God's Image in Man: What is it?

In a previous post I discussed some things that God's image is not. Namely, His image in us does not mean that God has a physical body and His image in us does not mean that God is both male and female, He's neither. Now we want to address what God's image in man actually is. This list of items that are inherent to human character and attributes is not meant to be comprehensive (and neither was the NOT post), but simply a short list of some of the more important aspects of His image as imprinted in our natures. The items we will take a look at that make up some of what it means to have God's image in us are: freedom; moral perfection/goodness which entails patience, grace, love, holiness, justice, and mercy; rationality.

Freedom
The first item on this list is freedom. What I mean by freedom is the ability to make a decision without coercion. God has this attribute by virtue of the fact that He is the only necessary being. He neither relies on anything outside of Himself for existence or sustainment. As the sovereign Creator of all that exists, He can do whatever He wants. He has chosen to give humanity this same attribute, but, as I tried to explain in the first post, God's communicable attributes, those attributes that are communicated to humanity in some way, are not expressed the same way in human beings as they are in God. Adam and Eve, until they sinned, had the most freedom of any humans the world has ever seen, though they could never have overcome God's own will. Even someone as deterministic as John Calvin believed this. Of course, once they sinned, true freedom was lost. Thus Paul writes in Romans 6:16: "Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?" Adam and Eve became slaves to sin the moment they sinned in the Garden of Eden, and, just like them, we are trapped by our sin with a nature that is dominated by the flesh. Let's look at Paul again. Romans 5:12-14:

"Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.  Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come."

Sin came into the world through Adam, and then all men after him sinned and lost their freedom. Paul again in Titus 3:3: "For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another." Paul's explanation of "we ourselves", which of course applies to all of us without Christ, is further bolstered when we look at how our will is bent to evil, and, in turn, our freedom is corrupted because of the coercing effects of sin. Paul explains the works of the flesh that come about from sin in Galatians 5:19-21: "Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,  idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,  envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." In the end, humanity has lost the freedom it was granted in the garden to Adam and Eve due to sin. We do however, have the capacity to be free as Adam and Eve were before the fall and that is why this is part of God's image in man.

Goodness
Wayne Grudem defines God's goodness: "God is the final standard of good and all that God is and does is worthy of approval." God's goodness is moral perfection that expresses itself in everything that God does. This can be broken down into the attributes of God that fall under His goodness:
1. Patience: But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. (Psalm 86:15)
2. Grace, mercy, peace: Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son, in truth and love. (2 John 1:3)
3. Love: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
4. Holiness: Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? (Exodus 15:11)
5. Justice: O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more. (Psalm 10:17-18)
God is all these things in absolute perfection. When He gave His image to man these attributes that make up goodness were included. Adam and Eve did not express them in the absolute perfection that God does, but they had them nonetheless. Of course, the same thing happened to these attributes as their freedom when they, and hence the rest of us, sinned. They are marred with the stain of sin. However, I think they still come out, maybe not in our actions all the time, but certainly in our thought processes. Paul is instructive once again in Romans 2:14-16: "For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.  They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus." Paul shows here that the law is written on every persons' heart. In other words, we know right from wrong even if we don't believe in God. In addition, I think most people, Christian or otherwise, would readily admit that there is something wrong with this world. Something wrong with the way people treat each other; something wrong with all the natural danger and destruction, etc. This is a part of God's image that is imprinted on each human being that enables them to recognize goodness and the lack thereof in the world.

Rationality
Aristotle classified man as a rational animal. Human beings are the only creatures that he classified this way. This is really what separates us from the rest of creation. We have the ability to reason and to think existentially. Animals, such as birds, fish, dogs, etc. cannot think rationally or logically. Really what we are talking about when we talk about rationality is the quality or state of being reasonable, based on facts or reason. Who doesn't want to be reasonable? That conjures images of someone who thinks before they act. They are not impulsive. They weigh the available evidence. They think through the positive and negative outcomes based on the choices they might make. I think everyone wants to be reasonable, at least to some degree. This ability to reason or to be rational comes from God. It is part of the image of God that has been given to us. There is a major difference of course. God's rationality, His weighing of evidence and outcomes is perfect and is informed by His perfect knowledge of everything and His perfect power to do anything. Our rationality is, once again, disfigured by sin. The Bible, from front to back, expects us to make decisions rationally. It does this because we have been imbued with this trait as part of the image of God. Here are a few examples:
Proverb 14:15: The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps.
Proverb 19:2: Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way.
1 Thessalonians 5:20-21: Do not despise prophecies,  but test everything; hold fast what is good.
Acts 17:2-3: And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,  explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”
Isaiah 1:18: “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool."
James 4:17: But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.
More verses could be given, but the clear message is that reasoning through things and belief that follows evidence is the operating norm of the Bible.

These three things; freedom, goodness, and rationality, are part of what make up the image of God in man. You may have noticed though, that all of these things have been damaged by sin. Sin influences everything we are and everything God made us to be. While God does everything for His own glory, and so should we, but, one of the biggest subsidiary reasons for God to act in order to redeem the elect is to restore His image in man back to the state the image was in when Adam and Eve were innocent in the Garden of Eden. The next post will deal with those issues. What happened to the image of God in man when Adam sinned? How does this all tie in to the salvation of Christ's elect?