The fate of the godly and the ungodly are intertwined. The godly are those who enjoy a restored image, whereas the ungodly are those who have a perverted image or an “anti-image.” The term anti-image, used throughout this essay, refers to an individual who is hostile to God and is the opposite of those who enjoy a restored image. 

Theologians have traditionally understood the creation of Adam and Eve in the image of God in three distinct yet overlapping categories: king, priest, and prophet. Simply stated, to image God is to reflect his divine attributes. God imbues the first humans with certain qualities that he alone possesses. These qualities are both internal, or ontological, and external, or functional. God possesses certain qualities or attributes that he passes along to Adam and Eve—love, peace, justice, ability to rule, and so on. Adam is not God, nor does he perfectly mirror God in every way (Adam was not omnipresent). The line between Creator and creature is quite clear. As God’s image, Adam represents God on earth and is created to remain submissive to and wholly dependent on God. [1]

God charges the first couple to produce a kingdom of godly descendants, rule over the created order, embody and mediate God’s law to one another, and fill the earth with the presence of God (Gen 1:28; 2:15; 2:24). The fall fractures Adam and Eve’s relationship with their King and all of creation begins to rebel. In the midst of darkness, there is a ray of hope. Notice the grand promise of Gen 3:15

And I will put enmity

Between you and the woman,

And between your seed and her seed;

He shall bruise you on the head,

And you shall bruise him on the heel. (NASB)

The fate of the godly and the ungodly are intertwined. The godly are those who enjoy a restored image, whereas the ungodly are those who have a perverted image or an “anti-image.” The term anti-image, used throughout this essay, refers to an individual who is hostile to God and is the opposite of those who enjoy a restored image. The anti-image still retains all three offices of being in the image of God, yet it uses the offices for its own selfish ambition. Here the term anti-image is an apt description of the serpent’s seed. The two lines will wage war with one another, culminating in the decisive defeat of evil: “He [a righteous descendant of Eve] shall bruise you [the serpent] on the head.” Redemption is guaranteed. A godly king, who is in the pristine, perfect image of God, will vanquish the serpent, the embodiment of the anti-image, at the very end of history. All those who trust in this redeemer will inherit his victory.

In the Image of God or the Serpent

Immediately after partaking of the fruit, Adam and Eve “realized they were naked” (Genesis 3:7). The word here for “naked” (ʿērummim) is related to the Hebrew word for “crafty” (ʿrm) (Exodus 21:14; Joshua 9:4; Job 5:13). A few verses earlier, in Genesis 3:1, the serpent was described as “more crafty than any of the wild animals.” The point is that, as a result of the fall, the couple is beginning to take on characteristics of the serpent.[2] Instead of representing God on the earth, Adam and Eve are now beginning to represent the serpent. But God overcomes the first couple’s nakedness and hostility by graciously clothing them with his own inheritance (3:21).

From Genesis 4 to Revelation 20, the Bible narrates great hostility between those whose images are beginning to be restored and those whose images begin to collapse from within. Genesis 4–5 is paradigmatic for how the godly line and the ungodly line begin to interact with one another and fulfill the promise of Genesis 3:15. Genesis 4 opens with the birth of two children. Abel “kept flocks,” whereas Cain “worked the soil” (Genesis 4:2). Recall that Adam was responsible for both of these tasks (Genesis 2:15, 19–20), so we can surmise that Adam’s descendants are attempting to carry on the Genesis 1:28 commission. God may have rejected Cain’s priestly offering because it was taken from a “cursed” soil (Genesis 3:17).

Cain, like his parents, is confronted with two options: obey God and offer up an animal sacrifice from Abel’s lot (Genesis 4:4) or become wise in his own eyes and disobey God. The Lord tells Cain to function as a king, as he was created to do, and “rule over” sin (Genesis 4:7). Instead, sin eventually rules over him, and Cain murders his brother. We begin to see the image of God collapsing on itself, as Cain uses his royal identity for his own gain. Sin rules over Cain, and Cain wrongly rules over his godly brother Abel (cf. Genesis 9:6).

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