Manuel Kuhs
Almost all Christians assume that all men, even unbelievers, are still in the image of God. In fact, it is one of the most common explanations of the Christian rejection of murder and abortion—”all babies are in God’s image”—often referencing Genesis 9:6 and James 3:9.1 It is also an integral part of Evangelicalism’s apologetic for defending the biblical teachings on gender and “sexual orientation,” as exemplified by the Nashville Statement, released in 2017 by the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and signed by most leading conservative Evangelical theologians. Article 6 begins,
WE AFFIRM that those born with a physical disorder of sex development are created in the image of God and have dignity and worth equal to all other image-bearers.
This stems from a particular definition of the image of God as it is found in man: rationality, or sentience, i.e., that which sets us apart from mere animals.2
The Reformed Definition of the Image of God
However, the Reformed confessions are unanimous when explicitly defining what the Scriptures mean by the “image of God” as it relates to man: it refers to man’s spiritual and ethical conformity to God’s law.3 The Westminster Confession may be taken as representative (not as the most exhaustive but as the most famous), in chapter 4, “Of Creation”:
After God had made all other creatures, He created man, male and female [Gen. 1:27], with reasonable and immortal souls [Gen. 2:7; Eccl. 12:7; Luke 23:43; Matt. 10:28], endued with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, after His own image [Gen. 1:26; Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24].
Note that the image of God is distinct from being “reasonable” and “immortal,” and that the very definition of being created in the image of God includes the “ethical” image of God passages of Colossians 3:10 and Ephesians 4:24.
Not a single confession ever defines the image of God in a non-ethical manner. Thus the idea of the image of God referring to rationality, is not Reformed.
Several Reformed confessions only clearly include an ethical aspect to the image of God when teaching its complete loss during the Fall—these are not included below.
Beginning this section is William Farel’s Summary of 1529, which simply states that “Righteousness is the true image of God,”4 closely followed by the First Confession of Basel in 1534: “We confess that man was made blameless from the beginning according to the image of God (Gen. 1:27) [in] righteousness and holiness (Eph. 4:24).”5
Valdes’ Catechism (1549) declares that God “created him in his own image and likeness, inasmuch as man was immortal and impassible and was exceedingly powerful, wise, just, truthful, and faithful [i.e., ethical characteristics] (Gen. 2).”6
In 1551, the London Large Emden Catechism declares that “by virtue of” the image of God “Adam … was … holy, wise,”7 while the Confession of the Glastonbury Congregation, after explaining God’s image in man as consisting of “a soul which is a spirit, as God Himself is,” declares that this same “soul [God] adorned with all the gifts of His goodness, power, wisdom, holiness and justice, yea of all His virtues, so that in man God Himself might be discerned as if by the eye.”8
The Anglican Catechism of 1553, in dealing with the loss of the image of God (see next section), explains, “The image of God was defaced in them; and the most beautiful proportion of righteousness, holiness, truth, and knowledge of God was confounded, and in a manner utterly blotted out.”9
The Guanabara Confession (1558), though not giving a careful definition, cannot help but include something ethical in its treatment of God’s image, whereby “the first man was created in the image of God, [having] liberty and will as much to good as to evil, and only he understood the nature of free will, standing in his integrity.”
In 1559, the Geneva Students’ Confession declared that “men were created in the image of God, i.e., endowed with full uprightness of spirit, of will, and of every part of the soul, faculty, and sense.”10
The 1560/61 Confession of the Spanish Congregation in London, while not explicitly defining the image of God, surrounds the use of the term with ethical descriptives:
We believe also that after God created the world and all that is in it, He created man (Gen. 2): immortal (Wisdom of Sol. 2), just (Eccl. 7), good, wise, harmless, merciful, holy, a lover of truth. And in addition to all this, with the gifts that he was given, he could be in the world an image and living representation of the One who made him (Gen. 2). And so, being the principal work of His hands created for the sole end of knowing and glorifying God, he reflected God’s goodness, holiness, truth, wisdom, mercy, and purity, and as a creature so excellent was placed at the highest place of honor among all the corporal creatures, being made by the hand of his Creator superior and lord of the rest. And so, all these were created so that in every way they might be obliged to give reverence, obedience, fear, and love to their Creator, and to a perpetual thankfulness for these great benefits.11
A year later, the Hungarian Confessio Catholica (1562) minces no words, simply declaring, “The image and likeness of God, in which man was created, was a participation in the divine virtues in the Son of God, who is the image of God.”12
Not to be outdone in brevity and simplicity, the Second Helvetic Confession (1566) follows with “Man was from the beginning created of God after the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness, good and upright.”13
However, the prize for brevity in this case goes a few years later to Craig’s Catechism (1581):
Q. What is the image of God? (Eph. 4:24)
A. Perfect uprightness in body and soul.14
The Waldensians thrice confessed (in 1560, 1655 and 1662), “That man … had been created pure and holy in the image of God.”15
The Irish Articles (1615), drafted by Bishop Usher and forming in large part the basis of the Westminster Confession, assert, “Man being at the beginning created according to the image of God (which consisted especially in the wisdom of his mind and the true holiness of his free will), had the covenant of the law ingrafted in his heart.”16
The authoritative Formula Consensus Helvetica (1675) states that God “made man, the glory and end of his works, in his own image, and, therefore, upright, wise, and just.”17
Lastly, the Baptist Catechism of 1693 largely followed the Westminster Confession:
Q. 13. How did God create man?
A. God created man male and female, after His own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures (Gen. 1:26–28; Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24).18
Image of God Lost
The following Reformed creeds state that man lost the image of God when he fell. Note that this necessarily implies an ethical and spiritual component to the definition of the image of God itself.
