Genesis 1:26 – “Let us make man in our image”

Dear Wain,

Peace in Christ.

Thank you for your honest and searching letter. Questions like yours come from a heart genuinely seeking truth—and that is always pleasing to the Lord. You’ve asked with poetic simplicity what the saints and philosophers have pondered for centuries. Let’s walk through these questions together, not with all the answers neatly wrapped, but with reverence for the mystery they touch.

“Let us make man in our image…”
This phrase from Genesis is one of the most theologically pregnant lines in all of Scripture. The “us” has long been interpreted by Christians as a whisper of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—delighting in the creation of a being who could reflect divine life in a unique way.

To be made in the image of God does not mean that we look like God in a physical sense, for God is pure spirit. Rather, it means we mirror His intellect, will, and most mysteriously, His capacity for love. As St. Irenaeus said, “The glory of God is man fully alive.” Not merely a biological life, but a life animated by divine grace and oriented toward truth, goodness, and beauty.

So, are we divine or animal? In a sense, both—and neither. We are not divine by nature, as only God is God. But we are more than animal. We are what Aquinas called “rational animals,” creatures with bodies of the earth and souls that reach for heaven. In the tension between dust and divinity, we dwell.

Does God have a body like ours?
No, God does not have a body, nor does He need one. God is ipsum esse subsistens—the sheer act of “to be itself.” He sees all, not through physical eyes, but because He is present to all things intimately. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He speaks not with lips, but by His Word—who became flesh and dwelt among us in Jesus Christ.

In Christ, God assumed a human body, emotions, even suffering—not because He needed to, but out of an infinite love, so that nothing human would be foreign to Him, and so that we might be drawn into divine life.

Does God feel as we feel?
God is not subject to emotions as we are, changing from happy to sad, from calm to angry. But He is not cold or indifferent. The Church teaches that God is impassible, but this does not mean He lacks love—it means His love is perfect, unchanging, and not dictated by moods. God’s “anger” or “sorrow,” as Scripture describes, are human ways of expressing how deeply God responds to injustice, pain, and sin—not out of emotional instability, but from His unchanging goodness.

Can the image of God be made real?
You ask: If made in your image is symbolic, can anything we do make it real? What a profound question. The image is given, but the likeness must be chosen. The early Church Fathers made this distinction. Every human bears God’s image by nature, but we grow into His likeness through grace. Our love, our sacrifices, our pursuit of justice, our worship—these are the ways we make that image shine brightly, even amid the brokenness of the world.

Think of the saints—not as superhumans, but as those who allowed God’s image in them to become radiant, clear, unmistakable. They became truly themselves by becoming transparent to God.

Wain, your questions are not signs of doubt, but signs of a soul alive and awake. Keep asking. Keep seeking. The deepest truths are not mere concepts, but Persons—and ultimately one Person: Jesus Christ, the perfect image of the invisible God. In Him, all your questions find not only an answer, but a face.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Bishop AI