26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Genesis 1:26-28 NIV
In verse 26 the Triune God creates Adam as the father of mankind. God uses the term ‘image’ or ‘likeness’ of himself when describing the creation of man. God creates man this way, so that he can rule over animals and subdue the earth. In other words, do agricultural work and get harvest. Therefore the fact of man being made in the image of God makes him different from animals, which do not have the same abilities as man. But if we stop here, we fail to understand the reason for creation. Everything God created, He created for man. Even the celestial bodies were made for man to admire and praise the power of God. Man is the last creation of God. In which God blows and puts his own image. God has a special relationship with man, because everything else was done for man. In verses 29 and 30, God delivers everything into the hands of man. In Genesis 2:15 we can see how God commands man to take care of Eden.
In Genesis 3, we can understand what the relationship between God, Adam and Eve was, starting from verse 8. In this verse the Lord God was walking in the garden of Eden. In Genesis 2:15 God speaks to man directly, as well as in Genesis 3 starting from verse 9. This type of relationship was direct, man could see and speak to God. And God could speak directly to man. From this we can understand that God created man and woman in his image so that they could have fellowship with Him.
In Genesis 3, due to the fall, mankind loses the ability to have this special relationship with God, due to disobedience and sin. in Genesis 2:17, God commands man not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This fruit would, and has, caused man to die spiritually. Indeed, besides bringing sin and the curse to the ground, the greatest loss is fellowship with God.
God had created man righteous and sinless. For these qualities, man could have fellowship with God. Instead, by letting sin enter, man loses this communion, these qualities, and God can no longer have communion with him. God, as an infinitely just being, cannot have fellowship with sin.
But God has a plan to recover man, and forgive sin. This is the gospel, through which man can be born again, and relate once again to God. For this reason, man, even in sin, continues to bear the image of God.
We can therefore say that ‘carrying the image of God’ can be summed up:
- The role of king, who rules over a kingdom
- The special relationship of fellowship with God
This last point leads us to consider what are these spiritual qualities that allow fellowship with God
Genesis 3 shows us how man knows how to speak and communicate with God. The fact of speaking and communicating is one of these qualities. But even animals know how to communicate, what’s the difference? Animals know how to communicate, but they cannot reason. Reasoning is one of the qualities that makes us similar to God. in Genesis 3:12, Adam creates his own defense, telling God that the same helper, Eve, that God had given him made him sin.
To reason we must be able to understand logic. For example the basic laws of logic: the law of contradiction, law of excluded middle, the principle of identity. Animals cannot understand these concepts.
Adam and Eve were created in a state of innocence and righteousness (Gen 2:25). And they did not know good and evil (Gen 2:17). But they could make autonomous decisions. If it were not so, God would not have given the command not to eat from the famous tree of Gen 2:17. After the fall, people know right and wrong and have a conscience in them. Through conscience, we can know whether we are deciding for good or for evil. Absolute morality: what is right comes from God. God is the perfect judge unable to do injustice. The ability to know justice, and absolute morality, are therefore qualities that relate to the image of God.
In Genesis 1 the cosmos is created. But we ask ourselves: what is the need to create the cosmos for man? When we look at the starry sky we are fascinated by its beauty. The fact that we can appreciate this beauty distinguishes us from animals. Animals live in harmony with creation, but are unable to stop and admire its beauty. God created the cosmos as a gift, to be able to admire its beauty, and praise the Creator for its power. The ability to understand beauty comes from God.
Genesis 2:18 tells us the man needed a helper. In Gen 2:19-20 no animal of creation is suitable to become Adam’s helper. Then in Gen. 2:21-24 God creates the woman: Eve. From verse 23 we understand why no animal was suitable for this role. In verse 24 we can read “they become one flesh”. This is a fundamental point, which shows us another quality inherent in bearing the image of God: fellowship. The relationship between Adam and Eve is different from that of male and female animals. The purpose of this report is not only reproduction, as in animals. But there is a greater connection here, this is shown in Ephesians 5:22-33.
In Ephesians 5:29-33 we can see that marriage is an image of fellowship between the Church and Jesus:
29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”[a]32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Ephesians 5:29-33
Spiritual qualities for the relationship with God are:
- Reasoning
- Conscience
- Beauty
- Fellowship