4.2 Meaning of Image
© 2015 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Image
I have long pondered this word “image,” what it means, and how it applies to us. We know it is much more than an obscure Old Testament phrase because the central statements of the gospel regarding God’s purpose for us revolve around this little word, “image.” Thus all of my study and writing has circled around, in one way or another, how every line of Scripture must find its way through this word, “image,” developing its meaning and taking it in every direction God intends.
Then God (Elohim) said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion . . . So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him. . . (Genesis 1:26-27).
Tselem
Everything I teach and every present revelation the Lord Jesus opens to me in our walk together comes out of the definition of this one Hebrew word: צַלְמֵנ b·tzlm·nu. The center part – tzlm, is tselem, when the vowels that Hebrew does not use are inserted. The 17 times tselem is found in the Old Testament, the translators use the English word “image” in reference either to the image of God or to the image of some evil thing. I know little about Hebrew, but I once did a word study on the word tselem and determined that tselem means “a visible representation of an invisible spirit.”
Visible Representation
EVERY PART of the revelation that grows inside of me is rooted in and comes out of a continual contemplation of that definition of that word. Of course, I bring that definition into the New Testament and there I find it written all through the revelation of Jesus Christ as if that definition is correct and as if God places everything upon the meaning of that one word – Let Us make man in Our IMAGE!
That is, let us make man to be the visible representation to all creation of our invisible Person and Godhead. I also apply two other definitions to every word God speaks, out from the meaning of this word, “image.”
Personal and Without Limit
I define every word God speaks as personal – Jesus – revealed personally in me. And I define every word God speaks as being without limitation unless God Himself has placed some limitation upon that word in that passage.
And so it is by that statement of God in Genesis Chapter 1 that I have determined that Romans 8:29 must be the most important verse in the Bible. “From the beginning, God determined to conform me to the image of His Son.” Out from that same word “image” and its definition, I have also sought then, the other nine most important verses of the Bible that are the structure of this course.
My Lens of Seeing
Here is what I am saying. I take the entirety of the Bible, a book I know by the revelation of the Spirit, by much reading and study, and by having sat under endless hours of anointed teaching coming out of the throne room of God, I take all of it and cause it to pass through this one word – IMAGE. And I see all of it finding its fulfillment inside of me – Faith – Christ made personal in me. More than that, I see it as it must mean without limitation or boundary of any kind. Then, as all that I know of all that God speaks, as it comes out on the other side of that word, “image,” so I SEE and so I teach.
Idol
From Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary:
- Tselem; from an unused root meaning to shade; a phantom, i.e. (fig.) illusion, resemblance; hence a representative figure, especially an idol; - image, vain show.
Temple
A temple is similar in purpose. The temple was the dwelling place of the invisible God. Anyone who wanted to worship God was required to go to His temple to meet with Him there. No one was allowed to worship anywhere they wanted. God filled the temple with His presence. But the only representation God allowed in His temple was a wooden box covered with gold, adorned with cherubs, and containing the covenant He and Israel had signed together.
And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form; you only heard a voice (Deuteronomy 4:12).
Body
I also am an invisible person dwelling in a physical form and in a spirit form at the same time. My body is not “me,” but you will never know me apart from my body. If you want to know me, you must come to where my body is and commune with me through my body. As you engage with my body, you are engaging with me. You see me as I express myself through my body. My body has taken on and expresses all of my characteristics. My body is the visible representation of the invisible person, me, living inside. The same is true of my spirit body to all heavenly beings.
Understanding Image
Dr. Paul Brand, in the three chapters I had you read, “Likeness,” “Mirrors,” and “Restoration,” expresses so many of the nuances of meaning found in the concept of “image.” He pointed out that many different explanations as to how man is the image of God have been presented through the centuries. When I was a boy, I was given to understand that since God has three parts, we have three parts. – Image meant little more than that. Everyone wants to limit the concept of “the image of God” to one or another set of limited and shallow similarities. Several New Testament verses, however, blow apart any thought of a limited definition of image.
God in Us
- Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit (Ephesians 2:20-22).
- That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith . . . that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:19).
- If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him (John 14:23).
