The Doctrine of Man: Man in the Image of God (Imago Dei)

Genesis 1 teaches that after God brought the world into existence out of nothing (chapter 10), he populated the heavens and the earth in six days. On the first day, he made light and separated it from darkness. On the second day, he made the heavens and separated the waters above from the waters below.

On the third day, he made plants. On the fourth day, he gathered light into heavenly bodies: the sun, moon, and stars. On the fifth day, he filled the waters with aquatic life and the heavens with winged creatures. On the sixth day, he populated the earth with “livestock, creeping things, and beasts of the field” (Gen. 1:24). All creatures were to reproduce “according to their kind” (v. 21, 24, 25). And “God saw that it was good” (v. 25). But then something even more incredible happened:

(…) God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that moves along the ground.”

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; it shall be meat for you.

And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein is the breath of life, every green herb shall be meat. And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. (Gen 1.26-31)

This passage emphasizes man’s uniqueness in several ways. The first is what John Murray calls his “unique involvement in the counsel of God.” Murray says:

The formula is not a simple 'let there be,' as in the case of light (Gen. 1:3). Nor is it a command in reference to existing entities—"Let the earth bring forth grass" (Gen. 1:11); "Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures" (Gen. 1:20); "Let the earth bring forth living creatures" (Gen. 1:24). The expression "let us make" indicates a unique involvement of divine thought and counsel, and evidences the fact that something proportionately unique is about to happen.

The image of God

The second indication of man’s uniqueness in the passage is that he is made, God says, “in our image, after our likeness.” Animals are created “after their kind,” that is, according to a pattern prescribed by God. But man is created after God’s own pattern. Murray comments:

(…) the individual himself was not something he wanted to be; it is something that belongs to God himself, intrinsically. The intelligent reaction to this revelation is one of wonder, and we exclaim: “What is man that you are mindful of him?” (Ps 8.4). The origin of man is not only the singular subject of God’s counsel; man is from the beginning the beneficiary of unique gifts and dignity.”

But theologians have long debated what exactly the image of God is. Some identify it with man's unique intellectual power; others with the soul as distinct from the body; and still others with man's relationship to God.

Karl Barth found a parallel between “image” and “male and female”; he then argued that the image consists in sexual differentiation and thus, more broadly, in social relationships. Others think that the image consists in man’s dominion over the rest of creation (Gen. 1:26, 28), for it is a mirror of God’s lordship.

Still others, with NT justification, identify the image with ethical qualities such as knowledge, righteousness, and holiness (Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10). Some seek a Christological interpretation of the image, since the NT presents Christ as the image in a prominent sense (2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:3) and the image into which we will be renewed (Rom. 8:29; 1 Cor. 15:49; 2 Cor. 3:18).

In all these representations there is truth

But there are so many that it is important to try to understand the conceptual patterns that unite them. “In our image” and “in our likeness” are more or less synonymous, using the Hebrew terms tselem and demuth, respectively.

The passage does not refer to the subtle differences between these terms, but rather lumps them together to magnify the grandeur of this particular creative act. The writer evidently expects readers to understand these concepts without definition. It is worth remembering that “images” were common in the ancient world.

Images were simply statues or pictures, intended to represent someone, usually a god or a king. In the second commandment, God forbids the worship of images. But there is an image of the true God in ourselves.

The Hebrew terms themselves refer to a likeness between God and man, but the nature of this likeness must be inferred from other passages. So if we are to speak of this image as more than an isolated title, our theological task is to determine the most theologically significant likenesses between God and man that elevate man above other creatures.

Other similarities will explain the use of “image” in this passage, by showing us that man’s relationship to the rest of creation is analogous to God’s relationship to all creation. However, evidently, man’s relationship to creation cannot be exactly like God’s, because man himself is only a creature.

The analogy between God and ourselves will always contain certain differences in it. Thus we are looking for qualities in man which constitute finite replicas of the infinite qualities of God.

In Genesis 1:26, what immediately follows the references to the image and likeness is God’s designation that man should have “dominion over” the rest of creation. This is also the first command to the man and woman (v. 28) after he blesses them. This is certainly an important point to consider when interpreting the language about the image.

I have analyzed the doctrine of God as an exposition of God’s lordship. His nature and attributes are what qualify him to be the Lord of all that he does; indeed, they are what his lordship is from the standpoint of his covenant servants. What Genesis 1:26–28 asserts is that God made man in his own likeness to qualify him for his duty as a lord, a lord subordinate to God’s supreme lordship.

Thus, the image of God consists of those qualities that enable man to be master of the world, under the lordship of God.10 What are these qualities if not analogies of the lordship attributes of God Himself?

As we consider them, I will also draw parallels between the three attributes of lordship and the three anointed offices of Scripture: king, prophet, and priest.

God, particularly Christ the Anointed One, is the original bearer of these offices. Man holds analogous offices in relation to the lower creation, and as redemptive history progresses, God appoints certain individuals to be kings, prophets, and priests over his people.

