"So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them".
Genesis 1:27
What exactly does it mean when we are told that God created us in His image?
Obviously, it cannot mean that he created us to look like Him.
So in what sense are we like God?
For me, I would say that, a detailed answer to this question is a whole chapter of a book called "Solving the matrix of being: Understanding who we are in relation to God Almighty". Below is a "little" from the book for whosoever that wants to contribute,--- though not exactly the way it appears in the book. I have posted this severally in previous posts.
To be made in the image and likeness of God means that
1. We have a nature similar to God’s nature. ( or rather, we have the nature of God)
2. We are God’s reflection on earth.
3. God is the substance of our Being.
We are told in John 1: 18, that no man has seen God at any time except His only begotten Son Jesus Christ who has declared Him.
Recall that Moses as we are told saw the similitude of God (Numbers 12:8}) and therefore never knew or declared God in His fullness, so also were the Prophets and Patriarchs of old. God did not reveal Himself fully to Moses. As a result, Moses could not express or declare God’s fullness neither can any of us know and express the fullness of God on the basis of His dealings with Moses and the Israelites of old even though Moses was a true servant and Prophet of God.
Jesus tells us that God is Spirit (John 4:24). He is invisible, immortal, eternal, infinite, unchangeable, infallible, and limitless. As God’s offspring, we are spirit. Our nature is not physical but spiritual, not carnal, not flesh, for that which is born of the Spirit is spirit (John 3:6). Jesus confirmed this by asking us to see God as our only father (Mathew 23:9), for
our spiritual heritage is our only true identity. We cannot inherit what our father does not have. And God, our father is not flesh.
Our true nature consists of the God qualities we are made of which are invisible, immortal, eternal, infinite and unchangeable. God said, let us make man in our own image and He made man in His own image and likeness. If we observe in John 3: 6, the first spirit is in capital letter “S” while the latter in small letter “s”, signifying that though we are spirit, we are not God but His children with His nature and characteristics which we have in measure until we grow into the measure of the stature of Christ…..until we become Christ like and reflect the fullness of God on earth which is man’s eternal purpose on earth. Thus, His injunction, “be perfect as your father which is in heaven is perfect” “Be holy for I am holy”.
We know from the scripture that God manifests Himself in different forms as it pleases Him and as occasion warrants. The Scripture did not give us only one specific form of appearance of God. It is recorded that His Spirit descended in a bodily form as a dove at the baptism of Jesus Christ. (Mathew1:16; Mark1:10; Luke 3:12; John1:32). He took the earthly body of man as Jesus Christ for the salvation of the world. Also, during the time of Abraham, His angels descended in recognizable bodily forms to people of that time and communicated physically with them as the situation merited. For us His children, it pleased Him to manifest us on earth in a terrestrial body as mankind, the body He built as His temple, holy and righteous. It is our responsibility to keep it so and reflect the righteousness of God on earth or decide what happens to it with the guiding principle, “he that sows to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption and he that sows to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting”. We reap as we sow.
God’s nature is not different from His character, attitude and behavior. He lives and manifests His nature. God is holy and therefore there is no falsehood in Him. He dwells only in holiness and manifests only Perfection. He can never be unholy or show ungodliness. St John gave us a good insight into the nature of God. We learnt in 1 John that God is Light and therefore there is no darkness in Him. As His image and likeness, we are made of this light, we dwell in it and it is in our nature to daily portray or reflect this light on earth as His children just as Jesus exemplified.
Sin is an aberration to this light and to our nature as children of God. Everyone that does righteousness dwells in this light and reflects it as well in his or her character. To walk in this light, we must rise above the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life which are not of God but of the world. We must realize that though we are in the world, we are not of the world, so our passion and treasure should be heavenly focused. The scripture tells us that if we walk in the Spirit, we shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.
God is Love. And we are made of this love. We dwell in His love. It is our primary duty to demonstrate this love in our character. God gave an example of this brand of love by sending His only begotten Son into the world to die for us so that we can live. Not that we loved Him but He loved us first and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins (1John 4:10). And His Son exemplified this love by his faith and life of sacrifice and service. It is making sacrifice for the other person irrespective of our perception of the person. It calls for humility and meekness. Jesus said, learn of me for I am lowly and meek.
God is life and the source of all life. Without Him no life exists. Remove God as our substance, or essence, then we are nothing.
Therefore, life in God is the measure of the quality of our life on earth. We are part and parcel of this godly life and it must be shown in our personality and expressed in our character. Jesus gave us an understanding of God’s quality of life and showed by example how to live this life on earth. He showed that we are God’s reflection on earth. Jesus said of himself, t
he son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the father do, for what things so ever He does, these also does the son likewise (John 5:17). The same applies to us as God’s offspring. Our life on earth should be a true reflection of God’s quality of life, love and the light which He radiates and made us with.
We will use our understanding of the analogy of the Mirror to explain this further. The Mirror reflects our image when we stand in front of it. It dances when we dance, laughs when we laugh and in fact mimics all our actions without any intelligence of its own. So it is with us and God our father. We are made to mirror or manifest His holiness and perfection on earth (as in heaven, so on earth). In so doing, we loose our intelligence and draw from His as it flows to our heart through the Holy Spirit he has shed in our hearts. His Will becomes our will, His thoughts our thoughts, His works, our works. We become as a pencil in His hands as we yield ourselves to Him.
The Mirror remains a Mirror while reflecting our individual actions. In the same way, by the operation of His power and majesty, we retain our individuality while reflecting Him in holiness, in union with Him, expressing our true nature in our character and lifestyle. A quote from Mother Theresa of Calcutta (now St Theresa) reads, “I am a little pencil in God’s hands. He does the thinking. He does the writing. He does everything and sometimes it is really hard because it is a broken pencil and He has to sharpen it a little more”. Her life reveals that the more yielded we are to God, the more clearly we will grasp our calling. The more we empty our focus on ourselves, the more He can fill us. We should therefore remain in Him in humility and reverence.
As God’s image and likeness, our nature lies in spiritual qualities that cannot be seen with the physical eyes or touched with hands but can only be felt when manifested and our duty is to ensure that this nature is in congruence with our personality character and behavior all the time. 
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