Man - Created in the Image of God

Unlike the plant and animal life, only man was created in the image of God The scripture says: (Genesis 1:27) “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” In Psalm 8 David speaks of man’s elevation over the rest of creation.

(vss 3-9) When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; what is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!

“What is man? God was so mindful of him as to exalt him to a position next to himself, giving him dominion over all things of earth. No man therefore should abuse himself, as if he were a being of no importance, nor should he trespass on the person or rights of his fellow man. Human life is sacred.” (R.L. Whiteside, Bible Studies, Genesis-Deuteronomy, 15)

Man was and continues to enter the world in the image of God (cf. James 3:9). But what does this mean? Since we have a physical body does God also have one – a body made of flesh and bones? Admittedly, the words image and likeness are often used with reference to external similarities. However, it is evident from what the Jesus has said about God and about spirit, that He is neither flesh nor bones. For “God is spirit” (John 4:24) and “a spirit does not have flesh and bones” (Luke 24:39). Therefore, when the Bible says: “God created man in his own image” it cannot mean that man is made in the physical image of God for God has no such image. And so we are still made to wonder: What is the image of God?

“Possessing the capacity to subdue, use and exercise dominion over creation about him is one mark of man's God-likeness. In this he bears the image of His maker. No other creature has the power to make all nature's elements subservient to his use; no other creature has such God-like capacities.” (Homer Hailey, From Creation to the Day of Eternity, 21-22) But the image of God includes more than this. “God has intelligence ... and emotion; he knows ... loves, hates. Man also has intelligence ... and emotions; he has the power to know ... to love, to hate. And as God has, so man has, the power of speech.” (Robert L. Whiteside, Bible Studies, vol. 1, 15) In addition to these things, like his Maker man possesses the freedom to make moral choices – the freedom of his own will to choose good or evil.

In creation God made many robots; man, however, is not one of them! Some of God's robots are animate – fish, fowl, beasts of the field; while others are inanimate – planets, trees, grass. “An animal is no less a robot than a star, being programmed by instinct to act only according to its species, even as a star wanders according to the laws of the universe. A spawning salmon returns unerringly to the place of its birth, not because it chooses to do so, but because it cannot choose to do otherwise, driven by instinct. A blade of grass or a flower springs forth, withers and dies, having no choice ... to bloom or not to bloom. Such creatures never weigh alternatives and choose a direction based on free, moral choice. 'Free' in this context is 'absence of external compulsion,' action that spontaneously erupts from its subject. 'Moral' denotes the 'ability to know right from wrong.' Man is a free, moral creature and unique in that he is the only such creature on earth!” (Tom Roberts, Watchman, “Free Will,” Nov. 2001. Online: http://www.watchmanmag.com/0111/011101.htm)

Adam and Eve were created in the image of God. In addition to what has already been said, this means that like God they too were pure and upright in character. (cf., Ecc. 7:29) God placed them placed in “a garden toward the east, in Eden.” (Gen. 2:8) Their task was simple: “... cultivate it [the garden] and keep it.” (vs. 15) They had but one prohibition: “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:16-17). Whether they would live or die was now in their hands.