How Are Men Part of the Image of God?

Society has a lot to say about gender, but it overlooks God’s design for men. Men are uniquely designed to be half of the image of God.

When God made all of creation, he said it was good. But when he made man out of the dust of the earth and formed him, he breathed the breath of life in him. And when God finished, he said, “It’s not good for that man to be alone. I will make for him an opposite part.”

Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

If you want to see the image of God, you have to look at the uniqueness of men and women together to see the fullness of the image of God. Often in Christianity, God is only a masculine figure, but that’s not biblical. If you want see the image of God, look at what God put into women and what God put into men.

Instead of embracing those unique qualities in men and women, our culture is teaching men to despise being masculine and instead be feminine, and it’s teaching women to despise being feminine and instead, to desire to be masculine.

This spiritual attack is about the destruction and the distortion of God’s image in man. Men, in their uniqueness, are designed to be half of the image of God. They represent a side of the image of God in the earth.

What Are Men Designed To Do?

Men are uniquely designed by God to take dominion and authority over the earth. In Genesis 1:26-28, it states,

“Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.’ So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Then God blessed them and said, ‘Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.’”

God put it in the DNA of humanity to take dominion over the earth.

That’s exactly what mankind has done. We have built buildings with heat, air, and lights. We’ve been to the moon. Man was designed by God to invent and to overcome the very elements of the earth.

But this dominion given to men is designed to serve people, not rule over them.

Two Distortions of Dominion

here are two distortions of masculinity that are happening in today’s world.

The first distortion is this: Men are tempted to take dominion over people, particularly women.

Historically and in most cultures in the earth today, women are secondary. In many cases, they’re property. Men have oppressed women from millennia because it’s a distortion of the image of God. God made men to have dominion but not abuse it to rule over people.

Weak, insecure, and ungodly men try to rule over and dominate other people and women.

Dominance is evil. God doesn’t dominate because we are made in this image. The image of God is revealed in gender, marriage, procreation, and free will. Distorted dominion eliminates a part of the image of God in the earth: free will.

The second distortion is this: Men have been convinced today by society that weakness is a virtue.

Men have been told that the solution to being dominant is to be passive. But both are deadly to a culture. Weak men fail to protect society, and they fail to protect the family. Men were designed by God to be providers and protectors. If there was a time this world ever needed men to be strong, it’s today.

Sacrificial Living

God designed men to live sacrificially: to sacrificially lead, protect, and provide.

If you are male, you are designed to go into this society and make it better. You are designed to go get a job and then a second one if you need it, to make a living and carve out a living, to grow and develop, and fight through battles. You’re called provide for your family. Don’t buy the lie that you can just sit around and do nothing.

God specifically shows what the husband’s responsibility is in Ephesians 5:25, which is to love his wife just as Christ loved the Church and gave his life up for her. Here’s the design of a man in a marriage. He is to be willing to die for her. Husbands were designed to give up every part of their lives for their wives.

But Isn’t Marriage 50/50?

There’s nothing fair about marriage. Nothing is 50/50. Because that’s marriage. This is what a man is called to be in scripture. Jesus said in John 15:13: “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Sacrificial love is not 50/50. It’s 100/100.

If you say you love your wife, this is the level of love with which you are to love: as Christ loved the church. What did he do for the church? He died. He laid down his will and his life. He laid down every relationship he had for our sake.

But What About Submission?

Marriage has been abused by Christian men because they think it’s their job to tell a woman to submit to them. Nowhere in the Bible does it tell men to tell women to submit to them. Remember that submission that is demanded is tyranny.

God started by saying, “Be mutually submitted to one another.”

Why? Because both men and women are the image of God. Men are designed to lead their family in such a way that they understand that leadership isn’t privilege but responsibility. When men say, “I love you,” they’re saying, “I’m going give of myself for you to my last breath.”

Men are designed by God to love through sacrifice. Men are naturally built to do work. Men can give of themselves in their physicality and energy, and that’s part of life. But that’s not the only part that God has called you to provide for your home, and that’s not the part that will empower a woman to love you back.

How Should Men Lead Sacrificially?

Men are called to sacrifice their time, emotions, will, and money. No matter who makes what in the house, money is designed to serve your family, not you as a man. Your family comes first, your wife comes first, your children come first, and you come last.

If you think, That’s a bad deal. I don’t think I like that deal, you should stay single.

Marriage is a way of life that actually is built to complement the way that God designed women. The only way a wife can love her husband the way God calls her to is if her husband loves her consistently.

You are not called to makes demands of your wife. You’re called to create an environment where she’s empowered to be able to love you the way God told her to love you. If those two things happen, you’ll have heaven on earth in your home. It won’t be without problems. Men and women are different. But your differences don’t make one automatically right and the other wrong.

How Does Marriage Show the Image of God?

Marriage is the completion of the image of God. That’s why children need to be in a home with a man and a woman, which is the complete reflection of the image of God. Anything besides that is a distortion of his image.

Men are designed by God to live this way and are gifted by God to go out and conquer obstacles, to work and provide for a family, and to live sacrificially on their family’s behalf.

Once this exists in men’s hearts, and they realize that the God of creation made them this way, and they begin to yield to that purpose, they’ll begin to work in cooperation with God. There’s no greater joy than living in your purpose.

Don’t Buy the Lies

If you’re a man in this world, you’re driven to a passive ditch or an oppressive ditch. But if you walk with God, he’ll keep you out of the ditch, and he’ll make you strong to serve and to love. Men, don’t buy the lie of a culture that tells you to dominate people, and don’t buy the lie of a culture that tells you to be passive.

Men need to be the hammocks of a culture. They are designed to be the safety nets of the world, to serve and to protect those around them, including women.

Men, God is calling you to action. Embrace your God-given design, and be the man you were created to be.

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