Creation / Restoration
Creation Restored
How Image of God participates in God's purpose for creation and restoration.
Anthropology & Christology
Curated
Image of God
Humanity alone is made to reflect God himself — the one creature given his likeness and entrusted with his world.
Bearing God's likeness, made for communion rather than isolation, and entrusted with royal dominion over creation, humanity's identity as God's image was marred by sin but never erased — perfectly enacted at last in Christ, and being restored in everyone united to him.
Key Verse
Genesis 1:27
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
6Milestones
6Principles
4Church
Definition
Overview
Canonical Question
What does it mean that humanity alone is made in God's image, and how does that identity survive the Fall and find its true fulfillment?
Of every creature God makes in six days, only humanity receives the declaration: made in God's image and likeness. This is not a difference of degree from the animals but of kind — a unique capacity to represent God within his creation. The image is realized together, not alone: “male and female he created them,” and God himself names human aloneness “not good” before any sin has entered the world. From this identity flows a royal vocation: dominion over every living thing (Genesis 1:28), the same vocation the Psalms later marvel at — humanity “crowned . . . with glory and honor,” given rule over the works of God's hands (Psalm 8:5-6).
Human rebellion corrupts this image but does not erase it: even after the Fall, Genesis grounds the wrongness of murder in the fact that the victim still bears God's likeness (Genesis 9:6). What Genesis 1 leaves unexplained, the New Testament reveals: Christ himself is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15), not a restored copy of Adam but the very archetype Adam's creation was patterned after. Those united to Christ are even now being transformed into that same image, “from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18), until the day they are made fully like him.
Canonical Tension
The Problem This Theme Resolves
Humanity alone is declared to bear God's own image and likeness — an unparalleled dignity — yet this same humanity rebels against the very God whose image it bears, marring an identity meant to reflect him faithfully. Scripture does not resolve this tension by revoking the image, but by revealing, in Christ, the image humanity was always meant to be, and remaking his people after that pattern.
Canonical Identity
How God Reveals Himself Here
The names, attributes, and character of God revealed through the Image of God theme prepare us to trace its movement across Scripture.
Theological Identity
Elohim
God (the Mighty Creator)
The name emphasizing God's majesty and power as the transcendent Creator who calls the cosmos into being by his word alone.
Primary Attribute
Revealing
Relational
RevelationFulfillmentParticipationConsummation
Canonical Revelation
The Archetype Behind the Copy
The eternal Son is himself the true image the Father intended humanity to reflect from the beginning (Colossians 1:15).
Canonical Fulfillment
The Last Adam, the True Image Enacted
The True Image
Where the first Adam bore and marred the image, Christ perfectly enacts it in human flesh, the image of the invisible God fully revealed (2 Corinthians 4:4; 1 Corinthians 15:45-49).
Canonical Participation
Being Transformed Into the Same Image
Believers, beholding the Lord's glory, are progressively transformed into his likeness by the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Canonical Consummation
Fully Conformed to the Image of the Son
God's eternal purpose is realized when his people are finally and fully conformed to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29; 1 John 3:2).
Scripture Witnesses:
Theological Identity in Full
The God who said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” Genesis 1:26 is revealed in the New Testament as the Father of the eternal Son, who is himself “the image of the invisible God” Colossians 1:15 — not merely bearing the image as Adam did, but being the archetype Adam's own creation was patterned after. The same God who declared humanity's dignity at the beginning now declares, of those united to Christ, that they are being transformed into that same image 2 Corinthians 3:18 — and will one day be fully conformed to it Romans 8:29.
Why This Theme Matters
Canonical Significance
Because every human being bears God's image, human worth was settled at creation, not left for anyone to earn or prove.
Governing Biblical Principle
Every human being bears God's image, without exception.
Genesis declares this over humanity as a whole, without exceptions for ability, status, or age -- it's a status given, not a rank achieved.
That's why the rest of Scripture can appeal to this even after the Fall, using it to condemn murder and ground human dignity: without this theme, human worth would have no fixed foundation to stand on at all.
Explore this Principle →Trace This Theme
Watch this theme unfold across the biblical story.
