_3_Image of God in the Wider and in the Proper Sense

The Lutheran theologians are agreed that the image of God, which consists in the knowledge of God and holiness of the will, is lacking in man after the Fall, since Col. 3:10 and Eph. 4:24 distinctly state that it is being restored in the believer. They differ, however, on the question as to whether in Gen. 9:6 (“Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made He man”) and James 3:9 (“With the tongue … curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God”) a divine image is still ascribed to man after the Fall. Some deny this and take the passages to describe man as the noble creature who once bore the image of God and in whom God would recreate this image through faith in Christ. Thus Luther (on Gen. 9:6, St. L. 1:600 f.), Philippi (Glaubenslehre, 3d ed., II, 371 f.), Gottfried Hoffman (Synopsis, p. 291). Others say that these passages describe man as he is after the Fall, a creature endowed with intellect and will, and contend that this constitutes a certain similitude with God. Thus Baier (II, 146), Quenstedt (Systema I, 876, 901 ff.), and others. The latter distinguish between the image of God in a wider sense, according to which man, in distinction from the animals, is still a rational being even after the Fall, and the divine image in the proper sense, consisting in true knowledge and service of God, which was lost through the Fall. It will be seen that these two interpretations do not differ materially, since Luther and those who agree with him do not deny that man after the Fall retains his intellect and will, and Baier and those who agree with him do not deny that man has through the Fall completely lost the sapientia and iustitia originalis. However, the interpretation of Luther is to be preferred.

It has been maintained that not a lost image of God, but only a still extant image could be a sound reason why we are not to shed man’s blood or curse him. But Luther and those who share his position see in these texts not only the lost image, but the image that is to be restored again in Christ. Luther (loc. cit.): “While it is true that man has lost this image through sin … yet it remains true that it can be again acquired through the Word of the Holy Ghost.” This interpretation presents a thought which is found throughout Scripture from Gen. 3:15 on. The only reason why God still concerns Himself with fallen mankind and preserves it — and for its sake also the world — is that, according to Scripture, He desires to renew fallen mankind to the image in which He originally created it (Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24). This viewpoint is of great practical importance. The truth that God gave His Son to the world and would renew the world in Christ to the original image of God will shield us against the misanthropy which the deceitfulness and malice of men in the spiritual domain (in fighting against the Gospel) and in secular affairs (as in the World War) would create in us. — To call man the image of God because he possesses reason and will and leave out of consideration what he is to become in Christ is to stretch a point. Reason and will of fallen mankind is “an idling motor”; fallen man’s reason does not recognize salvation, but operates entirely in spiritual darkness (1 Cor. 2:14: “neither can he know them”), and his will does not cling to God, but is enmity toward God (Rom. 8:7: “The carnal mind is enmity against God”).