In What Way are We "Little Logoi"?
We are made in the image of the Logos, but we must grow up into his likeness
This article was not written using AI.
This is a follow-up to my article exploring in what way Jesus is the Word. Here I interact pretty heavily with Christ, the Logos of Creation, by John R. Betz. If you find this sort of thing remotely interesting I highly recommend investing in a copy! It’s dense but rewarding and I will be returning to it again and again for years.
Johann Wenzel Peter, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, via Wikimedia Commons
Jesus is the structure of the universe. He is the Logos, meaning he is Reason Himself, the structure of the universe. The Trinitarian Godhead is the only source for all life, order, creativity, and grace that exists.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Colossians 1:15-17
Human minds cannot fathom how it could be that the structure of all things is also a human person. But this is what we know: it is through the God-Man Jesus that everything was made, and it is in him that everything holds together.
Christian Scripture tells us that God made humans in his own image and likeness. God made us to be little logoi, made in the image of the Logos. These logoi are expected to grow up into the likeness of the Logos.
Being “little logoi” does not mean that we are little gods who share fully in God’s divinity. No matter how sanctified or glorified we become, we will never exist independently from God. God exists in himself: he does not derive his existence from anything or anyone else. God is his own source; there is no one “behind” God. God goes all the way back in time, all the way out in space.1 He is further away from us than the most remote dimension of space-time and he is closer to us than the air in our lungs. Our existence depends entirely on God’s existence. We will never create from nothing, and we will never be self-sustaining.
In philosophical terms, God’s essence and existence are identical, where for creatures, there is a gap between our essence and existence. What that means is that our being and the things that make us “us” are two different facets of who we are. This gap between that-we-are and what-we-are has fallen further apart because of sin. The more we sin—the more sinful desires overtake our being—the more we move closer to non-existence. To be overrun by sin, to desire it and embrace it, is to refuse to become who we are.
Although we are made in the image of God, we fail to become likenesses of God. For we think that what we are at any given moment is simply what we are, that our existence is our essence (though that is true of God alone) or, in more everyday terms, what our genetics have determined us to be, and we assume that there is no deeper, spiritual potential latent within us, no entelechy, whether it be given by nature or by grace.
Betz, Christ, the Logos of Creation, 234
The first part of our vocation as little logoi is to become ourselves “restructured” through union with Christ and sanctification. As God brings us into greater holiness, as we root sin out of our lives and become more Christlike, the gap narrows. But however close the gap gets, it will never close altogether. Our essence and existence will never be identical, because we are not God.
This is the primary difference between Jesus and us: when the Father speaks the Word Jesus, Jesus remains equal and co-eternal with the Father. But when God speaks us as little logoi, we remain dependent on God for our being. We are never co-equal with him.
Being made in the image of God has to do with rule and dominion. Men and women were both made to rule over creation, and to bring it into further order and perfection. While the first man and woman were placed into a perfect garden where they walked with God himself, the world outside was still a wilderness. The Garden in Eden was a training ground for God’s images to become God’s likenesses. As Adam and Eve grew in wisdom, they would become the sorts of images who could provide structure for the wilderness outside. Adam and Eve would be fruitful and multiply, would name, order, and glorify the world around them. Over time, they would bring everything into order according to God’s plan. In other words, it was always God’s intention to bring his creation to completion through the work of mankind.
This does not mean that God needed the help of mankind. And it doesn’t undermine the fact that God’s creation was in one sense “complete” before he rested on the seventh day. (Genesis 2:1-2) All of God’s ex nihilo creation and structuring of the cosmos was completed by the seventh day. But there was still work to be done, and it brought God glory to appoint his likenesses and representatives on the earth to continue and complete his work in the power of his spirit.
Mankind does not create the way God creates. God creates from nothing, and mankind creates using preexisting materials. Jesus is the first and final structure of the universe. Mankind only secondarily and analogously provides structure for the universe. While Jesus-as-structure existed forever, mankind must grow up into maturity in order to participate in this work of the Logos. When Jesus became man, he showed us two things: he showed us the Father (John 14:9) and he showed us what God had in mind when he created humans. To be a human is to be one of God’s logoi.
I’m saying this metaphorically, of course. God is not bound by time and he does not have extension in space.