Adam was created in the "image of God" in that his bride Eve was inside him when he was created in the same manner the bride of Christ was in Christ before the foundation of the world according to the following scripture. "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began" (2 Timothy 1:9)
Adam was not made in the image of God in that he was made a miniature-copy of God. That is not the thought at all. The record says: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. * * * So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created be them.” Right here, in the fact that in Adam God made both male and female, we see the figure of Christ. Just as the church is the bride of Christ, and was in him before the world began, so Eve was the companion of Adam, and was in Adam when he was formed from the dust of the ground, not having then any separate personality from him.
Eve was beguiled by the serpent and ate the fruit forbidden. She was deceived, the Scriptures tell us. When Adam followed Eve in the transgression, he was not deceived, he did it fully aware as to what the consequences of his sin would be. Here, again, we see Christ. When Christ came down from heaven and condescended to he made in human form to follow his bride in transgression, Christ was not deceived, but was fully aware of the suffering and death it meant for him to undergo in order to redeem his bride.
It behooved Adam to follow Eve and be with her in the transgression, otherwise Adam could not have been the figure of Christ that was to come, just so, when the church transgressed God’s holy law, the penalty devolved upon Christ, divine justice looked to him to follow his bride in condemnation so as to redeem her
The moment the church sinned, that moment Christ became responsible for her transgression. Finally, in the end of the figure, God said, “Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil.” “As one of us.” Which one of “us” had Adam become like? He had become, not like God the Father, nor yet like God the Holy Ghost, so he must have become like God the Son. He had at last fulfilled the image of Christ that was to come when he had followed Eve in the transgression and his eyes had been opened to know good and evil. It was said of Jesus that he should know to choose the good and refuse the evil. Adam had become the image of this. Thus, Adam’s being the image of Christ, or of God, begins with his being made male and female, and ends with his being with his bride in condemnation, having the knowledge of good and evil. All this it takes to make up the figure of the Christ that was to come. No other figure in all Scripture shows the vital unity of Christ and his people as does this relationship of Adam and Eve, their formation transgression and ensuing condemnation.