Humanity Alone Bears God's ImageMade for Communion: Male and Female TogetherCommissioned to Rule as God's RepresentativesThe Image Marred, Not ErasedChrist, the True and Perfect ImageRenewed and Being Transformed Into His Likeness
Theme Framework
Milestones, Principles, and Formation
How Image of God develops across the canon, what it teaches, and how the Church lives it out.
Image of God Through Three Canonical Dimensions
Kingdom / Reign
Kingdom Established
How Image of God participates in God's righteous reign and covenant authority.
Life / Communion
Life Multiplied
How Image of God participates in divine life, communion, and transformation.
Theme View
Canonical Journey
Unified Canonical Journey
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Humanity Alone Bears God's Image
Of every creature God makes, only humanity is said to bear his own image and likeness.
1. Canonical Narrative
What happened?
Genesis 1 moves through five days of creatures — each “according to its kind” — before arriving at a wholly different formula: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” No other creature receives this designation. This is not a difference of degree from the animals but of kind: humanity alone is given a status that makes it capable of representing God to the rest of creation, a status this theme takes as its own subject rather than the vocational content Creation's own milestone on humanity introduces but deliberately does not develop.
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2. Theological Significance
Why it matters in God's story
Human dignity is not granted by ability, usefulness, or achievement; it is granted by God's own declaration over every member of the species he made in his likeness.
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3. Christological Relationship
How it points to Christ
Christ is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15) in the fullest sense — not merely bearing the image as Adam did, but being it, the archetype the first man was created to reflect.
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4. Formation Insight
What it means for us
Every person encountered — however diminished, however different — bears a dignity that does not depend on what they can do for us.
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Primary
Witnesses
Creation
Event
Made for Communion: Male and Female Together
The image is borne together, not merely individually — “male and female he created them,” and “it is not good that the man should be alone.”
1. Canonical Narrative
What happened?
Genesis 1:27's own parallelism — “in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” — places the image-bearing formula directly alongside human duality, not as an afterthought but as part of the same declaration. Genesis 2 confirms this is intentional, not incidental: God himself names Adam's aloneness “not good” before any sin has entered the world, and forms Eve as the one corresponding partner no animal could be. The image, from its first description, is relational in shape — realized in communion, not achieved in isolation.
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2. Theological Significance
Why it matters in God's story
To be made in God's image is to be made for relationship — the image is not fully realized in a person considered alone, but in persons in communion, as Genesis 2's own “not good” makes explicit.
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3. Christological Relationship
How it points to Christ
The Son eternally exists in relation to the Father and the Spirit; humanity's own capacity for communion, first with each other and ultimately with God, reflects a Creator who is not solitary.
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4. Formation Insight
What it means for us
Loneliness is not a private problem to be managed alone; it names a real absence of something built into the structure of being human.
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Primary
Commissioned to Rule as God's Representatives
Bearing God's image carries a vocation: dominion over the earth, exercised as his representatives, not as independent rulers.
1. Canonical Narrative
What happened?
Genesis 1:28's commission to “have dominion” follows directly from, and depends on, the image-bearing status just declared — vocation flows from identity, not the reverse. The full content of this royal vocation, its delegated and accountable character, and its outworking across covenant history is the direct subject of the Kingdom theme; this milestone establishes only that the commission is grounded here, in what humanity already is, and deliberately does not re-narrate Kingdom's own fuller treatment of it.
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2. Theological Significance
Why it matters in God's story
Royal vocation is granted because humanity already bears the image; dominion is not a separate achievement layered onto identity; it is identity's own outworking.
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3. Christological Relationship
How it points to Christ
Jesus is the one true Man who rules exactly as God always intended humanity to rule, succeeding where Adam's delegated dominion gave way to rebellion (Hebrews 2:8-9).
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4. Formation Insight
What it means for us
Any authority held — at work, at home, anywhere — is exercised as a representative, accountable to the one whose image makes the representation possible at all.
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Primary
The Image Marred, Not Erased
Human rebellion corrupts the image it cannot escape bearing — even after the Fall, murder remains wrong precisely because the victim still bears God's image.
1. Canonical Narrative
What happened?