Likeness
It has been more than thirty years since I read this chapter in Dr. Paul Brand’s book, In His Image, yet the picture he presents of how his own teacher’s expression passed through him as he taught and became the expression of many native doctors around the Indian Ocean has stayed with me clearly until now. Thus I reach for this book first to impart “image” to you.
- Think of how the word “image” is used to denote political appearance or advertising, a false appearance.
- Think of how God is invisible – to heaven as much as earth.
- Make a list of the several ways “image of God” has been interpreted through the centuries.
- Follow this link to look at Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel​
Dr. Paul Brand makes this statement in Chapter 1: “Because even professional theologians have failed to reach a consensus over the centuries, I will not attempt a comprehensive definition saying the image of God is this and not that.”
- Make note that, while meditating on aspects of image and likeness, Dr. Brand leaves their meaning open.
Mirrors
Reflection in a mirror is central to the meaning and fulfillment of image. In his second chapter, Dr. Paul Brand takes the time to develop a profound picture for us to contemplate – the horrifically deformed heroes of England.
- Think of how these men were separated into two groups: those who were received by their loved ones and those who were rejected by their loved ones. Think of the rest of their lives.
- Consider the Quasimodo complex.
- Think about how quickly we humans categorize people according to shallow elements of outward appearance, quick to condemn and ostracize those who do not appear “right.”
I did not realize the extent to which Dr. Paul Brand’s depiction of likeness would confirm the things the Lord has taught me concerning the stories we humans create in which to live.
- Look at the story into which the airmen who were rejected by their wives retreated. Look at how those airmen whose wives continued to love them regardless became leaders in society in spite of their scarred faces.
- Think about the extent to which your own story, the images of self in which you live, come out of the reflections of yourself you have seen in the mirrors of other people.
- Think of how Christians so often require outward performance of others, rather than the development of the heart.
In chapter 3, Dr. Paul Brand raises the question of how we are to know what God is like.
- Think about how “gods” seem to be created in man’s image.
- Think about God’s commandment to Israel not to make any drawing or representation of God. What happened with even the simple artifacts God did allow them to have? How many of those things were made “divine.”
- Think about how it is that when the “gods” take on various visible forms, they become trinkets to wear or casual parts of the landscape.
- Consider what Dr. Brand means by “restoration.”​
To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him? (Isaiah 40:18 – read the whole chapter). How do we know what God is like? The Old Testament seems to present God as a mighty heavenly being, with an angelic glory. Yet Jesus said that none of the Old Testament prophets ever saw God as He is.
Then Jesus said this: “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” God gave us one way only to know what He is like. He told us to look at a Man, a Man who lives in our own hearts.
What Was Jesus Like?
He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Isaiah 53:2-3
Could I suggest something radical and revolutionary to you? These words express what God looks like. Man on this earth doesn’t like God very much at all; no one I have ever heard of or known has ever wanted to be like God. It is God who says, “I am meek and lowly of heart.”
- Consider how lepers can reflect the image of God.
“God’s Spirit shines most brightly through the frailty of the weak, the impotence of the poor, the deformity of the hunchback. Even as bodies are broken, God’s image can grow brighter.” Dr. Paul Brand
- Consider Willie Long in love with God.
- Consider Mary Verghese, surrendering to weakness, surrendering to being the image of God pouring through her broken body.
- Consider Dr. Paul’s mother, Granny Brand, and the intensity of the gaze of those who saw in her face the Lord Jesus.
Conformed to His Image
In the lesson “Applying the Most Important,” I stated that I have sought after my entire adult life and over the last eight years written more than three thousand pages of text for one primary purpose, because I would like to discover what God really means when He says to me, “I am determined to conform you, Daniel, to the image of My Son.” This Word has won my heart; it has become all of my life.
We will never come to an end of discovering all the many ways in which God created us to be just like Himself. And we will never come to an end of discovering all the many ways by which God reveals Himself through us as His image.
Your Task
This lesson simply introduces to you some of the depths of meaning available to us in the present moment as we grapple with this absolute fact of reality. (Speak this as yourself.)
“God created me to reveal Himself through me to the universe.”
- Be sure to finish the reading of the three chapters from Dr. Paul Brand’s In His Image. Use this lesson as a guide to thinking about the things you read.
- Read the chapters more than once, if you wish. (And the book.)
- Then write the assignment for this session. This is not a word study, but rather a concept study.