Clowney on the Soul and the Body

From pages 24-25 of: How Jesus Transforms The Ten Commandments

Explanations of man's qualities as being the "image of God" are insufficient if they focus uniquely on the physical or intellectual aspects of our human nature. The New Testament makes clear that it is the soul of man, not his reasoning ability or his physical features, that makes him a person in the image of God. Scripture distinguishes between the soul and the body. Jesus said to the thief on the cross, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43). Surely this has to mean that Jesus and the thief would be together apart from their bodies, since Jesus' body would remain three days in the grave. But is the soul the only part of man that is in God's image? Jesus rose from the dead in his body. He left the tomb and greeted Mary Magdalene on Easter morning. To demonstrate that his risen body was real, he ate a piece of fish, smiling, perhaps, as he chewed it. All of this seems to emphasize the importance of the body as a part of God's image. Can it be possible that the body is a part of the divine image in man?

This body—soul union and distinction is puzzling. Our souls or spirits may rejoice with the Lord apart from the body. Paul said, "I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body" (Phil. 1:23-24). Yet Paul also says, "We do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life" (2 Cor. 5:4). The Lord does provide a form in the intermediate state for his redeemed in heaven before the resurrection. We were not created as disembodied spirits. After God had said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness" (Gen. 1:26), he formed Adam "from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life" (Gen. 2:7). We are made body
and soul, and our redemption cannot be complete until the resurrection of the dead, when we receive our resurrection bodies (2 Cor. 5:4). Man in his body—soul created state is made in God's image. God chose to reflect himself in human beings, both male and female.