3. Image of God in the broader sense and in the proper sense.
According to Col. 3:10 and Eph. 4:24, the divine image, which consists of the knowledge of God and holiness of the will, is only restored in the beginning in the rebirth through faith in Christ. Therefore, man lacks it after the fall. In this the Lutheran theologians agree. They differ, however, in the question whether in the passages Gen. 9:6 ("Whoever sheds the blood of man, his blood shall also be shed by man, for God made man in His image") and Jam. 3:9 ("Through the tongue ... we curse man, made in the image of God") a divine image is still ascribed to man after the fall. Some deny this, assuming that man is described in these passages according to what he was through creation and is to become again in Christ. Thus Luther,1541) Philipps,1542) Gottfried Hoffman.1543) Others claim that man is described in these passages according to what he still is after the Fall, namely a creature endowed with intellect and will, in which a certain similarity with God is still contained. Thus Baier,1544) Quenstedt1545) and others. The latter, however, distinguish between likeness in the broader sense, according to which man, in contrast to the animals, is still a rational being, which he has retained after the fall, and likeness in the actual sense, according to which man recognizes God and serves God, and which he has lost after the fall. In this there is no factual difference insofar as Luther et al. do not deny that man has intellect and will after the Fall, and Baier et al. do not deny that man has completely lost sapientia and iustitia origina1is through the Fall. We prefer Luther's view. It has been objected to Luther's view that not a lost, but only a still existing image of God in man can be a reason why we should not shed the blood of men and not curse them. But Luther and those who
was obedient to him with all his desire, understood the works of God without any other instruction, from himself.. ... To this original righteousness belongs also that Adam loved God and God's work with all his heart and with the purest affections."
1541) On Gen. 9:6. St. L. I, 600 f.<w:t xml:space="preserve">1542) Glaubenslehre 3 II, 371 f.
1543) Synopsis, p. 291.<w:t xml:space="preserve">1544) Comp. II, 146.
1545) Syst. I, 876. 901 ff.
622 ><w:t xml:space="preserve">The doctrines of man. [English ed. 519-520]
share his view, think not only of the lost image of God, but also of the image of God to be restored in Christ. Luther says: "Which [image of God], though man has lost it through sin, as indicated above, stands therefore that it can be renewed again through the Word of God and the Holy Spirit." This view is recommended because it expresses a thought that runs through all of Scripture since Gen. 3:15. The fact that God still puts up with fallen mankind at all and allows it — and for its sake also the world — to exist, is to be understood according to Scripture from the point of view that God wants to renew fallen mankind in Christ to the image after which He originally created it (Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24). This point of view is also of practical importance. The truth, established in Scripture, that God gave His Son to the world and wants to renew it in Christ to the original image of God, is suitable to save us from misanthropy when we perceive the deceitfulness and wickedness of men, be it in the spiritual area (in the fight against the Gospel), be it in the worldly area (as in the World War). The thought to call fallen men, because they still have intellect and will at all, God's image, under deduction of what should become of them in Christ, is somewhat far away. Mind and will of fallen man are an "idle mechanism", insofar as fallen man does not realize his salvation with his mind, but moves entirely in spiritual darkness (1 Cor. 2:14: ον δύναχαι γνώναι) and his will is not attached to God, but is an enmity against God (Rom. 8:7: εχϑρα εις ϑεόν).