“What is the image of God?” For me, this is not an easy question. Why? It has to do with how language works. God teaches us in the Bible primarily through whole sentences and paragraphs, not by words or phrases taken by themselves.[1] This short article focuses on an elementary level.
Let us start with the word “image.” Roughly speaking, “image” means a display that is similar to and reflects an original. “Image of God” means a display reflecting God. That is the meaning. By itself it does not say very much. We have to look to additional passages. Some people expect that these passages will provide clues enabling us to uncover a secret precise meaning hidden within the key phrase by itself. But it does not work that way. Each passage provides meaning in the whole passage.
Consider Genesis 1:26–27. It indicates that God created man to be like God and to display God on a creaturely level. Genesis 1–2 and Genesis as a whole show that the resemblance of man to God consists not in one feature, but in many features that are holistically integrated in humanity. Human beings imitate God by speaking, exercising dominion, working, thinking, having personal communion, and being holy.
Then there is Colossians 1:15. The divine Son is “the image of the invisible God.” The Son displays and reflects God the Father (see also Heb 1:3). His relation to the Father is behind his role in creating the world. According to 1 Corinthians 11:7, man also is “the image of God.” But man is not God. How do Colossians 1:15 and 1 Corinthians 11:7 fit together? “Image of God” is not “one thing,” with identically the same reference across all the verses of the Bible where similar phraseology occurs. It is a mistake to smash the passages together on the basis of a shared word and related ideas. The Son is the eternal original image of God. That is the background pattern within God, according to which God made man in his image.
Ephesians 4:24 and Colossians 3:10 are discussing spiritual renewal, so that Christians conform to the pattern of Christ. The renewal is not identical with the Adamic state: Christ is not Adam. There are relations between all these passages. God intends for us to see these relations. Renewal in Christ takes place in a manner analogous to God’s original creation of Adam. And God’s original creation of Adam takes place in analogy with the Son as the eternal Image. The common pattern goes together harmoniously with the distinct nuances that belong to each passage. The distinctions add to and enrich the teaching of the whole Bible.
In the history of theology, the phrase “image of God” is sometimes used as a technical term. There is nothing the matter with technical terms. But technical terms need to have their meanings defined. In this case theologians disagree. A theologian may build into the technical term his perspective on what is central to humanity. Then this perspective is read into the key biblical texts. But from a methodological point of view, technical terms in theology must be distinguished from the occurrence of ordinary, nontechnical words and phrases in the Bible. A technical term is meant to have a single, precise, fixed meaning, while the Bible uses God-given common words in a range of ways. The Bible can also use more than one choice of words to construct expressions that make similar points (for instance, Col 1:15 compared to Heb 1:3).
The whole Bible teaches about humanity. It has much to say. God made man male and female, in original innocence and holiness. He called them to have fellowship with God, to hear his voice, to respond to him, to love him, and to reflect his character on a creaturely level. They rebelled. God continues to create all the individuals who come into the world, to govern their lives, and to be present in their lives (Psa 139; Acts 17:28). Christ came to save those who have faith in him, to renew them, and to restore fellowship with God. Salvation comes to completion in the new heavens and the new earth. The key to human existence is to know God through Jesus Christ (John 17:3). The more we grow in knowing God and having communion with him, the more we become what he designed us to be. God transforms us into the image of Christ (2 Cor 3:18), so that we reflect God.[2]
[1] Moisés Silva, Biblical Words and Their Meaning: An Introduction to Lexical Semantics (rev. and expanded ed.; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995); Vern S. Poythress, Reading the Word of God in the Presence of God: A Handbook for Biblical Interpretation (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016), chaps. 14 and 17; Vern S. Poythress, Making Sense of Man:Using Biblical Perspectives to Develop a Theology of Humanity (P&R Publishing, 2024), 100–107.
[2] See Vern S. Poythress, Theophany: A Biblical Theology of God’s Appearing (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018); Vern S. Poythress, Knowing and the Trinity: How Perspectives in Human Knowledge Imitate the Trinity (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2018).