What does it mean that man was made in God's image, according to His likeness?

The Bible teaches us that God has made man in His own image and according to His own likeness. The Bible not only makes this statement, but also tells us what this statement means. It means that God has made man with moral freedom: the freedom to do good or to do evil. Particularly the freedom to love God and His creation and to desire to obey His laws. But also the freedom to reject God and His creation or aspects of God and His creation and to desire to transgress God’s laws. God did not wish to put people on His earth with a mechanical, robot-like love for Him and obedience to Him. People who loved God and obeyed His commandments, because they could not do otherwise.

At first sight he notion that people on earth have moral freedom and are responsible for the good things they do and the evil things they do, seems to conflict with the notion of God’s foreknowledge: God’s ability to know beforehand what is going to happen in the future.

To put the problem simply: if, before a person is born, God knows exactly what that person is going to do and God’s foreknowledge is infallible, is that person still free to act differently in his lifetime than God foresaw that he would act? This problem also raises questions like: when God proceeded to create angels, did He know beforehand that some of these angels would rebel against Him? When God proceeded to create the earthly Paradise, did He know beforehand that He would have to destroy it again after a relatively short time? When God proceeded to create the first humans, Adam and Eve, did He know in advance that they would not recognize His authority, that they would sin, and that they would act in such a way that not only they themselves, but that all humanity, would have to suffer and to die? When God proceeded to create the earth, did He already know in advance that on this earth things like gross transgressions of all His laws, idolatry, oppression, immorality and horrible suffering would occur on a massive scale for thousands of years?....

The answer to this vital question is to be found in the fact that God cannot lie: this means that if, throughout the Bible, God emphatically states that the creatures He endowed with intelligence (the angels and the humans) have the moral freedom to choose between right and wrong and are responsible for their good deeds and their evil deeds……then this is the truth. This fact is not altered or diminished in any way by God’s ability to know things beforehand. The dilemma we are dealing with here is a dilemma in appearance, a dilemma for the highly limited intellectual abilities of humans. But it is not a dilemma for the unlimited intellectual abilities of God.

Actually, the solution to the problem can easily be explained to humans and the Bible gives us the explanation: it is true that God has the ability to know all future emotions, thoughts and acts of angels and humans beforehand, but He Himself is the master of this ability and He uses it selectively. There are no laws or circumstances beyond His control that force Him to know everything beforehand. He knows in advance what He chooses to know in advance, no more and no less. The Bible contains many passages which clearly demonstrate that in certain situations God preferred not to know in advance what people were going to think or do. Think of the story of Adam and Eve in Paradise. God promised Adam and Eve and their offspring a splendid, never ending life in Paradise, if they would only be willing to obey one (no more than one) simple commandment. There can be no doubt about it that Adam and Eve had a completely free choice between on the one hand obedience and an eternal life and on the other hand rebellion and death. God’s words to Adam and Eve regarding this matter would have been downright cruel and hypocritical if He had known beforehand that Adam and Eve would make the wrong choice (or would not have any choice at all) and it was already certain that they would only cause themselves and their offspring a lot of misery.

The readers of this website should also be aware of the fact that the Bible often writes that God makes people pass through certain circumstances or has them experience certain events, to see what kind of decisions they take with their free will. These decisions then demonstrate what they are really like in their hearts and minds. Think within this context of the test that God had Abraham undergo by commanding him to sacrifice his son Isaac to Him. If God had been completely informed of every thought, every feeling, every inclination of Abraham’s heart and mind and if God had already known how Abraham would react to His command, this test of Abraham’s loyalty would not have been necessary. It would have been completely superfluous. Pay attention to the words that God spoke after Abraham had taken the knife to cut through the neck of his son. God said to Abraham: now I know that your loyalty to me is perfect and that you are willing to obey any command that I give you. With these words God expressed that as regards Abraham’s personality and character, He knew something after the test that He did not know before the test.

On the other hand: the Bible leaves no doubt about it that as regards the future God knows beforehand everything that He chooses to know and that He must know to achieve His great ends. Thus, when Adam and Eve rebelled against Him and forced God to achieve the ends for which He had made the earth and man in a different way than He originally intended, God knew right away what He was to do. Then He also knew at once that one day in the distant future the paradise-like earth, inhabited by people who would be worthy of it, would still become a reality.