Anna, I'm going back to reread your articles in order to absorb your thought better, so you may be seeing more comments on older articles.
This view of "image of God" proved a turning point in my practice of counseling. Some influences in my life gave me the sense that it was somehow my responsibility as a Christian to exude an air of disapproval around non-Christians. How awfully backwards! One day I was discussing our Christian counseling presuppositions with some colleagues and said, "Well, we must always start with our sin nature." My colleague said, "No! We must start with the image of God in each person." Of course I was familiar with the phrase and the idea, but now the implications pressed themselves on my heart. I was free to love and appreciate every individual who walked through my door! My first task is not to help them see how sinful they are, but to welcome them as God welcomes us poor sinners, as the father welcomes the prodigal son.
However, it also poses the issue you raised: “It seems odd that the image is the reason we are called to preserve our neighbor’s life in Genesis 9:6, if that very image consists in hostility to God.” Very briefly, my thoughts are tending in the direction that it is not “the thing” (image) that is damaged, but rather that the orientation of “the thing” is radically altered, from toward God to away from and hostile to God. I see this reflected in the many metaphors the Bible uses to describe the essence of humans, such as the heart. As you have said, “I have thoughts and desires that tell me both that “you created my inner being” and “sin indwells me.” And that we must not confuse anthropology with soteriology.
In addition, I just appreciate so much the beauty and vitality you bring to the study of women, and by necessary extension, to all humans and to God himself in all his glorious unity and diversity.
Yes, the orientation. IMO, we mirror God's unity and diversity as well as his personal distinctions (processions). My neighbor cannot help but be like God in this sense. He is the natural image of God, from, through, and to God (Gen. 1-2). Under the fall, we continue to image God as stamp and impression, but our desires are corrupt. We no longer desire or even acknowledge the one we were made to fit. Renewed by the Spirit, we are again compelled to draw near to him, recognizing that we are the impression of his stamp, made for him. As Augustine wrote, our souls our restless until we find our rest in him. By nature as image-bearers, we cannot help but be one of two things: restless or at rest in him. We cannot love our neighbor as ourselves if we see our neighbor first and foremost as the enemy or God and our enemy. We must begin where God begins in Genesis 1 with the image of God, which is the basis for the command not to murder, and by Jesus's extension, to rain down that love on the "righteous" and the "unrighteous," being "perfect . . . as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt 5:48). My neighbor mirrors to me the wonder of the triune God, and for that reason, I love him sincerely from the heart. We start with our neighbor's likeness to God, not his enmity against God. His enmity with God compels our witness, not our disgust.
Maybe there is something else as well. We are not only fitted to God, but to one another in our unity and diversity (in all our individual differences, male and female, from all tribes). We were made to fit with our neighbor. I think this is often missed as an impulse for loving and proclaiming. When I picture myself in Zion, I am shoulder to shoulder with my brothers and sisters from all tribes and tongues and nations. I am in an ocean of diversity. And it is fitting, because we fit. It seems to me that our neighbor's salvation translates to exponential never-ending joy for us. We are fitted to one another, and this was ordained by God as the reflection of the "fittedness" of three divine persons and means our never-ending joy in union and communion with one another.
I believe that marriage is a foretaste of the intimate unity we will enjoy with all of our brothers and sisters in Christ in the new heavens and new earth. We do not yet have the capacity to handle that, but marriage gives us the picture of it.
Thank you so much for all your kindness and encouragement. I pray that some of my thoughts might help us move forward in understanding Him, one another, and ourselves. Thanks again, Bill!!!
Anna, I'm going back to reread your articles in order to absorb your thought better, so you may be seeing more comments on older articles.
This view of "image of God" proved a turning point in my practice of counseling. Some influences in my life gave me the sense that it was somehow my responsibility as a Christian to exude an air of disapproval around non-Christians. How awfully backwards! One day I was discussing our Christian counseling presuppositions with some colleagues and said, "Well, we must always start with our sin nature." My colleague said, "No! We must start with the image of God in each person." Of course I was familiar with the phrase and the idea, but now the implications pressed themselves on my heart. I was free to love and appreciate every individual who walked through my door! My first task is not to help them see how sinful they are, but to welcome them as God welcomes us poor sinners, as the father welcomes the prodigal son.
However, it also poses the issue you raised: “It seems odd that the image is the reason we are called to preserve our neighbor’s life in Genesis 9:6, if that very image consists in hostility to God.” Very briefly, my thoughts are tending in the direction that it is not “the thing” (image) that is damaged, but rather that the orientation of “the thing” is radically altered, from toward God to away from and hostile to God. I see this reflected in the many metaphors the Bible uses to describe the essence of humans, such as the heart. As you have said, “I have thoughts and desires that tell me both that “you created my inner being” and “sin indwells me.” And that we must not confuse anthropology with soteriology.
In addition, I just appreciate so much the beauty and vitality you bring to the study of women, and by necessary extension, to all humans and to God himself in all his glorious unity and diversity.
Yes, the orientation. IMO, we mirror God's unity and diversity as well as his personal distinctions (processions). My neighbor cannot help but be like God in this sense. He is the natural image of God, from, through, and to God (Gen. 1-2). Under the fall, we continue to image God as stamp and impression, but our desires are corrupt. We no longer desire or even acknowledge the one we were made to fit. Renewed by the Spirit, we are again compelled to draw near to him, recognizing that we are the impression of his stamp, made for him. As Augustine wrote, our souls our restless until we find our rest in him. By nature as image-bearers, we cannot help but be one of two things: restless or at rest in him. We cannot love our neighbor as ourselves if we see our neighbor first and foremost as the enemy or God and our enemy. We must begin where God begins in Genesis 1 with the image of God, which is the basis for the command not to murder, and by Jesus's extension, to rain down that love on the "righteous" and the "unrighteous," being "perfect . . . as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt 5:48). My neighbor mirrors to me the wonder of the triune God, and for that reason, I love him sincerely from the heart. We start with our neighbor's likeness to God, not his enmity against God. His enmity with God compels our witness, not our disgust.
Maybe there is something else as well. We are not only fitted to God, but to one another in our unity and diversity (in all our individual differences, male and female, from all tribes). We were made to fit with our neighbor. I think this is often missed as an impulse for loving and proclaiming. When I picture myself in Zion, I am shoulder to shoulder with my brothers and sisters from all tribes and tongues and nations. I am in an ocean of diversity. And it is fitting, because we fit. It seems to me that our neighbor's salvation translates to exponential never-ending joy for us. We are fitted to one another, and this was ordained by God as the reflection of the "fittedness" of three divine persons and means our never-ending joy in union and communion with one another.
I believe that marriage is a foretaste of the intimate unity we will enjoy with all of our brothers and sisters in Christ in the new heavens and new earth. We do not yet have the capacity to handle that, but marriage gives us the picture of it.
This is beautiful, Anna.
Thank you so much for all your kindness and encouragement. I pray that some of my thoughts might help us move forward in understanding Him, one another, and ourselves. Thanks again, Bill!!!