MBN Commentary - JR Kerr
WCRF Air Date: 6-22-11
Title:
Imago Dei (Image of God)
Bio:
Pastor JR Kerr is the Teaching Pastor at Park Community Church and the
Director at large for Thought Leadership in Pittsburgh.
More Info:
JR Kerr – [email protected] and
www.parkcommunitychurch.org
Transcript:
Imago Dei explored…
There are a host of opinions and perspectives on the imago dei, and we will survey these briefly
in order to gain some sense of the implications of this terribly significant idea. The important
thing is to remember that the imago dei links us to God’s intent for our pursuits as human beings.
The late Stanley Grenz offers us this most helpful statement on the image of God.
“Although it may be multifaceted in its connotations, at the heart of the divine image (or
the synonymous term, “the divine likeness”) is a reference to our human destiny as
designed by God. We are the image of God insofar as we have received, are now
fulfilling, and one day will fully actualize a divine design. And this design-God’s intent
for us- is that we mirror for the sake of creation the nature of the Creator.”
John Calvin comments that “knowledge of ourselves not only arouses us to seek God, but also,
as it were leads us by the hand to find him.” The reason we should seek to understand the image
of God in us then is because it will bring us, if we pursue it properly, to a closer and more
intimate understanding of God and his intent for our humanity.
The imago dei is most simply understood as the “Image of God.” There have been countless
reflections on exactly what this means, but perhaps to achieve the most basic starting place we
can agree that we as human beings, in some way reflect the person of God, in a way that is
distinct amongst all creation. Some have said this is done relationally, while others had said it is
primarily through our creative capacities. I will not pretend that somehow we will come to some
great conclusion on exactly what the imago dei accomplishes in us. That is impossible. But, we
can agree on whether or not it is important and if it informs our pursuits and endeavors as human
beings.
The seminal text regarding this image is founding Genesis 1:26-28.
26
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.”
27
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
28
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth
and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and
over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
There are two words that define image in this text, selem and demut. Selem is translated in the
Hebrew as image. Demut is translated as likeness. The tension between these two words
illustrates well the tension as we work to understand the implications for our human experience.
It seems from all this that there is something in our makeup that refers to another world or
another entity. We are not complete in and of ourselves. We are like shadows that point to the
image the light originally reflects. We are an entity but not an original one. If we are to
understand our capacity to influence we must understand this one simple point…we point to
something other…the question is what or whom do we point to?