In the Image of God
10.1 - Foundations of the Christian Faith
Unit 10 of this online course on the Foundation of the Christian Faith is entitled ‘About the Resurrection of the Body.’ As Christians, we believe in the resurrection of the body and the promise of eternal life that comes with it. Having established that humanity is created as a unified whole—spirit, soul, and body—bearing the image of God, we now turn to what Holy Scripture tells us about the embodied nature of human existence. In this unit, we will explore why physical death occurs, what happens to the spirit and soul in the intermediate state, and what the resurrection of the body means for the restoration of the whole person. We will examine what we know about the resurrected bodies of believers, how all three dimensions of our being will be glorified, and how we should live as we await the resurrection. Finally, we will consider the unending resurrected life of believers and how we should live in light of this promise.
Made in the Image of God: The Imago Dei
Imago Dei is Latin for “the Image of God,” drawn from the creation narrative in Genesis:
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 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)
The Plurality in the Divine Voice
When the Creator declared, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness,” the plurality in this divine announcement reveals something profound. This is not God speaking to angels—angels were never invited into the creative act. Rather, this is the counsel of the Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit working in unison to craft a being who would mirror the richness of Their own nature.
God is one Being existing in three Persons. Not three gods. Not one person wearing three masks. Three distinct Persons—each fully God, each possessing complete deity—united in one divine essence. This is the fundamental architecture of God Himself.
And when the Trinity said, “Let Us make man in Our image,” They created a being that would reflect this same pattern. You are one being with three distinct dimensions: spirit, soul, and body. Not three separate entities awkwardly glued together, but three interwoven intelligences designed to function as one unified whole.
This is the Imago Dei—the Image of God stamped into your very design.
Three Intelligences, Not Three Parts
The common teaching that the soul contains the mind, will, and emotions while the spirit serves as a religious add-on is biblically inadequate. Scripture reveals something far more sophisticated: each dimension of your being—spirit, soul, and body—possesses its own form of intelligence. Each has its own capacity to know, to choose, and to feel.
Each dimension of your being—spirit, soul, and body—possesses its own form of intelligence. Each has its own capacity to know, to choose, and to feel.
The Spirit: Your Innermost Intelligence
Your spirit is the eternal, God-breathed core of your being. It’s the part of you designed to commune directly with God, receive revelation, and then guide the soul and body into alignment with divine truth. The spirit has its own cognition. Paul makes this explicit: “For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?” (1 Corinthians 2:11). The spirit knows. It perceives. It understands things your soul and body cannot grasp.
Your spirit also has will. It can make choices independent of your soul’s desires. Psalm 42:5 demonstrates this vividly: “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God.” Here the spirit addresses the soul, correcting it, calling it to a higher perspective. The spirit recognizes truth and redirects the soul toward it.
And your spirit feels. This isn’t just intellectual agreement but spiritual resonance—a deep knowing and feeling at the level of your innermost being. Proverbs 20:27 declares, “The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the inner depths of his heart.” The spirit illuminates. It discerns. It leads.
The Soul: Your Identity and Processor
Your soul is the seat of your personality, your sense of self, your personal identity. It’s where your conscious thoughts form, where your emotions surge, where your will deliberates between options. The soul is your psychological center—the “you” that you think of when you say “I.”
The soul has its own mind—the rational, analytical intelligence that processes information, forms arguments, draws conclusions. The soul has its own will—where you experience choice, decision-making, and volition. The soul has its own emotions—joy, sorrow, anger, fear, love. These are soul experiences that color your perception of reality.
But here’s the critical issue: in the fall, the soul usurped the spirit’s rightful place as ruler. Instead of the spirit leading and the soul submitting, the soul seized control. Most people live soul-first—making decisions based on emotions, reasoning, or personal desire rather than spiritual discernment. This is what James describes as earthly, sensual, demonic wisdom (James 3:15). It’s soul-driven rather than spirit-led.