Genesis 3 narrates the rupture; the full theological content of that rupture — guilt, corruption, and the reign of death — belongs to the Sin theme, which this milestone cross-references rather than re-narrates. What this milestone establishes instead is what survives the rupture: Genesis 9:6, spoken after the Fall and after the Flood, grounds the prohibition of murder in the fact that humanity still bears God's image (“for God made man in his own image”) — the clearest possible evidence that sin marred the image without erasing the status it confers.
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2. Theological Significance
Why it matters in God's story
Sin corrupts the image without erasing it — human dignity survives human rebellion, which is the theological ground for treating every person, however fallen, as still owed the regard due an image-bearer.
Study Further
3. Christological Relationship
How it points to Christ
Christ, the last Adam, succeeds in perfect obedience where the first Adam's failure marred the image he bore (Romans 5:12-19; 1 Corinthians 15:45-49).
Study Further
4. Formation Insight
What it means for us
Contempt for another human being, in any form, is never merely a social offense; it is an offense against the image that person continues to bear.
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Primary
Christ, the True and Perfect Image
Where the first Adam bore and marred the image, Christ is himself “the image of the invisible God” — not a copy improved, but the archetype revealed.
1. Canonical Narrative
What happened?
Paul's language in Colossians 1:15 and 2 Corinthians 4:4 does not describe Christ as a restored version of what Adam was; it describes him as the image itself, “the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3), the one Adam's own creation in God's likeness was always patterned after. This is the theological center this entire theme has been building toward: humanity's identity is only fully explained once its true archetype is revealed.
Study Further
2. Theological Significance
Why it matters in God's story
The image of God was never fully explained by Genesis 1 alone; it is fully explained only once its archetype, Christ, is revealed — Adam was a shadow of the image that was to come.
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3. Christological Relationship
How it points to Christ
This milestone is itself the theme's own christological center — see theologicalSignificance rather than a deflection elsewhere.
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4. Formation Insight
What it means for us
To know what a human being is meant to be, look to Christ, not to an idealized version of unfallen Adam — the pattern was always him.
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Primary
Witnesses
Adam
Type
Renewed and Being Transformed Into His Likeness
Those united to Christ are already being progressively conformed to his image, and will finally be made fully like him.
1. Canonical Narrative
What happened?
Paul describes believers as those who, “beholding the glory of the Lord,” are “being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18) — a present, ongoing renewal, not a future event alone. Romans 8:29 names this the very shape of God's eternal purpose: predestined “to be conformed to the image of his Son.” The full unfolding of this hope at the resurrection belongs to the New Creation theme; this milestone establishes only that the image's own restoration, not a replacement identity, is what redemption accomplishes.
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2. Theological Significance
Why it matters in God's story
Sanctification is rightly understood as progressive conformity to Christ's image, not merely moral self-improvement measured against an abstract standard.
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3. Christological Relationship
How it points to Christ
The same Christ who is himself the true image is the one believers are being conformed to, by his own Spirit, until they see him and are made fully like him (1 John 3:2).
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4. Formation Insight
What it means for us
Spiritual growth is not becoming a better version of an autonomous self; it is becoming more like the one whose image was always the goal of being human.
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Primary
Canonical Theology
Principles View
Enduring truths Image of God reveals across Scripture.
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Canonical Principle
The Image is Universal to All Humanity, Not Earned or Selective
Genesis 1:27 declares the image over humanity as a whole, without qualification by ability, status, age, or condition. James 3:9 assumes this universality when it condemns cursing “people who are made in the likeness of God” as a plain, uncontested fact, not an argument that needs defending. The image is a status conferred at creation, not a capacity that must be demonstrated.
1
Theological Claim
Every human being bears God's image simply by being human — the status is not granted in degrees or restricted to a class.
2
Canonical Foundation
Genesis 1:27 declares the image over humanity as a whole, without qualification by ability, status, age, or condition. James 3:9 assumes this universality when it condemns cursing “people who are made in the likeness of God” as a plain, uncontested fact, not an argument that needs defending. The image is a status conferred at creation, not a capacity that must be demonstrated.
3
Christological Fulfillment
Christ took on full humanity, uniting himself to the very nature that bears God's image, dignifying it from the inside rather than merely legislating its worth from outside (Hebrews 2:14-17).
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Canonical Significance
Grounds universal human dignity in a status conferred at creation, not in ability, usefulness, or achievement.
