Practicing Christian Doctrine: An Introduction to Thinking and Living Theologically

by Beth Felker Jones

We cannot talk about how our creation in the image of God affects Christian practice without first acknowledging the brutal fact that the image of God in us has been distorted and broken by sin. In truth, if we want to speak about humans as humans really are—which is how we must speak if we want to practice our doctrine—then we must speak about sinful humanity, which is not, in the fullest sense, living in the image of God in the way God intends. Human beings are sinners. We are those who have denied our true being, forfeited our God-given role as the caretakers of creation, and broken our relationships with God and others. Does this mean that we can no longer talk about humans in the image of God? No—the imago Dei remains true of all human beings even under sin. It has been broken but not destroyed. And so we need to understand both our sin and its remedy. Only then will we be able to see what it means to bear God’s image aright.