Have you ever wondered what it truly means to be made in God’s image? It’s one of those concepts we hear about in church, but sometimes it can feel like a deep theological idea that’s tough to fully grasp.
Well, let’s take a walk through Genesis 1:26-27 and break it down in a way that’s easy to understand and apply to our everyday lives.
Defining the Image of God
In the opening chapters of the Bible, we find our first clues as to what the image of God is. We read that God created humanity in His image after His likeness. But what does that really mean?
The words “image” and “likeness” comes from two different Hebrew words. These terms are used to describe how mankind reflects God’s nature. With that said, the exact difference between the two words isn’t entirely clear and is still debated by theologians.
What is the difference? Is there a difference? And if there is a difference, how does it affect our understanding of the image of God in a practical way?
A Raging Debate on the Image of God
Some argue that “image” refers to our physical nature, while “likeness” refers to our spiritual nature. Others believe they’re essentially the same thing. Although there’s some wiggle room here, I tend to agree with the second view. Genesis 1:26 is probably just using synonyms to emphasize that we were created to reflect God in some kind of important way.
We can’t get too cutsie with definitions. If we do, we start to see meanings that aren’t really there. It’s safest to understand “image” and “likeness” as the same idea simply repeated to show how important it is that each of us has the image of God.
God stamped His divine image on us. That is indisputable no matter how we view the meanings of these words. We are unique in creation because of that. This means that in some important way, we are like Him.
But let’s take a step back and ask a question. How are we like God? After all, He is a spirit (John 4:24), and we’re physical beings with flesh and bone. The Bible doesn’t tell us that we look like God physically.
How do we reflect Him? There are a few ways to think about it.
Reflecting God’s Character
First, it’s important to know that we are made in God’s image, but we’re not the exact image of God. God is the original, and we are His copy. It’s like a beautiful sculpture made from marble. The sculptor may carve a statue that looks like a person, but it’s not a real person. The statue reflects the artist’s skill, but it’s not the artist.
When the Bible tells us we’re made in the divine image, it means that we reflect certain aspects of who He is. This isn’t about physical resemblance, but rather about reflecting God’s qualities, like His rationality, creativity, morality, and the ability to love and form relationships. We’re made to look like Him in the way we think, feel, and act—not necessarily in our outward appearance.
There is one caution here I’d like to make. This image is static. In other words, it’s the same for everyone. Rationality doesn’t include intelligence because intelligence fluctuates between people. Someone with more creativity doesn’t mean they have more of the image of God in them than another.
My point? The image of God in us is that which is God’s standard for all human beings. We reflect God’s character. Animals don’t. Plants don’t. Only we do.
God’s Purpose for Humanity
Another key point is that humanity is given a role in God’s creation. We were made to rule and steward the earth on His behalf. In Genesis 1:28, God tells Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.”
As the image-bearers of God, we’re given dominion over the creation He made. He is the Lord over all, and as His image-bearers, we’re meant to care for and lead creation with wisdom and responsibility.
This doesn’t mean we’re supposed to dominate creation for selfish gain. Instead, our dominion should reflect God’s good and loving rule over His universe. In other words, God’s original intent for the human race was to perfectly rule over His creation as His stewards.
So what happened? What created in man a desire to conquer rather than steward. What happened that man no longer “works for God” but does his own thing? It was sin. We call it The Fall. Let’s look next at this detail of God’s image in us.
The Fall and the Distorted Image
So, here’s the tough part. What happened when Adam and Eve sinned? The image of God in humanity was still there, but it became distorted. Instead of perfectly representing God’s nature, we now project a distorted version of that image.
But how is it distorted? Think of it this way. I’m practically blind without my glasses. Glasses are called “corrective lenses” because, when I put them on, they correct the image of what is there. The image hasn’t changed. How I view that image certainly has because my eyes are marred by astygmatism.
A better way of understanding this is a shattered mirror. It still reflects, but the reflection is warped. Technically, the mirror works. The person creating the image hasn’t changed either. The mirror just doesn’t perform the way it was designed.
Both illustrations make the same point. You see, sin corrupted our ability to perfectly live out God’s commands, and now every part of our being is distorted by it.
Point? Sin distorted the image of who we are and corrupted our true nature as human beings. Now, that image doesn’t make sense. It’s blurry and unrecognizable to us. That’s why we rail against God. We still have His image burned into our being. We don’t understand it because our eyes are blinded by our own sin nature.
In a more technical sense, we continue to bear the image of God structurally. This means we have the same value as humans that God gave us at the beginning. But our ability to reflect His character was marred by sin.
That’s why, as we look at human beings, we still see traces of God’s image. People still have the ability to reason, create, and love. But we also see things like selfishness, hatred, and confusion, which are signs of the image being distorted. Sin hasn’t wiped out the image of God in humanity. It simply twisted it.
Christ: The Perfect Image of God
Now here’s where the good news comes in: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the perfect image of God. He’s corrective lenses. He’s the Repairer of the mirror of our own humanity.
Colossians 1:15 tells us that He is “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” In Christ, we see what the image of God was always meant to look like in its purest form. Jesus, being, fully God and fully man, shows us what humanity is supposed to be. He perfectly reflects God’s character—love, justice, mercy, and holiness—in a way that we could never do on our own.
On top of this, Paul also refers to Christ as the second Adam (Romans 5). The first Adam blew it, distorting the image of God in himself and passing it on to the whole human race. The second Adam took the distorted image Adam produced and gave us a pure image to view. We see the perfect image of God in the only perfect human being.
The true beauty of the gospel is that Christ didn’t just come to show us God’s image. He came to restore it. Because of Jesus, we now have the glasses we needed all along to view ourselves properly. The broken mirror of our humanity can be fixed.
When we trust in Christ, we begin a process of transformation where we are renewed in the image of God. In 2 Corinthians 3:18, Paul says that as we behold the glory of the Lord, we are “being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”
Becoming Like Christ
The Christian life is all about becoming more and more like Jesus. As we grow in our faith, the Holy Spirit works in us to make us more Christ-like in how we think, act, and love. In other words, the process of salvation isn’t just about our sins being forgiven—it’s about being restored to the image of God, the way we were always meant to be.
But we have to understand, we aren’t going to be perfect in this life. We’ll always have room to grow and areas where we still reflect the brokenness of sin. But the good news is that one day, when Jesus returns, we’ll be fully transformed. 1 John 3:2 says, “we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.”
The New Creation
In the end, the story of the image of God is the story of redemption. It started with us being created in God’s image, became distorted through sin, and was ultimately restored in Christ. As believers, we’re not only looking back to our original purpose. We’re also looking forward to the day when we’ll fully reflect God’s image in the new creation.
What a day that will be!
So What?
The fact is, right now, we reflect God’s image in a couple very important ways:
- We reflect God most when we obey Him. In this way, His image beams brightest. In this way, He is most glorified as we reflect His original purpose in us.
We were meant to live in close relationship with God. That’s what the divine image is all about. Though that was marred, Christ gave us a second chance to live out the image of God through faith that leads to obedience.
- There’s another very important lesson to learn here. The divine image in every human being means every human being has equal human value. The divine image means every human being has some kind of part to play in God’s plan.
He brought about the existence of every human being. He’s stamped the divine image (though distorted as it may be) on every human being, regardless of disabilities or difficulties. In other words, there are no throwaway human beings. Abortion, euthanasia and the killing of disabled people simply because they pose no “value” to society ignore the image of God in every human being. It’s wrong because every human life belongs to God alone.
Do you know Jesus? If not, find Him here.
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