Same Image, Different Dad

“But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the children of God.”

-John 1:12

    The phrase Image Bearer is becoming popular, and I’m glad. It applies to people across the board, all of whom are created in God’s image and, as such, should be recognized as valuable, treated with respect.

Kim Riddlebarger writing in the Westminster Seminary blog, put it well in saying, “Because all men and women are divine image-bearers we are truly like God –albeit in creaturely form and measure.”  So while I don’t usually care for linguistic trends, this one I like.

What I don’t like is confusion between Image and Sonship, a distinction I think is fairly basic and very important. To be created in God’s image is not the same as being a literal child of God; likewise, to be a fellow image bearer (i.e. fellow human) differs from being a brother or sister in Christ. This isn’t minor nit-picking and, in fact, it has everything to do with the way we approach evangelism, body ministry, world view.

I say all this because more and more I’m reading, in Christian blogs or articles, phrases like “We’re all children of God”, or “Everyone is my brother or sister”, as if to say every human is essentially on the same spiritual page, going in the same eternal direction, which are sentiments I really wish were true, but aren’t. And if we’re not getting the vital difference between a fellow human and a brother or sister in Christ, then we’re blurring some critical lines which should never be anything but clear. So at the risk of sounding like an outdated Sunday School teacher, let me reiterate the basics with a few simple points:

1. Yes, we’re all created by God. (Genesis 5:2) No argument there; move on.
2. Yes, we’re all likewise created in His image, an image marred (there’s an understatement!) by the Fall (Genesis 3:16-17) but there, nonetheless. So while we can safely say that we’re all created by God, we’re clearly not all He created us to be.
3. We also share common humanity, and as such, we’re brothers and sisters in the human family, descendants of Adam, born in sin (Psalm 51:5) and falling short of God’s perfection (Romans 3:23); objects of His love and the reason for Christ’s sacrifice. (John 3:16)
4. But we’re not, in fact, all children of God. Created by God and Fathered by God aren’t the same. So Jesus insisted that to see the kingdom one has to be born naturally then spiritually (John 3:5) spiritual rebirth occurring only through faith in Him. (Romans 10:9, Acts 4:12) Thereby, though we enjoy common humanity with all people, we enjoy a spiritual sibling relationship exclusively with those who’ve been born physically, then born again spiritually. Only then can we say, with integrity and confidence, “Brother.” So writes Wayne Jackson of the Christian Courier, and he says it well: “Those who are not ‘children of God’ in this regenerative sense, are not children of God in the most crucial manner of all.”

And yes, the distinction is essential. If everyone is by nature a child of God, then evangelism makes no sense. All are God’s children; all God’s children will inherit His kingdom, no conversion needed. So if everyone is God’s child, then Greg Laurie, Franklin Graham and thousands of other evangelists should find better uses for their time, because everyone’s already saved. For that matter, Peter’s sermon on Pentacost was needless; Paul’s evangelistic efforts were pointless. And while I (hopefully) co-exist peacefully with non-Christians, I’m not in communion with them as I am with believers to whom I’m joined in a literal Body, a Body made of all saints but not all people, though all people are surely invited to join it.

To approach life from a truly Biblical viewpoint, I need an ongoing awareness that peple are either saved or unsaved; related to me by birth that’s human or divine. The difference is eternally critical.

So I’ll celebrate the use of “Image Bearer” in reference to fellow humans, while remembering that even those dead in sin retain an image of the God who lovingly made, and seeks to redeem, all of them. Hopefully, while my mind holds that thought, my heart will likewise yearn for image bearing non-believers to know what it is to be fathered by the God whose image they carry.

And for we image bearing believers to view sonship, and image bearing as well, with all the reverence and joyful gratitude both concepts call for.