Q

Q : How did God create man? (Or, what is meant by man being created in "God's image"?)

A : God created man male and female, after His own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures. (Shorter Catechism : Q 10)

Gen. 1.27, Col 3.10, Eph. 4.24 & Gen. 1.28.

Genesis 1 :26-27 Authorized Version : "And God said, let us make man in our own image, after our own likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them "

Introduction ( Dr Hodge - Princeton USA )

The Scriptures in declaring that God is the Father of spirits, and that we are His offspring, teach us that we are partakers of his nature as a spiritual being, and that an essential element of that likeness to God in which man was originally created consists in our rational or spiritual nature (the essential attributes of a spirit are reason, conscience and will). On this subject, however there has been two extreme opinions. The Greek theologians (that is, theologians amongst the early church elders ) made the image of God in which man was created to consist exclusively in his rational (or spiritual) nature.....The Lutheran theologians were, in general, inclined to go to the opposite extreme. The image of God according to them, was that which was lost by the fall (that is, man's moral conformity to his Maker) and which is restored by redemption.......The Reformed theologians ( e.g. Calvin) take the middle ground between the extremes......They distinctly include both.

Luther Comments on this verse...

" Here again Moses employs a new expression....He says "Let us make." Therefore he includes an obvious deliberation and plan; he did nothing similar in the case of earlier creatures. There, without any deliberation and council, He said: "Let the sea be put in motion .....But here, when he wants to create man, God summons Himself to a council and announces some sort of deliberation.

Therefore, in the first place, there is indicated here an outstanding difference between man and all the other creatures....when he (Moses) says that man was created by the special plan and providence of God. This indicates that man is a creature far superior to the rest of the living beings that live a physical life, especially as yet, (i.e. before the fall) his nature had not become depraved. Epicurus holds that man was created solely to eat and drink......This image (of God's) is something far different from the concern of the belly, namely, food and drink, things for which the beasts also have understanding and appreciation.... Nevertheless these activities of physical life - like eating and drinking, procreating, etc - would have been a service pleasing to God; we could have rendered this service to God; without the defect of the lust which is now after sin, (i.e. the fall), and without fear of death....Thus Adam had a twofold life: a physical one and an immortal one.......

In the second place, the word "Let us make" is aimed at making sure the mystery of our faith, by which we believe that from eternity there is one God and that there are three separate persons in one Godhead: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.........These Makers are three separate persons in one divine essence. Of these Persons we are the image.....These evidences should be precious to us and welcome. Even though the Jews and Turks laugh at us because we are convinced that there is one God and three persons, nevertheless, unless they are brazen enough to deny the authority of Scripture, they are compelled by this passage and also those quoted above to adopt our conviction......

In the third place, there is stirred up here a sea of questions: What is the image of God according to which Moses says that man was made? Augustine has much to say in his explanation of this passage, particularly in his book On the Trinity. Moreover the remaining doctors in general follow Augustine, who keeps Aristotle's classification: that the image of God is the powers of the soul - memory, the mind or intellect, and the will. These three, they say, comprise the image of God which is in all men. Moreover they say that the similitude (or likeness, as distinct from image) lies in the gifts of grace. Just as a similitude (likeness) is a certain perfection of an image, so, they say our nature is perfected through grace. And so the similitude of God consists in this, that the memory is provided with hope, the intellect with faith, and the will with love.......

.....Although I do not condemn or find fault with that effort and those thoughts by which everything is brought into relationship to the Trinity, I am not sure they are very useful, especially when they are spun out further.....I am afraid that since the loss of this image through sin (i.e. the fall), we cannot understand it to any extent......If some assert nevertheless that these powers are that image, let us admit that they are, as it were, leprous and unclean (in man, as a fallen creature) . Similarly, we still call a leprous human being a human being even though in his leprous flesh everything is almost dead and without sensation, except that he is rather violently excited to lust....

....Therefore my understanding of the image is this : that Adam had it in his being and that he not only knew God and believed that He was good, but that he also lived in a life that was wholly godly; that is, he was without fear of death or any other danger, and was content with God's favour......Added to these were lesser but exceedingly important gifts - if you draw a comparison with our weakness - namely, a perfect knowledge of the nature of the animals, the herbs, the fruits, the trees, and the remaining creatures.....

.....But now the gospel has brought about the restoration of that image. Intellect and will have remained, but both very much impaired. And so the Gospel brings it about that we are formed once more according to that familiar and indeed better image, because we (believers) are born again into eternal life, or rather into the hope of eternal life by faith, that we may live in God and with God and be one in Him, as Christ says (John 17: 21).

And indeed, we are reborn not only for life but for righteousness*, because faith acquires Christ's merit and knows that through Christ's death we (believers) have been set free. From this source our other righteousness** has its origin, namely, that newness of life through which we are zealous to obey God as we are taught by the Word and aided by the Holy Spirit.......

* justifying righteousness

** sanctifying righteousness

John Calvin comments on this verse [ Genesis 1:27]...

"...Hence although the soul is not the (whole) man, there is no absurdity in holding that he is called the image of God in respect of the soul; though I retain the principle which I lately laid down, that the image of God extends to everything in which the nature of man surpasses that of all other species of animals. Accordingly, by this term is denoted the integrity with which Adam was endued with intellect was clear, his affections subordinated to reason, all his senses duly regulated and when he truly ascribed all his excellence to the admirable gifts of his Maker. And though the primary seat of the divine image was in the mind and the heart, or in the soul and it's powers, there was no part of the body in which some of the rays of glory did not shine"

"Since the image of God in us is lost by the fall, we may judge from it's restoration what it originally had been. Paul says that we are transformed into the image of God by the gospel. And according to him, spiritual regeneration is nothing else than the restoration of this image (Col. 3.10 & Eph. 4.23-24) "

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