1. What is the image of God in which man was originally created?

Original righteousness has respect not only to the second table of the Decalogue, but also to the first, which enjoins upon us the fear of God, and confidence and love towards him. Therefore man, as created in this image of God, had not only a uniform disposition of the attributes of the body, but also a surer knowledge of God, and fear and confidence in Him, or undoubted rectitude, the power of exercising these affections, and likewise immortality, and dominion over God’s creatures. (Apology, Art. ii, 14-18.)

2. Prove this from the Holy Scripture.

Scripture bears witness to this when it says, that man was created in the image and likeness of God. Gen. 1:26, 27. So also Paul in Eph. 4:24, and Col. 3:10, shows that this image of God is the knowledge of God, righteousness and truth.

Eph. 4:24. And that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness (margin, holiness of truth).

Col. 3:10. And have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him.

3. Did this image of God remain in man after the fall?

It did not. For original sin, which all men have derived from the fall of the first parents, is a corruption of nature so deep and evil, that it surpasses all human comprehension. For which reason, the doctrines of the scholastics, which taught that since Adam’s fall our human powers have remained uninjured and untainted, are simply errors and obscurations contrary to this article.

Human reason can neither discover, nor conceive of the extent of this hereditary evil, but as the Smalcald Articles declare, we must learn and believe it from the testimony of the Holy Scriptures. (Form of Concord, Sol. Dec., Art. i, 8.)

4. How do you prove this?

1. The fall of Adam was followed immediately by a total want or deprivation of that original righteousness, possessed by him in Paradise, according to which man was created in truth, righteousness, and holiness.
2. The fall was likewise followed by impotence and insensibility in spiritual things, as will more clearly appear when we consider the articles treating of original sin and the free will.

5. Can the image of God which has been lost, be restored in man?

Human nature, which by this evil has become perverted, and entirely corrupted, can be healed in no other manner than by the Holy Spirit’s work in regeneration and renewal. Nevertheless this work is only begun in us during this life; not until the life to come, will it be completed and brought to perfection. (Form of Concord, Sol. Dec., Art. i.)