human life alone is created in the “image” of God and has the special assignment to rule over the created order

Although the Christian Trinity cannot be derived solely from the use of the plural, a plurality within the unity of the Godhead may be derived from the passage.

“Man” is the NIV rendering of ʾādām, which is used generically here for mankind, rather than individual “Adam.”

Thus by the term ʾādām all human life is said to be created in the “image” and “likeness” of God.

Mankind is appointed as God’s royal representatives (i.e., sonship) to rule the earth in his place. When sin marked the human family as disobedient children, however, they did not lose the “image” (9:6; 1 Cor 11:7; Jas 3:9); rather, the “glory” of sonship faded.

Hebrew terms for “male” (zākār) and “female” (nĕqēbâ), as opposed to man and woman, particularly express human sexuality

Although the man and woman complete each other (see 2:18 discussion), making the full complement of “man” (ʾādām), it can be said that an individual alone bears the “image” (5:1–3; 9:5–6; Jas 3:9).

When human sexuality is distorted through neglect or abuse, the human family suffers as the image-bearers of God.

The terms, in our image, after our likeness, are characteristically bold.

The word “us” requires the presence of at least two persons counseling together. The statements that man was to be made in “our” image and was made in “God’s” image leads to the conclusion that those counseling must both be persons of the same Godhead.

“Man was to bear God’s image, both in outward resemblance and in character” (PP 45).

The plural of v. 26 reveals that the Deity possesses plurality in unity, whereas v. 27 emphasizes that the plurality of God does not negate God’s unity.

The use of the plural “them” shows that God planned from the very beginning to create more than one individual.

God makes human beings for ‘one-anotherness’—and this, too, is a glimpse of God himself. There is a one-anotherness in God, when he says ‘Let us make …’ God, his Spirit and his Word are all introduced in the opening sentences of Genesis.

God’s concern is that man is “alone.” Whether the man felt his aloneness at first is not stated; only the divine viewpoint is given. God has created human life to have fellowship with him but also to be a social entity, building relationships with other human beings.

Isolation is not the divine norm for human beings; community is the creation of God.

The focus is on the equality of the two in terms of their essential constitution. Man and woman share in the “human” sameness that cannot be found elsewhere in creation among the beasts.

There is no sense derived from the word linguistically or from the context of the garden narrative that the woman is a lesser person because her role differs (see more at 2:23). In the case of the biblical model, the “helper” is an indispensable “partner” (REB) required to achieve the divine commission.

“Helper,” as we have seen from its Old Testament usage, means the woman will play an integral part, in this case, in human survival and success. What the man lacks, the woman accomplishes.

Of such a help the man stood in need, in order that he might fulfil his calling, not only to perpetuate and multiply his race, but to cultivate and govern the earth

God intended husband and wife to be a spiritual, functional unity, walking in integrity, serving God, and keeping His commandments together. When this harmony is operative, society prospers under God’s hand.

God decided to make a helper suitable (lit., “a helper corresponding to him,” or “a corresponding helper”) for the man (v. 18). “Helper” is not a demeaning term; it is often used in Scripture to describe God Almighty (e.g., Pss. 33:20; 70:5; 115:9, where it is trans. “help” in the NIV).

They both had the same nature. But what man lacked (his aloneness was not good) she supplied, and what she lacked he supplied.

However, it was not God’s purpose for him to be alone for long. Loneliness would be detrimental to man’s well-being, and God would therefore make a companion for him.

God creates the man first and derives the woman from the man to insure that she is his equal in substance and to maintain the unity of the human family

There is no place in God’s good order for unisexuality or for any diminishing or confusion of sexual identity. Human sexuality in Genesis is a blessed function in the creative purposes of God, and it is essential for carrying out God’s mandate for humanity (cf. 9:1, 7) and for the patriarchs in particular (e.g., 12:1–3; 26:24; 28:3–4).

God’s purpose in creating human life in His image was functional: man is to rule or have dominion (1:26, 28). God’s dominion was presented by a “representative.”

That reason may spring from the fact that only in man does the duality of sex find its expression in the institution of holy wedlock. This verse prepares us for the revelation concerning God’s plan for the creation of the family that is presented in ch. 2.

the blessings and responsibilities conferred on them were to be jointly shared by both in equal manner.

This revelation also contains instruction concerning man’s duty and destiny, to rule over the earthly creation works, a commission expressed almost in the same words as those of the divine council recorded in v. 26

This appointment by God gave the human family privilege but also responsibility as “caretakers” (2:15).

Human life then bears this responsibility under God and is held accountable for the world God has created for humanity to govern, for “the earth he has given to man” (Ps 115:16b).

By the blessing in v. 28, God not only confers upon man the power to multiply and fill the earth, as upon the beasts in v. 22, but also gives him dominion over the earth and every beast. In conclusion, the food of both man and beast is pointed out in vv. 29, 30,

God pronounced His blessing on the male and the female: they were to be fruitful and increase in number. In Genesis, to be blessed was to be enriched and fertile.

The commissioning of man and woman to reign over the good land (1:28) involves procreation, and only together can they achieve their destiny.