034. What does Genesis 1:27 mean when it says: “God created man in His own image"?

What does Genesis 1:27 mean when it says: “God created man in His own image"?

We are told in Colossians 3:10 that the regenerated man is “renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him.” In Ephesians 4:23-24 we are told that it is “in righteousness and true holiness” that he is created in the image of God. It is evident then that the words “image” and “likeness” in Genesis 1:26-27 do not refer to visible or bodily likeness but to intellectual and moral likeness in “knowledge,” “righteousness,” and “holiness of truth.” However, we are taught in Php 2:6 (see R.V. margin) that Christ Jesus existed originally “in the form of God,” that is, in a visible form that was divine, and in our ultimate state of blessedness we shall be like Christ in our bodily appearance as well as intellectually and morallv (1 John 3:2; Matthew 17:2; Matthew 13:43).