The Image of God — Genesis 1:26-27

Gen 1:26-27: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness... male and female he created them." The imago Dei grounds human dignity, dominion, and relationality. Augustine located the image especially in the soul's rational powers, mirroring the Trinity, while Irenaeus distinguished image and likeness, the latter restored by the Spirit. Bavinck argued the whole person, not merely the intellect, bears the image. The plural "let us" has long been read in trinitarian light alongside John 1:26. The image marred at the fall of Gen 3:6-7 is renewed in Christ, the true image of Col 1:15.