Valdes’ Catechism (1549), not content with stating “that this man, by disobeying God, lost the image of God,” draws out the conclusion that “he was thus left like brute animals as to passibility and mortality and like the evil spirits as to injustice, impiety, malice, and malevolence.”19
London’s Large Emden Catechism (1551):
Q. 81. How should I understand this?
R[esponse]. Indisputably, the image and likeness of God, in which man was created in the beginning, along with all inclinations for good, was lost in him … However, the image of God in himself and in all of us he [Adam] so destroyed by his sin, that henceforth, all offerings intended for goodness were utterly destroyed both in himself and in all of us. (Eph. 4; Gen. 2; Ps. 8; Ecclesiasticus 15; Gen. 3; 1 Cor. 15).20
After defining the image of God as previously outlined, the Confession of the Glastonbury Congregation (1551) states about man after the Fall: “Being thus changed through sin, not in respect of qualities, but in his own nature, he hath ceased to be in the likeness of God, and hath put on the likeness of the devil, to whom he hath made himself subject.”21
While not explicitly stating that the image of God was “lost,” the Anglican Catechism of 1553 is nevertheless powerful in its repeated emphasis:
By original sin and evil custom, the image of God in man was at the beginning so darkened and the judgment of nature so corrupted that man himself does not sufficiently understand what the difference is between honesty and dishonesty, right and wrong. The bountiful God, therefore, wishing to renew that image in us … And forthwith the image of God was defaced in them; and the most beautiful proportion of righteousness, holiness, truth, and knowledge of God was confounded, and in a manner utterly blotted out. There remained the earthly image, joined with unrighteousness, guile, fleshly mindedness, and deep ignorance of godly and heavenly things. From this grew the weakness of our flesh; from this came this corruption and disorder of lusts and affections; from this came that pestilence; from this came that seed and nourishment of sins wherewith mankind is infected, and it is called original sin.22
The Guanabara Confession of 1558 declares regarding the image of God in Adam, “Since [Adam] did not fight to guard this gift of God [i.e., the image of God], therefore he was deprived of it by his sin, and all those who are descended from him, so that not one of the seed of Adam has anything of good in him.”23
The Scottish Confession (1560) is quite systematic:
Of the Creation of Man: We confess and acknowledge this our God to have created man (to wit, our first father Adam) to His own image and similitude (Gen. 1, 2). To whom He gave wisdom, lordship, justice, free will, and clear knowledge of Himself. So that in the whole nature of man, there could be noted no imperfection. From which honor and perfection, man and woman did both fall (Gen. 3) … Of Original Sin: By which transgression, commonly called original sin, was the image of God utterly defaced in man. And he and his posterity of nature became enemies to God, slaves to Satan, and servants to sin (Eph. 2; Rom. 5), that death everlasting has had, and insofar will have, power and domination over all that have not been, are not, or will not be regenerated from above (John 3).24
The Confession of the Spanish Congregation of London (1560/61), having as previously quoted carefully defined the image of God, continues in the subsequent section:
On the Fall of Man; on the Faculty of the Human Will before and after the Original Sin, and the Penalties of It, and the Cause of Evil: We confess that, man, at his creation, having received from the hand of God the powers of wisdom and the ability and will to know, love, and serve his Creator, persisting in his obedience (which is commonly called free will), received also a law (Gen. 2), in the obedience of which he exercised these admirable gifts; which, breaking by his own free will (Gen. 15), at the same time was marred from the image of God, and all the benefits that make him like God. And from the state of being wise, good, just, truthful, merciful, and holy he was rendered ignorant, evil, impious, a liar, and cruel, clothed in the image and likeness of the devil toward whom he moved as he departed from God, with the loss of that holy liberty with which he was created (Eccl. 7; 2 Peter 2), and thus was made a slave and servant of sin and of the devil.25
In 1562, the Hungarian Confessio Catholica states variously that “all men … have forsaken the image of God, are inclined only to evil,”26 “we have all lost the image of God, are destitute of divine grace,”27 “man, deprived as he is of the image of God,”28 “the old man, destitute of the image of God … when he was like an animal, a brute, a stone, a piece of wood.”29
Similarly, the Documents of the Debrecen Synod of 1567 repeatedly states,
since the image of God was lost by Adam … all have sinned and are in want, are deprived of the glory of God, i.e., by sin have lost the image of God … Likewise, that spirit and soul has departed from the soul of men by which the soul of man lived, understood, willed, and did good, namely, that image of God … men that have died in their sin and spoiled the image of God.30
The Synod at Szikszó (1568) states that “the image of God was lost through sin,”31 while the 1570 Confession of the Synod of Csenger says Christ can “restore the lost image of God.”32
Craig’s Catechism (1581) perhaps again wins for the most succinct treatment:
Q. What things did they lose through their fall? (Gen. 3:17)
A. The favor and image of God …33
To avoid any possible confusion, Craig’s Catechism later adds,
Q. From whence does this battle proceed?
A. From the two contrary images in mankind.Q. What are these images?
A. The image of God and the image of the serpent.34
Lastly, the Waldensians again confess thrice (in 1560, 1655 and 1662) regarding “The Fall of Adam: That man who had been created pure and holy in the image of God, deprived himself through his own fault of that blessed estate, giving his consent to the cunning speech of the devil.”35
The Possible Exception
Calvin’s Catechism (1537) provides the possible exception. I write “possible” because theoretically he may merely have had believing neighbours in mind when writing the following regarding the sixth commandment (though I doubt it):
Thou shalt not kill. Here we are forbidden all violence and injury and in general any offense which might wound the body of our neighbor. For, if we recall that man has been made in the image of God, we must hold our neighbor as holy and sacred, in such a way that he may not be violated without violating also the image of God in him.36
