Image vs Person

Last time we thought about personal responsibility, reflecting that only persons are morally responsible for their actions. We concluded by observing, however, that the Bible doesn’t focus on humans as persons. Rather, we are God’s image-bearers.

Persons and responsibility

‘Man bites dog’ is a classic shock tabloid headline, playing on readers expecting the opposite. Because a dog biting a man, while a nasty experience for him, is unsurprising. It seems according to nature. And we certainly wouldn’t consider prosecuting the dog for assault, would we?

Evangelical TimesAlan Thomas

This is a topic we looked at back in September 2019. The climax of God’s creating activity was making man in his image and likeness. Every single human being since has been an image-bearer of God. This has remained true after the fall (Genesis 9:6; James 3:9). Human beings remain image-bearers who are able to think, feel, and act, but now in a distorted and diminished way.

We saw that the Bible teaches that our ‘imageness’ is holistic, including physical and mental components, and that the two Hebrew words for image and likeness overlap in meaning, both referring to the whole of man.

Gordon Wenham comments: ‘The OT does not sharply distinguish the spiritual and material… The image of God must characterise man’s whole being, not simply his mind or soul on the one hand or his body on the other.’ We also noted that man’s imageness expresses itself through his activity, through work and relationships. Man is complete when he relates to other humans, especially male to female, and he serves God by ruling under him over the rest of creation.