Biblical Sexuality, Pt.1 - What is a Human?

This is the first post in my discussion of biblical sexuality taken from a chapel workshop I did at the school where I currently teach.

What is a human?

Before we can begin to discuss the nature of sexuality, we must first ask the question "What is a human?" At different times, science and religion have proposed different answers to this question:

• A highly-evolved animal (evolution)
• A being physically resembling God (Catholicism)
• A part of the universal deity (Hinduism)
• A three-part conglomerate of body, soul, and spirit (traditional theology)

Each of these answers attempts to identify a human by its composition. The primary focus of much Western thought and especially theology has been to answer the question "How is a human different from an animal?" Eastern thought it seems attempts to identify man's place in the infinite, grand design of existence. Philosophy has at times denied that individuals even exist. Suffice it to say, defining what exactly a human is has been a challenge for people of all times.

As is so often the case, it seems the issue with these definitions is that they ask the wrong question. Rather than asking "What makes humans different from animals?" or "Where does humanity fit?" We need to start with "Where did humans come from, who made us, and why?"

To answer those questions, we must define humanity as God does in his Word, which says that man is more than the sum total of his parts. Man is made in God's image.

Image of God

It seems to me that one of the frequently forgotten (or simply neglected) doctrines in Scripture is the fact that God created human beings in His own image. Consider Genesis 1:26-27:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man in his own image, 

in the image of God he created him; 

male and female he created them.

This passage tells us many truths, but four points immediately pop out at me:

1. Humans are made in God's image
2. Both men and women bear God's image
3. The purpose for their being made in God's image is so that they can rule creation
4. The image of God is not clearly defined

Points 1&2 are generally accepted today, so I won't dwell on them here (although, as I will discuss in a later post, we need to do much better at applying those truths). Point 3 is interesting, as we don't often consider it, and I'll come back to it in a minute. However, I want to park for a moment on point 4, since the definition of the image of God has been a point of great discussion historically.

Various definitions have been proposed as to the nature of the image of God through the centuries:

• Personality – intellect, emotion, will
• Morality – choosing right and wrong
• Relationality – experiencing relationships
• Spiritual nature – immaterial part like God
• “Functional holism” – the capacity to carry out functional and relational responsibilities in relationships [1]

The most convincing argument I have heard agrees with the last definition. As noted theologian Millard Erickson put it:

“They are those qualities of God that, reflected in human beings, make worship, personal interaction, and work possible.” [2]

This definition - that the image of God consists of those attributes of God that are necessary to carry out our function - melds well with God's purpose for creating humans in His image: mediatorial rulership.

Mediatorial is a technical word for doing something in place of another, so God made humans to rule creation in His stead. Now, obviously God is still in control of all things, but as images of God living our lives, we humans exert dominance over the world, as we were designed to do.

Image of God and Gender

There is one more point from Genesis 1:27 which I want to touch on; its the fact that gender is a major component of the image of God.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

At first glance, this concept might not be obvious. However, in light of the context and the flow of Genesis 1-2, I believe this truth becomes clear.

Genesis 1 relates the account of God's creation of everything in existence over six literal, 24-hour days. In the first three days, He created the realms of life on earth (sea, sky, land) and on the last three days He filled those realms (sun, moon, stars; air/sea animals; land animals and humans).

Genesis 2 focuses on the last day of creation - day 6 - and specifically highlights the creation of human beings. Where chapter one records the event simply (v.26-28), chapter two explains how God first made Adam, then had Adam name the animals, put him into a deep sleep, and then made Eve from Adam's rib and brought her to him.

Genesis 1 is dotted with instances where God surveys His creation and declares His work "good" (v. 10, 12, 18, 25, 31). However, chapter two takes place between 1:25 and 1:31, and in 2:18 (immediately after making Adam, placing him in the garden, and giving him directions) God says for the first time that something is "not good."

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

The idea here is not that man alone is trouble, or that men need wives to make them complete, or that for every man the ultimate purpose for existing is to be a husband and father. This simply means that humanity was incomplete with only males present.

Since humans were made to image God, and since humanity with only males was "not good" (not "bad" but "incomplete") it follows that humanity cannot fully image God with only one of the two genders.

“His sexuality is not simply a mechanism for procreation which Man has in common with the animal world; it is rather a part of what it means to be like the Creator.” [3]

The Value of Human Life

All humans are created in the image of God. One of the clear implications of this truth is that human life is intrinsically valuable. In fact, Scripture makes this assertion clear very early on in Genesis 9:6.

Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. 

The very foundation of the concept of capital punishment is that the life of a human is of infinite value because a human life takes its value from God Himself. But this principle is applied in other ways as well. Regarding the tongue, James says in James 3:9-10:

With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 

The phrase "likeness of God" refers back to the idea that humans are made in God's image. Because every person bears God's image, James says, we must be careful of the words we use when speaking to God's representatives.

This is the reason we should be kind, courteous, and loving to all people; the theological basis for human decency is that people bear God's image, and if we value God, we will value His image.

Implications

A human being is the crowning glory of God’s creation, a being made in His own image in order to carry out His intended role as a mediatorial ruler for God on earth. But what does that mean for everyday life?

Here are several major philosophical implications of the image of God:

• We are most human when we are fulfilling our intended purpose
• Humans belong to and are subject to God and his laws
• All humans are of equal, infinite value
• Humans are responsible for ruling creation as God's mediatorial rulers

What are the practical ramifications of those implications?

• Murder (intentionally destroying God's image) is wrong
• Abortion (intentionally destroying God's image) is wrong
• Rape/kidnapping/abuse (physically harming another image of God) is wrong
• Slander, rudeness, profanity (mentally/spiritually harming another image of God) is wrong
• Sexism (rejecting the fact that both genders equally bear God's image) is wrong
• Racism (denying the fact that all ethnicities equally bear God's image) is wrong

This list could go on and on. The point is that we need to seriously consider the fact that every time we encounter another human being, we encounter a being who has infinite value and deserves to be treated as such because he or she bears God's image by design.

This truth should radically change how we view and treat people.

Sources:
1. Bruce Ware, in Biblical Foundations for Manhood and Womanhood
2. Millard Erickson, Christian Theology
3. Paul K. Jewett, Man as Male and Female
All Scripture references come from the ESV