The Naked Ape⤒🔗

What exactly is the difference between people and animals? A modern bestseller purports to show that there is very little difference. Human beings are actually a kind of highly-developed ape. And that explains much of their behaviour, including the behaviour of human beings among themselves and especially the behaviour or men and women among each other. The book is a popularization of the theory of evolution. If this account is true, it has enormous consequences for human ethics and codes of behaviour. Then adultery, alternative sexual contacts, and swapping of sexual partners will be normal, just as it is for apes. And then we can rid of less successful naked apes.

What exactly are human beings? The answer to this question is critical for our behaviour.

I shall attempt to give a Biblical answer to this question. In this article I shall not give an overview of all Biblical data about human beings. Rather, I shall examine the question whether we can still speak of human beings as image bearers of God. I realize that the question of what human beings really are demands an answer of faith. Such an answer will not convince Desmond Morris (who wrote the above-mentioned book) and his many supporters directly. And therefore we need to ask ourselves if we can make the Biblical arguments understandable for modern human beings who take no account of such arguments.

What is this Image of God Exactly?←⤒🔗

First, I shall summarize what this expression, ‘the image of God’, means. It derives from Genesis 1:26-28. It tells us that God created mankind in his image. In that respect human beings are distinguished from animals, which God created ‘according to their kinds’. God assigned a very special place to the last of his creatures. Human beings are permitted to represent him on earth. Not in the sense that the Lord is absent and human beings ‘mind the shop’. Instead, he is present in the service provided by human beings.

That is how God wants to display his power on earth. That is why being image bearers of God is very closely connected to the task the Lord gave human beings to exercise dominion over creation. Indeed, it becomes particularly evident in that task. You cannot separate the two. They belong together. Human beings are image bearers of God in particular in their dominion over creation. That is why human beings are often referred to in this context as viceroys.

God gave human beings many splendid gifts to enable them to carry out their task. Among them is the gift of knowledge. God had brought all the animals to Adam so that he could name them in accordance with their natures. Above all, human beings knew their God, who stood above them.

In addition, God gave them the gift of righteousness and holiness. God and human beings were not separated by sin and so human beings were able to maintain the demand of the covenant. And thus, their lives were devoted to the Lord.

Thus, the concept of human beings as image bearers of God focuses on their origin and their task within the framework of creation.

Are Human Beings Still God’s Image Bearers?←⤒🔗

Can we maintain that human beings are still image bearers of God? Can we say that of people we encounter in daily life, or of ourselves? Do we still look like him? So much has happened since paradise. We no longer live in a sinless world. In Genesis 3 we read that the viceroys rebelled. They listened to the devil. They no longer wanted to be subservient to God, but to be his equal. They wanted to make their own decisions. And that is how the image of God broke into pieces. We confess that human beings retain only some small traces of God’s excellent gifts, but that they are sufficient to make them inexcusable (Belgic Confession, art. 14). It is clear that a viceroy who rebels loses his office. Does that make human beings into naked apes?

Data From Holy Scripture←⤒🔗

To answer this question, we have to pay attention to the fact that after the fall the Bible still speaks about human beings as image bearers of God. I draw attention to the following texts:

Genesis 5:3←↰⤒🔗

Verse 1 related that God created Adam in his likeness. Then in verse 3, we are told that Adam had a son, Seth, in his own likeness, in his own image. The use of the same words indicates that the concept of being the image of God has not lost its relevance after the fall.

Genesis 9:6←↰⤒🔗

Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man. God spoke these words after the fall. He had destroyed the apostate human race and saved only Noah and his family. Now he makes a new beginning. And again it becomes clear that the origin of humanity is still relevant. The Lord also repeats the promise of fruitfulness, first made in Genesis 1:26-28. But there is a difference. The caring governance of the animals is replaced with human fear and terror of animals.

What is important in this text is that God draws a clear distinction between human beings and animals. Although he allows people to kill animals for food (are we sufficiently aware of the reason for this permission...), he forbids the killing of people. For when you kill another human being, you prevent the dead person from being image of God in accordance with her origin. And then the murderer must also be removed from the face of the earth. People are not allowed to treat their fellow human beings as animals because of the way God created them.

James 3:9←↰⤒🔗

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Sinning with the tongue is very common. Many are guilty of it. At the same time, the Lord’s children want to praise their God. But then there is an ambiguity in life that doesn’t belong, for God also created the neighbour about whom you gossip in his image.

