_1_Man Created in the Image of God

The original state of man is described in the general term “very good” (Gen. 1:31), a term which covers all creatures. The specific feature of goodness which characterized man in distinction from all other creatures is named in the statement that God created man in His [God’s] image. Gen. 1:26-27: “And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness… . So God created man in His own image.”

“Image” () and “likeness” () are synonyms. Some assume that “image” signifies man’s mind and will, and “likeness” a mind which knows God and a will which is in agreement with God’s will. This interpretation contradicts Scripture, for in v. 27, which reports the execution of v. 26, only “image” is used. Now, since the divine execution surely agrees with the divine resolution, “image” by itself includes the whole of the divine image and likeness. The two terms are used in v. 26 simply to stress the divine likeness and aptly translated by Luther: “Ein Bild, das uns gleich sei.” Baier (II, 143): “Imago simillima” So also Gerhard, Loci, locus “De Imagine Dei.” 1

Owing to the difference between God the Creator and man the creature, the divine aseity [self-existence] and eternity could not have been communicated to man, and the other divine attributes, for instance, the wisdom, lordship, etc., were only reflected in man. God is wise, and man is wise; God rules, and man rules. But God possesses unlimited, man only limited wisdom, dominion, etc. (See the doctrine of God.)

One more remark on Gen. 1:26-27. This passage gives no support whatever for the thesis that man was created after the image of the human nature of Christ (thus Origen and Andrew Osiander) or after the image of the divine nature of Christ. On the contrary, the plural possessive suffix: “in Our image, after Our likeness,” shows that man was created in the image of the Triune God, of the glorious divine essence belonging to the three Persons. In the language of the dogmaticians: Causa exemplaris imaginis divinae non una divinitatis persona, sed Deus triunus est. In addition, making the human nature of Christ the pattern for man’s nature contradicts clear passages of Scripture. According to 1 Cor. 15:45 f., Christ is “the last Adam” (man) and Adam “the first man.” And, according to Heb. 2:14, Christ assumed the flesh and blood of man; men were not patterned after the flesh and blood of Christ.2