Control (royal office)

In Genesis 1:26, the image of God qualifies man to exercise great power: “Let him have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that moves along the ground.”

In verse 28, God says that in order to have dominion over the earth, man will have to subdue it (kabash, “make subservient”). This dominion extends to everything God made from the fourth to the sixth day of creation. In verses 29-30, God gives his work from the third day as food for man.

Interestingly, God does not place the work of the first day (light and darkness) or the work of the second day (heavens and waters) under the power of man. In Scripture, “light” is closely connected with God Himself. He is light, according to 1 John 1:5, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

He alone is the one who brings light into the world – not just physical light, but also light as a figure of salvation: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6; cf. Eph. 5:8, 13-14; 1 Thess. 5:5; 1 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 21:23-24; 22:5).

As a metaphor for salvation, light comes only from God; therefore, it serves as a picture of the gracious character of redemption.

As for the work of the second day, God also preserved it for himself. The heavens are his own dwelling place, the place of his archetypal tabernacle, “the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, not man” (Heb. 8:2). And God also maintains control over the waters of the second day, both those under the firmament and those above it (Gen. 1:7).

When he sends judgment to the old human world, the Bible states:

“All the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened” (7:11). Then God eliminates the separation between the waters that he created on the second day of creation. Humans have no power to stop the waters or the judgment.

As with light, God is sovereign in His disposition of water. After the judgment in Genesis 7, God still has the power to send or withhold rain. In an agrarian society, rain is a constant necessity. Man cannot produce it on his own.

He must keep turning to God for it (1 Kgs. 8:35-36). When God sends rain, it is a blessing, a mercy (Lev. 26:4; Deut. 11:11; 28:12; 2 Sam. 23:4; Ps. 147:8). When God withholds it, it is a judgment (Deut. 11:17; 28:24; 1 Kgs. 17:1ff).

Therefore, man’s dominion does not extend to God’s work in the first two days of creation. However, the fact that he dominates and rules over the creation of the last four days is immensely significant. Man is not omnipotent like God (chapter 16), but he is able to do wonderful things through his physical strength, intellectual acuity, and linguistic ability (see the next section), abilities that no animal can match.

Man's responsibility to fill and subdue the earth is sometimes called the cultural mandate.” This language emphasizes the fact that man's task is to make the earth habitable for man, suitable to man's needs and purposes.

This work involves not only the cultivation of crops for food, but also the arts, science, and literature, through which human life becomes more than mere subsistence. And at the deepest level, man’s work is meant to bring praise and glory to God. Therefore he must structure his life and culture according to God’s standards.

Theologians ask whether the image of God refers to man’s body or merely to his soul. I will discuss the distinction between soul and body later. However, it should already be clear that the image of God also refers to the body. Man’s physical strength is an important aspect of his power to subdue the earth and have dominion over it.

Some object that the human body cannot be the image of God because God is incorporeal. But God's incorporeality does not mean that he is incapable of assuming physical form, only that he is sovereign in his choice to assume physical form or not; and if he chooses to assume a physical form, he is sovereign to choose what form he desires (chapter 18).

He is superphysical—more than physical, not less. Furthermore, whether he chooses to take physical form or not, he can do everything we can do with a body and more. Psalm 94:9 asks, “What has the ear made, will it not hear?

And what formed the eyes, can't he see?

” Human beings hear with their physical ears and see with their physical eyes. However, God is the master of the processes of hearing and seeing. He does without physical organs what we do with them, and much more.

Therefore, man serves as king over God's creation. But he is a king under God, responsible to worship and obey God, the King of kings.

Authority (prophetic office)

I mentioned above that man must build his culture according to God's standards. Therefore, he brings God's word, the divine language, to his fellow men and to the world.

I understand that God's language, his word, is one with himself, an essential attribute of his nature. God is a God who speaks. I have referred to the work of the angels, who bring God's word to human beings, and to that of the demons, who distort and corrupt God's speech.

Language is also fundamental to human nature in the image of God. In Genesis 1, man’s first experience is linguistic: hearing the words of God (Gen. 1:28–31). In Genesis 2:18–20, when God first gives Adam a specific task under the general mandate to subdue the earth, he gives him a linguistic task: naming the animals.

This task is not merely that of attaching a sound to an object. Rather, it is the scientific task of understanding the nature of each animal, for the overall purpose is to determine whether any of them can be Adam’s “helper” (2:18). The “names” that Adam gives to the animals, then, are a system of sounds that declare the nature of each creature.

14 Adam’s research determines that there is no helper for him in the animal kingdom, so God creates a partner for him through special creation (2:21-25).

James 3:1-12 further emphasizes the centrality of language in human life and, drawing on many of the proverbs, teaches us that if a man can control his tongue, he can control his entire body. In Genesis 11:1-9, God punishes the builders of the Tower of Babel through the confusion of language.

