Made in The Image of God And Yet Corrupted

My dear friend Rick writes to me again with his reflections about the Image of God. This time he tells us that "the image of God is lost". That seems strange. Does that not seem then that we are nothing more than animals, as the proponents of evolution by chance proclaim? Here you begin to sense that there are tensions among theologians about what the Scriptures teach about the Image of God and what there is about us that makes us unique and like God, even in our fallen state.

I agree with Rick, but we need to do some further sorting. Here's Rick's comment:

"Man is the highest of God's creatures, ordained by God with the original creation of man to bear the image of God.  However, by sin  humankind  has lost the moral and righteous inclination of the heart and has an inborn tendency toward sin: "Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander" (Mt. 15:19).  Consequently man does not exercise his authority over nature and creatures to "tend and care for them."  Rather humankind is inclined to use and abuse God's good creation for selfish ends. The image of God is "broken".  Man does not reflect the holiness and righteousness of God.  In fact, "the image of God is lost" with the loss of  holy love, reverence and trust in God. Because of the Fall all human beings  are inclined to selfishness, evil desires, lack of fear, love and trust in God, and an indifference to the things of God.  Christians reborn by the Spirit of God have taken off their "old self with its practices and have put on the new self which is being renewed in the knowledge in the image of its Creator" (Col 3:10).  Once again the Christian reflects the image of God although imperfectly."

 In my previous Blog I quoted the following passages to suggest that mankind retains something of God's image, even though we also bear the sinful image of Adam:

This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth (Genesis 5:1-3). 

"Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image" (Gen 9:6).

To these we may add:

"You have given him (man) dominion over the works of your hands . . . "(Psalm 8:1-9). 

 In that sense, David speaks of mankind as still having the authority of Genesis 1:26 to rule over God's creation:

"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."

Add also the rather difficult passage from 1 Corinthians 11:1-12 where we read,

"For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man."

I will not get involved at this time in the interpretation of Paul's meaning here. I quote the passage only to point out that he speaks generically of a man being the "image and glory of God."

James also writes about the restless evil of the human tongue as he says,

"With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God" (James 3:9). 

So we are forced to conclude that we have both lost the image of God and yet are made in the likeness of God. How can it be both? To answer that I turn to the Lutheran Confessions in their discussion of original sin for assistance.

"Original sin is a complete absence or "lack of the original righteousness acquired in Paradise" [Apology II,15] or of the image of God, according to which the human being was originally created in truth, holiness, and righteousness. At the same time it is the absence of any ability or competence in anything that relates to God, or, as the Latin text says, 'The description of original sin deprives the un-renewed human nature of the gifts, powers, and all capacity to initiate and effect anything in spiritual matters." —Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration I,10. 

"God's Word teaches that corrupted human nature in and of itself cannot accomplish any good thing in spiritual, divine matters, not even the slightest thing (such as producing a good thought). Not only that, in and of itself it can do nothing else but sin in God's sight" —Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration I,25.

"The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen 6:5).

"And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done" (Genesis  8:21).

"Because of this corruption the law accuses and condemns the entire corrupted human nature, unless sin is forgiven for the sake of Christ. The law does not bring charges against our nature and condemn it because we have been created by God but rather because we are sinful and evil, just as it does not condemn us because and insofar as our nature and essence remain a work, creature and product of God even after the fall, but rather because and insofar as they are contaminated and corrupted by sin. . . . 

"The corrupted nature or essence of the corrupted human being—the body and soul, or the human being itself as God created it . . . —and original sin, which has taken up residence in this nature or essence and corrupted it, are not one and the same thing. As with physical leprosy, the body that is leprous and the leprosy on or in the body are not one and the same thing. To describe the matter accurately: the distinction must be maintained between our nature, as it was created and preserved by God and in which sin resides, and original sin, which resides in our nature. According to Holy Scripture, both propositions must and can be considered, taught, and believed as distinct from each other." FC:SD I:32,33

The Confessions go on in great detail to distinguish between our human nature, our essence that God creates and the original sin that is the work of the devil:

"Therefore, in order to distinguish God's creation and work in the human being from the devil's work, we say that it is God's creation that the human being has a body and soul and can think, speak, act, and accomplish anything, for "in him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). That this nature is corrupted and that our thoughts, words, and deeds are evil is in its origin a handiwork of Satan. Through sin Satan corrupted God's work in Adam, which was then bequeathed to us." FC:SD I,42. 

All italics above are inserted by me. So I come to the second bottom line: 

We humans think and reason. We unravel the mysteries of genetics and quantum mechanics. We invent and use human language and with them create sonnets, novels, studies of history, medicine and Shakespearian dramas. We create and play music with its multitudinous forms. We develop great works of art and architecture. We build machines that traverse the earth, go to the depths of the oceans and fly to the moon. In all this we reflect the image of God in which our nature and essence is created. 

And yet we are corrupted by sin at the core of our being. Sin resides in us, in our nature, our essence so that in any matter related to God, in spiritual matters we cannot and do not think, speak or act in any way that is good in God's eyes. All of our speaking, creating, learning and acting has been and continues to be corrupted by the sin that resides in each of us. We lie about our accomplishments, boast about our deeds, use language to murder, build weapons to destroy thousands, etc. Thus we all are judged and condemned worthy of eternal damnation and death. Our one and only hope resides in the mercy and forgiveness won for us by the obedient life and the sacrifice of God's Son for us all upon the cross.