Definition

The image of God (imago Dei) is the likeness to God in which man was created, distinguishing him from all other creatures and constituting him God’s representative on earth. To be made in God’s image is to be a creature who mirrors, in a finite and dependent way, the perfections of his Maker — possessing reason, will, moral character, dominion, and the capacity for fellowship with God. Reformed theology understands the image both as something man is (an enduring constitution as a personal, rational, moral being) and as something man was (a positive endowment of knowledge, righteousness, and holiness lost at the fall and restored in Christ). The image is thus the ground of human dignity, the basis of human accountability, and the goal of human redemption.

Why It Matters

The doctrine of the image of God answers the most fundamental question of human identity: who and what is man? Against every reductionism that would dissolve man into matter, instinct, or social construction, Scripture declares that man is the image of God — unique, valued, and answerable to his Creator. This truth grounds the sanctity of human life, the equality and dignity of every person regardless of ability, age, ethnicity, or usefulness, and the moral seriousness of how we treat one another (Gen. 9:6; James 3:9).

The image also frames the drama of sin and salvation. Because man was made in righteousness and holiness, the fall is a defacing of God’s image, and sin is not merely a flaw but a tragic ruin of what we were meant to be. And because redemption renews the image, salvation is more than rescue from hell; it is the restoration of true humanity, the re-creation of the believer “after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:24). To understand the image is to understand both what we have lost and what Christ has come to restore.

Biblical Foundation

The doctrine begins in the deliberate counsel of God at man’s creation:

“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion …’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Gen. 1:26–27)

Several things stand out. The plural “let us” reflects the fullness of the divine being and anticipates the Trinity. “Image” (tselem) and “likeness” (demuth) are not two different things but parallel terms for the one reality. The image is given to humanity as male and female together, and it is immediately connected to dominion — man is made to rule the earth as God’s vice-regent. After the fall, the image still grounds the sanctity of human life: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image” (Gen. 9:6), and it warns against cursing others, “who are made in the likeness of God” (James 3:9).

The New Testament reveals the image more deeply by tying it to its restoration in Christ. Believers “have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Col. 3:10), and the new self is created “after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:24). These two passages are decisive, for they tell us what the original image contained — knowledge, righteousness, and holiness — and that this content is now restored in Christ, who is himself “the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15) and “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Heb. 1:3).

Key Components & Distinctions

The Broad and Narrow Senses

Reformed theology distinguishes two senses of the image. In the broad (or structural) sense, the image consists in those properties that constitute man as man: rationality, self-consciousness, moral agency, personhood, immortality of the soul, and dominion over creation. This image is not lost at the fall; fallen man remains a rational, responsible, image-bearing creature, which is precisely why his sin is culpable and his life sacred (Gen. 9:6; 1 Cor. 11:7).

In the narrow (or functional/ethical) sense, the image consists in the original righteousness and holiness in which man was made — the true knowledge of God, conformity of the will to God’s will, and holiness of life. This is the sense in view in Ephesians 4:24 and Colossians 3:10. This image was lost at the fall, and it is this that Christ restores. The distinction allows us to say both that man retained the image after the fall (broad) and that he lost it (narrow), holding together the dignity of all men and the ruin of sin.

Image and Likeness

Roman Catholic theology historically distinguished “image” from “likeness,” treating the image as natural human reason (retained) and the likeness as a superadded supernatural gift of grace (lost at the fall). Reformed theology rejects this division. In the parallelism of Hebrew, “image” and “likeness” are synonyms describing the one reality; Genesis 1:27 uses only “image,” and Genesis 5:1 only “likeness,” interchangeably. Original righteousness was not a superadded gift loosely attached to nature but belonged integrally to man as created.

Relational and Representative Dimensions

The image is not merely a set of properties but is exercised in relationship and representation. Man images God as he knows and loves God, as he lives in fellowship with other image-bearers (male and female together), and as he exercises dominion over creation as God’s appointed steward. The image is thus structural (what man is), relational (whom man is made for), and functional (the task man is given). These dimensions are not rivals but facets of one reality.

Historical Development

Irenaeus and some early fathers distinguished “image” (natural endowments) from “likeness” (supernatural gift), seeding the later Roman view. Augustine located the image especially in the soul’s rational and Trinitarian structure — memory, understanding, and will mirroring the Trinity. Medieval scholasticism crystallized the donum superadditum: original righteousness was a supernatural gift added to a complete human nature, so that the fall removed the gift but left nature substantially intact.

The Reformers overturned this. Calvin taught that the image was seated chiefly in the soul and consisted in the right ordering of all man’s faculties toward God — true knowledge, righteousness, and holiness — and that the fall did not merely strip an external gift but corrupted and largely defaced the image itself, leaving only ruined relics. Reformed orthodoxy, drawing on Ephesians 4:24 and Colossians 3:10, settled on the broad/narrow distinction that allows the image to be both retained and lost, and made its restoration in Christ central to the doctrine of sanctification.

