What does it mean that we are made in God's image?

Then God said, “Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.”

    Genesis 1:26

There are misconceptions about what it means to be made in God’s image. Some believe it to mean we as humans are “gods”, or can become “gods”. That is a gross error. Humans can and will never be gods. Not in this life, nor in the life to come. Even in mythology gods are immortal which human beings are not; we do eventually die.

So, what does it mean to be made in God’s image and likeness? How is man like God?

The word image in Hebrew is tseh’-lem which means a phantom, resemblance, representative figure.     

The word likeness in the Hebrew is de-mooth which means model, shape, fashion, similitude.

Scripture tells us that God the Father is a Spirit (John 4:24). That is one way we are in God’s image because we are spirits as well within a physical body.

Other ways we are image bearers is that we have will, emotions, we can make choices. God like himself has granted us dominion over the entire earth. We have rule. Man has extreme intelligence. Man has a moral compass; we have ability to make decisions like God does.

God designed man perfect in every way – physically, morally and without sin. Because man has the ability to choose, it means he could be tempted with evil. We know this because Eve was tempted in the Garden of Eden by the serpent and sinned alone with Adam who willfully chose to sin, plunging the entire human race into sin (Rom 5:12;1 Tim 2:13).

Has man lost the image of God because of sin?

All of the above is true despite the fact that man is now a sinner. However, because of sin the image we bear of God is horribly marred, broken due to our rebellion and wickedness. Remember an image of something is a mirror, not an exact replica of it. It is as if we looked at ourselves in a broken mirror. We are looking at ourselves, but the reflection looking back at us is distorted, cracked and shattered. That is the broken image we display to the world when we are out of the will of God. Man will always bear God’s image, but because of the fall, man unashamedly misrepresents their Creator which continually breaks God’s heart.

Enter in the Lord Jesus Christ

The Bible tells us that Jesus is the image of the Father (Col 1:15). The word image in Greek is ēikōn. It means exact likeness. Jesus is the express image of the invisible Father and the perfect representation of him in word and deed. Jesus captures the image of God perfectly. What the first 

Adam destroyed due to sin, Jesus restored through his righteousness.

Jesus displayed the glory of God on earth which is what we all should do. As a matter of fact, that is what we are all commanded to do.

In order for us to understand who we really are, and why we exist, we need to connect to the God who made us, and have a personal relationship with the Savior who redeemed us. We must know who God is so that we know what he demands of us. Knowing who God is gives us revelation of ourselves. This gives one’s life true purpose. When one fails to do that, we do not live for the glory of God, but for ourselves – an earthly glorified life, but a vain eternal life without God.  A life devoid of God is a life devoid of true light and real purpose. That life is based on chance and fate. Since we bear God’s image, and proceed from him, we MUST earnestly implore his plan for our lives. Sadly, the mass of humanity has ignored the God who loves and created them, and has chosen to become God’s enemies instead (Rom 5:10).

All life is precious because God is the author of it. Anyone who blatantly harms or murders born or unborn life not only show hatred of the life taken, but more importantly they show their hatred of God who created that life in his image!! The apostle John spoke these sobering words in his epistle, If someone says, “I love God”, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from him: he that loves God must love his brother also (1 John 4:20-21).

Why do I point out these verses of scripture? Because we need to understand our relationship to God is in direction connection on how we treat one another. If we do not treat one another with love and respect, we can and will not treat God with respect. If we are going to love God, we MUST respect the image he placed in the earth – mankind, and ultimately look to Jesus who is perfect visible image of the invisible Father.