Same Image, Different Father

“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 kinda like it. It applies to people across the board, all of whom are created in God’s image and, as such, should be recognized as valuable, loved, and treated with respect.

But there’s a difference between the image and the ownership of God, a distinction I think is fairly basic but 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, and world view.

I say all this because more and more I’m reading, even in Christian blogs or articles, phrases like “We’re all children of God”, or “Everyone is my brother or sister in Christ”, as if to say every human is essentially on the same spiritual page, going in the same eternal direction. Those are sentiments I wish were true, but aren’t. 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So at the risk of sounding like outdated Sunday School teachers, lets reiterate the basics with a few simple points:

1. We’re all created by God. (Genesis 5:2) No argument there; move on.
2. We’re all likewise created in His image, an image marred (there’s an understatement!) by the Fall (Genesis 3:16-17) but which is 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 all share a common humanity, and as such, we’re brothers and sisters within 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. We’re not all children of God, much as I wish we were. 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 only with those who’ve been born physically, then born again spiritually. To them and them only 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.”

The distinction is essential to sound doctrine and church life. After all, if everyone is already 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.

That being the case,  Greg Laurie, Franklin Graham, and thousands of other evangelists should find better use for their time, because everyone’s already saved. For that matter, Peter’s sermon on Pentacost was needless (Acts 2:12-40) and Paul’s evangelistic efforts were pointless. (I Corinthians 5:18-21)

All of which reminds me that while I hope to co-exist peacefully with non-Christians (Romans 12:18) I’m not in the same communion with them as I am with believers, to whom I’m joined in a literal Body, a Body made of all saints (Ephesians 2:21) but not all people, though all people are surely invited to join it. (I Timothy 2;3-4)

To approach life from a Biblical viewpoint, then, 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 go with 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 also yearn for image bearing non-believers to know what it is to be fathered by the God whose image they carry.

I also hope we image-bearing believers will always view sonship, and image bearing as well, with all the reverence and joyful gratitude both realities call for.