Genesis 5:3 and the Imago Dei

At the climax of the biblical creation narrative (Genesis 1:26-28) and throughout subsequent chapters (Genesis 5:1-2, 9:6) we are told that God made man “in his image, after his likeness.” But what does this mean? Does it refer to our ontology, or our function in relation to the rest of creation? To who we are or what we do? Is it speaking about our ability to reason? Our capacity for language? For loving relationship? For worship? Our ability to make moral choices? The fact that we have souls? Something about our physical composition? All of the above? Its obvious to see why these questions are so important – they go to the heart of what we are as human beings, and what our purpose is in this world. Yet theologians differ widely in interpreting the meaning of the imago dei.

While reading through Genesis last fall I stumbled across the most interesting and perplexing verse (in the midst of a genealogy!), and I have been thinking about it ever since:

“When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth” (Genesis 5:3, italics mine).

I have never heard anyone relate this verse to the meaning of creation in God’s image. Nor can I find any discussion of it in any of the relevant books on my shelf (Hoekema, Sherlock, even Bavinck). I find this very surprising given:
(1) the importance and ambiguity of the meaning of the imago dei (think how much ink has been spilled on it);
(2) the closeness of this verse to other references to creation in God’s image in the Genesis 1-9 (especially when you read straight through from verse 1 to verse 3 in chapter 5);
(3) the verbal similarity of this verse to the other imago dei texts (using both the term “image” and the term “likeness,” terms not paired elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible).

It is possible to avoid of the conclusion (however much it appears to have been missed by various theologians) that a large part of the meaning of creation in God’s image is that human beings are, in some sense, God’s children? That there is some kind of parallel between Adam –> Seth, and God –> Adam?

“Adam, the son of God” (Luke 3:38).

“We are his offspring” (Acts 17:28).

Whether or not this this is right, I submit that Genesis 5:3 is an important and very much neglected text in discussions about the meaning of creation in God’s image.

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Study Projects

Although, unlike Calvin, I enjoy school, it is still really nice to have a break. I want to keep learning while being out of school, and it seems to me that not being in school is an excellent opportunity to develop some specific personal projects and go deep with them. So I have picked one topic in systematic theology, one book in biblical theology, and one figure in historical theology to focus on over the next three years (when I would begin to consider further full-time theological study). And the winner’s are (drumroll please):

1. Christ’s resurrection
2. Hebrews
3. St. Anselm

In the spirit of shorter posts, just one sentence by way of explanation for each of these three:

Christ’s resurrection because it is a hope-inspiring and happy doctrine, as well as a crucially important one (in soteriology, Christology, apologetics, redemptive history, etc.) that is sometimes neglected in favor of Christ’s death, despite being the backbone of Christianity, the center of human history, and the crucial victory of good over evil. Hebrews because it is a fascinating, practical, theological, weighty book in the New Testament canon that sometimes gets short shrift in favor of Paul and the gospels, despite being one of the most helpful books for putting the whole Bible together. Anselm because he is (1) pre-modern (and thus refreshingly free from certain questions of modernity), (2) medieval (and thus intriguingly different and interesting), (3) a great theologian whose works are beautiful, rigorous, and worship inspiring.

More posting to come on these topics, I am sure….

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Thanks be to God for Covenant Seminary

Friday night Esther and I graduated from Covenant Theological Seminary here in St. Louis. Esther received a Master of Arts in Counseling, and I received a Master of Divinity. There were lots of emotions I felt during the course of the evening – joy, a sense of accomplishment, excitement about the changes in our life over the next few months, amazement at how quickly the past three years have gone, and a bit of loneliness and nostalgia as we prepare to end our time here in St. Louis and embrace what God has for us in the future.

Being involved in the community here at Covenant has been a great blessing. We have learned, loved, struggled, grown, persevered. I cannot think of a better way to have started off married life together, and the friendships we have made here are those that will last a lifetime.

