The Trinity
and
Man as the Image of God
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness..." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them
-Genesis 1:26-27, NIV
The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
-Genesis 2:7, NIV
I recently had the opportunity to speak with some members of the Jehovah’s Witness faith about their beliefs. As I am not familiar with the details of their beliefs, this was a valuable opportunity for me to learn about the message they spread. They left with me some literature1, which I have been reading, and it has raised some interesting questions (as well as points of difference between their faith and my own).
The first major point of contention that I found came on pages 4 and 5 in the quotation:
Jehovah has a body, but it is not like ours. "God is a Spirit," says the Bible. ... A spirit is a form of life that is much higher than ours.
The following argument2 is partially a discourse on what Christians in general believe about the nature of God and partially my own interpretation of such matters. I hope I don’t misrepresent these points, passing one off for the other, or putting words into the mouths of other denominations. I am no theologian, so I am not particularly well versed in such matters. But these statements seem obvious to me as a part of any form of Christianity.
First, as to the nature of God, as seen by most Christians3: God reveals himself in the Bible as having a "triune" nature, meaning that he has 3 "parts" or "persons". These parts are called by different names: God the Father (sometimes the one meant when the general term "God" is being applied); Jesus Christ, the Son; and the Holy Spirit. The belief in the existence of these 3 parts is based on scripture (see the list of passages at the end of the essay4).
These different parts have different functions. The Belgic Confession (Article 8) discusses these roles, as do Questions and Answers 25-64 of the Heidelberg Catechism. I will try to summarize them briefly here - partially based on the Belgic Confession’s descriptions and the Biblical references, but also based on my own understanding of the matter (limited and uneducated as that may be).
God the Father is the creator, the source. He is the "mind" of the Trinity, inventing the world, setting it into motion, planning the paths of men and the method for their salvation. Jesus Christ, the Son, is the physical "body" of the Trinity, being "full man"5. He experienced the physical temptations and sufferings that all humans suffer through their bodies. The Holy Spirit is the "soul" of God, communicating to us God’s existence and will6. He teaches, testifies to and molds the souls of humans.
Perhaps my analogy has already become clear to you from these definitions. In Genesis, God speaks of creating man in his image. The phrases used, though, run as follows (emphasis is my own):
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness..."
It would appear that God the Father (as the creator and inventor) was speaking to the complete Trinity ("let us make man"), not just to one part of himself. He also intended to make man in the image of the Trinity, not just the image of one part of the Trinity ("in our image, in our likeness"). His intention was to create something like unto himself – with mind, body and soul. As the Father creates, so mankind is able to think, invent and choose. As the Son physically lived out his life, so humans have a temporal and mortal body and life. As the Holy Spirit wills and urges6, so humans have a third nature that molds the behavior of the other two natures, communicating discernment (morality) and the awareness of God into the physical world.
The process of the creation of the three-part human is described in Genesis 2:7. "The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground" - as the physical body of Jesus was formed - "and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life," - the soul, like the Holy Spirit - "and the man became a living being" - that could think and choose as the Father does. Humans, then, are truly the Image of God, copies of his own nature.
This is not to say that we are equal to God - being "copies" does not mean that we are "exact copies". God (in all his parts) existed before the creation of the physical world. However, man was created first inside the physical world. He was (and, for the most part, still is) unaware of his full nature. His experience comes mostly from his physical senses, and the other parts of his nature are only revealed by the motion of the Holy Spirit urging him to realize things beyond his body. God, as the Trinity, has full self-awareness and full power and control over his three parts, so all of his actions (or the actions of any one part) are perfectly attuned to his will. Humans, not being aware of their full nature, and not having such power and control, are incapable of such perfect action without the intervention of God in their lives. On the other hand, since our natures are similar and the Holy Spirit is working in us6, humans aspire to such perfection, whether they are aware of it or not7.
Now to bring this around to the point. To state that "Jehovah has a body, but it is not like ours," is to say that we are not created in his image - he is completely distinct from us. It also implies that God has only one nature and is not a Trinity.
Furthermore, to say, "A spirit is a form of life that is much higher than ours," implies that spirits are "better" than people are (where "people" means, apparently, just physical bodies). Unfortunately, the Bible also speaks of spirits that are neither God nor human - angels and demons. If spirits are really better than people, that means that demons are better than people are. Oh, the horror of that thought! But, fortunately, to acknowledge that "demons are spirits", we can now see that spirits can be either good or bad. They are neither "higher" nor "lower" than other forms of life in that respect. I think a better way of describing a spirit, that may come closer to the point, is this: "Spirits are forms of existence that we know little about, since we have a very limited awareness of them."
Perhaps the point the literature was attempting to convey was that "God is better than people." With this point, I have no argument. In fact, I will boldly state that God will always be better than people. God is the masterpiece; we are the copies. God is complete and self-sufficient; we are incomplete, drawing our completion from him as the Holy Spirit permeates us. God is perfect; we are fallen and sinful. Our only hope is salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Finally, God is the creator, the infinite; we are the created, the limited. We will always rely on God’s strength and wisdom for our existence. We are corollaries. God is our complement (fulfillment, completion).
In this short (and, as stated, under-educated) argument, I hope to have drawn out several important facts. First, God is not a distinct class of creature that is unlike the human creature. Second, no one part of God’s nature is "better" or "worse" than another part - they are simply different forms of the same perfect being with different functions. Third, as "copies" of God’s nature, though we are incomplete and have limited awareness, we are being urged by the Holy Spirit to become more like God’s perfect image - something that would be impossible if we were completely unlike him or if his nature was "much higher" than ours.
1"What Does God Require of Us?" ©1996, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania
2"Argument" in the sense of "discussion of the point" or "alternative hypotheses."
3By the word "Christians", I am referring to people that meet two prerequisites: First, they believe in Jesus Christ as described in the books of the Gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). Second, they believe in the Old and New Testaments as God's revelation of his nature. A list of books accepted by the Christian Reformed denomination can be found in Article 4 of the Belgic Confession.
4Matt. 3:16-17; Matt 28:18-19; Luke 4:18 (Isa. 61:1); John 14:26; John 15:26; 2 Cor. 13:14; Gal. 4:6; Titus 3:5-6
5Colossians 2:9 - "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form"
6Galatians 4:6 - "Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, 'Abba, Father.'"
7This is obvious in the universal existence of morality and concepts of God and the supernatural (or "non-physical").
