In The Beginning
The creation story in the Bible is one of the best-known stories in the world. In it, God creates everything. For six days God speaks, creating everything on planet Earth and all other things in the physical universe. On each day, another part is made. On one day land is separated from oceans, on another day plants spring up, and on still another, animals come to life. It's on the sixth day that God creates His masterpiece, the pinnacle of creation: Adam.
“Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground. So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27)
It’s recorded in the Biblical book of Genesis that God created Adam in His own likeness. In modern and ancient writings, repeated words or phrases are intended to place emphasis on the word or phrase. We read three times in the Genesis passage above that God made humans “in His own image”. The original Hebrew word for image used in the passage is “tselem”, which means “representative figure”. So “adam”, the Hebrew word for “man” or “human” was emphatically created to be a representational likeness of God Himself.
Because he was made in God’s likeness, one of Adam’s attributes was authority. He was given authority to rule over the Earth and all the creatures alive on the Earth. Humans were to cultivate the plants and tend to the animals. Part of their responsibility was to utilize the Earth’s resources wisely. We have all inherited this human authority and responsibility as descendants of Adam and Eve.
“You gave [humans] charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority—the flocks and the herds and all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean currents.” (Psalm 8:6-8)
Adam’s likeness to God didn’t end there. In the second chapter of Genesis, it is recorded that God collected all the creatures He had created to be named by Adam. When the animals were named, they were evaluated to see if they would be a suitable partner for Adam. However, none of them would do.
“So the LORD God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him.” (Genesis 2:19-20)
What was it about the creatures in Adam’s domain that made them unsuitable to be his partner? None of them were like Adam. God had a solution for this. He put Adam into a deep sleep and took a portion of his body to create a woman. Eve, the name of the woman, was made in Adam’s likeness and so was an ideal partner for Adam.
“So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the LORD God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man. At last!” the man exclaimed. “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’”” (Genesis 2:21-23)
Adam was created with the desire for a suitable partner because one of God’s attributes is the desire for a suitable partner. Who would be a suitable partner for God? Someone who is like Him. Just as a part of Adam was used it to create a suitable partner for him, God takes a piece of Himself and uses it to create suitable partners for Himself. “The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.” (Romans 8:11)
When our body is alive, our spirit is intermingled with our body. The spirit is the supernatural part of us that makes us a living being. The ancient Hebrew words translated as “spirit”, “neshamah“ and “ruah”, mean “breath, wind, or spirit”, depending on the context where it is used. It is something that is invisible and can’t be grasped, but interacts with us. When we are talking about the life-giving force inside each human, we are talking about the human spirit.
True life, eternal life, comes from God’s Spirit living inside us when we accept the gospel of Jesus. That life moves us to act on God’s behalf. Our current physical bodies are temporary vessels that house our spirits, so when God uses His Spirit to give us life it is His life that is in us. While we will be given perfected eternal bodies one day, having God’s Spirit joined with ours makes us truly like Him. This is our opportunity to become suitable partners for Him.
“For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.” – James 2:26
If this life given to us by the Holy Spirit and made possible through the sacrifice of Jesus is true and eternal, what can we expect when we have lived beyond our current bodies and more fully experience the reality of eternity? That is something we will discuss more next week. I look forward to seeing you all then!
*All verses are from the NLT.