By Christian / Carmen Joy Imes
In this series, we look at thoughts from the book Being God’s Image – Why Creation still matters by Carmen Joy Imes. As there is unfortunately no German translation, we will at least deal with excerpts from her presentation in the German version of this video. This English version contains the same excerpts, but I recommend that you read the complete book.
As announced in the fifth part, the rest of the series will focus on ‚Human in God’s new world‘.
Human in God’s New World
Genesis 1 conveys our essential human identity as the image of God, introducing an important theme in Scripture. However, the phrase „image of God“ only appears in Genesis 1, 5, and 9. After that, the topic of bearing God’s name comes to the fore.
If we then move on to the New Testament, we find a few more passages in which the image of God is mentioned. Strikingly, these all refer to Jesus. And now comes the kicker:
Jesus, the Human
Jesus is not the image of God because he is God. Jesus is the image of God because he is human.
His entry into human history is not plan B but the culmination of plan A. And this also explains why the Gospel of John begins with words like those in Genesis 1:1: „In the beginning was …“ While every human being is God’s image, Jesus fulfills God’s intentions perfectly for the vocation entailed by this identity. „who shines with the same glory… Is the exact image of His being…“ (Hebrews 1:3 2001 Translation). The Father/Son language fills the first chapter of Hebrews, designating Jesus as God’s exalted covenant partner who will rule on his behalf. In the process, he brings „many sons and daughters to glory“ (Hebrews 2:10). That is, he facilitates the restoration of the family of God to a right relationsship with him so we, too, can radiate God’s glory.
Each aspect of Jesus’ ministry teaches us something about what it means to be a human. For example, why did Jesus heal people? Since Jesus is the model human, we need to get this right. In John 9, Jesus heals a man born blind. The man’s blindness was an occaison for Jesus’ public demonstration of power to reveal his messianic identity. At the same time, Jesus exposed the problematic theology of his disciples and the Jewish religious leaders. The point of the story is not to highlight the man’s deficiency but rather to unveil Jesus’ identity in the light of Israels’ hard-heartedness. Jesus’ healing of the man born blind was not just an act of compassion. Jesus was not simply „fixing“ this man’s problem. More importantly, he was exposing unbelief and anncounding his identity as the one who had come to fulfill Isaiah’s prophecies.
Jesus’ death was the culmination of humanity’s purpose. He was „obedient unto death“ – refusing to cling to power or autonomy (see Philippians 2:8). Faced with the same choice as the first humans, Jesus conquered sin and death by facing it head-on and receiving the judgement that humanity deserved. He did so willingly, taking on the full penalty of human rebellion as our representative. This act of self-sacrifice finally repairs the brokenness of the garden. Jesus is the inverse of the first humans.
John’s insights stand out as particularly relevant for the question of this series: What does it mean to be human? As the second Adam, Jesus relives the choice of the first humans. Rather than setting out to find his own path to glory, Jesus entrusts himself to the Father. His last act on the cross connects his own mother with John, the beloved disciple (John 19:25-27). In this way he creates a new human family, were „parent“ and „child“ are bound by loving commitment rather than by blood.
Jesus’ last words on the cross in John’s Gospel bring completion to his important work: „It is finished“ (John 19:30). All this took place on the „day of Preparation, and the next day wasa to be a special Sabbath“ (John 19:31; cf. 19:14). Just as God had finished his work of creation before the Sabbath (Genesis 2:2), Jesus finishes his work of ushering in the new creation by fullfilling humanity’s purpose through self-giving love and full obedience to God’s command.
Jesus died as the ultimate human, willingly taking on his innocent self the punishment we deserve.
A new Humanity
In the Genesis account, all the days of creation end with „and it was evening, and it was morning, the … day“. However, the seventh day did not end. On the seventh day, God rested from his creative activity … until this point in time. With Jesus‘ resurrection, John is signalling the beginning of a new week, a new creation.
In John’s letter, Jesus addresses Mary Magdalene as „woman“ (John 20:15), which involuntarily reminds us of the Garden of Eden. In contrast to Eve, Mary’s eyes are opened and she recognises Jesus. Then Jesus calls her by name an comissions her to tell the other disciples that he’s alive. This moment is a beautiful restoration of creation design for partnership, contrary to first-century cultural convetion.
Jesus’ physical resurrection indicates God’s ongoing purposes for embodied humans on earth. His commissioning of Mary with the news of this resurrection affirms God’s intentions for the partnership of men an women in the gospel ministry.
Many Christians have the belief that they will go to heaven after death. But if Jesus existed in heaven beforehand and then came to earth, why was he not immediately resurrected in heaven after his death? Such questions were already on the minds of his followers in the first decades and even more so in the centuries that followed. The Gospels say that he was dead for three days before he was resurrected and reappeared as a human being. Where was he in the meantime? Did he live again as a man or was he a spirit who was only using another human body temporarily? Or did he not die on the cross at all, but is it the case – as many Muslims believe today – that the Jews only thought they had killed him? Quite a lot of profound questions that we cannot answer here without going too far off topic.
