So on Sunday Scott talked about the image of God, which started the gears turning. I haven't given it a really good think before this week, but I always assumed that it referred to something completely unique to humans (namely morality). This is actually Take 2 for this blog. In the first one, I tried to state all or most plausible possibilities for what the image of God means, and eliminate all that I could. The one left standing would be the winner. This is typically a great way to go after something if the answer isn't an obvious one. Well, I was discrediting these various ideas based on the notion that we [humans] and only we [not animals] are created in God' image (i.e. my previous assumption as stated above). The problem came when I eliminated all my possibilities. Yikes. The really scary thing came when I eliminated morality (for a highly recommended reading, check out http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13860-six-uniquely-human-traits-now-found-in-animals.html?full=true
POSSIBLE SOLUTION:
Here's what I came up with after a good long think. First I want you to imagine a particular situation.
Think of a particularly noble, loving, honorable, hard working, respected man. This man becomes father to a son. At first, this baby looks very little like the man, physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, etc. The boy becomes a toddler, and starts to look more like a man, but obviously far from the what he will become. He also becomes vaguely familiar with right and wrong, although it's more of a "I want to avoid punishment" than a mature understanding of morality. The boy grows into his teens and has a much better idea of morality, but still has a long way to mature. Finally the boy becomes a man himself. He has reached a Point of Accountability in his life, where he can choose for himself whether to live as his father did, or to be a man who cannot hold a job, maintains addictions, remains immature, etc. Suppose this boy/man chooses to live as his father does. He now looks like his father, acts like his father, and while he is not his father, he is very much the image of his father. If he chooses the lesser path, his behavior doesn't resemble his father's, and alcohol, drugs, self-abuse, and failure to take care of himself all contribute to make his physical appearance look less like his father. No one would come up to this person and say, "you're the spitting image of your father."
Less developed life that we came from is like the boy during his childhood. As life become more advanced (from our perspective), these traits from God becomes more and more apparent. When man finally came on the scene, we have reached that Point of Accountability. While we were all created in the image of God, each man now has the responsibility to maintain that image or choose our own lesser path. It's easy to find extreme examples to illustrate this. Look at Hitler, and you do not see the image of God like you would if you looked at Mother Teresa. Each chose to maintain the image of God or to go their own route. Looking at Christ shows us what would happen if we did nothing to taint the image of God in which we were created. Unfortunately, all of us have chosen to live differently than that which we were intended, some more than others. However, when we chose to give ourselves to and follow Christ, we ". . .are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18)." We are looking more and more like God, as Christ changes us and works on us and chisels us into what we were created to be- the image of God.
CONCLUSION:
While morality is not uniquely human, we have such an extended knowledge of morality (
