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Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

IMAGE OF GOD

Likeness to God, the most basic affirmation to be made concerning the nature of human beings from a Christian perspective. Humans are unique among the creatures in that they are like God and therefore able to have communion and fellowship with God.

Genesis 1:26-27 teaches that God determined to create man and woman in his own “image” and “likeness” and that they would have dominion over the animal creation. The two terms used in the creation account and found also in the NT convey closely related shades of meaning, but the difference between them is no longer thought to be theologically significant.

Because Genesis 2:7 states unambiguously that man became a living being, the Bible does not present the view that a previously living creature developed into a human, nor does it suggest that the image of God evolved from a lower form of life. The moment the man and woman became living creatures, they were the image of God. Both male and female share this likeness to God (Gn 1:27).

Other passages that speak of people being created in the image of God are Genesis 5:1, 9:6, 1 Corinthians 11:7, and James 3:9. Ephesians 4:24 and Colossians 3:10 refer to humanity’s redemptive re-creation, but the passages are generally regarded as directly relevant for an understanding of mankind’s original likeness to God. Although explicit references to humans as expressing the image of God are comparatively infrequent in the Bible, the truth itself underlies the whole relation between God and humans and is therefore the presupposition of the entire biblical account.

The affirmation in Genesis 1 that man and woman were made in the image of God is not made of any of the other living creatures. The animals, the fish, and the birds do not share this privilege. It is disputed whether the angels are in the image of God, but certain theologians so view them because they find the image to reside in moral righteousness. However, there is no explicit biblical statement to this effect.

By virtue of his creation from the dust of the ground, mankind has an obvious kinship with the earth. It is not strange, therefore, that the body, both in its constitution and its functions, shows similarities with other earthly creatures. But humans are unique in every aspect of their existence; not some part of a human or some faculty of a human, but a human in his or her wholeness is the image of God. The biblical concept is not that the image is in man and woman, but that man and woman are the image of God.

However, as man’s kinship with the earth is most clearly visible in his body, so the image of God is best seen when humans are viewed from the perspective of their spirituality. Theologians have sought at this point to enumerate those aspects of spirituality that define humans and set them apart from the animal creation. The image of God is then found to reside in some attribute or combination of attributes, such as rationality, will, freedom, responsibility, or the like. Contemporary theologians prefer not to enumerate attributes, and the Bible does not set forth the image of God in this way. Nevertheless, it is the personality of humans that separates them from the animals and is a reflection of the personality of God. The animals have their existence from God, but humans have their being in God, and they are his offspring (Acts 17:28-29).

Another major aspect of the image of God doctrine is developed from Ephesians 4:24 and Colossians 3:10. These verses describe the re-creation of the believers in the likeness of God—in righteousness, holiness of the truth, and true knowledge. In other words, Paul declares that the redeemed are re-created into the image of God as they are transformed into the image of Christ, who bears the untainted image of God. Just as the fall into sin was not without its effect on the image of God, so also redemption from sin affects humans as the image of God. Ephesians and Colossians speak of renewal in the image of God the Creator, but other texts become even more specific in view of the mediatorial office of Christ.

Jesus Christ is preeminently the image of God (2 Cor 4:4; Col 1:15; Heb 1:3). Frequently this is understood exclusively as a reference to the deity of Christ. To see Christ is to see the Father (Jn 14:9). However, in the passages cited, it is the incarnate Mediator, the last Adam, who is at least all that God intended the first Adam to be. Incarnation means that Jesus is truly human, and because he is truly human, he is truly the image of God.

As the last Adam and the Mediator of the new covenant, Jesus brings his people into conformity with his own image, the image of the Son of God (Rom 8:29). He who became like his brethren, in the likeness of sinful flesh, destroys sin in order that his brethren might reflect his own glory. They are changed into the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor 3:18). The believer is to “put on Christ” (Rom 13:14; Gal 3:27; cf. Eph 4:24; Col 3:10, “the new nature” in the image of God), an action also described as the formation of Christ in the believer (Gal 4:19).

Conformity to the image of Jesus Christ is achieved through the process of sanctification that is ultimately completed at the resurrection. Only then is the body changed until it is fashioned like unto the glorious body of Christ (Phil 3:21). Restoration in the image of Christ carries beyond creation in the image of God, for the image of the earthly is then exchanged for the image of the heavenly (1 Cor 15:49).