Two Ways to Efface God’s Image

Throughout Scripture it seems that humanity is meant to do two things:

1. Be like God (Genesis 1:26-27)
2. Worship God (Genesis 4:1-4)

I don’t mean to propose some lens here that is the super right and only way to read Scripture. But I do notice that many of the sins throughout Scripture involve attempts to be like God through incorrect means and attempts to worship God through incorrect means.

For instance, in Genesis 9:5, drinking and eating blood is prohibited. In ancient though, this was often supposed to give you life, which was why the gods were offered blood in sacrifices. Indeed, even the Israelite concept of sacrifice required blood. So, drinking blood was, in a real way, an attempt to be god-like. Similarly, the sin in Eden was made appealing because of fruit’s ability to make people like God (Gen 3:5).

This is a big leap, but because it is a blog post and not a sermon or a paper, I propose that the life in Christ then, could be described as:

1. Worshiping God aright, through Jesus Christ.
2. Learning to be like God, through Jesus Christ.