The Reformed & Confessional Position

The Westminster Standards confess the image with precision. The Confession teaches that God made man “after his own image,” “endued with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness,” “having the law of God written in their hearts, and power to fulfil it” (WCF 4.2). The Shorter Catechism distills it:

“God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.” (WSC 10)

The Larger Catechism adds the dimension of dominion and bliss:

“God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.” (WLC 17)

The narrow sense — the moral content of the image — is plainly in view: knowledge, righteousness, holiness. The Confession also confesses its loss in the fall, when our first parents “fell from their original righteousness and communion with God” (WCF 6.2), and its restoration in redemption, for the elect are “renewed in the whole man after the image of God” in sanctification (compare WCF 13.1; WSC 35). Thus the Standards trace the image from creation through fall to restoration, exactly along the broad/narrow distinction.

Contrasting Views

Roman Catholicism retains the image/likeness division and the donum superadditum, teaching that fallen man’s nature remains largely intact, with original righteousness lost as a superadded gift. This softens the fall’s effect on human nature. Liberal Protestantism has often reduced the image to an innate human goodness or “spark of the divine,” minimizing the fall and treating the image as the ground of universal moral progress apart from redemption.

Evolutionary and monist anthropologies deny any qualitative image distinguishing man from the animals, treating human reason and morality as products of natural selection on a continuum with the beasts. Materialist views reduce man to brain and body, leaving no room for the soul or for any abiding likeness to God. Against all of these, Scripture confesses that man — body and soul — was made uniquely in God’s image, that this image was defaced (not destroyed) by sin, and that it is being restored only in Christ.

Connections to Other Loci

The image flows from Theology Proper, for man images the triune God whose perfections he reflects. It belongs to Anthropology and grounds the constitution of man, since the image is seated chiefly in the soul. It frames Hamartiology, for sin is the defacing of the image and the loss of original righteousness. It is central to Christology, since Christ is the perfect image of God who restores the image in his people. It shapes Soteriology, for sanctification is the progressive renewal of the image (Rom. 8:29; 2 Cor. 3:18). And it reaches its consummation in Eschatology, when the redeemed are fully conformed to the image of the glorified Son.

Christ & the Gospel at the Center

Christ is “the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15), the eternal Son in whom the Father is perfectly mirrored, and the true man in whom human nature attains its intended likeness to God. Where Adam defaced the image by disobedience, Christ displayed it perfectly in his life of love, righteousness, and obedience. By his redeeming work he restores the image in his people: regeneration begins the renewal, sanctification advances it as we are “transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor. 3:18), and glorification completes it, for “we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). The gospel is therefore the great project of re-creation, remaking ruined image-bearers into the likeness of Christ, the second Adam, that God’s image might shine again in redeemed humanity.

Pastoral & Practical Significance

This doctrine dignifies every human life. Because all bear God’s image, none may be despised, exploited, or destroyed — not the unborn, the disabled, the aged, the poor, or the enemy (James 3:9; Gen. 9:6). It rebukes racism, abuse, and contempt, and it calls us to honor one another as image-bearers. It also fuels sanctification: knowing that we were made for righteousness and holiness, and that Christ is restoring his image in us, we put off the old self and put on the new (Eph. 4:22–24). And it gives hope to the broken, for the image marred by sin and suffering will one day be perfectly restored. To live as image-bearers is to know our worth, to honor our neighbor, and to long for the day when we shall fully reflect our Maker.

Key Terms

• Imago Dei — the image of God in which man was created.
• Broad (structural) image — rationality, personhood, and dominion; retained after the fall.
• Narrow (ethical) image — original knowledge, righteousness, and holiness; lost at the fall, restored in Christ.
• Donum superadditum — the Roman notion of original righteousness as a superadded supernatural gift.
• Original righteousness — the moral integrity in which man was created.
• Vice-regency / dominion — man’s appointed rule over creation as God’s representative.

Key Scripture References

• Genesis 1:26–27 — man created in God’s image, male and female.
• Genesis 5:1; 9:6 — the image as ground of human worth and the sanctity of life.
• Psalm 8:5–6 — man crowned with glory and given dominion.
• Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3 — Christ the image of the invisible God.
• Colossians 3:10 — the image renewed in knowledge after the Creator.
• Ephesians 4:24 — the new self in true righteousness and holiness.
• 2 Corinthians 3:18; Romans 8:29 — believers transformed into Christ’s image.

Further Study

• Westminster Confession of Faith 4.2; Shorter Catechism Q. 10; Larger Catechism Q. 17
• John Calvin, Institutes, Book I.15
• Anthony Hoekema, Created in God’s Image
• Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, Volume 2
• G. C. Berkouwer, Man: The Image of God
• John Murray, “Man in the Image of God,” in Collected Writings, Volume 2