But according to the Gospels, he did not just take on any human body, but at least once one that resembled the one he had at his death, including the wounds. Why? The continuity between his incarnation and the resurreection body suggests that we, too, will be our embodied selves in the new creation. We will be ourselves in the resurrection – you will be able to recognise me again.
For some, this may be a rather surprising or even absurd thought. And it deserves a closer look. Which we will do in later videos.
Jesus’ scars underscore the continuity between our present bodies and our resurrected bodies.
But why is it so important to talk about Jesus‘ resurrection and not marginalise it? If we miss Jesus’ ascension, we run the risk ov overspiritualizing his ongoing ministry as well as our own. Scripture tells us that Jesus will return in the same way he departed – bodily and visibly – to bring his kongdom reign to earth (Acts 1:11). And according to the Gospel of John, Jesus describes his spiritual rebirth as „born again“ or, more precisely, „born from above“ (John 3:3-8) What does this mean for us humans?
N. T. Wright says: „Genuine Christian hope, rooted inJesus’s resurrection, is the hope for God’s renewal of all things, for his overcoming of corruption, decay, and death, for his filling of the whole cosmos with his love and grace, his power and glory.“ This will be discussed in more detail in later videos.
Here is just a hint. Why does Paul speak in 1 Corinthians 15:19-22 in the context of Jesus‘ resurrection of being a “ firstfruit“? „By calling Christ’s resurrected body a firstfruit, Paul implies that his resurrection is not a unique, one-time event, but a taste of what is in store for every believer.“
Carmen Imes concludes this chapter with two further interesting key ideas:
Jesus’ ascencion inaugurates his ministry as judge and as high priest, and it emporers us to carry on his work.
Our mortality is a signpost on the way to a future in which all will be restored.
The Beloved Community
Those who grew up in the Christian world today are generally not familiar with the context in which the gospel was proclaimed. Humanity at that time was strictly divided in every conceivable way: by class, language, ethnicity, citizenship, religion, gender, etc. In Paul’s letters, for example, a distinction is made clear again and again from the perspective of the Jews: we – as God’s chosen people – and the others, the Gentiles. We probably cannot imagine how deeply this was anchored in the life of a person who sincerely wanted to worship Yahweh according to the covenant of Sinai. And now comes this with the gospel: „In him you also, who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, have been sealed in him as believers by the Spirit of promise, the Holy Spirit.“ (Ephesians 1:13 Züricher) This was shocking news for them: the spiritual blessings were now also open to the Gentiles. This is why Paul now refers to everyone – Jews and Gentiles alike – as the body of Christ. All can now be part of the people of the covenant. And other divisive boundaries are also torn down as far as the hope of mankind is concerned: mutual submission (Ephesians 5:21), the relationship between wives and husbands (Ephesians 5:22-23), slave and free (Ephesians 6:5-9). „But in the Lord the wife is not without the husband, nor the husband without the wife.“ (1 Corinthians 11:11 Zurich). „For all of you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.“ (Galatians 3:27,28 Züricher) In the Christian community, everyone is equal. Everything is reset to the beginning.
The gospel makes possible a human community undivided by race or by physical or cognitive ability.
With this in mind, we can also reflect on why Jesus asked his followers to commemorate him by partaking of bread and wine together. There are no ‚observers‘ in the body of Christ. We are one family.
True community is made possible by physical presence and shared participation in communion.
It is not that God has given gifts to individuals, but that we are gifts to others (Ephesians 4:11-12). Jesus was the perfect image of God. Scripture invites us to look to Christ to learn how to be ourselves. Then the translation of Romans 8:28 proposed by scholar Haley Goranson Jacob also makes sense: „God works all things for good with those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.“ We are not simply waiting for redemption. Instead, we actively partner with God in this work of transformation.
Our future include the redeption and glorification of our bodies as we experience full adoption into God’s royal family.
From Creation to New Creation
Finally, Carmen Imes addresses two ideas that are widespread among Christians, but which are not found in the New Testament and only found their way into Christianity much later: The idea that our future is in heaven, the earth will be destroyed and believers will be raptured beforehand.
However, if we read the New Testament without reservation, we will not find these thoughts. Instead, we find the restoration of creation and God’s reign on earth.
Jesus’ return will not signal the destruction of this planet or the secret rapture of believers but will instead initiate his reign as king on earth.
Didn’t Jesus himself say in the so-called Lord’s Prayer: „Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven“ (Matthew 6:10 Zurich). Carmen Imes therefore summarizes the thoughts as follows:
The rebellious powers of heaven and earth will be decisively defeated, and this world will be purified and restored.
However, this should not lead us to simply wait passively:
Jesus calls us to turn from sin, declare our allegiance to him, and wait expectantly for his return. While waiting, we are to exercise our human vocation as stewards of creation.
The last thoughts came without further explanation and may have been unexpected for you. Therefore, we will talk about this unexpected hope in later videos.
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