RE: [asa] Edinburgh mtg--Alexander

On Mon, 3 Sep 2007, Jon Tandy wrote:

> It seems to me there is relatively little scripture dealing with the "image
> of God" in the Bible, and what there is seems to be conflicted between
> different scriptures. More difficulty comes from later church traditions
> conflating their own presumptions and interpretations with the sparse
> Biblical data. In the OT, the only scriptures (using that particular
> phrase) are found in Gen 1:26-27 and Gen 9:6.
>
> In the NT, I don't find any clear reference to the fact that we are created
> in the image of God, but rather that we are seeking to become conformed to
> the image of God, which is represented by Christ (Rom 8:29; 1Cor 15:49; 2Cor
> 3:18; 4:4; Col 1:15; 3:10; Heb 1:3). So I would ask, are all men created in
> the image of God at or before birth? If so, why does the NT clearly teach
> that we can only receive the image of God by being renewed according to the
> "new man" (Col 3:10)? Or are these scriptures talking about two different
> images of God (i.e. different contexts)?

Genesis 1 speaks of both the image and likeness of God. So if we expand
our New Testament search to include the latter, we find James 3:9, where
it seems to indicate that all humans have been made in the likeness of
God.

The context of the Genesis 1 passage suggests that being in the image and
likeness of God is a job qualification for stewardship of creation.

Gordon Brown (ASA member)

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Received on Tue Sep 4 11:44:34 2007