What does it mean to be made in God's image?
To be made in God's image means every human being reflects God: we have personality, reason, creativity, moral awareness, and the capacity for relationship, and we were made to rule the earth as God's representatives. The image is marred by sin but restored in Christ, who is the true image of God.
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What the Scripture says
Humanity was created to mirror God
Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion. Male and female he created them. You crowned him with glory and honor and made him ruler over the works of your hands. We were made to reflect God and represent Him on earth.
God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.
For you have made him a little lower than God, and crowned him with glory and honor. You make him ruler over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet:
Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
The image gives dignity to every person
Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood will be shed, for God made man in his own image. We bless God even while cursing those made in His likeness, which must not be. Every human being carries this dignity, without exception.
Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in his own image.
With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in the image of God.
He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings,
The image is marred by sin, not erased
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and the fall distorted but did not destroy the image. God made mankind upright, but they have sought out many schemes. Even fallen humanity still bears the imprint and the dignity.
for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;
When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took some of its fruit, and ate; and she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate it, too. Their eyes were opened, and they both knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, and made coverings for themselves.
Behold, this only have I found: that God made man upright; but they search for many schemes.”
Christ is the perfect image, and in Him we are restored
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Put on the new man, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. We are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, by the Spirit.
who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
Don’t lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his doings, and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator,
But we all, with unveiled face seeing the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit.
For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
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Verses to meditate on
God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.
For you have made him a little lower than God, and crowned him with glory and honor. You make him ruler over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet:
and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator,
But we all, with unveiled face seeing the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit.
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