In His Image

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Gen. 1:27)

Question 10: How did God create man?
Answer: God created man, male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness with dominion over the creatures.[i]
 
We read in Genesis 1 that on the sixth day God said, “‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and all the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that keeps on the earth.’ So God created man in his own image, the image of God created him; male and female he created them.” When the Bible tells us that God created man in his own image, part of what that means is that humans are given dominion over creation (v.28). It also means that human beings are relational creatures just as God is a relational being who has existed for all of eternity in the harmonious relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is part of what God meant when he said “It is not good for man to be alone” (2:18).  It means humans are intellectual, creative, and emotional creatures. In some ways, being made in the image of God also means we are representative of God as well as representational of God. We see this in the fact that the same words “image” and “likeness” are used to describe the birth of Adams son (5:3). “When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.” Seth was not identical to Adam, but to a certain degree he bore a striking resemblance to him, functionally, emotionally, intellectually, and physically.  Thus, humans are not identical to God; we are not gods but bear a striking resemblance to our Creator, functionally, emotionally, intellectually, and even physically.  To be sure, God does not have a body.  God is spirit.  But to some degree the amazingness of the human body is representational of the amazingness of our Creator. What is really important, however, and cannot be missed, especially in our current political climate, is that according to Scripture all people, all races, male and female, are made in the image of God. By the very fact that we are human, we all have equal value before God and, thus, we all deserve to be treated with respect and decency. 

[i] “A Catechism with Proofs” by Charles Haddon Spurgeon