What Does It Mean to Be Made in God’s Image?

Unless we know who God is, we cannot truly know who we are. Is it surprising that when people do not retain God in their thinking (Rom. 1:28) that they also cannot define humanity? Is man merely an evolved animal? Are male and female distinctions by divine design or human choice? Replacing the triune God with mother earth leads people to believe that they are children of the earth and that spirituality is a product of human brain development rather than indicating creation by “God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth” (Nicene Creed). Forgetting God’s identity makes one like an Alzheimer’s patient who, forgetting parents, wife, and children, panics, not knowing where or who he is.

The image of God defines human identity with reference to God. This short article presents glimpses of God by defining what kind of reflection He displays in His image bearers. After seeing that the eternal Son images His eternal Father, I will imitate Westminster Confession 4.2 by outlining the human image of God in four ways.¹

First, Christ is the essential image of God.

Images represent the things that they image. The Word was both in the beginning with God, and He was God (John 1:1–2). God’s Son is His only proper icon, or image, displaying the glory of the invisible God (Col. 1:15). Man is God’s image, but not like Christ. God is light, and the Son, as Word and image, is “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Heb. 1:3). As image, Christ is divine and Creator, being the same God as the Father but not the same person as the Father. Whatever we say about humanity being made in God’s image, human beings cannot hold a candle to the radiant light of the Father’s “exact image.” As eternal image, the Son radiates the Father’s divinity in His own divinity. He is the original image, and we are the copies.

Second, human beings are the created image of God.

While “image” and “likeness” probably mean the same thing, using two terms for emphasis, Genesis 1:26–27 seems to offer frustratingly little detail about what the image of God means. The God who said, “Let Us” (plural) is the “He” (singular) who created man in these verses. God being Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, created the heavens by His Word and by the breath of His mouth (Ps. 33:6). We see hints that the Creator is triune. Yet because humanity lost God’s image so quickly by falling into sin, we learn most about the image by reverse engineering. As God renews us in His image in Christ, the original becomes clearer in at least four ways.

1. The scope of the image is male and female.

Though the exact details are mysterious, human beings image God in both body and soul. As the image of God relates to the human body, we recognize that gender distinctions are designed by God, and both genders bear God’s image. As there is unity and distinction in God, there is unity and distinction in human beings. Yet as Father, Son, and Spirit are distinct persons without division or separation in being, mankind cannot image Him perfectly. Not being eternal and immutable, we are distinct persons but divided and separate human beings.

2. The image broadly includes the capacity to know and worship God.

Like God, human beings have intellects and wills. God gave them “reasonable and immortal souls” (WCF 4.2) to enable them to know and worship God. Whatever we may say about the thoughts and emotions of our pets, one thing they cannot do is bow before God and sing His praises. Even factoring sin into the picture, human beings still broadly image God in their capacities to know (Gen. 9:6). If this were not true, there could be no way back to God. Also, though the image is rooted in the soul, the body is the instrument of the soul, making the whole human person the image of God. Redemption with resurrection would only save half of us. As the soul knows Christ through regeneration, so the soul will see Christ (through the body) in the resurrection.

3. The image narrowly includes mankind’s moral reflection of God.

Losing upright character through sin, human beings no longer represent God’s holiness. Though the Son is the natural and essential image of God, He became the human image of God by becoming man. Thus, Jesus is the only real historical example we have of what the moral image of God should have looked like. He radiates both perfect deity and perfect humanity. God predestined us to be conformed to the image of Christ’s humanity (Rom. 8:29). This looks like regaining true knowledge of the true God (Col. 3:10) and imitating God’s righteousness and holiness (Eph. 4:24).

4. The effect of the image is “communion with God” and “dominion over the creatures” (WCF 4.2).

Though some people reduce God’s image to dominion, it is better to say that it was fitting for creatures who knew, worshiped, and reflected God to govern the world under Him. As my son is my son because he came through me and not because he does his chores, so Adam was God’s image, not because he had dominion but to have dominion. Hebrews 2:5–9 shows that Jesus became lower than the angels by becoming human so that He might restore dominion by raising redeemed men and women above the angels with Him.

So, what does it mean to be human? It means being men and women who have the capacity to know God, who should know and imitate Him in righteousness and holiness, and who govern creation under Him. Do we seek to know God best through His Son, who is God’s essential and created image? Has the Spirit changed our view of who we are and our purpose by showing us who God is and why He made us?