According to Genesis 1:26-27 (as well as 5:1-2 & 9:2) mankind is unique in as far as we alone are made in the image of God. This is an extraordinary truth. The imago dei is the quintessence of our humanity. So what does it mean to be made in the image of God? Early church fathers understood the image of God to be in man's rational capacity - our mind, will and reason. A linguistic study into the semantic range of the words for "image" and "likeness" resulted in there being a correlation between our physical appearance and anatomical design as well as our rationality to the likeness of God.
Yet, our uniqueness does not end with our reflection of the image of the God as profound as that thought is. An event in human history amplifies and draws into sharp focus our ability to not just reflect, but actively express the divine nature: the birth of Jesus Christ.
The birth of Jesus is otherwise known theologically as the incarnation. Without the incarnation of the Son of God there could be no salvation. Scripture such as the book of Hebrews teaches why Jesus had to be both fully God and fully human for our salvation. But, it is not the redemptive aspect to the incarnation that I want to pause and meditate on here.
Rather, I want to think about one of the most important implications of the incarnation for our understanding of our humanity and our uniqueness in creation. In becoming a human being, Jesus - who was eternally coexistent with God the Father (John 1:1-3, 17:5, Col 1:15-17) - in one sense deified all humanity. Now, please don't misunderstand me. I am not saying that we as human beings are gods. Nor am I speaking of the Eastern Orthodox doctrine of Theosis in which people are believed to be able to achieve deification. However, in one very profound sense, Jesus by condescending to become human and partake in human nature did deify mankind in so far as the triune God personally identified Himself with mankind.
Jesus is described as the Word in John 1:1. The Word, or Logos in Greek, was with God and was God (John 1:1). The Word then became flesh i.e. human (John 1:14). Logos Christology dominated the theological formulation of doctrine in the first few centuries of the early church (as it should have). Indeed the incarnation of Christ remains a more prevalent theological focus in the Eastern Orthodox Church than it does in the Western Church.
Recently, I was part of an astronomy workshop, in which the staff member gave us an idea of the size of our solar system and position of it within the milky way. He then continued to show us the size of our milky way galaxy in comparison with the universe. One website I looked at said to imagine our sun as a coin placed on a desk. The nearest star to our sun would be 350 miles away. By this scale the milky way galaxy would be 7.5 million miles across. Though an exact estimate of how large our universe is is very difficult due to the fact that space is still expanding; the universe is estimated to be about 93 billion light years across! These numbers blow the mind. Imagining these sorts of distances is really incomprehensible to our human minds. Yet, the Bible says that God created the heavens and stretched them out (Isaiah 42:5). The Bible also says God determines the exact number of stars and knows them all by name (Psalm 147:5).
Rather than the unimaginable size of the universe being a stumbling block to belief in the incarnation, I think it actually supports it. For if God can create the universe ex-nihilo (out of nothing), and can create a universe 93 billion light years in diameter, then the universe is a testament to God's omnipotence. Indeed, the heavens declare the glory of God (Psalm 19:1). The more we learn about our universe, the more God's glory is magnified. The semantic range of the Hebrew words for "image" and "likeness" as discussed earlier may also provide further evidence of God's omnipotence as to His purpose for the incarnation, which was built into the very design of our physical anatomy.
Jesus, the Logos, became human. Jesus' incarnation makes God the Father's immanence among His creation personal (Col 1:15, 2:9). In becoming a human being, Jesus elevates mankind in ways we could never achieve without the incarnation. Jesus' hypostatic union (between his divinity and humanity) remains a beautiful mystery. Though I use the expression " beautiful mystery", the fact of the matter is that truth always precedes the language and vocabulary needed in order to explain it. As such the very theological language I am using in this blog took centuries of formulation and revision to adequately describe the truth of Christ's two natures found in Scripture.
While mankind will never develop a hypostatic union the same as Christ's, nevertheless Peter does speak of partaking in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). This partaking in the divine nature is only partial now, but will be become more fully realized when we receive our glorified, resurrected bodies. Nevertheless, the Christian is a new creation (2 Cor 5:17) and as such becomes a partaker in the divine nature of the Godhead. Indeed, the Christian is also the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19). Thus, not only does the Christian partake of the divine nature of the Godhead in the grace-activated transformation of the heart enabling us to practice holiness, not to mention being given eternal life; but also, we in fact become the very dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, housing the Spirit in our sanctified bodies.
This reality of the Christian experience further reduces the gap between God and man. We are image bearers of our Creator God by virtue of our humanity. And as Christians, we are transformed - or transfigured in a way - to bear the image of Christ (who Himself is the image of the invisible God, Col 1:15). It is this relationship with Christ and the subsequent Christlikeness that Jesus imbues to His followers that acts almost synecdochically for the deification of mankind. Christ in becoming human becomes the new Adam - the heavenly Adam (1 Cor 15:47-49) - and as such the new federal head of mankind. Just as we all are borne after the likeness of the first Adam in our sinful state, so too for the Christian he is borne after the likeness of the second Adam, the heavenly Adam (Christ). And so Christ Jesus comes, in a way, to represent all humanity in His own humanity, thus synecdochically deifying mankind.
This blog cannot plumb the depths of the implications and riches of the incarnation. Nor can this blog adequately survey the catechism of Logos Christology and the Hypostatic Union. I am not even trying to do so. No, this blog is designed to be more of a devotional meditation on our uniqueness among creation as being made in the imago dei and what Christ's incarnation means for us in that respect. I will leave it to you to contemplate what the incarnation means for us spiritually and societally, as well as for yourself personally. I hope this blog has inspired purifying, soul-quenching meditation in that regard.
Blessings.
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