Psalm 8←↰⤒🔗

The phrase ‘image of God’ does not appear in this Psalm. The Psalm is about God’s majesty and greatness and the insignificance of human beings, to whom God nonetheless gave authority over all created things. The poet reviews the facts of creation as related in Genesis 1. He uses the present tense, although English translations use the past tense: You made him ruler over the works of your hands. Nonetheless, it still applies today. Thus, the prescriptions made in paradise are still valid now.

It is striking that the question of faith is not central in these texts. God gives rules about the relationships between human beings and those apply to everyone. Even if human beings demonstrate that they do not value the glory they had with God, on his part God holds them accountable for it. And if he does not treat human beings as naked apes, they should not treat themselves as such either.

A Few Practical Conclusions←⤒🔗

I draw a few practical conclusions from the foregoing.

• First, we see that human beings may have regard to themselves. Since we have been placed on this earth with a task, our lives are not meaningless. They are part of the totality of God’s plan for this world. And so we are not worthless, although sometimes you can feel that you are. God still calls us to account on the basis of our glorious origin.

• This is also relevant for how we regard marriage. God created human beings as husband and wife in his image. In his teaching, Christ always points back to the origin or marriage. He makes people accountable to it. Marriage orientates human beings to society. It is more than a licence for sexual intercourse, for God builds humanity in the way of marriage. At the same time, marriage influences the relationship between the spouses. God requires us to treat our spouses as persons made in his image. That demands respect, not primarily because of what the spouses themselves do, but because of the glorious origin of marriage.

• The understanding that God holds people accountable because of their glorious origin is therefore also important for society. God demands that society protect human life. Not for its own sake, but because of the divine origin of human beings. That makes it impossible to conclude that another’s persons’ life is worthless. The value of life consists of life itself and is not a condition precedent for existence. That is why we must strongly protest against the practices of abortion and euthanasia. It should also motivate us to provide good care for physically and mentally challenged persons.

• The understanding that human beings are accountable because of their divine origin is also relevant in the context of stewardship of the environment. It can have a positive effect, especially when we realize that we are accountable for this stewardship. God placed all of creation under the jurisdiction of human beings and therefore it could not have been God’s intention that human beings should destroy the environment, let animal species die out, etc.

When I summarize it like this, we could get the impression that things are not so bad in the world. If human beings all respect their origins, things will be all right. But we know that that is not so. For this demands that human beings again acknowledge God’s authority and submit to the Lord. But what we see instead is that human beings are rivals of the Lord. Psalm 8 speaks of the high position God gave to human beings. It uses strong language in describing that position: You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings. However, without faith, human beings abuse their position. Then we see a human race that believes everything is possible, a race that is immensely proud of its achievements, but which cannot in fact do everything. There is a solution to every problem, but two problems arise in its place. We see human beings who think that everything is possible, but who constantly discover that they are powerless. The book of Revelation assigns them the number 666. They can do much, but they do not become perfect. They want to manage without God, but that doesn’t work. The increasing medical possibilities are a clear example. They present us with questions that are almost insoluble. Is everything that is possible allowed?

Renewal in Christ←⤒🔗

That is why it is good to remind ourselves of what the Heidelberg Catechism says about human beings as image bearers of God. For that purpose it uses language from the New Testament. Lord’s Day 3, Question and Answer 6 says: Did God, then, create man so wicked and perverse? No, on the contrary, God created man good and in his image, that is, in true righteousness and holiness...

We find the words righteousness and holiness in the letters of Paul (Eph 4:24). They describe the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator (Col 3:10). With respect to that knowledge, we should note that Christ himself is also called the image of the invisible God (Col 1:15). Therefore, the Bible points us to Christ for our knowledge of God, in whose image we were created and who gave us his task.

This makes us modest. It prevents us from building all kinds of castles in the air as if we could accomplish anything apart from Christ. And it warns us against a dangerous optimism with respect to the world.

At the same time, it makes us thankful. For believing in Christ also means that you gain a new insight into God’s creation and your own place in it. And then something of the original glory returns in all of the relationships mentioned above. But we must avoid triumphalism: see what we can accomplish. Rather, we must see it in all humility. We share in his suffering, so that we may also share in his glory (Rom 8:17). In our willingness to be united with him in his death, we may also look forward to being united with him in his resurrection (Rom 6:5). That was already evident in Genesis 5:3. Adam’s genealogy was very modest. Cultural development took place among the children of the world. But in Seth God was already working to give his image back to those who believe.

The Future←⤒🔗

And so there is a future again. We await the complete restoration of the image of God on the new earth. When God will be all in all and everyone will submit to him, and when all crowns have been surrendered to him, it will become apparent that everything has turned out well. Despite our sin. Thanks to Christ’s victory over the powers of the revolution against God.