Study Further
Canonical Principle
The Image is Fundamentally Relational, Not Merely Individual
Genesis 1:27's own structure pairs image-bearing directly with “male and female,” and Genesis 2:18's “it is not good that the man should be alone” is spoken before any sin exists, ruling out isolation as either the original design or a consequence to be merely endured. Whatever else the image includes, Scripture presents it as inherently oriented toward relationship, not fully realized by a person considered apart from others.
1
Theological Claim
Bearing God's image is realized in communion — with other people and with God — not achieved by a solitary individual in isolation.
2
Canonical Foundation
Genesis 1:27's own structure pairs image-bearing directly with “male and female,” and Genesis 2:18's “it is not good that the man should be alone” is spoken before any sin exists, ruling out isolation as either the original design or a consequence to be merely endured. Whatever else the image includes, Scripture presents it as inherently oriented toward relationship, not fully realized by a person considered apart from others.
3
Christological Fulfillment
Christ's own prayer for his people to be one “just as we are one” (John 17:21-22) extends the image's relational shape into the church's own unity in him.
4
Canonical Significance
Locates the image's realization in communion rather than in isolated individual capacity.
Study Further
Canonical Principle
Royal Vocation Flows From Identity, Not the Reverse
Genesis 1:26's grammar makes the sequence explicit: “Let us make man in our image... and let them have dominion.” The commission follows the declaration as its consequence, not its cause. The full unfolding of this vocation — its delegated, accountable, and covenantal shape across redemptive history — is Kingdom's own subject; this principle establishes only the order of dependence between the two.
1
Theological Claim
Humanity's commission to rule creation is grounded in already being God's image-bearers; dominion is identity's outworking, not a separate achievement.
2
Canonical Foundation
Genesis 1:26's grammar makes the sequence explicit: “Let us make man in our image... and let them have dominion.” The commission follows the declaration as its consequence, not its cause. The full unfolding of this vocation — its delegated, accountable, and covenantal shape across redemptive history — is Kingdom's own subject; this principle establishes only the order of dependence between the two.
3
Christological Fulfillment
Christ, the true image, exercises the dominion Adam was given, ruling exactly as God intended (Hebrews 2:8-9), succeeding where delegated rule under the first Adam gave way to rebellion.
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Canonical Significance
Establishes that vocation flows from identity, correcting any account of human dignity that grounds worth in function or usefulness rather than in the image itself.
Study Further
Canonical Principle
The Image Survives the Fall, Underwriting Human Dignity Even in Sin
Genesis 9:6 is spoken after the Fall, after the Flood, in a world Scripture has already described as thoroughly corrupted — and it still grounds the wrongness of murder in the fact that “God made man in his own image.” If the image had been lost rather than marred, this argument would have no force. The text's own placement, after humanity's demonstrated capacity for violence, makes the point deliberately.
1
Theological Claim
Sin corrupts the image profoundly but does not erase the status it confers — fallen humanity still bears God's likeness.
2
Canonical Foundation
Genesis 9:6 is spoken after the Fall, after the Flood, in a world Scripture has already described as thoroughly corrupted — and it still grounds the wrongness of murder in the fact that “God made man in his own image.” If the image had been lost rather than marred, this argument would have no force. The text's own placement, after humanity's demonstrated capacity for violence, makes the point deliberately.
3
Christological Fulfillment
Christ bears the full weight of what marred the image — the curse and the guilt — without treating the image-bearer as beyond the reach of grace (Galatians 3:13; Romans 5:8).
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Canonical Significance
Provides the theological basis for treating every person, however fallen or diminished, with the regard owed an image-bearer, not merely a rescued exception.
Study Further
Canonical Principle
Christ is the Image the First Adam Was Meant to Be
Colossians 1:15's “the image of the invisible God” and 2 Corinthians 4:4's identical language describe Christ in terms Genesis never uses of Adam directly — Adam is said to be made “in” the image; Christ simply is the image. Paul's own logic in 1 Corinthians 15:45-49 treats Adam as a real but preparatory figure, a type whose full meaning is only visible once its antitype, Christ, appears.
1
Theological Claim
Christ is not merely a restored copy of Adam's original image; he is the archetype Adam's own creation in God's likeness was patterned after.
