what does it mean that man was made in the image of god?
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness"...So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Genesis 1:26a, 27
'Image'
and 'Likeness' are interchangeable in this verse. We are an
image, in the sense that we are a 'reflection' of God. Like our
reflection in a mirror, the image is not an exact duplicate of
ourselves, but it resembles us. It is not us in the mirror, but a
likeness. We have qualities, reflected in finite terms, of the
God who created us. This gift to us is a tremendous gift, and it
enables us to seek and to commune with Him.
Outwardly, we appear
as creatures like any other part of creation. We are made of
organic tissue, defined by our DNA sequence, and have material needs
(food, clothing, etc) to survive. In this manner we are seemingly
common with the rest of the creation. But we have also have a
nature to us that is unique. We have been given the gift of God's
image, and this is evident in our ability to reflect some of the traits
of God.
God is supreme over all. He
placed us a little lower, and gave us dominion over all other living
things. He is Spirit, and we have the notion of a spirit within
us, that gives us self awareness and enables deeper needs such as love,
relationships, etc. He is life, and He gave us life, in a mortal
sense. It will end, and this issue, perhaps over all the others,
draws us toward the life giver. He is the Standard of the
universe, and He has placed into us a sense of this. Our sense of
right and wrong, happy and sad, purpose and non-purpose all reflect the
universal standard.
When we realize the importance of
this gift of God, we realize the significance we have in His
sight. We are indeed the crowning achievement of His
creation. The fact that He entrusted to us a glimpse of Himself
ensures every person's right to feel special, needed, loved, and to be
treated as such. With God all of mankind is equal, and
special. No particular person has a higher place with God than
any other (except Christ.) The image of God we have ensures our
significance in His sight, and explains the reason why He is reaching
out to us, through Christ, to fix the effects of our turning away from
Him and rejoin our appropriate place which is in communion with
Him. It is only with Christianity that man has a purpose external
to himself, and that all men and women are equal.
You made [man] a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet. Psalm 8:5-6
It is the spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding. Job 32:8
The lamp of the Lord searches the spirit of a man; it searches out his inmost being. Proverbs 20:27
Rich and poor have this in common: The Lord is the Make of them all. Proverbs 22:2
The image of God within us is a great gift from God. What we choose to do with it, however, is up to us.