51. As regards what the image is, an image is not a likeness but is 'according to a likeness'. Therefore it is said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness'. A spiritual man is an image, whereas a celestial man is a likeness or exact replica. The spiritual man is the subject in this present chapter, the celestial man in the next. The spiritual man, who is an image, is called by the Lord 'a son of light', as in John,

He who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may be sons of light. John 12:35-36.

He is also called 'a friend',

You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. John 15:14-15

The celestial man however, who is a likeness, is called 'a son of God', in John,

As many as received Him, to them He gave power to be sons of God, to those believing in His Name, who were born, not of blood, ¹ nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:12-13.

Poznámky pod čarou:

'The spirit of God,' as in Genesis 1:2, signifies the divine mercy of the Lord.

'The spirit of God' denotes good from an interior level, so from the divine. The spirit of God is what proceeds from the divine, so from good itself, because the divine is good itself, and what proceeds from it is truth within which is good. This is what 'the spirit of God' signifies in the Word, because the spirit itself does not proceed, but the truth itself within which is good, the spirit being the instrument which produces it.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 19; Divine Love and Wisdom 100)