Cultural Disunity and the Triune God, Part 6–Created in the Image of God

Read Part 1-Introduction, and Part 2-Racism, Hegemony, Critical Race Theory, and Intersectionality, and Part 3-The Influences of Hegemony, Critical Race Theory, and Intersectionality, and Part 4-Societal Events, and Part 5-The Trinity Creating.

How does the Triune God—the God who, the Bible claims, made and upholds the universe, fashioned every human being, sustains every life—respond to these ideologies, and what hope does He offer for America’s disunity?  First, God has not created humanity to be divided groups and races hostile to Himself and one another, but as one diverse human race united in Him.  Second, God has made every human being in that human race in His image.  And third, the Triune God graciously reconciles people to Himself and to each other through His Son, giving them new identities in Him. 

Second, God has responded to the disunity in American culture by creating every human being in His own image.  According to the three Person God, “oneness is not sameness…” in a perfect world (Strachan, Reenchanting Humanity 207).  Humans are created as “significantly different, but genuinely equal” (Mead 30), being made in the image of the Triune God.  This is crucial because “The Bible speaks of all human life having intrinsic and worth and value because we are all created in His image” (RB).  Humans are built to be in relationship with God, and in conjunction with Him, also with one another.  They are embodied souls (Strachan, Reenchanting Humanity 22).  And this is what it means to be human.  Beyond a physical body which can be killed, an emotional ability which can be shattered, and a mental compacity which can be destroyed, humans are to be uniquely valued because they are created to be loved by God, then to love Him, and in extension of that relationship love and be loved by others.  Every human being derives their value, not from within themselves, but from the God who created them and deals with their souls with infinite seriousness.  Trinitarian Christianity says that humanity is not an accident (Psa. 139.13).  Trinitarian Christianity “says that whether I am tall and beautiful or small and not so handsome, whether my body functions perfectly or is severely deformed, I am the crowning glory of the creation of God (Psa. 8.5), and as a result I have inherent dignity, worth, and value (Psa. 139.13)”—because of their Creator! 

Trinitarian Christianity “cannot comprehend ideas like racism, classism, or eugenics” (Baucham, The Supremacy of Christ and Truth in a Postmodern World).  “Using external factors as humans to try to determine superiority is not at all compatible with a Biblical worldview” (RB).  “Creation” was intended to “form one symphonic sound of praise… in its superabundant diversity” (Strachan, Reenchanting Humanity 207).  His design is that humanity would grow more diverse as individual beings in fellowship with Him and with one another, not more divided and hostile in alienation from Him and from one another (Strachan, Reenchanting Humanity 218).  For “all of creation is an overflow of the gloriously loving and self-giving fellowship of the Trinity…” (Mead 24), a God who is at His core profoundly relational (Mead 29).  A God who is in His essence a gloriously reconciling God.