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Every Christian knows that from the very beginning of time God created mankind in His image. He gave man rule over land, sea, and sky; just as He has rule over the universe. The evidence for mankind being created in His image can be found in Genesis 1:26-27, “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created Him; male and female He created them.”[1] There is so much that can be gathered from these two verses that can give us a solid example of what God is like. We know that God is the Creator and when He created us He passed on that creative quality, to some more than others. God is also the ruler over everything. On a much smaller scale, we are rulers over the earth and all that inhabits the earth. God created us to care for His creations. According to Hindson and Caner, mankind was made in the image of God in three ways: "creativity, rationality, and the ability to subdue and rule.”[2] No only were we created in God’s image but we were given the ‘breath of life’ from God. He, the Almighty Creator, breathed life into us and gave us purpose. Davis states, “Only after God breathed life in to the lifeless body did it become a “living soul.”[3]

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In Genesis we see that God formed man from the dust just like he did with all of His other creations. The difference is that when God breathed life into man making him a living soul, He made him, human life alone, in His image and likeness (Gen. 1:26-27; 2:7)[1]. In the ancient world an image was believed to carry the essence of that which it represented[2]. The deity's work was to be accomplished through what was made in its image[3]. God gave man the authority to fill the earth, subdue it, and rule over all the living creatures (Gen. 1:28). Thus the governing work of God was to be accomplished by his representatives, the people created in His image. The tools which God gave man to accomplish this task include conscience, self awareness and spiritual discernment[4].

The "image" of God consisted not in the features of man, not in his intellect, nor in his immortality, for the devil and his angels in this respect are far superior, but rather in moral dispositions of the soul, commonly called original righteousness[5]. The image does not refer to man looking like God or being able to do what God does, rather as the image of God, man is to be and act like his creator[6]. According to John J. Davis, both Image and likeness are essentially synonymous terms which point to the spiritual qualities shared by God and man[7]. Unlike anything in the animal kingdom, man alone has the capacity for self consciousness, speech, and moral discernment. It is through sin that the glory bestowed exclusively upon human life as the Lord's ruling sonship which has diminished[8]. Even though man has fallen and the image of God is marred, man retains this image (Gen. 9:6, James 3:9)[9]. It is through Adam's sin that man became corrupt, but it is through Christ that man will be justified and redeemed (Rom. 5:12-21; 1 Cor.15:21-22; 1 Cor. 15:49) to a new life in the image of his creator (Col 3:9-10; Eph. 4:24)[10].