distinguished from creation.
There was no generation before Adam, but creation only. Adam and Eve
were not born but created, and that directly by God himself. Moses
adds, "In the likeness of God made he him." We are to understand,
then, that when he afterwards mentions that Adam begat Seth, he
numbers his years from the very day of his creation.

22. In respect to Adam's having been made in the likeness of God, we
have shown above in its place what that "likeness" of God was.
Although almost all commentators understand the expressions, "the
likeness of God," and "the image of God," to mean one and the same
thing, yet so far as I have been able from careful investigation to
reach a conclusion, there is a difference between the two terms.
_Zelem_ properly signifies "an image," or "figure," as when the
Scripture says, Ye shall break down their images, Ex. 23, 24, in which
passage the original term signifies nothing more than the figures, or
statues, or images erected by men. But _demuth_ signifies "a
likeness," or "the perfectness of an image." For instance, when we
speak of a lifeless image, such as that which is impressed on coins,
we say, This is the image of Brutus or of Caesar. That image, however,
does not reproduce the likeness, nor exhibit every single feature.

23. Accordingly, when Moses says that man was created also in the
likeness of God, he points out that man resembles God not only in the
possession of reason, or of intellect and will, but that he has also
the likeness of God, that is, a will and an intellect, with which he
knows God and wills what he wills.

24. If man, having been created both "in the image" and "in the
likeness" of God, had not fallen, he would have lived forever, full of
joy and gladness, and would have possessed a will joyfully eager to
obey the will of God. But by sin both this "likeness" and this "image"
were lost. They are, however, in a measure, restored by faith, as we
are told by the apostle, Col 3, 10; Eph 4, 24. For we begin to know
God, and the spirit of Christ helps us, so that we desire to obey the
commandments of God.

25. Of these blessed gifts we possess only the first-fruits. This new
creation within us is only as yet begun; it is not perfected here in
the flesh. The will is in some measure stirred to praise God, to give
him thanks, to confess sin, and to exercise patience, but all this is
only the first-fruits. The flesh, obeying the law of its nature, still
follow