“What am I?” Second only to the question “What is God?”, it is the greatest question we can ask. Only with that question answered, can we know and understand our place and purpose in the world.
And the Bible recognises the centrality of this question. Right in the first chapter of Genesis, God tells us who we are. He says of humanity, in distinction to all the rest of creation: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion … So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen.1:26-27).
These two short verses reveal that humanity is distinct from God. We are created beings, and in this, unlike God. But humanity is also distinct from the rest of creation. Uniquely, humanity, male and female, is the fruit of divine council, “let us make”. And, again uniquely, humanity is made in the image and likeness of God.
