Genesis 1:26 says, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness..." Here we find two things—the image and the likeness. All of the good Bible students agree that the image refers to something inward and the likeness refers to something outward. We all have something inward—the intellect, the will, and the emotion. Outwardly, we have the likeness, the body-form.
Second Corinthians 4:4 and Colossians 1:15 both say that the image of God is Christ. Christ is the image of the invisible God. God is invisible; yet He has an image. The invisible God has a visible image. No one has ever seen God, but Christ has declared Him (John 1:18). We all, more or less, have seen Christ. Peter saw Him. John saw Him. After His resurrection, five hundred brothers saw Him at the same time (1 Cor. 15:6). He is really the image of God. Hebrews 1:3 says that Christ is the express image of God's Person.
Since man was created in the image of God and the image of God is Christ, man was created in the image of Christ. In Genesis 1:26 God said, "Let us make man in our image..." But verse 27 says, "God created man in his image." Surely here "his image" means the image of Christ. So, man was made in the image of Christ.
Romans 5:14 says that Adam, the first man, was a type, a figure of Christ. If we take a photograph of a person, that picture is the figure or type of the person. Adam was a photograph of Christ. Christ was the image of God and Adam was a picture of Christ. As a photograph is the expression of a certain image, so man was made to be the expression of the image of God which is Christ.
I may use the illustration of a glove. The glove was made in the image and according to the form of the hand. Both the hand and the glove have five fingers. The glove was made in the image of the hand that one day the hand might enter into the glove. The hand fills up the glove, and the glove expresses the hand. Why was man made in the image of Christ? Because God's intention was that someday Christ would enter into man and be expressed through man. Romans 9:21, 23 tells us clearly that man was made as a vessel, that is as a container. Man is not a knife, a hammer, or any instrument. Man is a vessel, a container. Romans 9:21, 23 further says that man was made a vessel of honor to contain God, to contain God's glory. Second Corinthians 4:7 says that we have this treasure in earthen vessels. This vessel is like the glove: one day the hand gets into it; the contents get into the container. We are simply a vessel to contain Christ.