The divine image consisted not simply in man's original endowment with intelligence and will, so that he, in contradistinction to all animals, was a rational being, but above all in the right disposition of his intellect and will, so that by means of his undepraved intellect he knew God and divine things and by means of his uncorrupt will desired only that which God wills. Also his appetition (appetitus sensitivus) was in complete accord with the divine norm of holiness, so that in the state of integrity man was entirely upright and uncorrupt in all his endowments, powers, and attributes. Calov writes (IV, 389): "It is called a state of integrity because man in it was upright and uncorrupt (Eccl. 7, 29) in intellect, will, the corporeal affections, and endowments and in all things was perfect. It is also called the state of innocence because man was innocent and holy, free from sin and pollution." (Docfr. Theol., p. 220.) Man's state of integrity is proved also by the fact that Adam and Eve were in perfect agreement with God'& commandments, Gen. 2, 19ff.; 3, 2. 3. In the New Testament the image of God is described in Col. 3, 10 ("knowledge") and Eph. 4, 24 ("righteousness and true holiness").
The evolutionistic view, according to which man was originally a brute, without the faculty of speech and without moral endowments, is therefore anti-Scriptural. According to Scripture, man was not created as a beast, but as the lord of all the other creatures of God, Gen. 1, 26-31; 2, 16-23. In addition to perfect moral endowments man was blessed also with great intellectual endowments, so that he possessed an undimmed and blissful knowledge of God, as also an intuitive knowledge of God's creatures (science), such as no scientist after the Fall has ever attained, Gen. 2, 19-20. 23. 24. Luther very aptly comments that Adam was an insignia philosophm.
As we reject the evolutionistic delusion, so also the papistical error that man was originally in a state of moral indifference (in statu purorum naturalium), in which he was neither positively good nor positively evil, but morally "neutral," or indifferent. In opposition to this erroneous opinion, Scripture teaches that originally man's will was in perfect conformity with the holy will of God (sanctae Dei voluntati conformis et a more et fiducia Dei praeditus). Not merely was he inclined toward all that is good and God-pleasing, but he himself was positively good and holy. The spiritual and moral excellences of man in his state of integrity are summed up in the expression original, concreate righteousness (iustitia original is concreata), which describes his absolute conformity with divine holiness and the absolute purity of his desires and appetites.