Identity and idolatry by Richard Lints

Author:Richard Lints
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: idol;idol worship;image;image of God;creation;genesis 1;human identity;culture of desire;imago dei;New Studies in Biblical Theology;NSBT;Biblical theology;theology;Bible;Scripture;Christian;Christian theology;silver;silver series;D.A. Carson;
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2018-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Being in the image of the image

After Paul draws out the Adam–Christ typology in Romans 5, he argues in Romans 6 that identifying with Christ in his death will also result in being identified with him in his resurrection. Those who are baptized into Christ’s suffering and death will also be baptized into his resurrection. Then, in Romans 8, Paul claims that to share in being conformed to the image of the Son is to share in the death and resurrection pattern instituted and constituted by Jesus. Sharing the image of the one who is the image of God is to participate in his death and resurrection.64 This identification with the pattern (image) of Christ’s death and resurrection is nothing less than the gospel in summary form.65

The gospel finds itself in seed form, then, all the way back in Genesis 1 when God created humankind in the divine image. As the perfect image, Christ completes the original vocation of humankind and thereby shows humankind who they were originally intended to be.66 This does not happen, however, without experiencing the cross wherein the power of the idols was broken and death lost its sting. The perfect image not only reveals what redeemed humans will eschatologically be but also loosens the bonds of their present enslavement to the idols they have created.

Being in the image of the image entails a new identity. Parts of the old identity persist until the final consummation, but with the coming of the perfect image the renewing project has begun. The New Testament has a variety of ways of speaking of the new identity – sometimes as a new self (Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:1, 10),67 a new name (Rev. 3:12), a new future (John 14:3–4; Eph. 1:11) or a new age (Mark 10:30; Luke 18:30; Heb. 6:5). All of these bear witness to the reality that the old is fading while the new has not yet reached completion. While still bearing the old image, Paul’s promise is that ‘we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven’ (1 Cor. 15:49). It is the proverbial future breaking into the present.

One further important corollary of Paul’s use of eikōn is that being in the image of the image is primarily manifested in communal contexts. It is idolatry by which the self becomes selfish. Putting on the new self is about treating others with respect, not showing partiality, not lying to them and not discriminating between Greek and Jew or between slave and free (Col. 3:5–11). Being ‘in Christ’ bears the fruit of recognizing that all who belong to Christ are members who all belong to each other.68

The claim that Jesus is the image of the invisible God in Colossians 1 is followed by the description in Colossians 3 that Christ is the very life of the church, and that the ecclesial community thereby is the image of Christ. The church now makes visible that which will only later become visible in Christ at the eschaton. So likewise

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.