Why is humans are madi in the image of god the most important teaching in genesis 1?

Answer 1

Because it means: 1) God exists and is the Creator. 2) Humans are the pinnacle of Creation. 3) We possess a God-given soul. 4) We were given free-will and are responsible to God (otherwise, the warning in Gen.2:17 would be unnecessary). 5) By implication, it means that we should see God as the role-model, which in turn implies morality.

ANOTHER ANSWER:

I'm not so sure that it is the most important teaching of Genesis [the book wasn't inspired or written in "chapter and verse"... so we might do better to limit the question to the "creation account" in general rather than just one fact on the SIXTH DAY of creation -- the fact that man was MADE in God's image on that day. the creation account concludes with the translators' division of "chapter 2" -- THE SEVENTH DAY of creation].

The world would do well to REMEMBER this seldom believed TRUTH of God's Word [see John 17:17]... because God's command is to REMEMBER His FOURTH COMMANDMENT; to REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY: the SEVENTH DAY OF CREATION!

Mankind's creation in God's image is merely an INCLUDED ELEMENT in God's command to His people to REMEMBER the Seventh Day [to KEEP IT HOLY. God sanctified the seventh day of creation; SET IT APART FROM ALL THE OTHER DAYS OF THE WEEK FOR HIS HOLY USE... for the purpose of mankind's REMEMBRANCE OF CREATION]. You can't KEEP something HOLY unless GOD MAKES IT THAT WAY in the first place. And for man to KEEP it Holy, is for him to be continually OBEYING God's command to do so. That would KEEP the REMEMBRANCE of CREATION in the man's HEART... not merely written on a plaque hanging on a wall.

The Seventh Day Sabbath is the repetitive day of God's divinely-inspired SEVEN DAY WEEKLY CYCLE, that, if ALL MEN would BELIEVE it [and OBSERVE it], would have prevented a lot of suffering and heartache across the generations of "God's Children."

Instead, man's rejection of his Creator and His Laws, due to his choosing ANOTHER GOD to worship and obey way back in the beginning, has resulted in this erroneous, sin-sick [lawless, disobedient - I John 3:4] world we have made for ourselves, today. This world we made for ourselves retains the "religious" BELIEF that MAN EVOLVED in a monumental COSMIC ACCIDENT. It chooses to BELIEVE in CREATION WITHOUT A CREATOR.

And so, the world has FORGOTTEN CREATION... has FORGOTTEN the CREATOR... and has FORGOTTEN that MAN WAS MADE IN GOD'S IMAGE [and not EVOLVED from "love-sick amoeba"].

So, while "man being created in God's image" is a vastly important thing to know and retain in one's heart and mind. It's much more important to remember the FIRST CAUSE of ALL OF CREATION -- GOD, who made man... and everything else:

"ALL THINGS WERE MADE BY HIM [Jesus Christ]; and WITHOUT HIM WAS NOTHING MADE THAT WAS MADE." (John 1:3)

This Satan-deceived, religiously-divided world thinks God MADE the Sabbath day for the "JEWS" during Moses' lifetime -- but THERE WERE NO JEWS AROUND ON THE SEVENTH DAY OF CREATION. Just TWO PEOPLE were around then. And it was THEY from whom ALL OF THE RACES and GENERATIONS OF MANKIND descended.

The world would do well to BELIEVE and REMEMBER that little-understood fact of "teaching" from the creation account. Jesus Christ, the One WHO MADE THE SABBATH DAY [see... and believe... John 1:3 again] assures all who read His Father's Truth, that HE IS THE CREATOR LORD ABOUT WHOM THE SABBATH COMMANDMENT SPEAKS... and He further assures His Faithful servants and readers, that the Sabbath was MADE FOR MAN... not the JEWS:

"...'the Sabbath was MADE FOR MAN, and not man for the Sabbath: therefore the SON OF MAN [He, Jesus, Himself] IS LORD ALSO OF THE SABBATH." (Mark 2:27-28)

If mankind knew and believed that he was made in his Creator's image... and bothered to read, believe, and obey his Creator's Laws; putting his Creator ahead of his own pride and vanity... then man might stop thinking of himself so highly... might stop regarding himself as holier-than-thou... and he might humble himself a little more before his Creator... and before his neighbors.

If only he could "Remember the Sabbath Day, to KEEP IT[and himself] HOLY"... and sanctified in the eyes of his Creator.

"Thou shalt HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME," our Creator commands man, made in His image. That's the most important teaching of the "creation account"... and the whole Bible. Everything else IN LIFE is SECONDARY. If only man could remember that.

Answer 2

I believe that the most important teaching of Genesis 1 is that God created the universe and its contents. This includes humans, and by implication makes us responsible to God, knowing that He is our source, and because we (demonstrably) possess free will to obey Him or ignore Him.

The fact of our having been created in God's image, while vastly important, seems to me to be under the above, not greater than it.

See also:

Lessons of the Genesis creation-narrative

Did God create us

Answer 3

Because it means that we have a soul, free will, and responsibility to God. See also the Related Links.

Link: Were we created

Link: Important lessons from Genesis