Ethical relativism has seemingly fractured our culture into millions of isolated islands where everyone does what is right in his own eyes. In this world shaped by technology, people create virtual realms tailored to their interests and have extended this mentality into the real world as they create their own morality.
Nevertheless, the Bible teaches us that God has created all human beings in His image, which means that we share this God-given bond. One of the key elements of bearing God’s image is that He has inscribed His moral law on the hearts of all humans; ultimately, we all share the same God-given morality and ethics, though unregenerate people suppress it. We can explore this truth by first examining what the Bible has to say about image bearing. Second, we will ponder the theology of our commonly shared ethical norm. And third, we will think through the implications of what it means to have the law of God inscribed on our hearts. Can we interact with our neighbors on the basis of this commonly shared ethical knowledge?
what the bible says
When God created, He crowned His work with human beings, His image bearers. The threefold repetition of Adam and Eve’s image bearing signals the importance of God’s action: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’ . . . So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:26–27, emphasis added). That humans were created in God’s image means that they resemble God in many ways. This is not to say that humans physically look like God, for He is a spirit and does not have a body (John 4:24). Humans nevertheless reflect God’s attributes such as holiness, wisdom, power, knowledge, and righteousness. We bear these attributes in a creaturely and analogical way. The connection between similitude and image bearing appears in Genesis 5:3, where we read that Adam “fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image.” Genesis makes the subtle but amazing point that all humans are sons of God because they bear His likeness and image. That God invested humans with His image is no small thing, as the psalmist characterizes this as a tremendous blessing:
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet. (Ps. 8:3–6)
theology and ethics
When we gather this biblical data to formulate our theological understanding of the relationship between image bearing and ethics, there are rich truths that come to light. We must look at human beings within the broader context of creation to appreciate the nature of image bearing. John Calvin characterized creation as a mirror of God’s divinity, discernible from the architecture of the world. Calvin had in mind passages such as these: “For [God’s] invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made” (Rom. 1:20) and “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Ps. 19:1). Notably, the psalmist moves from the broader creation to the law of God: “The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul” (v. 7). God’s creation and law go hand in hand, as the creation reflects God’s being and attributes. What is true of the greater creation is also true of human beings. According to Calvin, humans are a microcosmic creation that mirrors the Creator. The macrocosmic and microcosmic creations both reflect their Creator. Herman Bavinck states that every creature is an embodiment of divine thought, but human beings in particular are the richest self-revelation of God, as they alone bear His divine image.