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:

2109. 'A son of thirteen years' means sacred remnants. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'ten' as remnants, dealt with already, in 576, 1988, and from the meaning of 'three' as that which is sacred, dealt with in 720, 901. Consequently the number thirteen, being the sum of ten and three, means sacred remnants. That numbers in the Word mean real things, see 482, 487, 488, 493, 575, 647, 648, 755, 813, 893. What the remnants residing with man are has been stated in 468, 530, 561, 660, 1050, 1906.