2
Canonical Foundation
Colossians 1:15's “the image of the invisible God” and 2 Corinthians 4:4's identical language describe Christ in terms Genesis never uses of Adam directly — Adam is said to be made “in” the image; Christ simply is the image. Paul's own logic in 1 Corinthians 15:45-49 treats Adam as a real but preparatory figure, a type whose full meaning is only visible once its antitype, Christ, appears.
3
Christological Fulfillment
This principle is itself a direct statement of Christ's own centrality to this theme — he is not an application of the doctrine but its explanation.
4
Canonical Significance
Resolves what Genesis 1 leaves open: the image's own archetype and full meaning are revealed only in Christ, not derivable from Adam's unfallen state alone.
Study Further
Canonical Principle
Believers Are Progressively Conformed to Christ's Image, Anticipating Final Glorification
2 Corinthians 3:18 describes an already-underway transformation — “from one degree of glory to another” — not a single decisive event. Romans 8:29 places this conformity at the center of God's eternal purpose for his people, and 1 John 3:2 promises its completion: “we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”
1
Theological Claim
Sanctification is the present, ongoing shape of being remade after Christ's own likeness, culminating in a promised final conformity.
2
Canonical Foundation
2 Corinthians 3:18 describes an already-underway transformation — “from one degree of glory to another” — not a single decisive event. Romans 8:29 places this conformity at the center of God's eternal purpose for his people, and 1 John 3:2 promises its completion: “we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”
3
Christological Fulfillment
The Spirit conforms believers to Christ's own image as the present, ongoing shape of union with him (Romans 8:29-30).
4
Canonical Significance
Frames sanctification as conformity to a person, not adherence to an abstract standard — spiritual growth has a face, not merely a rule.
Study Further
Canonical Formation
Church View
How the Church participates in and embodies Image of God.
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Church Participation
The Church Honors the Inherent Dignity of Every Image-Bearer
Genesis 9:6's own post-Fall logic and James 3:9's plain assumption together ground a practice that does not depend on the church's own preferences: honoring the image in the vulnerable, the diminished, and even the hostile, because the image survives what sin has done to all three.
1
Ecclesial Identity
The church is a community that treats human dignity as given, not earned.
2
Communal Practice
Practical care for the poor, the unborn, the elderly, the disabled, and the outsider, understood as image-honoring, not mere charity.
3
Mission and Witness
Concrete acts of protection and advocacy for the vulnerable are a direct outworking of this theme's own claim that the image is universal.
4
Present Tension and Hope
Present faithfulness in this practice anticipates final conformity to Christ's own image.
Study Further
Church Participation
The Church Practices Communion as the Relational Shape of the Image
Christ's own prayer that his people “may be one” models, at the level of the whole church, the same relational shape Genesis 2:18 first names at the level of two people — the image is realized in communion, not achieved alone.
1
Ecclesial Identity
The church is the covenant community in which the image's relational shape is corporately enacted.
2
Communal Practice
Pursuing real fellowship, hospitality, and reconciliation within the body, treating isolation within the church as a wound, not a preference.
3
Mission and Witness
A visibly unified, hospitable community bears its own witness to a watching world of what humanity was always meant to be.
4
Present Tension and Hope
Present faithfulness in this practice anticipates final conformity to Christ's own image.
Study Further
Church Participation
The Church Proclaims Christ as the True Image to a World of Broken Images
Paul's own diagnosis — humanity exchanging “the glory of the immortal God for images” (Romans 1:22-23) — names exactly the identity-search a culture without this theme's own answer will keep attempting elsewhere; 2 Corinthians 4:4-6 proclaims the actual resolution.
1
Ecclesial Identity
The church is a community that has found, in Christ, the identity a culture of rival images is still searching for.
2
Communal Practice
Evangelism and discipleship that names Christ, not therapeutic self-image or ideological identity, as the true pattern for being human.
3
Mission and Witness
This mirrors Creation's own “proclaims a Creator to a culture of rival origins” pattern, applied here to a culture of rival identities rather than rival origins.
4
Present Tension and Hope
Present faithfulness in this practice anticipates final conformity to Christ's own image.
