Man not only possesses the highest created life, but he is also made in God’s image and after God’s likeness (Gen. 1:26-27). Besides man, no other creature resembles God in image and in likeness. Man is the highest of God’s created things, and he is created in God’s image and after God’s likeness. In God’s creation, man is the best container prepared by God for His plan. In His plan God ordained that man would possess His life in order to be the brothers of His Son; therefore, in His creation, He caused man to have His image and likeness.
Image refers to the inward parts, such as the mind, emotion, and will. Man’s mind, emotion, and will, which constitute the intangible man, were created in God’s image. Therefore, human functions of thought, opinion, and love resemble those of God.
The image of God also refers to the characteristics of His attributes. The most prominent of God’s attributes manifested in man are love, light, holiness, and righteousness. When God created man, He created him in His image, according to the attributes of His virtues, so that man can express Him through these virtues. Thus, man has the desire to have love, light, holiness, and righteousness, and these virtues are sometimes expressed in his behavior. What man has, however, is only the image and not the reality. Man must receive God as his life and content and then God’s love, light, holiness, and righteousness will fill up and enrich the human virtues of love, light, holiness, and righteousness to become the reality.
Likeness refers to the outward body which constitutes the tangible man. Man’s outward body was created after the likeness of God. God has His likeness. Before God was incarnated to be a man, He appeared frequently to people in the Old Testament in the form of a man (Gen. 18:2, 16-17; Judg. 13:9-10, 17-19). The form of man is the form of God, for man was created after the likeness of God.
The main purpose of God’s restoration and further creation was to have man, a corporate man, to express God (Gen. 1:26-27). The man God created was a corporate man. God did not create many men. God created mankind collectively in one person, Adam. God created Adam, and Adam was a corporate man, a collective man. When Adam was created, we were all created. We were all included in Adam. Therefore, in Genesis 1:26 God said, “Let them”—one man, but the pronoun is them. This proves that this man is a corporate man. In this verse, as the pronoun “us” signifies that God is triune, so the pronoun “them” signifies that man is corporate. God created such a corporate man in His own image and after His likeness so that man might express God Himself.
God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion.” God created a corporate man to exercise His dominion (Gen. 1:26-28). The word dominion includes more than just authority. Dominion means having a kingdom as a sphere in which to exercise authority.
The first aspect of God’s intention is to deal with His enemy, to deal with Satan, who is typified by the creeping things (Gen. 1:26). In the Bible, creeping things are demonic, devilish, and satanic. The Bible uses a serpent to typify Satan (Gen. 3:1). In Revelation 12:9 Satan is called the “ancient serpent.”
In God’s original creation, He had only one purpose—to express Himself. But due to Satan’s rebellion, God now has another purpose—to deal with His enemy. Therefore, He created man in His own image that man might express Him, and He gave him dominion that man might deal with His enemy.
The second aspect of God’s intention in giving man dominion is to recover the earth (Gen. 1:26-28). Man is to have dominion over the earth, to subdue it, and to conquer it. To conquer the earth means that the enemy is there already, that a war is raging. Therefore, we must fight and conquer.
The third aspect of God’s intention in giving man dominion is to bring in God’s authority, to exercise God’s authority over the earth. Man must exercise God’s authority that the kingdom of God may come to earth, that the will of God may be done on earth, and that the glory of God may be manifested on earth.