Instead, in His compassion, He had pity on our great misfortune. That's why He ordained His Son as our Mediator and Savior, so that through His merits, offered to us in the Gospel, and through the rebirth and renewal of the Holy Spirit, the image of God was once more established and renewed within us.—Johann Gerhard, Schola Pietatis, p. 184.
Libraries have been written about what it means that we have been created in the image of God. Some of the early Church Fathers (Saints Irenaeus, Gregory of Nyssa’, Gregory of Palamas) believed that God created man in the image of His Son, as he would look in His incarnation. The Hebrew word “tselem” always refers to a concrete image (although once as one seen in a dream), never reflecting an abstract quality. I rather like this interpretation, because it cuts out all that argument about what was the nature of that image in Adam, how much of it was lost, and how much of it was restored, and the consequent notion of the “innate goodness” of man.
ReplyDeletePeace and Joy!
George A. Marquart
Just one correction, George, Palamas is no early Church father!
ReplyDeleteThanks. Actually they are all late.
ReplyDeleteGeorge