Study Further
Church Participation
The Church Pursues Christlikeness as the Present Shape of Sanctification
Colossians 3:9-10's call to “put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” gives the church's own discipleship practice its proper shape and goal: not generic virtue, but likeness to a person.
1
Ecclesial Identity
The church is a community actively being formed after a specific pattern, not merely encouraged toward generic improvement.
2
Communal Practice
Discipleship, teaching, and mutual accountability aimed explicitly at conformity to Christ, not at an abstract moral standard.
3
Mission and Witness
A community visibly being conformed to a real person, over time, is a different kind of witness than one pursuing generic self-improvement.
4
Present Tension and Hope
Present faithfulness in this practice anticipates final conformity to Christ's own image.
Study Further
Fulfillment
Fulfillment in Christ
The theme of Image of God reaches its center in Christ, extends to those united with Him, and is completed in the renewed creation.
How This Points to Christ
Christ is not merely a restored version of Adam's image; he is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15), “the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3) — the archetype Adam's own creation in God's likeness was always patterned after.
Fulfilled in Christ
Christ is not merely a restored version of Adam's image; he is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15), “the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3) — the archetype Adam's own creation in God's likeness was always patterned after.
Shared by His People
Those united to Christ are already being transformed into his image, “from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18), the present shape of a conformity that will one day be complete.
Completed in New Creation
God's eternal purpose — that his people be conformed to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29) — reaches its completion when “we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).
New Testament Witness
The New Testament Reception Journey
How Jesus, the apostles, and the early church progressively receive, interpret, and apply Image of God — governed records only, arranged to trace the theological movement across them, not a strict historical timeline of when each was spoken or written.
Bearing God's Image Means Belonging to Him
What does it actually mean that a person is made in God's image?
Jesus uses a coin stamped with Caesar's image to make a point that reaches far beyond taxation: whatever bears an image belongs to the one whose image it bears. Applied to a person, this settles an identity question no government, circumstance, or label can overturn — bearing God's image means belonging to him first.
Whose Image Is This?
TeachingJesus is asked whether it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, and instead of answering directly, he asks whose image and inscription are on the coin. "Caesar's," they answer, and Jesus replies, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." The same logic applies to every person: bearing God's image means belonging to him — an identity no government, and no circumstance, can erase.
Cross Reference
That Identity Governs How Every Person Must Be Treated
What difference should someone else's identity as God's image-bearer make in how I speak to them?
Because bearing God's image is a person's deepest identity, James draws out the implication the previous stage establishes: praising God while cursing a person made in his likeness is a contradiction, not a minor inconsistency. The same identity that settles who a person belongs to also settles how they must be treated.
Cursing Those Made in God's Likeness
EpistleJames rebukes a very ordinary sin with an uncomfortable comparison: the same tongue used to bless the Lord and Father is turned around to curse people made in God's likeness, "and this ought not to be so," just as a spring cannot produce both fresh and salt water. Every person you speak to — however difficult — still bears God's image, and that truth should govern how you speak about them.
Cross Reference
Reception Summary
Image-bearing, in the New Testament, moves from identity to ethic. Jesus establishes the identity: whatever bears God's image belongs to him, an ownership no earthly power can erase. James then draws out what that identity demands: the same image that makes a person God's own also makes cursing them, however difficult they are, incompatible with praising the God whose image they carry.
Synthesis
Canonical Synthesis
A compact closing recap of Image of God's own resolution -- for a reader who has already read the page, not a first introduction to it.
Read the full Canonical Synthesis
Fulfillment in Christ
Christ is not a restored copy of Adam's image but its very archetype — “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15) — succeeding as the last Adam exactly where the first Adam's bearing of the image gave way to rebellion (Romans 5:12-19; 1 Corinthians 15:45-49).
Participation of God's People
Those united to Christ are already being transformed into his image “from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18), called to honor that same image, marred but never erased, in every person they encounter.
Canonical Network
Typology
Representative type and antitype relationships found in Image of God.
| Type | Reference | Antitype | Relationship | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adam | Genesis 2:7 | Christ, the last adam and true image | Prefigures |
Canonical Network
Event Relationships
Events associated with Image of God, grouped by their contribution to the canonical journey.
| Event | Role | Relationship | Milestone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Creation | Foundational | Foundational Event | Humanity Alone Bears God's Image |