Image

Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:

(likeness). As in Genesis 1:26-27; Colossians 1:15. Also Idol.

Concise Bible Dictionary:

Besides the many references to graven and molten images connected with idolatry, which the law strictly forbade the Israelites to make, the word is used in several important connections: for instance, God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion....so God created man in his own image, in the image of God created He him” (Gen. 1:26-27; Gen. 5:1; Gen. 9:6). The word translated “image” is tselem, which is the same that is used for idolatrous images, and for the great image in Daniel: (Dan. 2).
It might naturally have been thought that man at his fall would have ceased to be in the image and likeness of God, but it is not so represented in scripture. On speaking of man as the head of the woman, it says he ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as “he is the image and glory of God” (1 Cor. 11:7). Again, in James 3:9, we find “made after the similitude (or likeness, ὁμοίωσις) of God.” In what respects man is the image and likeness of God may not be fully grasped, but it is at least obvious that an image is a representation. The Lord when shown a penny asked “whose image” is this? They said, Caesar’s. It may not have been well executed, and so not have been a likeness. It may also have been very much battered, as money often is, yet that would not have interfered with its being the image of Caesar: it represented him, and no one else. So man as the head of created beings in connection with the earth represents God: to him was given dominion over every living thing that moveth upon the earth and in the sea and in the air. This was of course in subjection to God, and so man was in His image.
This is seen in perfection in the second Man, who has in resurrection superseded Adam, who was in this sense a figure or type of Christ (Rom. 5:14). Man may be a battered and soiled image of his Creator, but that does not touch the question of his having been made in the image of God.
Likeness goes further; but was there not in man a certain moral and mental likeness to God? He not only represents God on earth, but, as one has said, he thinks for others, refers to and delights in what God has wrought in creation, and in what is good, having his moral place among those who do. The likeness, alas, may be very much blurred; but the features are there: such as reflection, delight, love of goodness and beauty; none of which are found in a mere animal. With Christ all is of course perfect: as man He is “the image of God”; “the image of the invisible God” (2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15).

From Anstey’s Doctrinal Definitions:

When God created man, He said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Gen. 1:26). “Image” has to do with man being set in a place of visibly representing God in the creation (1 Cor. 11:7). “Likeness” has to do with man being made morally like God, who is without sin (Gen. 5:1; James 3:9).
When man fell, he ceased to be like God morally. Hence, in his fallen state, man lost his likeness to God. Thereafter he is not said to be “in the likeness of God.” In fact, Adam’s posterity is said to be “in his own likeness” (Gen. 5:3), which implies that Adam passed on to his descendants his sin-nature, which he acquired in the fall (Rom. 5:12; Psa. 51:5). However, even in his fallen state, man is said to be “in the image of God” (Gen. 9:6). The fall did not absolve him of his responsibility to represent God. But sad to say, that image in man has been marred by sin. Man has not represented God properly in the creation.
When Christ came into the world, Scripture says that He was “the image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:3). He was not “made” in the image of God (as man was)—He was that by virtue of who He was. Thus, He represented God perfectly as the Head of creation. However, Scripture does not say that Christ was “in the likeness of God,” as man was when God made man. The reason for this is that, when Christ walked here, He was not like God, He was God (John 1:1). Scripture does say that in coming into Manhood, Christ was “made in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:7; Rom. 8:3). This does not mean that Christ took sinful flesh into union with Himself; He was not like man morally. This statement is referring to the Lord being in the likeness of men constitutionally—having a human spirit (John 13:21), a human soul (John 13:27), and a human body (Heb. 10:5). Though a real Man, He was “sin apart” (Heb. 4:15)—that is, without a sin-nature.
The good news is that God in grace has created a new race of men under Christ (2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:10; Rev. 3:14), wherein both likeness and image are regained. Christ’s “many brethren” (believers) in the new race can now exhibit the moral features of God and thus represent God on earth properly (Rom. 8:29; Heb. 2:11). The epistle to the Ephesians focuses on “the likeness of God” being displayed in this new race (Eph. 4:24-32), and the epistle to the Colossians focuses on the fact that the new race is “renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him” (Col. 3:10). Thus, the new race under Christ has regained what the old race lost under Adam.