What is the definition of a man in the Bible?

"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.

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).

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.

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.

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 is of a totally different order than angels. He is made in God's image, that is, he is created to represent God. He is made “after God's likeness,” which involves similarity. God is a triune Being, Father, Son and Holy Spirit: man is a triune character, spirit, soul and body (1 Thess. 5:23). Animals are amoral: they do not have a moral nature. God has a nature of truth and of goodness. Man was created with the same faculties, though sin has now badly corrupted his nature and he has become immoral. Man is directly responsible to God, as animals are not. This responsibility involves man's authority over the lower creation. The fact is stated, “Male and female He created them.” Genesis 2:18-23 explains how the woman was created.

But that is not all. He lets them know they are to render to God the things that are God’s. If the coin bore the image of Caesar, and therefore was his, on whom was the image of God stamped? It was stamped at the beginning upon man, and in spite of the fall it has not been altogether effaced. The image and superscription of God are still discernable. Man was made in the image and likeness of God. No, I do not mean that skeleton of yours with its load of human flesh, sheltering something that death cannot touch. Infidels tell us that Scripture represents man as in God’s image, and that man is framed much after their ancestors that lived among the trees of the wood. I do not mind in the least whether a man’s skeleton is, or is not, like that of a gorilla, a chimpanzee, or a dog-faced baboon; God has made him in His own image and likeness, and this is moral, not physical. Man has been set as centre and head over a system that has been subjected to him, and upon which are his fear and his dread. Not only this, but he has been endowed with an affectionate regard for all that have been placed under his dominion. In this way, and not as to his physical frame, is man the image of God.

Genesis 2:7. The creation of man is here more particularly described, and his distinction from the rest of the animated creation is still further developed. His body, it seems, was first formed of the dust, and without life. Then, into the nostrils of the frame thus constituted, the Lord God breathed the breath of life: and man became a living soul. He consists, therefore, of two parts — a body formed out of the dust, and now, in consequence of sin, to return to the dust whence it was taken, and a soul — a living soul — received from God Himself, and which, when separated from the body, returns to God who gave it. This soul, capable of receiving the knowledge of God, endowed with understanding, memory, affections, and will, is what renders man a responsible being. He is not inanimate, like a stone — insensitive, like a plant — irrational, and blindly governed by instinct, like an animal, but, unlike all these, capable of observation, recollection, judgment, decision; he is the subject of hope, fear, love, hatred, joy, sorrow, confidence, distrust, and, above all, he is susceptible of knowing the One who has so formed and constituted him, and of finding in Him the object of the suited exercise of all these wondrous faculties.

We have two things here: First, the formation of the body; then the impartation of life by the inbreathing of God. Man has, in consequence of this, a character of life within him that is not possessed by the lower creatures of God's hand. He holds a very special place in God's universe. Angels are spirits; beasts, etc., have soul and body; man is distinguished from them all by the possession of spirit, and soul, and body (Ps. 104:4; Gen. 1:20-21, 24; 1 Thess. 5:23).