Q: How and why did God create us?
A: God created us male and female in his own image to know him, love him, live with him, and glorify him. And it is right that we who were created by God should live to his glory.
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27
What does it mean to bear the image of God? The implications of this question are far broader than what a first glance may reveal. We are unique in all creation, there is no other creature that has had this honour bestowed upon them.
We see many of the qualities of our infinite creator mirrored by us, his finite creation. We for instance, see his internal Trinitarian roles model perfectly the unique roles he has given us. God made us unique as men and women, roles that are equal in inherent value, yet distinct from one another. Roles intended to perfectly complement one another in our goal to glorify God, that we have marred through our own sinful desire. We share in his creativeness; we inquire, design and remake from what he has created, reflecting God’s own perfect creative purposes revealed in what he brought forth through his Word. We see some reflection of each of God’s communicable attributes, though these reflections are of course, only that, reflections. We as imperfect, sinful people can never fully reflect perfectly the characteristics of an infinite God.
There are also ways that our role as finite creature serve to differentiate us from our creator. We are physical beings, we are subject to the external realities of our existence. We are limited, by the very nature of our physical being. Additionally, we are subject to the design of our creator. We are as he created us, we do not get to choose to be someone or something else, though we often choose to rebel against this fact, with infinitely dire consequences. We are not autonomous, no matter the breadth of our rebellion, no matter the desire to deny that we are indeed only creations, we are under the rule of God. We may defy acknowledging him as God, for a time, but this does not by any means lessen his rule or authority over us.
This all leads us to the even more important question, to what end did he create us? We see Jesus reveal beautifully, his own purpose, and ours, in his High Priestly prayer in John 17. Jesus says in John 17:1–5 “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” All authority has been given to Christ by the Father, that means we were created to serve him. Christ came to give us eternal life, that means we were created to know him and to live with him. And in verse 26 he continues “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” He created us to love him, to be with him, not just with him, but one with him - like him, through his Spirit’s indwelling in us. All this he does to one ultimate end, that we would glorify him. In all things, we would glorify him alone.
This is the beauty of seeing the how and why of God’s creation of us. When we see his likeness, marred though we have made it, reflected in us, we cannot help but glorify him. We cannot help but desire to see his “why” of creation, come to fulfillment in us. We too, like Paul, long for the day we will see him clearly: 1 Corinthians 13:12 “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”