What Does It Mean for Us to Be Human?

Thoughts on the Incarnation

God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness, and let them
have dominion….So…in the image of God he created them, male and female he created
them” (Genesis 1:26-27).

In ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt the king was called ‘the image’ or ‘the likeness’ of a
god.¹ The king ruled by the power of overwhelming, violent force and claimed divine
authority for doing so. The statue of a conquering king would often be placed at the gate
of a conquered city. This image declared ownership and this is what people would think
of when hearing the phrase, image of God. It conveyed Divine authority. This is the
background against which Genesis 1 was written.

The amazing thing about Genesis 1:26 is the reference to male and female. Nothing else
is mentioned about what qualified humans to be God’s image, and there is a reason for
this. The king by himself cannot be the image of God; rather, it is the couple in love that
reflects as in a mirror or painting what God is. Contrary to Babylonian and Egyptian
social theory, the real foundation of the human order is the couple in the bedroom, not the
king on his throne, that is capable of miming the deepest truth about God, which is God’s
unity by love, and do so in a way that infinitely transcends the sexuality of mere beasts.
In their love for each other, the couple mimes (or reflects) the faithfulness and love of
God and creates new life.

Romans 1:20 tells us God’s eternal power and divine nature are revealed in the natural
order, but says nothing about love. To be truly human means to love and to serve. Pagan
society understood the serving part, but without knowing love paganism explained the
creation of humans to be the work of lazy gods who needed slaves to feed them with
sacrifices. The emperor served the gods, and the people supported the emperor.
When an ancient middle-eastern king built a palace or a temple, there would be a day of
dedication upon completion. When the building was a temple, the dedication ceremony
would invite the deity to move in.² This kind of ceremony can be observed even today in
connection with the opening of Buddhist or Hindu temples.

Genesis 1 describes a process of construction that parallels the activity of kings. When
construction of the world was complete on day six and the male and female caretakers
appointed to their task in Genesis 1:26-28, then the God who rules the world could move
in to his temple/palace world.³ The ancient reader would imagine the Deity moving in on
day seven—the day Moses would later call the Sabbath in Exodus. Sabbath rest is not
total inactivity. Rather, it celebrates the day God entered his earthly residence so God
could walk with his people in the Garden. Emmanuel, God with us, is already implied in
Genesis.

We see this illustrated in the seven-day celebration Solomon sponsored for the dedication
of his temple in 2 Chronicles 7. After a full week of sacrificial ceremonies, Solomon
prayed, and the whole event climaxed when God’s glory filled the temple in response to
Solomon’s prayer. In this way Solomon’s dedication mimics Genesis 1.
Genesis 1 can truly be called the original human charter establishing the function and role
of humanity on earth, which is called to both govern and to serve as one humanity. Jesus
revealed the truth that in order to govern we must serve, and in order to serve we need the
authority to govern, and we have all that in Jesus. We see Emmanuel in Genesis when
God came to walk in the garden, Emmanuel in the New Testament when Jesus came to
remove our sin and share our suffering, and Emmanuel today by the Spirit of Christ that
has come to dwell in us and make us one.

1 Nahum Sarna, Genesis (Philadelphis: Jewish Publication Society, 1989), p. 12.
2 John H. Walton, The Lost World of Genesis One (Downers Grove, Il: InterVarsity, 2009), pp. 72-78.
3 Walton, loc cit.