By “fully restored” do you mean David has “some” of the image of God now and is only missing his true righteous, knowledge, and holiness, or do you mean he is missing the “image of God in totality? You probably meant the later. However, I DO NOT see where this Psalm said that David does not have ANY of the image of God NOW (see Van Til’s attachment). As matter a fact you are attempting to proof text and have removed its context. Calvin states,
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I shall be satisfied. Some interpreters, with more subtility than propriety, restrict this to the resurrection at the last day, as if David did not expect to experience in his heart a blessed joy until the life to come, and suspended every longing desire after it until he should attain to that life. I readily admit that this satisfaction of which he speaks will not in all respects be perfect before the last coming of Christ; but as the saints, when God causes some rays of the knowledge of his love to enter into their hearts, find great enjoyment in the light thus communicated, David justly calls this peace or joy of the Holy Spirit satisfaction.
Needless to say your analysis of the text does away with the faith of all the OT saints (i.e. no one had the image of God till after Christ). Did David have the Holy Spirit? Is the Holy Spirit in the “image of God,” one might say, “the express image of His likeness?”
However, if you restrict this Psalm to “the last day” (against Calvin, but like Wesley) then in reality you do not believe man will have the image of God till the final resurrection, or as Wesley says, “the image of God stamped upon my glorified soul.” Thus, no one is yet saved! <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/drop.gif" alt="" />
Sorry for my lack of clarity. Yes, the image of God is partially restored in the sense that the righteousness of Christ is imputed and the Holy Spirit enlightens the regenerate.
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J Edwards articulates,This Scripture DOES NOT merely say man remained a rational soul, it rather says he is made in the image of God! R.C. Sproul states, “Since man is created in the image of God, an attack upon the human person is considered an attack upon God himself. To slay the image-bearer is to insult the One whose image is borne" (Chosen by God). In addition, you spoke of the law. As Pink stated, (An Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount),
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The “image” of God was broken and His “likeness” was greatly marred, though not completely effaced, for, as the apostle points out, the heathen which had not the Law in its written form “did by nature [some of] the things contained in the law,” and thereby they “showed the work of the law written in their hearts,” their conscience being proof of the same (Romans 2:14, 15). At the Fall, love for the Divine Law was supplanted by hatred, and submission and obedience gave place to enmity and opposition.
And Edwards adds (Religious Affections),
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As there are two kinds of attributes in God, according to our way of conceiving of him, his moral attributes, which are summed up in his holiness, and his natural attributes of strength, knowledge, etc., that constitute the greatness of God; so there is a twofold image of God in man, his moral or spiritual image, which is his holiness, that is the image of God’s moral excellency (which image was lost by the fall), and God’s natural image, consisting in man’s reason and understanding, his natural ability, and dominion over the creatures, which is the image of God’s natural attribute.
Finally, a Reform theologian who rightly distinguishes between the moral or spiritual attributes which are lost and the natural attributes which are not lost. Does Edwards teach that these natural attributes are propagated by procreation?
Unregenerate man posesses natural reason and understanding but no moral excellency. He is spiritually dead and does everything to escape punishment and obtain rewards. His outward acts of obediance that appear good are really evil. God gives him the law he craves in order to curb his gross acts of depravity.
