OverlapStudy guideReading the Bible
Eternity is physical: on being God's image, with Dr. Carmen Joy Imes
By the end of this guide you will be able to open Genesis 1, hear the words "image" and "soul" the way an Israelite heard them, and see why your body, your neighbor's body, and the ground under your feet matter to God now and forever.
By Tim Barber·
Photo by Carles Rabada on Unsplash
A study companion to the video
Eternity is Physical – on “Being God’s Image”, interview with Dr. Carmen Joy Imes
Watch it first if you can, then read with your Bible open.
Start here
This is a companion to my conversation with Dr. Carmen Joy Imes about her book Being God's Image: Why Creation Still Matters. She is an Old Testament scholar at Talbot School of Theology, she wrote her doctoral work on Exodus, and she teaches the free Exodus course at BibleProject Classroom. I went through her book four times on audio before I asked her to talk. This guide is my attempt to put the best of that hour on paper so you can sit with it, with a Bible open and a pen in hand.
It is for the person who was told that this world is a waiting room, that the real you is an invisible soul, and that the goal of the Christian life is to get that soul out of here. If some part of you has always felt that your ordinary, bodily life ought to count for more than that, you are the reader I had in mind. It is also for anyone watching a body fail, their own or someone they love, and wondering what that does to the person inside it.
Here is how to use it. Watch the video first if you can. Then read "The teaching" straight through, because it carries the whole argument on its own. Where I am giving you Carmen's teaching, I say so by name; where I am adding something from my own study, I say that too. Then work "The passages" slowly, checking every quotation against your own Bible. Save "Questions to sit with" for last and answer them on paper.
One thing before we go. Being right about what "image of God" means does not save anyone. Faith in Christ does. I have friends all over the map on how bodies, souls, and resurrection fit together, and they love the Lord and love people. So read this with an open Bible and an open hand. If the text convinces you, be convinced. If it does not yet, keep reading it on its own terms.
It matters because the story you believe you are living in is the story you will live out. If the ending is a cloud, you will treat your body, your work, and this planet like a rental car. If the ending is a renewed earth with your feet on it, everything about how you spend your one short life changes.
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Now to the passages themselves. Read each one slowly, in full, with your Bible open beside you.
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Seven more sections: the teaching, key terms, the glossary, every passage in full, questions to sit with, where to go deeper, and a PDF you can print.
The next step is a conversation. Bring what you wrote to the community, or go back to the video.
