PODCAST: The True Meaning of Being Made in God’s Image

By Mike Cosper | 56m
Published in October of 2020

SUMMARY: Speaker Mike Cosper details three ways we bear God’s images in the world – our capacity for relationships, our capacity for culture-making, and our capacity for wielding power. Each of these characteristics of God are detailed in the Bible, but what holds us back from realizing our full potential of being made in the image of God?

Cosper says that shame and our aversion to vulnerability manifest themselves in tribalism and isolation that harms our relationships, prevents culture-making, and leads to the abuse of power. Simply put, they are assaults on the image of God. Shame and our avoidance of vulnerability results in us pulling back from relationships, leads to a lower sense of self-worth, discourages culture-making, and pushes us to not love our neighbor.

So, how do we confront shame and vulnerability? By treating everyone in the image of God which means that all people, including oneself, regardless of class, skin color, gender, ideology, political affiliation, etc., are to be treated with dignity and respect.

In action, this looks like being in relationships with people we don’t agree with while living self-sacrificing lives. We are to create things that leave the world better than we found it. And finally, we are to steward our power by caring for the poor and the vulnerable.

KEY QUOTES: “If we want to be image bearers that make a difference in God’s world, we have to go on a personal redemptive journey. It’s a journey with an odd contrast. We have to press into our shame. We have to expose ourselves and be vulnerable…We press into our brokenness. We press into our weaknesses. We expose our shame. And then, we can press back into the world in relationships, culture-making, and power-wielding in redemptive ways. We become whole by acknowledging that we’re broken. And yet, out of that brokenness, through vulnerability, by pressing into the world around us, we can reflect the image of the most glorious being in the cosmos. Think about that. In our brokenness, by pressing into the shameful parts of our lives, that’s the pathway to reflecting the glory of God to the world.”

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