Imago Dei: In the Image of God

In Genesis 1, we read the beginnings of a story that starts with God planning the universe and calling it into being, crafting it into exactly the kind of place He wants it to be with subatomic particles, massive galaxies, and everything in between.

And then, as the culmination of the creation project, He made us - mankind, humanity, the human race. As recorded in Genesis 1:26-28:

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 sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." God created man in his own image. In God's image he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them. God said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." (WEB)

We are made in the image of God (imago dei in Latin, צֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים [tzelem elohim] in Hebrew), in the likeness of Deity.

Some believe that we have been made to physically resemble God, but God is spirit (see John 4:24). And as we read Genesis 1:26-28, we see that the image of God in us includes having dominion over (also translated rule, rule over, reign over, be masters over) all the earth and every creature on it.

In short, God told us to oversee and manage the earth He had made on His behalf.

But there's more: God created us male and female in His image. Just as God exists in intimate communion as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we are made to live in close community with each other - none closer than the union of a man and a woman in marriage.

We were designed and formed in the image of God, and every human being who has ever existed bears the image of God. That said, our likeness to God is another story - that depends on how we live before the face of God. But that's a different part of the story.