Genesis 1:26-27 (NKJV)
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our IMAGE, according to Our LIKENESS; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 SO GOD CREATED MAN IN HIS OWN IMAGE; in the IMAGE OF GOD HE CREATED HIM; male and female He created them.
What is this “image of God” in which man was created? Many answers have been given since the dawn of Church history — some say it is His intrinsic nature as both male and female, others says the “image of God” was the immortal soul which He gave to the man He created.
But all these ignore the BASIC context in which the word was used. The text itself supplies the identity of this “image of God” — “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; LET THEM HAVE DOMINION…” (vs. 26, NKJV)
The image of God is associated not with man as male and female, or with an immortal soul given to our species, but rather with mankind’s capacity to be and to do on a finite level what God is and does on an infinite scale.
Similar to how God made the sun to rule the day and the moon the night, so He made man to have control over all these realms.
Gen 1:28-30
28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. 30 Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so.
That image is simply that God made man to mirror His dominion on the Earth. He was to rule over all God’s creation. The image was dominion.
© Josh Banks Ministries. 2020.