He says, “Behold, the people is one, and they all have the same language. This is only the beginning; from now on nothing they intend to do will be restrained” (Gen. 11:6).

Language is such a powerful ability that ordinary speech allows sin to run rampant. God determines that it must be controlled. That is why sins of the tongue are prominent in biblical lists of sins, such as in Romans 3:10-18.

Scripture abounds in admonitions to speak with a view to edification (Eph. 4:29; 1 Cor. 14:3,12,17,26) rather than speaking lies, blasphemies, and foolishness. Jesus says, “I tell you that people will give account of every careless word they speak on the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matt. 12:36–37).

Redemption is often presented as that of the lips (Isa. 6:5-7) or of the tongue (Ps. 12; Zeph. 3:9-13). Pentecost partially reverses the curse of Babel so that the message of grace can be heard in the tongues of all peoples (Acts 2).

Thus, Adam’s cultural task can be seen from a linguistic perspective: the work of developing a language analogous to God’s own word, building a culture in conformity with it throughout the world. This is the root of the concept of prophecy that we examined in chapter 24.

Just as God initially spoke words to him, Adam must speak these and similar words to his family and impose upon the earth cultural institutions that observe God’s standards and bring Him glory. As he does so, he speaks with God’s authority.

What divine norms or standards did Adam know before the fall?

God certainly commanded Adam and Eve to name the animals and abstain from the forbidden fruit, but these commands were for a specific time and place. God also gave Adam and Eve broader ordinances that govern human beings in all times and places.

Theologians generally call them creation ordinances: laws and institutions given to Adam and Eve before the fall, analogous to later covenant laws. John Murray lists among them “the bringing forth of seed, the filling of the earth, the subduing of it, dominion over the creatures, work, the weekly Sabbath, and marriage.”

I advocate two additions to this list: worship and respect for human life,” noting that, “like other biblical laws, the creation ordinances have a threefold focus—indeed, threefold focus: on God (worship, Sabbath), on the natural world (filling, subduing, and dominating the earth), and on human beings themselves (marriage, procreation, work).”

According to the cultural mandate, man is to develop a culture throughout the earth that observes these creation ordinances, teaching them through his gift of speech and through a life consistent with these words. Such speech is a necessary element of the “image of God.”

It makes man like God in an important way, and raises man above other creatures, so that he can have dominion over them. His physical power gives him de facto rule over the world, but it is divine speech that makes his rule de jure.

The attribute of power is strength; that of authority is right. By explaining and keeping God's rules, man reveals himself to be the legitimate ruler of the world. His prophetic office and work legitimize his royal office and work.

Presence (priestly office)

However, Adam was not to be an absentee king. He was not only to subdue the earth and have dominion over it; God also commanded him, “Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth” (Gen. 1:28; cf. 9:1).

Just as God transcends the world with his control and authority but becomes immanent in the world through his covenantal presence, so too Adam, prophet and vassal king of God, must fill the world over which he reigns.

Since he is not omnipresent like God, he can only fill it by marrying and having children. Therefore, the cultural mandate is a gradual and historical process, in which man progressively blesses every part of the earth with his presence.

Because man builds his culture according to God’s words, he brings with him the goodness of God. So when we read that in Christ God restores his image in fallen men, Scripture describes the image in ethical terms:

(…) But this is not how you learned Christ, if indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning your former conduct the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Eph 4.20-24)

Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his practices and have put on the new man who is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of his Creator. (Col 3:9-10)

Man blesses every place he goes, appreciating and improving what is good. To some extent this means, as I have said, that man makes the world a suitable habitation for himself. But it does not mean exploiting the earth in a selfish way.

Final Considerations

God created the world for his glory, but divine glory is also what is best for the world itself. Thus, man seeks to humanize his environment, but not in a way that destroys the beauty and integrity of creation. Because he is made of dust, man has an affinity with creation. Since he lives on air, water, and the fruits of the earth, it is in his interest to alternate crops, to let the earth rest, and to keep the air and water pure.

Adam was to do all this for the glory of God, fulfilling God’s purpose in creating the world. He was to pray and worship God everywhere, consecrating his work and seeking God’s continued blessing. That is why God called Adam not only to work but also to rest in the celebration of His own divine rest (Gen. 2:2–3; Exod. 20:11).

This is Adam’s priestly work. The ministry of a priest is to pray for others and lead them in worship, and in this way to bring God’s blessings to the people he serves. Therefore, Adam is a priest to his people, in whatever territory he settles.

His blessing upon them will also be a blessing upon the earth. Of course, after the fall, the priest also needs to make sacrifice for the sins of the people. But he is still the one through whom he draws near to his people. Jesus Christ, the great High Priest of God, is the one who draws nearest, taking upon himself human nature, living our life, dying the death we deserve (Heb. 2:10-18; 7:1-10:18).