Grace Restores Nature

“In Gen. 1:27 it is declared that man was created in ‘the image of God.’ In Eph. 4:24 and Col. 3:10, men in regeneration are declared to be re-created in ‘the image of God.’ Regeneration is the restoration of human nature to its pristine condition, not a transmutation of that nature into a new form. The likeness to God which was lost by the fall must therefore be the same to which we are restored in the new birth. But the latter is said to consist in ‘knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness'” (A. A. Hodge, Confession of Faith, 88).