Question 173: In what sense was man created in the Divine Likeness?

Answer:

Man's likeness to YHVH, referred to in Genesis 1:26, is the great fact which distinguishes him from the rest of creation. He is a "person" with power to think, feel and will and with the capacity for moral life and growth. Still further at the beginning, man had not only the capacity for moral life, but his moral disposition was such that he loved YHVH, loved the right and hated the wrong. The tragedy of the fall reversed this. Man was still a person and still had the capacity for righteousness, but his spirit was so changed that he feared and distrusted YHVH and, to a greater or less extent, loved the evil and disliked the good. Yeshua came to undo this calamity and to restore us to a moral likeness to YHVH.