"Let us make man in our image.... So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him." ―Genesis 1:26-27a
Suggested Reading: Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10
Genesis presents man's dignity in relation to God. God created man specifically different from the rest of His creation in terms of bearing the image and likeness of God. These unique aspects of man's creation give him great dignity.
What
does it mean to be created in the image or likeness of God? That is an
important question, because even as fallen creatures, we still bear, in some sense,
the image and likeness of God, though every aspect is tarnished by sin. The
image of God in man includes three important capacities:
First,
the image of God in man includes the capacity for intellect or reason. God has a mind and is perfectly wise. So
when God addresses man, He does so in rational terms. "Come now," He says in
Isaiah 1:18, "let us reason together."
We
have an intellectual capacity that distinguishes us from the animals. We can
reason, remember, and communicate better than all other creatures. We are self-conscious,
self-critical, and able to assess ourselves. In all of this, we reflect God.
Second,
the image of God in man includes moral capacity. The God of
Genesis is good and righteous. He says of everything He created, "It is good."
His creation was beautiful not only externally but internally; it was
essentially morally good. The prohibition to eat of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil was a moral imperative in which God appealed to man's unique
moral consciousness.
Your
dog may obey you when you command it, if you have trained it well. The
obedience a dog gives to its master, however, is not a moral choice but an
acquired behavior that results from training. A dog does not have the moral
capacity that is an important part of the image of God in man.
Finally,
the image of God in man includes the capacity for spirituality. God did
not commune with any animal in Eden in the sense that He communed with Adam and
Eve. He did not call out to any animals, "Where art thou?" There is a unique
capacity in us to have communion with Him. Nature does not choose to
praise God because it does not have the capacity for spirituality. By grace, we
worship God voluntarily and rationally because of our spiritual capacity.