What do you believe the image of God in man is? There are passages that clearly state that we are still created in the image and likeness of God even after the fall.
Genesis 9:6
1 Cor. 11:7
James 3:9
Man is still a personal being, he still is a moral being, he still communicates with God, and he still projects the rulership of God over the earth. The passages above clearly demonstrate that the image has not been lost ... but it has certainly been corrupted. We no longer naturally desire to be holy in our fallen state, but we possess a conscience. The aspects of our personality (mind, will, emotions) are retained ... yet each of these is marred by sin. We as men have poorly ruled over the earth ... but we still rule over the animal kingdom.
We still possess the image ... but that image has been tainted ... not destroyed. When we are regenerated by the reception of the gospel, we being the transformation of that image into one that reflects God perfectly. This is why Paul tells us in 2 Cor. 3:18 & Col. 3:10 that (through progressive sanctification) the image of God in us is being restored.
...Paul was Born again .. now in the image of God
Jas 3:9
Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.
Written by a saved James.. to a saved church
. but scripture is clear..man needs to be born again.. That is why we needed a 2nd Adam
1John 3:10
This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
Ephesians 2: 1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 5:1-5 Adam was made in the image of God; but when fallen he begat a son in his own image, sinful and defiled, frail, wretched, and mortal, like himself. Not only a man like himself, consisting of body and soul, but a sinner like himself. This was the reverse of that Divine likeness in which Adam was made; having lost it, he could not convey it to his seed. Adam lived, in all, 930 years; and then died, according to the sentence passed upon him, To dust thou shalt return. Though he did not die in the day he ate forbidden fruit, yet in that very day he became mortal. Then he began to die; his whole life after was but a reprieve, a forfeited, condemned life; it was a wasting, dying life. Man's life is but dying by degrees.