Book Club Questions for In His Image

1.Wilkin opens by observing that we tend to ask 'What is God's will for my life?' far more than we ask 'Who does God want me to become?' Why do you think the 'what' question comes so much more naturally to us than the 'who' question?

2.The book's central thesis is rooted in Genesis 1:26–28 — human beings are made in the image of God (the imago Dei). In your own words, what does it mean to bear the image of God? How does the Fall complicate that image-bearing?

3.Wilkin argues that the Christian life is fundamentally about being conformed to the image of Christ, who is himself the perfect image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). How does framing sanctification this way — as image-restoration — change how you think about spiritual growth?

1.Wilkin begins the chapter by noting that holiness is the only attribute of God that is repeated three times in succession in Scripture — 'Holy, holy, holy' (Isaiah 6:3). Why do you think holiness receives this unique triple emphasis? What does that tell us about its centrality?

2.Wilkin distinguishes between holiness as 'set apart' (otherness) and holiness as moral purity. How do these two aspects relate to each other? Can you have one without the other?

3.Isaiah's vision in Isaiah 6 is a central text in this chapter. When Isaiah encounters the holy God, his immediate response is 'Woe is me! For I am lost' (v. 5). What does this response tell us about what it actually feels like to be near genuine holiness? Have you ever had a moment — in prayer, in worship, in reading Scripture — where you felt something like Isaiah's undoing?

1.Wilkin points out that love is perhaps the attribute of God most frequently mentioned in contemporary Christianity and yet most poorly understood. Do you agree? In what ways do you think popular Christianity has distorted or sentimentalized love?

2.The chapter distinguishes between love as an emotion or feeling and love as a commitment expressed in action. How does 1 John 4 ground the definition of love in God's own nature ('God is love') rather than in human feelings? Why does this distinction matter?

3.Wilkin emphasizes that God's love is not a response to our lovableness — Romans 5:8 makes clear he loved us while we were still sinners. How does this 'while we were yet sinners' quality of divine love challenge the way you tend to love others? Be specific: who in your life is hardest to love in this unconditional way?

1.Wilkin observes that both inside and outside the church, 'justice' has become a highly charged and contested term. Before reading this chapter, how would you have defined justice? Did the chapter affirm, correct, or expand your definition?

2.The chapter argues that God's justice flows from his holiness — that a perfectly holy God cannot be indifferent to wrongdoing. Why is a God who is 'too loving to punish sin' actually not loving at all? How does Wilkin connect God's justice to his love rather than pitting them against each other?

3.Psalm 89:14 declares that 'righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne.' What does it mean for justice to be foundational to God's rule? How does this shape your confidence that evil will not ultimately prevail?

1.Jesus says in Mark 10:18, 'No one is good except God alone.' Wilkin uses this to establish that goodness, like all the attributes, originates in God and flows outward to creation. What makes this more than a theological abstraction? How does it change the way you think about goodness when you encounter it in the world?

2.Wilkin distinguishes between God's goodness as a settled theological fact and our felt sense of God's goodness in the middle of suffering. Have you ever found yourself believing God is good in your head while struggling to feel it in your gut? Describe that tension honestly.

3.Psalm 107 is a catalog of people in dire circumstances — wanderers, prisoners, sick and afflicted, storm-tossed sailors — who all cry out and are rescued by God. Wilkin uses this psalm to show that the goodness of God is most powerfully displayed not in the absence of trouble but through it. How does this reframe the question 'Why is God letting this happen to me?'

1.Wilkin defines mercy as compassion shown to those in misery or distress — particularly those who have no claim on help. How does this definition clarify the difference between mercy and justice? Between mercy and grace?

2.Psalm 103:8–14 is one of the richest descriptions of God's mercy in the Old Testament. Wilkin draws on the image of 'a father who has compassion on his children' (v. 13) — God's mercy is personal and parental. How does the parent-child image deepen your emotional understanding of mercy beyond just a legal or theological category?

3.Lamentations 3:22–23 declares that God's mercies are 'new every morning.' This is written in the context of utter devastation — Jeremiah is sitting in the ruins of Jerusalem. What does it mean to confess the freshness of God's mercy from inside a catastrophe? Have you ever found yourself needing to preach this truth to yourself in a moment of darkness?