Every seminary has its pros and cons, and no one place is right for everyone, but there is certainly nowhere else that I would have rather been for my M.Div. than Covenant. I learned not just to see new things, but new ways of seeing. As an expression of praise to God, I would like to list some of the things that impacted me the most during my time here. Its impossible to summarize everything, of course – or even be aware of everything – but here are a few things which stand out as particularly significant, and as somewhat distinctive of Covenant’s program:

1) The Priority of Grace.

I think I understood before seminary on some level (a dimmer, more theoretical one) how the true engine of sanctification is grace —> love for God, rather than law —> fear of God (and how we all tend to gravitate towards one of these two). But at Covenant I got to soak in this emphasis for three years and see how it plays out in various areas of the Christian life and theology. This grace focus forms a large part of the corporate ethos at Covenant and trickles down throughout the curriculum, staff, and general atmosphere of the seminary. All you have to do to see how this makes a difference is walk around the campus and talk to people. It is a beautiful thing, and it has become a foundational pillar not only for my understanding of pastoral ministry, but for my own Christian walk.

2) Getting the Big Picture

A running thread throughout the curriculum is the Creation-Fall-Redemption-Consummation paradigm for biblical hermeneutics, missiology, ecclesiology, and worldview formation. I think this is a helpful approach for putting the whole Bible together, and I think it helps our understanding of our role in the world as Christians by placing the church’s mission in a larger biblical-theological framework (built upon passages such as Genesis 1:26-28 and Genesis 12:1-3). These were not dots I had connected very clearly before seminary. I remember sitting in Ethics one day as we were thinking about various issues in light of this paradigm thinking, “this works – this actually works.”

3) The Reality of Common Grace

I somehow missed out on the idea of common grace prior to seminary. This left me wondering why I loved and respected the art (music, movies, books, etc.), the wisdom, the leadership, and the personalities of non-Christians so much. My time at Covenant, and especially my time under Prof. Barrs, helped to recognize how generously God has given skills, wisdom, and gifts throughout the human race, and how there is both dignity and depravity in all people since all people are made in God’s image and live in God’s universe. Since all truth is God’s truth, and all beauty is God’s beauty, I don’t need to wonder at the good I see in the world – I can instead give God all the more glory for it.

I don’t believe this is an impediment to the urgency of evangelism, but rather a stimulus to it.

4) Church Personality Dynamics

My time studying under Dr. Douglass helped me understand how much conflict in the church is related to personality dynamics, and how important it is to factor this in when searching for, arriving at, and serving in a local church.

5) Preaching Basics

Covenant’s homiletics program is fairly rigorous, including four different courses. Sitting under Dr. Chapel your first semester and then practicing preaching sermons in 3 small practicum classes gives you, I think, a good foundation for the basics on preparing and delivering expository sermons. Of course, the only way to ultimately learn how to preach is to do it, and everyone needs to find their own unique preaching voice, but I think this program gives you a good launching pad to begin with.

Soli Deo Gloria!

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Summer Plans

Through June 30 we will be in St. Louis, finishing various responsibilities, saying goodbye to friends, and resting. For July we will be in Nashville with family for vacation, and then visiting with friends. Starting August 7 we will be in Washington D.C. I will be an intern at Capital Hill Baptist Church and Esther will be looking for a job. Thank you for those of you who have been praying about our future! Please keep praying for the Lord to open a door to a good job for Esther, and for a restful and fruitful summer in which we are able to connect with many friends and prepare well for what the future holds.

