In the Scriptures the word “image” is used to refer to God’s being. This can be proved by certain New Testament verses. Second Corinthians 4:4 says that Christ is the image of God, Colossians 1:15 tells us that Christ is “the image of the invisible God,” and Hebrews 1:3 reveals that Christ is “the effulgence of His glory and the express image of His substance.” Christ is the very embodiment of God. As God’s embodiment, Christ is God’s image.
Furthermore, according to the Bible the image of God is related to His duplication. In Genesis 1 “image” is for God to be duplicated, to be “copied” in man. This means that man was created in such a way that he could become God’s duplication, His copy. God created man in His own image with the intention that man would become His duplication.
Since God created man for the purpose of man’s becoming His duplication, and since this purpose is indicated by the use of the word image, we may go on to say that the word image implies the capacity to contain God. If man did not have the capacity to contain God, how could he become God’s duplication, His copy? In order for man to be a copy of God, man must have the capacity or ability to contain what God is.
This understanding of the image of God does not contradict the definition given in the Life-study of Genesis. To be sure, the image of God does refer to the inward being of God. It is no contradiction of this to go on to say that for God to create man in His image means that God created man with the intention that man would become a duplicate of God, and that the word image implies that man has the capacity and ability to take God into him and to contain Him. The man created in God’s image was created to be God’s container. Since man was made to be such a container, there was the need for him to have the capacity to receive God as his content and to contain this content.
We have emphasized the fact that man was created not only in God’s image but also after God’s likeness. The word “likeness” refers to outward form, outward fashion, outward appearance. Hence, “likeness” here is a matter of expression. First, man was made in God’s image to be a duplicate of God, and then man was made after God’s likeness to have the appearance of God for His expression.
If man had only the likeness of God but not the image of God, this would mean that man would have only the outward appearance but not the inward reality. In such a case, the appearance, the expression, would be empty. The image is the inward reality of the outward expression, and the likeness is the expression, or the outward appearance, of the image.
Philippians 2:7 is a New Testament verse related to this. In this verse we see that in His incarnation Christ became “in the likeness of men.” This verse tells us not that Christ had the likeness of God but that He had the likeness of men. When He became a man, He had the appearance, the expression, of man. However, this certainly was not an empty expression, an expression devoid of reality, an expression without content. On the contrary, Christ had both the reality of humanity and the expression, the appearance, of humanity. The reality of humanity was the content of the likeness of man that Christ had.
We thank the Lord for leading us into a further understanding of God’s image and God’s likeness. Man was created in God’s image and after God’s likeness in order to be God’s duplication that he may express God. The duplication is in God’s image, and the expression is after God’s likeness.
We have seen that, according to the Bible, God designed man to be one with Him. In order to be one with God, man must have God’s image inwardly and His likeness outwardly. This is God’s design, and in this design we see God’s purpose. What was God’s purpose in creating man? God’s purpose was to make man His duplication for His expression so that man may actually and fully be one with God.