

The image of God is the special status that all human beings have as those made to reflect our Creator’s character and commissioned to carry out his purposes in the world. The “image and likeness of God” (Gen 1:26) describes the special status of the human race, male and female, as God’s representatives in the created order.– Gerald Bray, “The Image of God,” in Lexham Survey of Theology, ed. Mark Ward et al. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018).

The special responsibility of men and women includes making babies, subduing the earth, and having dominion over God’s created world. While other creatures reproduce, only men and women create other image-bears. There are other creatures that can subdue and have dominion, but God entrusts humanity to have ultimate power over the earth. In other words, the Creator has entrusted responsibilities to his image-bearing