What does being created in God’s “image” mean?

Being created in God’s “image” means that each human being walks out into the world with a consciousness breathed into us by our Creator. The problem for us is that this inspiration of consciousness, motivated as it is by Christ’s spirit, is trying to communicate with a brain that would rather not listen!

I think Jesus is distinguishing these two motivators, the goodness of our conscious spirit and the badness of the brain’s selfishness, when he says this: “Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when it is bad, your body is filled with darkness” (NLT Luke 11:34). Under the influence of naturally evolved impulses, brain-motivated people desire to be self-sufficient, as C.S. Lewis wrote, to “call their souls their own”—to find “some corner in the universe,” separate from what God wants (The Problem of Pain 75).

This earthly selfishness does fool us, over and over again. But when we yield, when we open our hearts to Christ, the living Savior is a “floodlight,” showing the “dark corners” for what they are (36). To walk “with the Lord in the land of the living” is to image or reflect the eternity of Christ’s larger life. To walk “with the Lord in the land of the living” is to experience the strength of Christ’s stronger life. And, to walk “with the Lord in the land of the living” is to know the radiant calm of Christ’s forgiveness and love. Now that is living. (Ps. 116:8-9, Living Strong, chapter 61)