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Reflections on Ecclesiastes

In my Psalms and Wisdom Literature class today we covered the book of Ecclesiastes. As I pondered the theological message of the book of this book, and then glanced ahead in our notes to Song of Solomon, which we will cover tomorrow, I came to appreciate in a new way the sheer honesty of the Bible. It is so unlike what you would expect of a typical “religious” book. It devotes huge chunks of time to topics like the vanity of life, and sex. Amazing! It is so kind of God to give us a book which is so authentic to human experience. Some thoughts:

1. If sola scriptura applies to both the content as well as the method of theology (something I have become more convinced of in the last year and a half), then it is worth considering how this aspect of Scripture should affect what goes on in the pulpit, and in systematic theology books. It seems to me that the Bible’s ruthless honesty can deliver us from pseudo-spirituality, from neat answers to complex problems, from simplistic grids, from thinking in only one way, from stapling formulas onto what should not be formulaic.

2. At times, Ecclesiastes almost feels as if its bordering on a nihilistic/postmodern/existential/despairing interpretation of life. 1:14, for example, is a pretty remarkable claim: “I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.” I don’t think that, taken as a whole, the book does succumb to nihilism, because of passages like the conclusion (12:13-14). Nevertheless, it has some strong statements about the vanity of life, even life lived wisely (1:16-18, 2:12-17).

As one who has personally struggled at times with the existential feeling that life is random and chaotic, I appreciate the book of Ecclesiastes perhaps more than any other book in the entire Bible. It tells me: Christianity is big enough to account for that aspect of life. It is aware of the problem, and it has something to say about it.

3. Ecclesiastes (especially right after studying Job!) teaches me about the limits of human knowledge. As Dr. Collins (my professor) put it today, “the intelligibility of the world is always tantalizingly partial.” Ecclesiastes is a reminder that we see parts, not the whole – that we won’t be able to explain everything. But an exhaustive understanding is not a prerequisite for trusting God. The parts of reality that we do see are enough to teach us to enjoy life for what it is (9:7-10, 11:9), and walk in obedience to God (12:1-8, 13-14). Put most simply, what I learn from Ecclesiastes is that the point of human existence is not to figure life out (cf. 8:17!) – its to trust God and obey his commandments (12:13-14).

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Great Book

I am currently reading James L Swanson’s Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer and heartily recommend it. Its one of those books you simply cannot put down, because it is so intense. Its based on tons of historical research, so its very accurate – everything in quotations, for example, comes from an actual historical document. So there is minimal embellishment. And yet it is far more exciting than most fictional novels I have read. The actual moment of Lincoln’s execution, for example, he slows down and spend several pages discussing everything that was going on in the theater during the 15 seconds or so just preceding Booth’s shot. I just about passed out from holding my breath!

I recommend it.

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What is certainty?

If earth’s history were a 24 hour day, human history would be the final two seconds of that day. I heard this statistic recently in connection with my study of our planet’s history and was surprised at how little of an effect it had on me. As I thought about this, I noticed and became able to articulate a development in my faith and my thinking about the world over the past few years which (till recently) remained primarily in my subconscious awareness. I think that, in general, I see reality as larger, more complex, somehow more real than I did a few years ago.

An example of how this plays out: if you asked me four years ago why I believed in God, I might have started with an argument from the Big Bang such as the Kalam Cosmological argument or something like that. If you asked me today, I think I would focus more upon the conviction of sin and inward testimony of the Holy Spirit that I have experienced in my life, together with the peace and assurance I have experienced through my relationship with God. I still think the Kalam argument can be helpful, but its not what I would emphasize. Its not where I would begin. The shift can perhaps be summarized by saying that I am less metaphysically certain and more inwardly certain, more personally settled in a deep awareness of sin and my need for forgiveness. As the transcendent becomes bigger and more obscure, conscience and the moral become louder and more unavoidable. External testimonies become more nuanced while the internal testimony becomes more pointed.

I was thinking recently about blind spots and subjectivity – how we all have them, and we can usually see others’ better than our own. I wrote out on my notebook during class:

“How do you know what you don’t know? How do you evaluate when your very criteria of judgment need to be judged? The depths of humbling the gospel requires! This constant reversal, constant striving, constant groping, ever seeing anew the depths of indwelling sin!

Hope and self-value comes from recognizing and submitting to the reality that I am a sinner.”

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