Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. ... Genesis 1:26 ESV
God in his wisdom created the heavens and the earth and filled them with celestial objects like the Sun, Moon, stars and birds of the sky, and all kinds of plants, and animals on the earth and it pleased him. He then made a being and called him a Man and later made a woman for him. These beings were never like the ones he made before. He made them in his own image with no sin (Genesis 1:26-27). He also gave them authority to rule over the fish of the sea, birds and every living thing that moves on the earth (Genesis 1:28). This is not to say that he made everything for man, but for his own glory (Colossians 1:15-16).
Man Being made in the image of God means that he shares the likeness of God morally, mentally and socially. When God made Adam, God communed with Adam in a personal way. God cared for the need of Adam and his family even though he didn’t ask for it (Genesis 2:18), He lived a life in abundance and enjoyed the fellowship of God but soon, that relationship was broken in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s only command. This is the desecration of God’s own image.
Restoration of God’s image in fallen humanity is one of the ultimate goals of his redemptive plan by conforming the believers to the image of his Son, Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29) through the process of sanctification (2 Cor 3:18). In all humility, we all can join with the psalmist saying, what is the man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him that God must send his only son to redeem and save depraved sinners like us through faith in him. (Psalms 8:4, Colossians 1:19)
Being the image bearers of God means, as apostle Paul prays for the church at Colossae (Colossians 1:9-20), we are to be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
Being the image bearers of God mean, dying to self and putting away anger, wrath, malice, slander and obscene talk from our mouths and putting off the old self and putting on the new self, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator (Ephesians 4:24).