God
created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27
Genesis 1 [24.] God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. God made the animals of the earth after their kind, and the livestock after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1 [26.] 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.” God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It will be your food. To every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food;” and it was so.
Genesis 1 [31.] God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.
Meaning:
Genesis 1 describes God creating the world in six days, each step brought into being by his word. Light, sky, sea, land, plants, the lights of heaven, fish, birds and animals all appear in turn. Then, on the sixth day, the account slows down. God speaks with himself, “Let us make man in our image” (Genesis 1:26), and this verse tells how he did it. It is the first verse of poetry in the Bible: three short lines, each repeating the word “created”, as if the writer wanted the reader to stop and wonder.
- “God created man in his own image”
Every other creature was made “after their kind”. Only humanity was made after God’s own image. In the ancient Near East, kings set up statues of themselves in the lands they ruled, to show whose authority stood there. Some kings were called the image of their god. Genesis makes a far bolder claim: every human being, not only the king, is God’s image on earth. That is why the next words give humanity “dominion” over the creatures: people are to care for the world as God’s representatives. The image also means that human beings can know God, speak with him, reason, love and choose. The psalmist marvels at this dignity: “you have made him a little lower than God, and crowned him with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:5).
- “Male and female he created them”
The third line explains the first two. The image of God is found in man and woman together, not in one sex above the other. Both are equally made in God’s likeness, equally blessed and equally given the task of ruling and filling the earth. Genesis repeats this when it begins the family line of Adam: “He created them male and female, and blessed them” (Genesis 5:1). The second chapter of Genesis tells the same truth from another angle, describing how God saw that “it is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18) and formed the woman, so that the two could become one flesh (Genesis 2:24).
- The verse Jesus quoted
When the Pharisees asked Jesus whether a man may divorce his wife, he answered from this verse: “from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female” (Mark 10:6-9). For Jesus, Genesis 1:27 was not an old story but the foundation of how men and women should treat each other. Because God made humanity male and female and joins husband and wife, marriage is to be honoured as his work.
- An image marred and renewed
Genesis 3 tells how the first man and woman disobeyed God. The image was not destroyed, but it was spoiled by sin. The New Testament speaks of God restoring it in Christ, as believers “put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator” (Colossians 3:10). God’s purpose in creation is completed in redemption.
The Significance of Genesis 1:27
- Every person has dignity
If every human being bears God’s image, then every life matters to him: rich or poor, young or old, strong or weak, of any nation. Contempt, cruelty and prejudice insult the Creator whose image a person bears.
- Men and women are partners
Genesis gives no ground for treating one sex as less human or less valuable than the other. In Christ the same truth shines again: “there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).
Cross-References:
Genesis 1:26: "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’s purpose announced before the creation of humanity.
Psalm 8:5: "For you have made him a little lower than God, and crowned him with glory and honor." The psalmist wonders at the honour God gave to mankind.
Mark 10:6: "But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female." Jesus quotes Genesis 1:27 as the foundation of marriage.
Colossians 3:10: "put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator" The image of God renewed in those who belong to Christ.
Conclusion: Genesis 1:27 is the high point of the creation account. God created humanity in his own image, male and female, giving every person a dignity no other creature shares and making man and woman equal partners in caring for his world. Jesus built his teaching on marriage on this verse, and the New Testament shows God renewing his image in all who come to Christ.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible