The Image And Intimacy

In our Image Gen 1:26-31

In our image is a very relational Act

Genesis 1:26 (ESV)

26 Then 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 heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

The phrase “Let us make mankind in our image” reflects the relational character of God’s own nature—a Godhead-in-community whose love has existed eternally within the Trinity and now expands to human creatures.1 This is why every mention of the image of God in Genesis connects to relationships, and being created in God’s image means being created as a person within a community of relationships with God and others.1

The relational understanding cuts deeper than we typically recognize. Adam alone is incomplete; only when Eve is created from his own flesh does he experience full humanity, establishing what theologian Karl Barth calls “cohumanity” as the basic form of human existence.2 This isn’t incidental—from the beginning, interpersonal relationships were vital for identity and humanness, with human beings created for relationships.2

Critically, the image encompasses both vertical relationship between humans and God and horizontal relationship between humans themselves.3 And this unique, primal relationship with God—who is self-relationship and love—is the definitive way to understand the image, made manifest as Adam enters into meaningful personal relationships with both God and Eve.2

This reframes everything about dominion and shepherding you identified earlier. If humans bear God’s image through relationship, then dominion becomes an act of relational care—the shepherd’s role is fundamentally about maintaining and nurturing connection, not exercising control. Exploitation and oppression aren’t merely ethical failures; they implicitly deny the image of God itself.3