Recently, someone very important to me raised a question that I didn’t have an immediate answer to—do humans still bear the image of God? Honestly, it was just something I had taken for granted. After all, “in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27, NIV) However, a lot changed in Genesis 3, creation was thrown all out of whack, how did I know for sure that humanity retained the title of “image-bearer?”

What follows is my search for an answer.

The Fall

By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return. —Genesis 3:19 (NIV)

The fall of creation takes place almost immediately in the biblical narrative, and it upends what God had created and called good. Adam and Eve decided to take the knowledge of good and evil against God’s instructions, and so creation was altered so massively it would take the death of Christ on the cross to set things right.

Many things change about creation as a result of the fall—death becomes a reality, subsistence becomes a struggle, human relations become defined by power and domination—so are we able to say without a doubt that the image of God in humanity was not also a casualty of the fall? I believe the Bible makes a strong case that we can.

The Noahic Covenant

Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed, for in the image of God, has God made mankind. —Genesis 9:6 (NIV)

After Noah and his family emerge from the ark, the Lord commissions them to fill the earth with humans once more. As they embark on this task, God gives them several guidelines or boundaries that will guide their efforts.

One of the instructions is Genesis 9:6, which gives as grounds for the prohibition of murder that “in the image of God, has God made mankind.” At first reading, this seems to plainly affirm the continued presence of the image of God in humanity. However, if we read with a skeptical eye, one may argue that “mankind” being made originally in the image of God does not necessitate that humans born in Noah’s day still bear that image going forward. For further proof of this, we need travel to the New Testament.

James and the Human Tongue

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. —James 3:9 (NIV)

Guard the use of your tongue, James warns, for the humans beings that we curse “have been made in God’s likeness.” People living millennia after Adam and Even still bear God’s likeness.

It’s also important to note that James is not necessarily referring to regenerate Christians when he refers to those “who have been made in God’s likeness.” While James is certainly addressing a Christian audience, there is no textual reason to conclude those that were cursed were believers themselves.

James uses the Greek word homoiōsis, meaning “likeness.” This wording echoes the language of Genesis 1:26 and therefore provides strong New Testament confirmation that fallen human beings remain marked by their Creator’s likeness. However, there are further synonyms that continue to build a stronger case.

Paul and the Image of God

A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. —1 Corinthians 11:7 (NIV)

The image and the glory of God. It’s important to note that whatever Paul means in calling woman “the glory of man” it does not dispute her also bearing the image of God as man does.

Once again, we must treat the matter of whether Paul means Christian men are the image and glory of God or all mankind. Paul is not afraid to reference the community of believers directly when he intends to, using “church” to specifically reference God’s people in the following instruction (1 Corinthians 11:18). Therefore, I find it reasonable to conclude that anēr (man) can be taken generically to refer to all men. As previously stated, the following statement likely includes women in the image of God rather than excludes.

Paul’s word for “image” is eikōn, the Greek term used to translate the Hebrew ṣelem in the Greek Old Testament. The word can denote a likeness or representation, as when Jesus refers to Caesar’s image on a coin (Matthew 22:20; Mark 12:16). It is also used of Christ, “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15, NIV). Paul’s vocabulary therefore stands in direct continuity with Genesis.

The Image of God Marred and Renewed

This is not to say that human beings perfectly reflect God as we were intended to in creation. Doubtlessly, the effects of the fall distort and obscure the image of God in us like centuries of dirt and tarnish on an ancient Roman coin bearing the image of Augustus. Therefore promises that we shall be “renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (Colossians 3:10, NIV) or “transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18, NIV) or “conformed to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29, NIV) are vital to restoring image-bearers to steward God’s new creation as Adam and Eve were first commissioned to do.

Genesis 9 makes clear that the distortion of the image of God within us does not diminish the inherent dignity and worth of any human.

God has created each human as a bearer of his image; therefore each human life holds immeasurable value to the Lord of all creation.