Imago Dei discipleship 

Editor’s note: The following opinion column was written by a member of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s Young Pastors Network.

The greatest confusion we are facing centers around anthropology. What does it actually mean to be human?

Transgender ideology that demands men can play women’s sports is really just a symptom of a deeper confusion about the essence of our being. But this kind of confusion is not just at work in the culture, but also in our churches.

Digital technologies are eroding our sense of what it means to live as physical beings. I’m quite convinced that much of the anxiety and fear we see crippling so many, even in our churches, is connected to this erosion.

The way forward is “Imago Dei discipleship.” We need a robust formation of our people around what it means to be a human. In so doing, we will not only root our people in the truth, but also prepare them with an apologetic that engages culture.

Let me suggest five quick dimensions to our humanity that need to show up in our formation, all pulled from Genesis 1:26-28:

²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.”

²⁷ So God created man in his own image;

He created him in the image of God;

He created them male and female.

²⁸ God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.

1. Relationality (“according to our likeness”)

The core of our humanity is not merely an issue of function, but essence. We are made in God’s likeness, meaning we exist fundamentally in a way that’s similar to His existence. I believe this is speaking to relationality: the capacity for reciprocating intimacy with God and others. What makes us unique—different from all of creation—is our ability to experience intimacy horizontally with other humans and with God. Like a plug that points up and out, only humans can experience this intimate connection.

Isolation is sub-human. Our discipleship must raise the essential requirement of deep communion with God and others. In this light, spiritual disciplines like Bible reading and prayer can be taught as ways to experience communion with God, our most fundamental reality as humans. Also, the importance of church membership, community groups, and Sunday school flow downstream from relationality.

2. Embodiment (“So God created man in His own image”)

Moses uses the word “created” three times in v.27 to emphasize that we are indeed created beings. The crown of creation to be sure, but still created beings with physical bodies. These physical bodies are a gift we are to steward and enjoy. We are not merely brains on a stick or floating spirits, but beings whose spiritual lives are intertwined with our physical lives.

Diet, sleep, and exercise are essential to flourishing humans. Our discipleship must not just teach people how to read their Bibles and pray. It must challenge people to care for their physical bodies. Too often, the spiritual problems I’m asked to diagnose as a pastor are actually a physical problem, like a lack of sleep or exercise.

3. Gendered (“male and female He created them”)

God does not just create humans—He creates gendered beings. Men and women are not just different at a biological level, but a spiritual level. Salt and sugar are both white, granular substances, but they are different at the molecular level. Men and women enjoy a difference at the spiritual level. Both are equal in their worth, but fundamentally different not just in role but in ontology.

We must challenge men to protect and provide, using their God-given strength for the good of others. We must encourage women to nurture and cultivate, using their God-given care for the good of others. This must extend beyond norms like hunting and fishing or cooking to the deeper wiring God’s implanted in each of us. I’ve found demonstrating this through examples is essential.

4. Entrusted (“rule the fish of the sea”)

God entrusts each human being with a contribution in a meaningful way to this world. Recently, many have sought to recover the doctrine of vocation around this idea. Indeed, God has placed a call on each person to work for His glory and by His grace. There’s a flourishing humans will not reach without this contribution, regardless of their age, ability, or season of life.

We must challenge our people to give themselves to hard work. Young people especially need to learn the value and joy of exhaustion for the glory of God. Vocational guidance is not something we should relegate to a guidance counselor at school. We must engage our people with real pastoral wisdom on how to discover God’s call on their lives. Tim Keller’s “ability, affinity, and opportunity” from his book, Every Good Endeavor, seem to be a good place to start.

5. Redeemed (“in our image”)

I’ve argued above for an ontological understating of humanity through the “relationality” idea. But this doesn’t mean we don’t have a clear function. In the ancient world, the image you saw on coins or statues demonstrated the ruler you were living under. Humans are meant to be God’s image, demonstrating that all of us live under His rule. Sadly, humanity rebels against this design, unleashing judgment and brokenness in every direction. God graciously promises a redeemer and covers Adam and Eve with the skin of an innocent sacrifice.

We must root our people in the grace of God not just as a means of getting to heaven, but as the only way to be truly human. Humanity can only flourish if we operate according to God’s design, living as image bearers who represent Him. We can only live according to this design if we repent of sin and trust Christ. The gospel is not a tack-on to “Imago Dei discipleship”—it’s the very core of it.

Given the confusion in the culture and the church, I pray you’ll include in your discipleship a robust biblical anthropology that roots your people in what it truly means to be human. This kind of formation will not only protect our people from error, but unleash them to flourish as the image bearers God made them to be.