Three Understandings About All People

Three Basic Understandings of People

There are many things that we can acknowledge in scripture related to humanity as created beings, but there are three basic understandings that are particularly relevant to teaching and training, and to Christian education. These three are:

1. Everyone is created in the image of God.
2. Everyone is fearfully and wonderfully made.
3. Everyone is created uniquely by His divine design.

We will briefly discuss each of these understandings in this and the following two posts.

In His image. The account of creation in Genesis 1 establishes very clearly that all humanity is created in image and likeness of God:

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Every man, woman, and child in all the earth is formed in the image and likeness of the Godhead. That means that everyone is deserving of honor, respect, and love as image-bearers. Each image bearer is living in a world marred by the fall but each is also granted access to the plan of redemption through the grace of the Father. As educators we get the privilege of drawing out the imago Dei from within each student. This is a high calling that has eternal implications.