Renewed Image

One of the verses from Sunday’s sermon that deserves more attention than we were able to give it is Colossians 3:10. In that verse, Paul says, “...put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” In the sermon, we focused primarily on what it means to be renewed in knowledge, but in this blog I want to think more intentionally about what it means to be made in the image of our Creator.

Genesis 1:26–27 teaches us that when God created man, He created us in His image and after His likeness. Furthermore, both male and female are created in the image of God. But this immediately raises a few important questions:

• What is the image of God?

• What happened to the image of God after the fall?

• How is the image of God renewed?

  
  

The Image of God (Imago Dei)

In broad terms, the image of God in man refers to all the ways we reflect God as His creatures. The terms “image” and “likeness” function together to emphasize that man is a representation of God in the world.

So what does this include?

To be made in God’s image means that we possess the capacity to think, reason, and know truth. It includes a moral dimension, enabling us to discern right from wrong. It also includes a relational aspect, as man is uniquely capable of communion with God and with others. Finally, it includes a functional dimension. In Genesis 1:26–27, God grants man dominion over creation, calling him to rule as God’s vice-regent in a derived and dependent sense.

This list is not exhaustive, but it gives us a helpful framework for understanding what it means to be made in the image and likeness of God.

The Image of God After the Fall

After man fell in the garden, the image of God was not erased, but it was profoundly marred and corrupted. John Calvin captures this well:

“Though we grant that God’s image was not totally annihilated and destroyed in him, yet it was so corrupted that whatever remains is frightful deformity” (Institutes, 1.15.4).

We know the image remains because Scripture continues to affirm it. In Genesis 9:6, the death penalty is grounded in the reality that man is made in God’s image. Likewise, James 3:9 warns against cursing those who are made in the likeness of God.

So what changed?

When sin entered the world, it brought death, alienation, and disorder. Every faculty of man was corrupted. His mind was darkened, his will enslaved, and his affections disordered. The image of God was not lost structurally, but it was ruined morally and spiritually.

It has been well said: the image is defaced, but not erased.

Man remains a thinking, feeling, willing being, with the law of God written on his heart, yet all of these faculties are now bent away from God.

The Renewed Image

If the story ended there, there would be no hope. But Scripture does not leave us there.

Two passages give us clarity and hope:

• Colossians 3:10 —“and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”

• Ephesians 4:24 —“and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

These verses describe what happens in sanctification. In sanctification, the image of God is renewed in us.

Notice the three key dimensions of renewal:

• Knowledge — the renewal of the mind

• Righteousness — the renewal of life and conduct

• Holiness — the renewal of the heart and affections

To be renewed in knowledge is to grow in a true, relational, and experiential knowledge of God. To be renewed in righteousness is to begin walking uprightly according to God’s law. To be renewed in holiness is to be set apart unto God, with a life increasingly oriented toward Him.

At the fall, man’s mind, will, and affections were corrupted. In redemption, those same faculties are restored:

• Knowledge transforms the mind

• Righteousness transforms the will and actions

• Holiness transforms the heart and affections

Everything sin defaced, grace is now restoring. And this renewal has a clear goal. Jesus Christ is the perfect image of God (Col. 1:15), and through sanctification, we are being conformed to His image. We are being pressed, as it were, into the mold of Christ.

This is a profound work of grace, one that should produce both gratitude and longing.

It should make us thankful for what God is doing in us now, and it should cause us to long for the day when that work is complete. As 1 John 3:2 says, we shall see Him as He is, and we shall be like Him. On that day, the image of God will no longer be marred or partial, it will be perfectly restored.