Gen 1:26 And 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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
We are made in God’s image. (Gen 1:26-27) So what exactly is the image of God?The characteristics of God’s image are rational beings, using language, and so on. But what is God’s image itself, not a characteristic of God’s image?
2 Co 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
The image of God itself is said to be Christ in 2 Corinthians 4:4. If so, we can see that God made us like Christ when He made us. Genesis 2:7 describes the specific process of how God made man.
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
God made man out of the soil and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, so we became a living being. So what is the breath of life? Some theologians see it as the Holy Spirit. (Orhodox Study Bible, Gen 2:7) If so, it can be regarded as Christ. In Lam 4:20 it is said that The breath of our nostrils is the anointed of the Lord (the meaning of Christ) Of course, the situation in Lam 4:20 describes the situation in which King Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, was in trouble. However, the expression of the breath of our nostrils is the same as ‘breathed into his nostrils in Gen 2:7. In other words, it can be expressed as Christ, the breath of our nostrils.
Lam 4:20 The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen.
Then Christ is the source of our life. (Col 4:3) Because of Christ, soil-like beings have the appearance of the sons of God.
Col 4:3 Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds:
How amazing is that? How marvelous that we were made by Christ and shaped like Christ, like Christ’s brother! Christ is the essence of our life. (1 Jn 5:12)
1 Jn 5:12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
In fact, we became human through Christ. Without Christ, we are like dirt and nothing. Not only that, but we cannot live a moment without Christ. Christ is our life and everything.