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.

Footnotes:

4056. The preliminary sections of Genesis 26-30 in Volume Three explained what the Lord has said and foretold in Matthew 24 about the Close of the Age, or the Last Judgement. Those sections covered verse 3 through to verse 28, and now the statements next in line come up for explanation. The preliminary section of this chapter deals with what is stated in verses 29-31 in the following words,

But immediately after the affliction of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn; and they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; and He will send out His angels with a trumpet and a loud voice, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other end of them.