On Sunday evenings, our studies are about the nature of God. Who is the God of Scripture, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? One of the important descriptions of man in the Bible is that he is made after the image and likeness of God. At the creation of man, this is the statement from God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them." (Genesis 1:26-27.)

For an excellent discussion of this topic, see Reason & Revelation, "In The ‘Image and Likeness of God’", Part 1, March 2002, Eric Lyons and Bert Thompson.)

The Psalmist said that man is fearfully and wonderfully made. (Psalm 139:14.) This surely includes his physical and spiritual qualities. One writer said that there are three unique traits about being a human being: man is made after the image of God, man is finite and weak, and man is wicked. All three of these traits must be included in order to fully describe man. This is, of course, a simplification of the nature of man. But all three of these traits ought to be admitted and included. If one emphasize the first, man after the image of God, without the others, we leave with the feeling that man is just one step away from being God. If we emphasize the last, man’s wicked nature, we leave thinking that man is just one step away from being Satan! The truth is that man is a complex being. We do not fully understand ourselves. (Romans 7.) Our finiteness keeps us from understanding. Yet, we have the ability to contemplate our lives and our likeness.

This view of man as being made in the image and likeness of God is distinctly a Christian view. Atheists deny this statement. Darwin wrote, "Man is not, as the Bible asserts, a being made in the image of God, and bearing from the first His rational and moral likeness, but is evolved into what he is through transformation of the ape-image." (Darwinianism, Dr. H. Stirling, 157.) In the Christian world view, creation and the nature of man are inseparable. If there is no God, then man, of course, could not be made in his image. A denial of the creation naturally causes the denial of the God-likeness of man.

As far as the history of man and the nature of man are concerned, the fall of man is the one of the most significant events after his creation. Was this "a big fall" or a "small one"? Did the fall destroy the original image and likeness of God in man? Do the statements about man after the Fall differ from Genesis 1:26-27 before the Fall? We will need to look for that. Fortunately, to help us answer that question, we have some important statements after the Fall about the image of God in man. We will note those in a moment.

Erwin Lutzer wrongly illustrated the nature of man to his students of theology. He would carry his class of preacher students to a cemetery and ask the young men to preach to the dead. They felt confused and uncomfortable with the whole idea. Every student refused. What would be the purpose? The dead could not hear and respond. Then Lutzer would make his point. So, in like manner, man is dead in sin and cannot respond without the help of God. (Ten Lies About God, Erwin Lutzer, 2000, 178.) This professor carried the Fall too far. He joined the ranks of other theologians who believe that the Fall destroyed completely the God-likeness in man. Man therefore has no spiritual ability to respond to the Gospel unless he is enabled by the power of God. If this is true, then God chooses for man who will respond and who will not. Man would no longer be responsible because he would not possess the ability to even choose God. Such is too radical a view of the effect of the Fall.

There are passages which speak of the image of God after the Fall and after the Flood. Here are some of them:

"Whoso sheds man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made he man." (Gen. 9:6.) Murderers were put to death because they killed a being made in the image of God. There is no indication that man had lost this likeness after the Fall and the Flood. Twenty-five hundred years after the Fall, Moses wrote that man bore the image of God.

Not only should we not murder fellow humans because of this God-likeness, but also we should not slander another man with our tongues. Listen to James:

"But the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father, and therewith curse we man which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be." (James 3:8-10.) Thousands of years after the Fall, Bible writers are still saying that man bears the image of God. This is the chief reason why we should honor and respect all men.

Paul wrote this to the Corinthian church: "For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God." (1 Cor. 11:7.) In the New Testament period, Christians are being reminded that they are made in the image of God. Thus, we conclude that the Fall of man did not remove that likeness.

One way to determine what the image or likeness of God is that man possesses is first to name what it is not.

It does not mean that we are God. Though some have claimed that man is God, this can never be claimed from Scripture. Man is finite and limited in his nature which disqualifies him from being God. Man is also sinful. His wickedness disqualifies him as well. Many have foolishly claimed to be a god. The ancient kings and Caesars claimed such and demanded others to worship them. Jim Jones made such outlandish claims. So has Shirley MaLaine. She wrote that she holds "each yoga position for twenty seconds and internally chants, I am God in Light." (Going Within, 1989, 57.) She said that she stands on the beach and shouts, I am God. One church (The Latter Day Saints) makes the claim that believers will one day become a god.

In the Bible, a Herod once accepted the praise as if he were God and he was eaten by worms and died. (Acts 12:21-23.) In bold contrast, Paul and Barnabas rejected the attempts of pagans to worship them. They torn their garments and said, "Why do you these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and bring you good tidings, that you should turn from these vain things unto a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that in them is." (Acts 14:14-15.)

It does not refer to man’s physical appearance. Some writers have so expressed themselves. Even Henry Morris in his excellent commentary, The Genesis Record, included the human body as part of the explanation of this image and likeness of God. He wrote, "There is something about the human body, therefore, which is uniquely appropriate to God’s manifesta-tion of Himself, and He must have designed man’s body with this in mind. Accordingly, He designed it, not like the animals, but with an erect posture, with an upward gaze countenance, capable of facial expressions corresponding to emotional feelings, and with a brain and tongue capable of articulate, symbolic speech." (page 4.)

This likeness which man’s possesses cannot be the physical for at least two good reasons. First, God does not possess a body. He is a Spirit which does not have flesh and bone. Secondly, some other creatures with bodies walk upright. A bird walks upright on two legs. This image or likeness must refer to something else other than physical things.

Image and likeness are not two different things. Some have insisted that two different things are under consideration. There is no conjunction between the two phrases. After his likeness simply emphasizes the image of God.

It has nothing to do with the dominion over the earth. Man was given such dominion as the creation account says. This indicated the greatness of man over the other creatures, but does not explain how man is like God.

Some see man as God’s agent on earth ruling over his creation. They think that it has nothing to do with morals or the spirit of man, but rather his domination of the lower creatures. But man was made in the image of God first and then given rule over the earth.

There is a connection between the image and dominion. It is the presence of the image of God in people that makes them able to exercise dominion over the earth. Dominion itself is not what constitutes the image. Although somewhat closely related to the image of God, exercising dominion over the world is not itself the image.

We remember that New Testament writers described Jesus as being "the express image of God" (Heb. 1:3) and "the image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15). Jesus was not in the image of God in a physical sense, but rather in the likeness of divine nature. This image that Jesus possesses is not to be made equal to the image of God in man. Jesus bore the perfect image of God.

The original image of God in man has been, at the least, blurred. So much so that it is necessary for man to be born again. Jesus made it clear to Nicodemus that it is the spirit of man that is born again, not his body. (John 3:6.) Paul described the process as putting off the old man and putting on the new. The new man is created in "righteousness and true holiness." (Eph. 4:24.) Also, "And put on the new man which renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him." (Col. 1:10.) The NIV says, "In the image of its Creator."

Man was created in the image of God in that man has a spiritual consciousness, a knowledge of right and wrong, an inward nature that is like God. This image exists in everyone, saint and sinner alike. However, the sinner has not renewed that image and returned to a life that is more consistent with who he is.