1.Wilkin distinguishes between mercy (compassion shown to those in misery) and grace (favor shown to those who don't deserve it). In your own words, how would you explain the difference to someone who had never heard either term? Why does the distinction matter?

2.Exodus 34:6–7 is the great self-declaration of God's character after the golden calf incident — God chooses to be known as 'gracious and merciful, slow to anger.' What makes the timing of this declaration so remarkable? What does it tell us that God announces his grace in response to Israel's greatest failure?

3.Ephesians 1 describes grace as the very atmosphere of our life in Christ — God has 'blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing' (v. 3) and 'lavished' his grace upon us (v. 8). How does the language of lavishing and abundance compare to how you actually experience grace day to day? Do you tend to live inside grace or stand at the door looking in?

1.Wilkin opens the chapter by noting that faithfulness is closely related to trustworthiness — God is faithful because he keeps his promises and never departs from his commitments. In a culture where commitments are increasingly conditional and temporary, why is God's faithfulness such a countercultural concept?

2.Deuteronomy 7:9 describes God as 'the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.' What does the phrase 'to a thousand generations' communicate about the duration and certainty of God's faithfulness? How does this long view affect your current anxieties?

3.2 Timothy 2:13 says 'if we are faithless, he remains faithful — for he cannot deny himself.' This is one of the most striking verses in the chapter. What does it mean that God's faithfulness is rooted in his own nature ('he cannot deny himself') rather than in our performance? Why is this simultaneously humbling and immensely comforting?

1.Wilkin observes that patience is perhaps the most prayed-for virtue — and the one we most hate to develop, because it tends to be formed through waiting and suffering. Have you ever prayed for patience and then regretted it? What does that reveal about our understanding of how God answers that prayer?

2.2 Peter 3:9 explains God's apparent 'slowness' in judgment by saying he is 'patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.' What does this verse tell us about the purpose behind God's patience? How does understanding divine patience as redemptive (rather than indifferent) change how you read current events and personal delays?

3.Exodus 34:6 calls God 'slow to anger' — literally, 'long of nose' in the Hebrew, an idiom for someone who takes a long time to flare up. Wilkin uses this to show that patience is not the absence of feeling but the discipline of controlled response. What situations most quickly shorten your fuse? What does that tell you about what you are protecting or valuing in that moment?

1.Jesus declares in John 14:6, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life.' Wilkin treats this not just as a statement about Jesus' reliability but as an identification — Jesus himself is truth. What does it mean for truth to be a person rather than just a proposition? How does this change the way you relate to truth?

2.Numbers 23:19 says 'God is not a man, that he should lie.' Wilkin grounds human truthfulness in divine truthfulness — we are called to tell the truth because we are image-bearers of the God who cannot lie. How does this theological grounding for honesty go deeper than 'honesty is the best policy' or 'lying gets you in trouble'?

3.The chapter likely addresses the many forms dishonesty can take — outright lies, half-truths, flattery, silence when we should speak, exaggeration, presenting a false image of ourselves. Which of these forms of dishonesty do you find easiest to rationalize? Why?

1.Proverbs 1:7 declares 'the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.' Wilkin treats this as the foundational statement of the entire wisdom tradition. What does it mean that wisdom begins with fear — and what kind of fear does this mean? How is 'fear of the Lord' different from terror?

2.Romans 11:33–36 is one of the most sublime passages about divine wisdom in all of Scripture — Paul breaks into doxology at the 'depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God.' What does it tell us that this worship of God's wisdom comes at the end of Paul's most rigorous theological argument (Romans 9–11)? What is the relationship between hard thinking and worship?

3.1 Corinthians 1:18–31 is one of the most startling passages in the New Testament: God's wisdom looks like foolishness to the world, and the cross — which appears to be weakness and defeat — is actually the wisdom and power of God. How does the cross redefine what wisdom looks like? What does it displace as the world's standard of wisdom?

1.Looking back over all ten attributes — holy, loving, just, good, merciful, gracious, faithful, patient, truthful, and wise — which one impacted you most deeply during this study? What made it land so powerfully?

2.Were there any attributes that you found yourself resisting or wanting to skip past? What do you think that resistance revealed about you?

3.Wilkin's central argument is that we become like what we behold — that sustained attention to the character of God transforms us into people who reflect that character. Looking back over the weeks of this study, do you see any evidence of that transformation beginning? Be as specific as possible.