Does the Bible Consider All Humanity Valuable as the Image of God?

There is the other side of the image of God debate that is often not considered. In fact, whenever it is brought up, I find that evangelicals/fundamentalist reformed people tend to be caught off guard by it. They continually want to find value in general humanity by appealing to the image of God. As I have argued here before, the image of God is bound up with the role of the image that works with God together in the process of creation toward His goal of filling up the earth with covenant humanity. Those who seek to ground humanity's worth/value in their ontology are essentially advocating a Christless value to man, where Christ is not the source of man's value, but human nature, apart from Christ, itself.

The Bible presents a very different idea of people outside of Christ, that is, the idea that the wicked are less than truly human with no worth.

In a society that has lifted up self-esteem by telling everyone how unique and special they are in God’s eyes, the church has been scarcely influenced by the biblical model of the two seeds presented in Genesis, one which is described as the image of God, which is true humanity, and the other which are described as murderers and agents of chaos. It has sought to give worth to everyone by categorizing all people, in or outside of Christ, as God's images. But the Bible, in contrast to this idea, presents them as empty images, worthless humanity, irrational animals, dogs.

Humanity as a whole is simply not described as being of equal worth because it is not described as being equally human. By “human” I am not referring to one’s ontological makeup. Instead, what I mean by the term is that one is human in terms of his function as the image of God. In that sense, the worth of the human is the worth of his function. If he functions as an agent of life and creation, which is the role of the image of God, he has great worth derived from the One he images in his role and actions. If he functions as an agent of chaos, however, he has no worth derived from God, but rather has become a worthless person, as he has rejected his function, and therefore, the value of true humanity. 

In essence, he becomes like an animal rather than a human, and in that regard, he has become something less than human, which essentially means, he has become something that is not human. He is a golem, a creature that was never meant to be, a lesser being that God uses to create His royal people.

It is important to understand that this is not some view of humanity that comes out of disdain for unbelievers. Instead, it is something that understands that only Christ is true humanity, and therefore, true humanity is only found in Him. If someone remains outside of Him, he is not true humanity. If Christ is the image of the invisible God, not an image, then only those united to Christ can truly be the image of God.

Hence, Peter speaks of apostate teachers who despise authority and insult angels as those who are ὡς ἄλογα ζῷα γεγεννημένα φυσικὰ εἰς ἅλωσιν καὶ φθορὰν “like irrational animals who are meant for destruction and corruption” (2 Pet 2:12). They are “stains and blemishes” (v. 13). “These men are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm, for whom the utter depths of darkness have been reserved” (v. 17). He ends by quoting two proverbs, both about animals returning to filth, a dog returning to vomit and a hog returning to the mire (v. 22). Jude, likewise, talks about these men as irrational animals in their thinking (v. 10). Wealthy fools are like animals who perish (Ps 49:12, 20). 

Those outside of God’s people are considered “dogs” (Ps 22:16, 20; Matt 15:26; Rev 22:15), and Paul calls the Judaizers in an ironic twists, “dogs,” placing them outside the people of God for their rejection of the true gospel (Phil 3:2). A dog is considered a worthless animal, and those likened to it, worthless (2 Kings 8:13).

To the New Testament writers, everyone apart from Christ is evil, a chaotic agent, and as such, are described as destroyers. In Romans 3, Paul quotes numerous passages from the Old Testament that describe murderers.

“There is no one righteous, not even one, there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God.  All have turned away, together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, not even one.” “Their throats are open graves, they deceive with their tongues, the poison of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood, ruin and misery are in their paths, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Rom 3:11-18)

In the midst of this description of fallen mankind, Paul states that they all together ἠχρεώθησαν  “have become worthless.” They are worthless because they do not function as agents of life and creation, as men were made to, but rather as agents of death and chaos, like the line of Cain.

Jeremiah 2:5 states of the people who had committed apostasy that because they walked after ההבל “worthless” things, ויהבלו “they were worthless.” The word hebel means “empty of value,” and often describes idols/images in terms of what they can do for the people who worship through them (Jer 16:19). The Greek word in the New Testament is ἀχρεῖον. Those who claim to follow Christ, and yet, do not do the work of the image by preserving the lives of the people who represent Him, are called ἀχρεῖον “worthless” by Christ (Matt 25:30). Hosea tells us that apostate Israel had become worthless like a broken piece of pottery that no longer functioned for the purpose it had been created.

People who do not do their jobs in protecting others, like shepherds set in place to protect the sheep, are called האליל “good for nothing.” This term is used when the Psalmist argues that worshiping the gods of the nations is no good since are האליל “good for nothing” (1 Chron 16:26).

The problem is that evangelicals read these passages as limited to only a few really wicked people who are murderers, but Paul says that all of humanity outside of Christ are worthless murderers. The Bible says that all who go after worthless things, i.e., everyone outside of Christ, is worthless. 

Value is derived from the proper function of the individual to do the job for which he was created. Hence, one who is the image of God by doing His life-giving work in the world and giving Him the glory as the Originator of it, is valuable, and we know that this only accomplished by those who are redeemed from their fallen estate in Christ, who is the image of the invisible God. 

What this means is that all outside of Christ are not valuable in the eyes of God because they are not functioning as the image, the role for which they were made. They do not worship God, and therefore, pursue worthless things. They are, therefore, worthless, good for nothing, irrational animals purposed for disposal, inhuman dogs, i.e., the exact opposite of what most evangelicals will say of the wicked.

But why do most evangelicals believe otherwise? Because the religion of American Christianity isn’t Christianity at all, but an apostate religion, where all of humanity, not just Christ, is truly human and the image of God. It is the Enlightenment-produced religion of inclusivism that rejects the division of humanity into Christ and the devil, Christian and non-Christian, righteous and wicked, the image and the non-image, the valuable and the worthless. 

But the remedy to this worthlessness that the church must adopt is not to ignore this awful fact by flattering an animalistic, fallen humanity by calling it truly human and the image of God, but instead to call it out of its worthlessness and into the eternal worth and value of Jesus Christ through the gospel. The bad news is that all men have become worthless in shunning the role of the image. The good news is that they may become free of their valueless state and become eternally valuable in being united to Christ. Unlike those who are called “dogs” outside the kingdom in the Book of Revelation, they will shine eternally like stars, elevated to partake in the very nature and life of God as those who represent God truly as an image should.