If we are made in the image of God, why do we sin? (What does being made in the image of God mean?)
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
(Genesis 1:26-28)
The image of God
Out of all the creatures God made, only one creature, man is said to be made “in the image of God.” To understand what this means, we may use the following definition: The fact that man is in the image of God means that man is like God and represents God.
The words “image” and “likeness” are used to refer to something that is similar but not identical to the thing it represents or is an “image” of. There’s a sense of distinction involved.
Various characteristics of man serve as examples in which the image of God is primarily seen – man’s intellectual ability, his power to make moral decisions and willing choices, his ability to socially relate, or his exercise of dominion over the earth.
But the passage does not list these characteristics out, because no such list could do justice to the subject: the text only needs to affirm that man is like God, and the rest of the Bible fills in more details to explain this.
As we read more of the Bible, we realize that a full understanding of man’s likeness to God would require a full understanding of who God is in His being and in His actions and a full understanding of who man is and what he does.
The more we know about God and man, the more similarities we will recognize, and the more fully we will understand what scripture means when it says that man is in the image of God.
Sin and the distortion of the image of God
Imagine you are an artist, the very best at what you do. You’ve just put in hours, days, weeks, even months into painting the most beautiful picture your mind has ever conceived. You take great delight in your master piece. This is a one of a kind. Never have you nor will you create something as beautiful. You want to show it to the world. Your heart flutters with anticipation! This is the moment you’ve lived your life for. You can’t contain your pride in your work. And then someone walks up to your creation and vomits all over it.
That is what man did to God when he sinned.
Sin is our failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude or manner.
The question that then arises is whether man could still be thought to be like God after he sinned.
The question is answered quite early in Genesis where God gives Noah the authority to establish the death penalty for murder among human beings just after the flood: God says
“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.”
Even though men are sinful, there is still enough likeness to God remaining in them that to murder another person is to attack the part of creation that most resembles God. Man is still in God’s image.
However, since man has sinned, he is certainly not fully like God as he was before. His moral purity has been lost and his sinful character certainly does not reflect God’s holiness. Though man is still in the image of God, in every aspect of life, some parts of that image have been distorted or lost.
To return to my earlier illustration, though the painting has been defaced, it has not lost its original image. God makes a wonderful provision to have the mess removed and His precious creation restored to its original beauty – He sent His only Son to die on a cross for the forgiveness of sin. (Rom 5:1; John 3:16)
The recovery of the image – becoming more like God
It is encouraging to read then that because of the forgiveness that comes from Jesus, we can progressively grow into more and more likeness to God. Paul says that as Christians we have a new nature that is “being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” (Col 3:10)
As we gain in true understanding of God, His Word, and His World, we begin to think more and more of the thoughts that God Himself thinks. In this way we are “renewed in knowledge” and we become more like God. (2 Cor 3:18)
In fact, the goal for which God has saved us is that we might be “conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom 8:29) and thus be exactly like Christ in our moral character.
It is the Holy Spirit who produces in us those character traits that cause us to resemble Jesus more – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Gal 5:22-23)
The beauty of this is that God works in you to recover His image in you. Paul writes, “It is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” (Phil 2:13), thus indicating something of the way God transforms us – both by causing us to want His will and by giving us the power to do it.