What does it mean when God said, “Let Us make man in Our image” (Genesis 1:26)?

Response

Genesis 1 provides the account of the creation by the all-knowing, all-powerful, sovereign God. When God reaches His ultimate creative act—the creation of human life—His language changes from the impersonal “let there be” to the intentional and personal expression, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” God’s design for humans included assigning them responsibilities on the earth: “And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” «And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. », (Genesis 1:26, ESV).

Human beings—both men and women—are created in God’s image (Genesis 1:27;Genesis 5:1-3;9:6;James 3:9). “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us,” states Genesis 1:26 in the NLT. We did not evolve from lower life forms. We were directly created by God to represent Him on earth and to have dominion over all other creations in His name (Genesis 1:26-28).

Bearing God’s image means we are designed to reflect and represent God on earth. Some Christians refer to us as “imagers of God.” Our likeness to God is not a physical resemblance. Instead,In the beginning, God’s likeness signifies our ability to govern over creation and have a relationship with God and other humans, as well as to utilize reason, intelligence, speech, moral consciousness, creativity, rationality, and choice. Throughout history, God has desired to bless us and have a close fellowship with us, which is why He created us in His image.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the supreme and flawless representation of God: “The Son radiates God’s own glory and reflects the exact character of God” (Hebrews 1:3;NLT;see also 2 Corinthians 4:4;Colossians 1:15). To see Jesus is to see the Father “Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?”, (John 14:9). Knowing Christ means knowing God. Jesus Christ reveals to us the true meaning of God’s statement, “Let Us make man in Our image.”

The original Hebrew term for “God” in Genesis 1 is the plural masculine noun Elohim. Our Creator, God, chose to reveal Himself to us with a plural title. In Genesis 1:26—the first instance in the Bible where God speaks about Himself—He uses the plural pronouns Us and Our. This is not the only occasion where God refers to Himself in plural form (see Genesis 3:22;see Genesis 11:7;and Isaiah 6:8). The plural Elohim appears over 2,550 times in the Bible.

From Scripture, we understand that there is only one God, no other gods exist, and He is one (Deuteronomy 6:4;Isaiah 45:5,6, 18;Mark 12:32;Galatians 3:20;1 Timothy 2:5).

Genesis 1:26, 3:22; 1 Timothy 2:5. So, how can we comprehend the plurality of His name Elohim along with His statement, “Let Us make man in Our image?”

Bible scholars propose various potential interpretations:

Some argue that in Genesis 1:26, God is referring to Himself and including the heavenly assembly of angels, as seen in Job 1:6; 1 Kings 22:19–20; and Psalm 89:5. However, this explanation is flawed because nowhere in Scripture does God state that the angels are created in His image or likeness. Another suggestion posits that the plural form is utilized to convey dignity and grandeur, a linguistic device known as the “plural of majesty.” Others attribute the plural language to a technique called “plural of deliberation,” employed when a speaker consults with himself, as the Lord does in Isaiah 6:8: “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’”

The belief of the early church fathers was that Elohim’s declaration, “Let Us make man in Our image,” signifies a profound and unified representation of the Trinity. The doctrine of the Trinity asserts that God is One in three Persons: God the Father; God the Son, Jesus Christ our Savior; and God the Holy Spirit. In Genesis 1:26, the “Us” and “Our” indicate God the Father speaking in the fullness of His divine creative power to the Son and the Holy Spirit. A similar dialogue within the Godhead is observed in Genesis 3:22: “And the LORD God said, ‘The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.’”

Only humans are uniquely crafted in the image and likeness of God, setting them apart from all other earthly creatures. We were fashioned in His likeness to facilitate a relationship with Him—the singular and triune God.