The Seventy's Course in Theology, Third Year / The Doctrine of Deity

by B. H. Roberts

So also, in his letter to the Colossians, when speaking of Christ, Paul says: "Who is the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature." (Col. i: 5.)

Being "the express image of His person," then the "image of the invisible God," Jesus becomes a revelation of the person of God to the children of men, as well as a revelation of His character and attributes. Again, you have the scriptures saying: "For it pleased the Father that in Him [Christ Jesus] should all fulness dwell. * * * For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." (Col. i: 19; ii: 9.)

All there is, then, in God, there is in Jesus Christ. All that Jesus Christ is, God is. And Jesus Christ is an immortal man of flesh and bone and spirit, and with His Father and the Holy Spirit will reign eternally in the heavens, verily the Godhead.

8. God Created Man in His Own Image: Let us now consider the form of God. In those scriptures which take us back to the days of creation, when God created the earth and all things therein—God is represented as saying to someone: "Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness. * * * So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him, male and female created He them." (Gen. i: 26, 27.)

Now, if that were untouched by "philosophy," I think it would not be difficult to understand. Man was created in the image and likeness of God. What idea does this language convey to the mind of man, except that man, when his creation was completed, stood forth the counterpart of God in form? But neither philosophers nor theologians have been willing to let it stand so. They will not have God limited to any form. They will not have Him prescribed by the extensions of His person to some line or other of limitation. No: He must needs be in His person, as well as in mind or spirit, all-pervading, filling the universe with His "being," with a center nowhere, with a circumference everywhere. We must expand the person of God out until it fills the universe. And so they tell us that this plain, simple, straightforward language of Moses, which says that man was created in the image of God—and which everybody can understand—means, not the "full length" image of God, but God's "moral image!" Man was created in the "moral image" of God, they say.

The meaning of this language from the 26th and 27th verses of the first chapter of Genesis, is made perfectly clear when compared with the third verse of the fifth chapter of Genesis, where it is written: "And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth." What do these words imply, but that Seth was like his father in features, and also, doubtless, in intellectual and moral qualities? And if, when it is said Adam begat a son in his "own likeness, after his image," it simply means that Seth, in form and features, and intellectual and moral qualities, was like his father—then there can be no other conclusion formed upon the passage that says God created man in his own image and likeness, than that man, in a general way, in form and feature, and intellectual and moral qualities, was like God.

9. Bodily Form May Not be Excluded from Being "In God's Image": It is rather refreshing, in the midst of so much nonsense that is uttered upon this subject, in order to hide the truth and perpetuate the false notions of a paganized Christianity, to find now and then a Christian scholar who rises out of the vagaries of modern Christianity and proclaims the straightforward truth. Let me read to you the words of such an one—the Rev. Dr. Charles A. Briggs. It may be said, of course, by Presbyterians that Dr. Briggs is a heretic; that he has been cast out of their church. Grant it; but with open arms he has been received by the Episcopal church, and ordained into its priesthood; and has an influence that is considerable in the Christian world. But however heretical Dr. Briggs' opinions may be considered by his former Presbyterian brethren, his scholarship at least cannot be challenged. Speaking of man being formed in the image and likeness of God, he says:

"Some theologians refer the form to the higher nature of man [that is, to that 'moral image' in likeness of which it is supposed man was created]; but there is nothing in the text or context to suggest such an interpretation. The context urges us to think of the entire man as distinguished from the lower forms of creation—that which is essential to man, and may be communicated by descent to his seed.—The bodily form cannot be excluded from the representation." (Messianic Prophecy, p. 70.)

I say it is rather refreshing to hear one speak like that, whose scholarship, at least, is above all question. And yet still another voice; and this time from one who stands high in scientific circles, one who has written a work on the "Harmony of the Bible and Science," which is a most valuable contribution to that branch of literature. The gentleman I speak of is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and principal of the College at Highbury New Park, England. On this subject of man being created in the image of God, he says: "I think the statement that man was made in the Divine image is intended to be more literal than we generally suppose; for judging from what we read throughout the scriptures, it seems very clear that our Lord, as well as the angels, had a bodily form similar to that of man, only far more spiritual and far more glorious; but which, however, is invisible to man, unless special capabilities of sight are given him, like that experienced by Elisha's servant when, in answer to the prophet's prayer, he saw the heavenly hosts surrounding the city of Dothan."

After discussing this question at some length, and bringing to bear upon it numerous Biblical illustrations, this celebrated man—Dr. Samuel Kinns—whose scientific and scholarly standing I have already referred to, speaks of the effect of this belief upon man, and thus concludes his statement on that head: "I am sure if a man would only consider a little more the divinity of His human form, and would remember that God has indeed created him in His own image, the thought would so elevate and refine him that he would feel it his duty to glorify God in His body as well as in His spirit."