“On each day of creation, God sees that what He has created is good. Only after God creates humans does God proclaim His creation to be very good. Humans are created as beings capable of cooperating with God to accomplish the divine will. God does not simply use us humans, but works with us, entering into our lives to create a synergy between Himself and His human creatures.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh)
“We are created to image God, to be his imagers. It is what we are by definition. The image is not an ability we have, but a status. We are God’s representatives on earth. To be human is to image God.” (Michael S. Heiser)
“God’s project is to make human beings. This is what God does, and this is who God is: The philanthropos, the lover of the human being. In the first chapter of Genesis then, God announces his project: to create a human being in his image. To eventually achieve this, he creates males and females, the creatures called to grow into the fullness he has in view, a type or a rough sketch of the one to come, as the Apostle said, (Rom 5:14). God thus provides a framework within which that growth can take place, a context for being ‘humanized.’” (Fr. John Behr)
“Everything said of the humanity of Christ is also something that reveals what it is for anyone to be human. A result is the revelation of human dignity and of the fullness of what it means to be created in the “image of God.” The “dignity” of human beings is found in our logicity – the “unseen,” eternal aspect of our existence. Where this unseen aspect is denigrated or ignored, brutality and genocide inevitably follow. It is not the case that Christianity has not seen its own use of brutality and genocide – but this has only been when its theology was overridden and ignored for sinful purposes.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“Man can pervert his personhood but he cannot eliminate it entirely… personhood may appear to be perverted in a fallen state of existence but not entirely extinguished…In its best moments, humanity reaches toward divine similitude. In its worst moments, it demonically parodies God.” (Metropolitan John Zizioulas, Vigen Guroian)
“In this passage [Luke 20:20-26] Jesus points to the image (Grk εἰκών, eikōn) of Caesar on the coin. This same Greek word is used in Gen 1:26 (LXX) to state that humanity is made in the “image” of God. Jesus is making a subtle yet powerful contrast: Caesar’s image is on the denarius, so he can lay claim to money through taxation, but God’s image is on humanity, so He can lay claim to each individual life.” (NET Bible, Luke 20:24)
“This, by the way, is a key piece of what it means to be made in the image of God. We tend to try to work out particular human attributes that we might share with God as the “image”—perhaps free will, especially—but it is better to think of us as “imagers” of God. We are made by Him to be His imagers, to do what He does and therefore to show Him to the world. This is why Christ Himself is called the “image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4, Col. 1:15). We show ourselves to be Christ’s adopted brothers by also imaging the same Father as He Himself does.” (Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick)
“We have arrived at an understanding that changes our notions about possessions. The source of all that we have, including life itself, is God the Creator. We live on the borrowed time that the Creator gives and takes away. Everything we have is on loan, and we will soon have to leave it to others. Our life and our possessions, therefore, are not our own. We are only stewards of them. And the Lord will hold us accountable for our use of them.” (Fr. Basil)
“He who paid the price of His blood for us did not ask a price from us, because He redeemed us not with gold or silver but with His precious blood. Therefore, you owe that price with which you have been bought. Even though He does not always demand it, you still owe it. Buy Christ for yourself, then, not with what few men possess, but with what all men possess by nature but few offer on account of fear. What Christ claims from you is His’ – that is, your soul which is made in the image of the Son of God.” (St. Ambrose of Milan, Dynamis 5/23/2019)
“The freedom to choose is the quintessential capacity for love. By making us in His image, God extends our ability to enter into loving relationships with Him and with other free beings. When we are tempted, we recall this ineffable truth of our human nature. Choice is always ours – and through choice we find the opportunity to return God’s love, even when we sin.” (Dynamis 9/23/2020)
“We see all around us in our culture the impulse of secular humanism: the so-called ideal of the perfection of man apart from God. We see this attempt to perfect man without God. For Eastern Christian spirituality, the perfection of man is only possible because the ‘image of God’ was deposited in man, according to which man was created (and which is the source of what is distinctly “human”), and which progresses to the likeness of the Creator through the deifying mysteries of the Church. It is an entirely spiritual anthropology encompassing all of man, including the faculties of his soul and body and their potential of being spiritualized.” (Kevin Allen)
“We wonder at the resurrection because it is so exceptional. Yet, it is by this exceptional act of God that we can see a deeper relationship between God and the creation—the creation is made to show God’s grandeur. There is a deep distinction between God and nature: Christians are not pantheists, calling everything God. Yet it is not a category error for God to “put on” humanity, since He made us after His image.” (Edith M. Humphrey)
“The search for freedom is at the heart of most of human history, and the desire for it is ingrained in us. We were created in the image of God, the source of true freedom. God is beyond being and non-being because He creates being—now that’s freedom….God’s most important gift to man, that which identifies him as a creature made in the image of God, is free will." (Father Barnabas Powell, Archbishop Dmitri of Dallas and the South)
“Do not confuse man, the image of God, with the wickedness that is in him, for the wickedness is only accidental, his misfortune, a sickness, an illusion of the devil; but his being, the image of God, still remains…Since we are made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27), the capacity for love is part of our inmost essence... He [Christ] shows us our potential to love. He does more than display for us an ideal – in a supreme act of love, He directly attacks the evil that negates our capacity to love.” (St. John of Krondstat, Dynamis 4/29/2014)
“Human worth is not based on possessions, achievements, physical attractiveness, or public acclaim. Instead, it is based on being made in God’s image…Knowing that we are made in God’s image and thus share many of His characteristics provides a solid basis for self-worth…Because we bear God’s image, we can feel positive about ourselves. Criticizing or downgrading ourselves is criticizing what God has made and the abilities He has given us…We attempt to build up an image in our own and others’ eyes because we lack the trust to believe that in God’s eyes being simply ourselves (ordinary) is enough.” (Life Application Study Bible, Genesis 1:26, Robert J. Wicks)
"The fallen state of Men prevents them from fully comprehending the deep truths of creation. The light of existence is sensed, but not comprehended...The human being, as an image of God, perceives the infinite within the finite." (Lisa Coutras)
“Our sinfulness affects our receptivity to others and restrains our openness and our very willingness to reach out to others. Only because the image of our Creator is found within us do we have sufficient vitality even to form relationships or to give and receive love.” (Dynamis 7/2/2014)
"We are made in the image of the creative God to be sub-creators. We can produce things that never would emerge naturally from mere physics or chemistry. God created clay and straw, but left it to us to make bricks. God created sand, but left it to us to use sand to fashion integrated circuits and fiber optics." (Jonathan Witt and Jay W. Richards)
"If someone believes that we are created in the image of God, they will inevitably live and treat people differently than if they think that the world, and those around them, are a result of spontaneous chance springing from primordial chaos." (Archimandrite Sergius)
“Love every person, regardless of his sinful state. Sin is sin, but the basis of a human being is one and only—the image of God." (St. John of Kronstadt)
#ArchimandriteSergius #StJohnofKrondstadt #LisaCoutras #JonathanWitt #JayWRichards #KevinAllen #EdithMHumphrey #StJohnofKrondstat #Dynamis #LifeApplicationStudyBible #RobertJWicks #FatherBarnabasPowelll #ArchbishopDmitriofDallasandtheSouth #NETBible #FrAndrewStephenDamick #FrBasil #StAmbroseofMilan #FrTedBobosh #MichaelSHeiser #FrJohnBehr #FatherStephenFreeman #MetropolitanJohnZizioulas #VigenGuroian