What does it mean to be created after the likeness of God?

Explanation:

Paul calls the Ephesians to put off their old sinful nature, and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God. So what exactly does it mean that this new self is created after the likeness of God? Is Paul calling the Ephesians to live ethically, and thereby become new people who are created according to God’s ethical standards? Or is he calling the Ephesians to put on the new self, a self which has been created according to God’s standard? Most likely Paul has the second option in mind. That is, he is not calling the Ephesians to ethical living so that they will be like a new creation. Rather, he is saying that there is a new self/person created according to God, and the Ephesians must put on this new self.

We can detect that Paul is saying that the new self is created after the likeness of God, because the verb to create is in the aorist passive. Since the verb is in the aorist tense, it refers to a past action, and since it is passive, it means that the new self has received the action of being created after the likeness of God. In other words, in the past, the new self, or person, has been created according to God’s standard, and it is this new self that has been created according to God’s standard that must be put on by the Ephesians.⁵

Counterargument:

This view has it that in the past a new self was created according to God’s standard. It then suggests that Paul asks the believers to put on this new self. The problem here is that it remains a mystery what it means for there to be a new created self that believers can put on. That is, did God create a new human nature that is out there? How do believers relate to this new nature? A close but clearer way to render Paul’s meaning is that he calls the Ephesians to put on a new self by rejecting the futile way that Gentiles live. By rejecting the futility of a sinful lifestyle, they put on a new lifestyle, and are in a sense now created according to God’s standard.

Response to counterargument:

This counterargument misunderstands the grammatical construction of Ephesians 4:24. Paul is not saying that the new self is some sort of nature that is just hanging out there until the Ephesians put it on. Rather, he is saying that the Ephesians are to put on the new self, created by God, according to God’s pattern. In other words, because the verb to create is in the aorist passive, we take it that God is the one who creates. This means that God is the one who creates the new self that the Ephesians are to put on. And Paul explains that this new self that is created is according to God, as in, God’s standard. We can paraphrase Paul to draw out his meaning: Put on the new self which has been created by God, a new self that is according to God’s standard. Of course, this new self that God creates does not simply hang out there until the believers put it on. Rather, God created the possibility for this new self through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and believers can put it on by faith.

Explanation:

Paul calls the Ephesians to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in righteousness and holiness. To understand what Paul means, it is helpful to notice that he says something similar in Romans 13:14. There he calls the Ephesians to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh. Thus, for Paul, the new man is the Lord Jesus Christ as he is lived out by his people.⁶ So what does it mean that this new man is created after the likeness of God? To understand this we can look to Colossians 3:10, which is parallel to Ephesians 4:24. There Paul calls the Colossians to put on the new self, which is being created after the image of the creator. Thus, to be created according to God is to be created according to his image and likeness. Putting these together, we note that Paul is saying that the Ephesians are to live out Jesus Christ, and that this ability to live out Jesus Christ is an act of divine creation. To paraphrase, To put on the new self is to be a reproduction of Christ’s likeness which is a divine act of creation. ⁷

Counterargument:

The problem here is that this view ignores the verb to put on or makes it redundant. For it holds that after the likeness of God is informed by Colossians 3:10, and so might be rendered according to Christ’s likeness. It also contends that the phrase created according to Christ’s likeness, is best thought of as God reproducing, as a divine act, the likeness of Christ in believers.” Of course, if God reproduces the likeness of Christ in believers as a divine act, then what is the point of putting on Christ? In other words, according to this view, believers do not put on Christ as much as God creates the reproduction of Christ in believers.

Response to counterargument:

It is true that according to this view, God reproduces the likeness of Christ in believers as a divine act. Still, this view does not overlook the verb to put on, for this view holds that God does this when believers put on Christ. That is, by putting on Christ, believers do not transform themselves into the likeness of Christ. Rather, by putting on Christ, God transforms believers into the likeness of Christ.

Possible weaknesses:

The weakness of this view is that it does not clarify what Paul means by created. Is Paul saying that God creates the new self, the new nature, or the possibility for people to put on the new self? This view tries to clarify this by saying that God creates a new nature, which the believers can put on, but then it suggests that when believers place their faith in Christ, a new person is created. These seem to be slightly different views, although it is not entirely clear in what way.

Explanation:

In order to understand what it means to be created after the likeness of God, it is important to notice that Paul follows up this phrase with in righteousness and holiness. That is, Paul says the believers are to put on the new self and so be created according to God in righteousness and holiness. Of course, we know that God is righteous and holy. So to be created according to God in righteousness and holiness likely has to do with living according to the way God lives, in righteousness and holiness.¹⁰ Further, in Ephesians 5:1, Paul calls the Ephesians to be imitators of God. So believers are called to be imitators of God, and God is characterized as righteous and holy. Thus, to be created according to God is to live an ethical life in righteousness and holiness. ¹¹

Counterargument:

The question is not what Paul means by righteousness and holiness, but what it means to be created after the likeness of God (in righteousness and holiness). In other words, Paul does not say that believers ought to put on the new self and live according to righteousness and holiness. Rather, he calls them to put on Christ, and thereby be created after the likeness of God in righteousness and holiness. In other words, Paul’s exhortation is to put on Christ, which entails being created after the likeness of God (in righteousness and holiness). He does not exhort them to put on Christ, which means living righteous and holy lives. Further, that Paul calls the Ephesians to imitate God in Ephesians 5:1 is not relevant to Ephesians 4:24. In the context of Ephesians 4:24, Paul describes the general theme of putting off the old self and putting on the new. By the time we reach Ephesians 5:1, Paul has in mind practical ways to live out the faith, such as loving and forgiving one another.¹²

Explanation:

When Paul calls the believers to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God, we notice he says something very similar to the Colossians. In Colossians 3:10 we read put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. What is important to notice is that there is both a similarity and a difference between these passages. For in both passages Paul calls on his audience to put on the new self, but in Ephesians 4:24 Paul leaves out the noun image. ¹³ That suggests that he has an ethical emphasis in mind in Ephesians 4:24. That is, he does not have in mind that putting on the new self is like being created after God’s image. Rather, he calls the Ephesians to be created according to God by living in righteousness and holiness.¹⁴

Counterargument:

The problem with this argument is that if Colossians 3:10 is parallel to Ephesians 4:24, then why shouldn’t we take it that the noun image is actually in the back of Paul’s mind when he writes created according to God? That is, since Paul left the phrase out of Ephesians 4:24, he inadvertently left us with some ambiguity as to what it means that the new self is created according to God, and Colossians 3:10 fills in the missing information. In fact, even though Paul has left the term image out of Ephesians 4:24, we can see that the preposition κατά means according to, thus inferring that Paul has something like according to God’s standard in mind. ¹⁵ And if something is according to God’s standard, it is after his likeness.

Possible weaknesses:

The problem with this view is that, while Paul does exhort believers to live holy and righteous lives in some contexts, such an exhortation does not suit the grammar of Ephesians 4:24. For here Paul calls the believers not to live in righteousness and holiness but to put on the new self. Putting on the new self is Paul’s emphasis, a new self that has been created according to God.