Understanding God’s StorySample

God Creates a People That Belong to Him

Theologians have long debated specifically what it means to be made in the image of God, but at its heart, the concept is fairly simple. It means that humanity is meant to be a reflection or a mirror of the One we represent. This certainly relates to what we were supposed to do, but it also has significance for who we are. To be made in the image of God is to be endowed with inherent dignity, value, and worth, not because of what we do, but primarily because of the One who made us. Every human has dignity because every human belongs to God.

We are not like the rest of creation. Only humans have been made in the image of the King. And as His image-bearers, God’s royal representatives share in the reign and rule of the one who made them.

It is hard to overstate the significance of the claim the Bible is making. When Moses penned the words in Genesis, God’s people were familiar with the language of image-bearing from their time in Egypt. Other cultures used this language to refer to royalty—individual kings and queens lauded as being in God’s image because only they were able to represent their gods. In the ancient world, most societies and cultures reserved image-bearing language primarily or solely for the king.

God creates both male and female in His image, distinguishing between the man and the woman, but He also proclaims that both are made in His image. In this passage, as well as in Genesis 2, we learn that not only was humanity made for God, but men and women were made for fellowship with each other. God’s people are made for relationships.

The story invites us to affirm that both men and women share something in common—they are made in the image of God. Both men and women are image-bearers and endowed with divine authority to reign and rule over God’s creation. It also invites us to affirm that men and women are distinct from each other and that they need each other in the mission that God is setting before them. This places great dignity on every human as those created in His image, and the dehumanization of any image-bearer is an attack on God’s good design.

In order to know what role you play in the storyline of the Bible, you must understand who you are. We can’t know what to do until we’ve established who we are. We are image-bearers, God’s royal people.

We are not authors of our own story. We don’t write our own scripts. As image-bearers, we are written into God’s script. Our identities are not achieved but received—which removes a massive weight from our shoulders. God’s people are made in His image and are invited to be participants in His kingdom.