The Imago Dei Part I

"So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27). 

Human beings are ikons or image bearers of God, there is something about humanity that bears the likeness of God. For centuries theologians have struggled with what exactly this could mean, I don't intend to fully explore the full meaning of this idea, but I think I've stumbled upon a small insight in this regard.

A verse that caught my attention was Matthew 18:20, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." I've always understood this verse to mean that whenever a few Christians gather together, Christ is present. But clearly Christ is always present, he is present in his Creation, in the Eucharist, in worship, in service, in everything. This can't be all that this verse means.

Often I have observed my friends and mentors and been encouraged or challenged in my faith. I see other people living holy lives and say to myself, hey I should do that. I then set my sights on the specific behavior of that person and try to emulate it. As you can imagine, this is often a disastrous exercise. 

Now, back to this idea of Imago Dei, as I was meditating on these things, I realized that part of being made in the image of God, is our ability to reflect godlike attributes. Metaphorically, people are windows through which we can catch a glimpse of God. I realized that to successfully engage in a holy, god-fearing lifestyle I must focus my sights on that which the window shows a glimpse of, not the window itself. In other words, I must look to God, the one who's Spirit transforms lives to reflect his glory, in order for my life to be transformed. To fixate myself on the actions of friends and colleagues in order to transform my life will always fail.

So to try and pull all of these strands together, I think that being image bearers of God has given us the ability to see him in the lives of our friends. We must be careful to not think that everyone is reflecting God perfectly, but when we are confronted with a behavior that is clearly affirmed in Scripture, we have seen an image of Christ. Therefore when Jesus proclaimed that when we gather together he is present, he was speaking in a quite physical, literal sense. When believers gather together we bring together a bunch of image bearers that ultimately present a picture of Christ.