Covenant and Community: Our Role as the Image of God

What if God's image is not the blueprint according to which God designed us but is rather the purpose for which he made us and the goal toward which he continues to shape his people? And what if we are not to be a pack of individual images of God but, rather, what if the many people in Christ's church are together meant to form a single image of our three-who-are-one God? What if the fulfillment of God's image was just as much a future hope for Adam and Eve as it is for us? And what if they and we will soon together experience life in a mutually self-giving relationship that mirrors and even participates in the community of the Trinity? How would that change our theology, our churches, our families, and our lives? What if our future hope is even greater than we ever realized?

Doug P. Baker is a theologian, writer, and teacher. His work is often to be found in Reformation and Revival Journal, Act 3 Review, and Christianity and Society.