What does it mean to be made in the image of God? This is a key theological point that most Christians do not understand, yet it is the very thing that gives us our value as humans. So much of the other topics on this web site hinge on what it means to be made in the image of God. For examples; "The Meaning of Life", "Slavery", "Free Will", "Murder and Capitol Punishment" as well as How We Interpret John 3:16 all depend on humans being made in the image of God and what that means. Think about it. Why is it okay to kill a dog or a cow, but not a human? This is one of the biggest theological problems with evolution. According to evolution, if one species is superior to another, then there is no moral wrong doing with the superior species killing the inferior species. So according to evolution's standards we humans can kill cows, dogs and monkeys without doing anything morally wrong because those are evolutionary inferior or lower species. Also according to evolution's standards, higher evolved humans can also kill lower evolved or "defective" humans with no moral wrong doing. This is precisely the logic used by Nazi Germany during WWII. According to the Nazi's, white colored humans were higher on the evolutionary chain than black humans because black humans have a skin color that more closly resembles a monkey's skin color than white humans do. Therefore any human that does not "measure up" to their standard of "high enough evolved" can be killed with no moral consequenses and nothing morally wrong has been done. So while what the Nazi's did was atrocious, they were at least consistent with their own beliefs. Contrast that with a Biblical view of humans that says all humans are made in the image of God regurdless of their age, gender, race, or mental or physical issues. With the Biblical view of human value ALL peoples lives are sacred because all people are made in the image of God. In order to understand what it means to be made in the image of God, we need to read the Bible and dissect its meaning. Then let's talk about what it means and what it does not mean to be made in the image of God. First let's read the passage. I will be using the ESV translation.
Genesis 1:26-28
26 Then 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 birds of the heavens and over the livestock and 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.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
What it means: Keep in mind the context of this passage. This is immediatly after God finished creating the universe, the world and all the plants and animals in the world. Once he finishes all of his other creations, God then decides to create someone to care for all of it for him, in his place. This is crutial to understanding what "the image of God" means. We are God's representative to his creation. We are his managers, his gardeners and his farmers. The world and everything in it belongs to God. He made it and therefore he owns it. He can do with it whatever he pleases. He can also intrust it to whomever he pleases and it pleased him to have us care for it for him. Let me try to explain it to you in another way.
Where I live the person with the absolute most athority is the county sheriff. The sheriff is known as the "authority having jurisdiction". Mayors, governers and politicians don't like this fact but it is true. The county sheriff is the person who is ultimatly in charge of making sure the laws are enforced in that county and how they are enforced. It is a special position with special rights. If I was to punch my neighbor in the nose it would be misdemeanor (or a minor wrong doing). If however I were to punch the sheriff in the nose it would be a felony (a more serious crime). The reason is that when I punch the sheriff in the nose I am not only attacking the person of the sheriff, but I am also attacking the authority of the sheriff. It is this attack on the sheriff's athority that raises the severity of the crime. Sheriff's can also appoint what is known as a "deputy". In the absense of the sheriff, the deputy has all of the rights and responsibility of the sheriff. The deputy represents the sheriff to the people of the county. So if I punch a duputy in the nose, I am commiting a felony just as if I had punch the sheriff himself. An attack on the deputy is still an attack on the authority of the sheriff. The deputy is the sheriff in the absense of the sheriff. The deputy is the "image of" the sheriff.
In that same way, we are God's representative to his creation. We are God's deputies. God has given us his athority over this earth so that we may care for it. So what responsibilites does this give us? It means that we get to decide how best to care for this planet and the creatures that are in it. As an example we get to decide how many and what kind of trees should be growing in the forest and how many deer to keep in the forest. In one sense, our Fish & Game and National Forest departments are the oldest jobs in the Bible. This is one reason we can kill cows and dogs and not be guilty of murder. They are our responsibility (by God placing them under our care) and we get to decide their individual fate for the long term health of God's creation. This is exactly what farmers and ranchers do as well. The other reason that we can kill cows and dogs and not be guilty of murder is because they are not God's deputies. They are not made in the image of God. The do not represent God to the rest of creation. While they certainly do have an intrinsic value simply by being God's creation, they do not have the authority of God over his creation like humans do. Just as an attack on a deputy is an attack on the authority of the sheriff, an attack on a human is an attack on the authority of God.
We know that all people have God's authority over his creation (and not just the first man Adam) because God tell us this in Genesis 9.
Genesis 9:1-6
And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 2 The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.
6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.
Notice verse 6 specifically. God says that all people are made in the image of God, and that humans can kill and eat all animals.
What it does not mean: There are many things that it does not mean. I will address the more common ones here.