I know you agree that Jesus is the image of God (Heb 1:3), but remember the text where it states that it "behooved him , that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Heb 2:17). Simply Jesus is not a man if He does not have the “image of God,” which He could not have if born of Mary, in the Lutheran sense?
In the Catholic sense:
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Athanasian Creed:Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe faithfully the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the right faith is, that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man; God of the Substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and Man of the substance of His mother, born in the world; Perfect God and perfect Man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting. Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching His manhood; Who, although He be God and Man, yet He is not two, but one Christ: One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking the manhood into God; One altogether; not by confusion of Substance, but by unity of Person. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and Man is one Christ...
As the Creed teaches, let us not confuse the substance. Christ did not receive the image of God at the incarnation. Christ was the image of God before the worlds being eternally begotten of the Father (2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15-17). At the incarnation, Christ was made man of the substance of His mother (Gal. 4:4,5) that "in all things to be made like unto his brethren." Christ is true man of a "reasonable soul and flesh" conceived by Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary.
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Pilgrim[/url] is correct, you are allowing your denominationalism (and you are not the only one) to dictate your understanding of Scripture, instead of allowing your exegesis of Scripture to (1) select your denomination (2) to continue to evaluate your denomination (3) to direct your denomination toward the truth, etc. You shall know the truth and it shall set you free, not you shall know your denomination and it will set you free. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/giggle.gif" alt="" />
The Churches of the Augsburg Confession are always reforming but they do not depart from scripture or the Church Catholic in any doctrine (Augsburg Confession, Conclusion). We are taught that all confessions should be examined against scripture (FOC, Comprehensive Rule). Teaching your brand of "image of God" in the unregenerate is contrary to scripture (Ps. 17:15) and the Church Catholic which has always taught that man is spiritually dead and without free will in spiritual matters (Romans 3:11).