The Body: Your Physical Intelligence
Your body is not merely a biological machine. It too exhibits intelligence through instincts, impulses, and physiological responses. Your body has a form of knowing—it perceives through the five senses and communicates through physical sensations. Your body has a form of will—Jesus acknowledged this in Matthew 26:41: “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” The body has its own desires, its own resistance, its own agenda.
Your body also has a form of emotion. Physical sensations—pain, pleasure, comfort, discomfort—are the body’s emotional language. Paul experienced this tension: “I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind” (Romans 7:23).
The Divine Order and the Fall
According to the divine blueprint, the hierarchy is clear:
Spirit → leads, receives from God, governs
Soul → processes, responds, submits to spirit
Body → obeys, serves, follows
When this order is maintained, you function as you were designed. Your spirit communes with God and receives revelation. Your soul processes that input, aligning your thoughts and emotions with divine truth. Your body obeys, acting in accordance with what the spirit has discerned.
However, in our fallen condition, this order has been inverted. The soul, especially in the modern West, has claimed the throne. We prize intellect above insight, analysis above anointing. Reason has become king, and the spirit has been dismissed, relegated to the margins as a relic of mysticism. Among the educated elite, the spirit has been silenced by the soul’s sophistication. The body becomes little more than a machine responding to soul-level inputs—cravings, ambitions, anxieties—without the guidance of the spirit.
This is the great disorder of our age. Paul describes this war: “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh” (Galatians 5:16-17).
The Image Restored in Christ
Though we still bear the image of God—James tells us that all humanity has “been made in God’s likeness” (James 3:9)—we also bear the scars of sin. Mentally, morally, socially, and physically, we show the effects of the fall.
But Christ came to restore the Imago Dei. Not just to save us from hell, but to restore us to our design. To reestablish the proper order where the spirit rules, the soul submits, and the body obeys.
When we cultivate a life led by the spirit under the influence of the Holy Spirit, the soul and body begin to fall into divine order. The soul learns to process and yield. The body learns to submit and follow. The integrated self becomes a vessel fit for calling, and the image of God is restored in function as well as form.
Paul describes this transformation: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). The mind—your soul—must be renewed to align with the spirit. In Colossians, he writes that we have “put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (Colossians 3:10). In Ephesians, he tells us to “put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24).
This is sanctification—not just becoming more moral, but being restored to your original design. Paul prays, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23). All three dimensions, fully restored, functioning as one in perfect harmony.
Living from the Spirit
Recovering this biblical understanding of the human person is essential for the Christian life. Too many believers have been trained to live from the soul—to trust only what the mind can comprehend and the emotions can validate. But the spirit is calling us deeper. The spirit knows the way home.
When we learn to distinguish between the voice of the soul and the voice of the spirit, when we allow the spirit to lead under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we begin to access the places God has prepared for us. We begin to see with spiritual eyes, hear with spiritual ears, and move with spiritual authority.
This is not mystical escapism. This is biblical anthropology—the recovery of what we were always meant to be: image-bearers who walk in union with the Divine, Spirit-led sons and daughters who know the Father’s voice and follow where He leads. From the moment of conception to natural death, every human body and every human life should be cared for, protected, and loved, for we bear the sacred image of our Creator.
The human spirit must be reawakened. It must rise and reclaim its rightful position as the governing intelligence of the person, under the Lordship of the Holy Spirit. When the spirit leads, the soul finds its clarity and the body moves in peace. Harmony is restored and the image of God becomes radiant once more.
The human spirit must be reawakened. It must rise and reclaim its rightful position as the governing intelligence of the person, under the Lordship of the Holy Spirit.
Your assignment: Read the following scriptures to see what else the scriptures say about the image of God.
Genesis 1:26–28
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Matthew 11:2–5
2 And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples 3 and said to Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” 4 Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: 5 The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
1 Corinthians 6:19–20
19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
James 3:8–10
8 But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. 10 Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.
Psalm 139:7–18
7 Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,”
Even the night shall be light about me;
12 Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.13 For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You.
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