Jamin Bradley

In the Bible, both God and the gods had selems, a Hebrew word that appears about 15 times throughout the Old Testament. While many Bible translations render this word as “idol,” some render it consistently as “image.” This is a fine translation, because what is an idol but a statue? It’s an image of what a god looks like. They’re a form of art meant to convey something to its viewer.

But Yahweh’s artful selem is more than the wood and stone that the gods’ selems consist of. Yahweh’s selem is a living, breathing, moving human, sculpted from dirt and animated to life. As the peak of creation, humans can do for planet Earth what other creatures cannot: they can represent Yahweh. They have the capacity to cultivate earthly creation in a way that will mirror Heaven. They have the inherent power and ability to be Yahweh’s hands and feet on the earth.

All humans are made in the image of God, and therefore, all humans are made with this purpose and ability, whether they embrace it or not. We are not accidents. We are not purposeless. We are not powerless. We are born on mission, we live on mission, and we die on mission. And as Christians, we will one day inherit the fullness of that completed mission when the new heaven and new earth come to fruition. In the meantime, we aim to live like Jesus, the perfect image of God (2 Cor 4:4), an image to which Christians are being conformed (Ro 8:29) and will one day inherit completely (1 Jn 3:2).

But while we all bear the image of God, we must also recognize that there is no other imager exactly like us. We all have the ability to reveal something about God through the differences in our personalities, interests, and abilities.

While your job as the image of God is to grow in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22-23), you do not need to become less yourself to do that. Sure, we are to live, act, and become like Jesus, but we are not to devalue ourselves to do so. If God wanted his image homogenized, he would have made robots or clones that were all exact copies of one another. He would have created a hive mind that shared a single consciousness, opinion, and understanding. Instead, he chose diversity. He created a world where not everyone can do the same things. Even when he sent his Holy Spirit to empower Christians, he did not go so far as to give them all the same giftings. You are supposed to be unique, and that’s not wrong unless you subject your image to the leading of Sin or idolize your unique image. 

Our theology doesn’t always account for this. We’ve all sung songs, heard sermons, or prayed the phrase, “All of you and none of me, Jesus.” This isn’t the Bible’s prayer for you. You are a God-shaped vessel of the Holy Spirit that no one else can be. You are supposed to be different. Jesus wants you as you, not as someone else. He’s not thinking, “Man, I wish you were more like your parents, but instead, I got stuck with you.” While he unified his disciples around his teaching and expectations, he didn’t try to force them into the same personality and giftings. In many ways, he seemed to choose disciples who were very different from each other.

Even in the new creation where we all finally look like Jesus, we still have differences! The world to come is a diverse utopia with one belief: Jesus is King. But they still have their own languages. They still have their own nations. They still have their own cultures, customs, culinary tastes, and ways of life.

Likewise, evangelism in the here and now isn’t about forcing people into a white American culture—it’s about inviting the nations to make Jesus king of their culture. When this happens, some parts of their culture will continue, some will fall away, and it often takes time for them to figure that out. We must stop demonizing “different” and ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom.

You are you: a unique person trying to cultivate the image of God more richly in your life through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And that’s what God is looking for.