Made in God's Image: What Makes People Special

What the Image Means

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Of everything God made, only people are made in His image. That is what makes every person special.

Image and likeness. God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). An image is a copy that shows what something is like.

Like a mirror. When you stand in front of a mirror, the mirror shows you. People were made to show what God is like, such as His love, His kindness and His goodness.

Like a king's statue. Long ago, kings set up statues of themselves in faraway cities. The statue reminded everyone that the land belonged to the king. God put people in His world to show that it belongs to Him.

Made to know God. A dog can love its owner, but it cannot pray. People can know God, talk with Him and love Him back. We were made for friendship with our Creator.

Made to care. God told people to rule over the fish, the birds and the animals (Genesis 1:28). We show God's image when we take good care of His world.

Made to make. God is creative. People can build, paint, sing and invent. When you make something good, you reflect your Maker.

Are people an accident? No. God said, “Let Us make man” (Genesis 1:26). He planned people and made them on purpose. Your life has meaning because your Maker gave it meaning.

Every nation. “He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth” (Acts 17:26). People of every skin color, language and country are made in God's image.

Before you were born. “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13). God was making you before anyone saw you.

Wonderfully made. “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). Babies, grandparents, people who are sick and people who cannot walk all bear God's image. Nobody is worth less to God.

Crowned with honor. “You have crowned him with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:5). God gave people a place of honor in His world.

How we talk. James warns about using our tongues to bless God and then “curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God” (James 3:9). Similitude means likeness. Unkind words about people are unkind words about someone God made in His image.

What we learn. You have great worth because God made you in His image. So does everyone else you will ever meet.

What to do. This week, choose one person who is often left out. Be kind to them, because they bear God's image.

Genesis 1:26-27 gives people a title that no other creature receives: the image of God.

Tselem and demut. Tselem (say: TSEH-lem) means image, and demut (say: deh-MOOT) means likeness. Together they say that people are made to resemble God and to represent Him.

Represent. In the ancient world, kings set up images of themselves to mark the lands they ruled, and some kings were called the image of their god. Genesis gives that honor to every human being, not just to kings.

Resemble. People can reason, love, create, choose right from wrong and speak. These are faint reflections of the God who thinks, loves, creates, judges and speaks.

Relate. Above all, people are made to know God. In 1:28 God speaks to people directly, “and God said to them.” We are made for a relationship with Him.

Rule. The image comes with a task: to have dominion over the earth as God's stewards (1:28). A steward manages what belongs to someone else.

Image and work. Ruling and working are part of the image, not a punishment. God worked six days, and people made in His image work too, with joy, for His glory.

Passed down (Genesis 5:1-3). Genesis 5 repeats that God made man in His likeness, and then says Adam's son Seth was born in Adam's own likeness. The image of God is passed on to every child born.

Equal worth. “Male and female He created them” (1:27). Acts 17:26 adds that every nation comes from one blood. No race, sex, age or ability makes one person worth more than another.

Life is sacred. After the flood God forbids murder, and the reason He gives is that people are made in His image (Genesis 9:6). Every human life, from the womb (Psalm 139:13) to old age, carries that image.

James 3:9. We “bless our God and Father,” and yet “curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God.” How we treat people shows what we really think of God.

Psalm 8:3-5. David looked at the moon and stars and asked, “What is man that You are mindful of him?” The answer: God has “crowned him with glory and honor.”

Application. The way you speak about the kid nobody likes, a person with a disability or someone from another country is a way of honoring or dishonoring the God whose image they bear.

Jesus, the Perfect Image

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God made people to show what He is like. But something went wrong, and only Jesus can make it right.

A cracked mirror. When Adam and Eve sinned in Genesis 3, people did not stop being made in God's image. But the image was damaged, like a cracked mirror.

All of us. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We were made to show God's glory, and we have all fallen short.

We cannot fix it. We cannot polish ourselves back to perfect. Trying harder does not take sin away.

The perfect image. “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation” (Colossians 1:15). Jesus shows us exactly what God is like.

See Jesus, see God. Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus.

The first Adam and the last Adam. “The first man Adam became a living being.” “The last Adam became a life-giving spirit” (1 Corinthians 15:45). Adam brought sin and death. Jesus brings forgiveness and life.

Love that came first. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Jesus did not wait for us to get better.

Risen. Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and on the third day He rose again. He is alive today.

Being made new. When we trust Jesus, God starts making us like Him. “We all… are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

A new heart. God promised, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you” (Ezekiel 36:26). Only God can do that.

God's work of art. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Ephesians 2:10). Workmanship means something carefully made, like a work of art.

One day complete. The Bible promises that when Jesus appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is (1 John 3:2).

What we learn. Jesus is the perfect image of God. He came to rescue people who were made in God's image and to make them new.

What to do. Tell Jesus you need Him. Ask Him to forgive you and make you more like Him each day.

The image of God in people was damaged by sin. God's answer is His Son, the true image, who restores everyone who trusts Him.

Still the image, but marred. After the fall people are still described as made in God's likeness (James 3:9). The image was not erased, but sin twisted every part of it, our thinking, loving and ruling.

Romans 3:23. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We were made to reflect God's glory. Sin means we reflect it poorly, and we cannot fix ourselves.

Eikon (Colossians 1:15). Eikon (say: eye-KOHN) is the Greek word for image. Jesus is “the image of the invisible God.” Adam was made in the image; Jesus is the image.

John 14:9. “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” In His words, His kindness and His holiness, Jesus shows God perfectly.

1 Corinthians 15:45. “The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” Adam was the head of a human family that fell. Jesus is the head of a new family that will live forever.

Romans 5:8. Christ died for us “while we were still sinners.” The perfect image of God was broken on the cross so that broken images could be made whole.

Romans 8:29. God's purpose is for His people to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that Jesus would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

2 Corinthians 3:18. “We all… are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.” The Greek word for transformed is the one behind the English word metamorphosis, the change from caterpillar to butterfly. The Holy Spirit does this work in us.

Poiema (Ephesians 2:10). Poiema (say: POY-ay-mah) means workmanship, something made. “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.” Salvation is a new creation.

Colossians 3:10. Paul says believers have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the One who created it. The new creation repairs the very image Genesis 1 describes.

1 John 3:2. When Jesus appears, believers will be like Him. What began in Eden will finally be complete.

Application. Your value is not earned; it was given at creation and bought back at the cross. Trust Christ, and let Him reshape you into His likeness.

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