Tselem: Image-Bearers
This is the first in a series of posts that I'm going to be writing where I'll discuss some of my deeply held beliefs. I feel strongly about the importance of identifying where the Bible, Philosophy, and Psychology converge and build upon one another. I hope that my thoughts can be illuminating and promote deep, beneficial conversation for the purpose of seeking the Truth. As always, I'm happy to engage in conversations surrounding these concepts for the mutual benefit of everyone involved.
Tselem
Every so often, I'll go on a word study. Sometimes these word studies are short detours. Sometimes they take on a life of their own. I savor it when I have enough time to slow down and follow where these studies lead.
In this case, I did a word study on the concept of "images" and how the word is used in the Bible. It led me down a fascinating path that redefined how I think about several concepts in the Bible.
The Hebrew word commonly translated into the English word "image" is Tselem (tseh'-lem).
In Genesis 1:26 God says the following:
"Let us make man in our image after our likeness"
I found it interesting that in other places where this word is used in the Bible, it often is a word used to describe idols. I found that there are a lot of Hebrew words used for the concept of idols, (Tselem is only one of them) but I found it interesting that God would use the word to describe Mankind during his Creation.
It was strange to me that the word would be used to describe man, as well as objects of idolatry. The Bible doesn't speak too highly of idols and idol worship, yet God called mankind "very good".
In English, the word image means a representation of something. It typically is a visual representation, like a painting, or photograph, but it also can be used in other ways, like a mental picture.
Idols in the days that the writing of the Old Testament were made to be representations of something. The "carved images" referred to throughout the Pentateuch were simply statues made of wood or metal. It was understood by the ancient cultures that a Tselem was a representation of the god. A representation of the ideal. Not the ideal itself.
When God made Adam "in his image" and "in his likeness", it meant that he wanted to create a representation of himself; a way in which the Ideal of Yahweh could be made manifest on earth.
This means that God created mankind to be a representation(or reflection) of his perfection and glory on earth. As we know from Genesis 3, Adam failed in this purpose to be a representation of Yahweh. Instead, he sought to make himself into the Ideal.
Through Adam's failure and through our own failures, we chose to aspire to be Yahweh instead of simply his image-bearer. Yahweh could have simply started over. He could have rid the earth of his fallen image-bearers and created something new. However, Yahweh chooses to renew his creation instead of destroying it. He chooses the path in which his Glory will be most magnified and nothing less.
He chose to make himself into the image bearer. He became man (the Tselem) so that he could be the perfect representation of His own Ideal Nature. Yahweh's saving work through Jesus is called his Glory because it is the perfect representation of every aspect of his Nature for the world to see.
Jesus became the perfect Tselem.
Mankind Created to be Tselem
Since there has been a perfect representation on earth of Yahweh in Jesus, Jesus was able to be a perfect sacrifice for us who by nature seek to be the ideal ourselves. We are no longer bound under the weight of needing to be the perfect representation of Yahweh because Jesus has been the perfect image-bearer and has given himself to represent us.
In other words, our values and identities no longer need to rest on being the perfect representation of Yahweh. Now it rests on being children of Yahweh for those who choose to put faith in Jesus' work instead of our own ability.
This is why the act of believing that we can be "good enough for God" is such a grave misunderstanding of Christianity. Anything short of perfection is not a good enough representation of Yahweh. To believe that we can be a representation good enough of the Perfection of God himself is to render Jesus' work useless.
This describes the theological concept of Justification. Considering that we are made to be the image-bearers of God also puts new emphasis on what Sanctification means.
Imperfect Tselem
God has made us for the purpose of being redeemed image-bearers. To imitate Jesus, and by so doing, represent the Ideal of Yahweh. Because of Adam's failure to represent the Ideal, as well as our own failure, we want to make ourselves into the Ideal. It's in our very nature to be ambitious to become a god ourselves. Through the fall, we now have "our eyes open" which means we seek our own Glory above Yahweh's. I hope to expand on this concept in a future post.
Yahweh still wants us to be image bearers because that's what we were created to be. That is our purpose in Creation, there is nothing else we were designed to be. He wants to dwell in us on earth making his Glory known. We are still His Tselem even though we often try to make ourselves the Ideal.
We were never created to be the image-bearer for anything other than Yahweh. We were not created to be gods, and we were not created to reflect the glory of anything less than the Ideal of Perfection.
To believe that we can live in whatever way we please is also a great misunderstanding of our condition. To believe that we are free to live however we want is to be a representation of an ideal other than Yahweh Himself.
We're bound to make ourselves miserable trying to do something we were never designed to do in the first place.
Dwelling
Finally, idols in ancient cultures were not only representations of an ideal, but they would also be a place where the god would be able to be present, but not bound to.
This article is a fascinating read on the topic.
In other words,
the metal or wood statue would not be the object of worship, but it would be a tangible object in which the god could dwell within and be worshiped.
Just as the ancient idols were believed to dwell in the carvings and images made to represent them, Jesus also promised that the Holy Spirit would come and dwell in those that he has redeemed.
"for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Acts 1:5
"...do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?..." - 1 Corinthians 6:19
Having the Holy Spirit inside us as Christians is part of what it means to be an image-bearer. Yahweh not only redeems his image-bearers but also dwells within them.
As Christians, we are not only representations of the Ideal of Yahweh on earth, but also the Tselem in which Yahweh chooses to dwell.
Conclusion
A picture I keep coming back to when I think about a practical word picture of what it means to bear the image of Yahweh is the concept presented in a children's book about the moon. I think about it like this:
The moon has no light of its own. When we see the moon in the night sky, we only see the reflected light of the Sun. The Sun is the source of the glory of the light. How foolish of the moon to say "look at how bright I am! Look at all these things I'm illuminating! I'm a source of light in the darkness of the night!"
The moon is in fact a dead, dark, ball of dust! It generates no light of its own. It is the Sun that is fusing together countless numbers of atoms generating 27,000,000 degrees of heat and creating enough energy "to melt a bridge of ice 2 miles wide, 1 mile thick in 1 second, that extends the entire way from the Earth to the Sun.”
By contrast, all the moon does, is position itself in the night sky so that it receives (Abides) in the light of the sun, and by so doing, reflects the light (Glory) of the sun making it shine with brilliance!
"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit." - John 15:4
"When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his had as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God." - Exodus 34:29
May we as followers of Jesus not live trying to outshine the Sun, but instead be a humble representation of its Glory.
-Josh