Imago Dei With The Gospel CoalitionSample

 Imago Dei in Redemption and Restoration  

Redemption was always God’s plan. From the moment sin entered the world, God declared that its power and reign would one day come to an end. He announced to Adam and Eve the curses they’d brought on themselves, but then He turned to the serpent, the devil, and said: 

I will put hostility between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and her offspring.

He will strike your head,

and you will strike his heel.

Genesis 3:15

One day one of Eve’s offspring would come into conflict with the serpent. The serpent would “strike his heel,” but the child of Eve would strike the serpent’s head. The devil would strike a blow, but he wouldn’t have the ultimate victory. 

In Jesus the imago Dei found its fullest, purest expression. Whereas the rest of humanity was stained by sin, at times even struggling against the expression of the imago Dei, Jesus, in everything He did, revealed the image of God. Every interaction He had, every time He spoke or healed or rebuked, He revealed the heart and character of God. 

Colossians 1 depicts the unique role only Jesus could play in the cosmos as the maker and ruler of all things. Yet in the incarnation Jesus took on our humanity. He rules over creation, as humanity was meant to do when God made the world. When we look to Jesus, we find the One who, as the author of Hebrews wrote, was “tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin” (4:15). When we identify with Jesus through faith, we share in that role as rulers over creation, and we experience that restoration of our humanity. 

The process of growing in grace that we experience while following Jesus will one day be completed when Jesus makes “everything new” (Rev. 21:5). That reality should encourage us and give us hope, even when we’re struggling with our sin. 

The hope of the gospel is that a day is coming when we’ll be fully delivered from sin. In heaven we’ll be freed not only from the power of sin but also from its presence. As Nancy Guthrie said, “Jesus was the first glorified human, but He’s only the first.” In heaven we’ll be just like Jesus. All of us will fully bear the image of God as Christ bears the image of God. Holding on to that hope helps us live this day in light of that day.