What does it mean when God said, "Let Us make man in Our image" (Genesis 1:26)?

What are we to understand by the words, "image" and "likeness"? Certainly neither term has reference to man's physical frame. Putting it briefly, "image" represents; "likeness" resembles. An image is not necessarily like the thing or person it is intended to represent. The coin that was shown to the Lord Jesus in Matt. 22:20 may not have borne a "likeness" of Caesar, but it certainly bore an "image" of him. As made in the "image" of God, man is set in this world to represent Him to the lower creatures in rule and blessing; this term has thus to do with man's position. "Likeness" has reference to his moral being, as one capable of entering into relationships and bearing responsibilities. Neither God's "image" nor "likeness" has been lost by the fall (Gen. 9:6; James 3:9). It is because of God's image in man that the sin of murder is so serious. To kill one who represents God is high treason against Him whom he represents.

Man was distinguished from all other creatures in that he was made the subject of divine counsel before his creation. "And God said, Let us make man, in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion," etc. (Gen. 1:26). There is a solemnity about this which commands attention. It was not a new kind of animal that was about to be brought into existence, but a moral being with marvellous endowments and possibilities. "Image" has reference to man's position as set here to represent God and rule for Him; "likeness" has reference to his moral being, as one capable of entering into relationships, and bearing responsibilities. Neither the image nor the likeness of God have been lost by the fall (Gen. 9:6; James 3:9).

"Let Us make man, in Our image, after Our likeness." This "image" constitutes man the representative of God upon the earth, and the "likeness" shows, as the apostle says, quoting from the heathen poet: "We are also His offspring" — a likeness of moral and mental faculties which give man the capacity to know God and to enjoy Him.

Verse 26 shows us that from the outset man was the subject of Divine consultation or counsel. That God should say, "Let US," is worthy of note. Elohim is, as we have said, a plural Name. In the Old Testament the three Persons in the Godhead are not revealed, but now that They are revealed we can see that, inspired of God, the language of our chapter is quite consistent therewith. There was present to the Divine mind all that man would turn out to be, and he was only brought into existence after this consultation within the Godhead Himself. In verse 26 it is "Our image:" in verse 27 it is "His image." There is no incongruity for it is the eternal "Three in One" who speaks.

Man was treated in both the image and the likeness of God. The former word seems to be used in Scripture for that which represents unseen realities. The images of the heathen world represented their gods, without necessarily being like them, for indeed they had never seen the demons they worshipped by means of the images that represented them to their eyes. Man was made, then, to represent God to the lower creation over which he was set. But he was also made after the likeness of God; that is, he was really like God in certain important respects. Not in all respects of course, for God is infinitely holy and man was merely innocent. Still man was God's "offspring" (Acts 17:28-29), a spirit being, though clothed in a body of flesh and blood, and hence with intelligence and moral sensibilities, which are a reflection of that which subsists on an infinite scale in God Himself.

Man was created in God’s image and likeness, Genesis 1:26 tells us. This is never said of the lower creation. It immediately stamps man as God’s masterpiece in the creation of this world. As God’s image he was created as the representative of God in relation to the lower creation; as God’s likeness, to set forth, in the measure in which God has made him such, the character of God.

But here comes a striking difference. God speaks with the peculiar appropriateness which suits the new occasion, in contradistinction from what we have seen elsewhere. "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." It is man as the head of creation. It is not man placed in his moral relationships, but man the head of this kingdom of creation, as they say; but still even so with remarkable dignity. "Let us make man in our image." He was to represent God here below; besides this he was to be like God. There was to be a mind in him, a spirit capable of the knowledge of God with the absence of all evil. Such was the condition in which man was formed. "And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon earth." God created man in His own image: in the image of God created He him. In conclusion, the Sabbath day, which God* sanctified, closes the great week of God's forming the earth for man, the lord of it. (Gen. 2:1-3)

In verse 26, bara (created) is again used as to man; before as to the races of animals, verse 21, in sea or air, and originally heaven and earth. Image represents, and presents likeness - does so fitly - the thing is like, because it corresponds to what the image presents. An image represented Jupiter - likeness was only ideal. A picture is "like" - it is the very image, when it presents himself to my mind; here it is "image," according to His likeness - as to the first he had God's place, a centre of subject dependent creation, looking up to him - no angel had that; likeness was another thing.

In the first chapter of our Bibles we are told of the creation of man and the reason for it. "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." The US is the Triune God — Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are admitted to the divine counsel and plan, and from it we learn that man was to be created to be the visible representative of God in the world; for that is what "image" means; and for this he was to be like God in character, for without this there could be no effective representation.

Amid the uncertainty as to the import of the word Elohim, as traceable from its real or supposed root (which is not found in scripture), it is well that this chapter, and the opening verses of the next, in which it alone is used as the divine name, afford us so satisfactory a sense, revealing Elohim as the Originator of all things, His eternal power and Godhead being made known by the creation of which He is the source. As to the plural form of the word, and its connection with singular verbs, would not it be near the truth to say that, while it cannot be regarded as a revelation of the Trinity, it is still such a mode of expression as evinces that He, the blessed Spirit, the third person therein, had it in mind, and used words, the full force of which could only be understood by us when that doctrine had been revealed?

Scripture speaks of "image" and "likeness"; the difference is that likeness is being like another — having the same traits and features; "image" gives the thought of representing another, whether like or not. God said, "Let us make man in our image after our likeness". Adam was like God, in that he was made sinless; he was also in the image of God, in that he represented God as being the centre of a system over which he was to have dominion. Man is still said to be in the "image of God" (1 Cor. 11:7), though, as fallen, he is very unlike God. The Son is never said to be in the likeness of the invisible God, for He is God, and to say that He is like God might imply that He is not really God. Nevertheless, the Son is "the image of the invisible God", and One who in His own Person, perfectly represents God in His character and moral attributes, before the whole universe.