Man is God’s primary creation! His eventual purpose is to give God fellowship and pleasure. In the beginning, somewhere in the realm of eternity, long before the earth was created, God brought forth a Son, known to us as the Christ. Through that one man God created all things in the Heavens and on the earth. Now, there were men here on the earth long before Adam, obviously, but not created in the image of God.
At the beginning, God (Gods = Elohim, see Genesis 1:26) began to create the Heavens and the earth. But the earth became a Chaotic Wasteland (Bohu and Tohu) and darkness was upon the face of the sea (the multitudes of people), and the Spirit of God brooded over the Chaos.
Genesis 1:1-2 (Rotherham’s Bible and George Muller)
Whatever mankind was, before Adam, was certainly displeasing to God for he brought a great deluge upon the earth wiping out everything (with perhaps the exception of Behemoth and Leviathan). Some think the Angels dwelt here before Adam, or their offspring. But Angels are celestial, good or bad, and the skeletal remains found by archaeologists bear close resemblance to terrestrial mankind of today.
Now we will deal with Adam’s progenesis: MAN is a TRINITY; His description is: BODY, SOUL and SPIRIT (1 Thessalonians 5:23). The Body is the flesh or the temple of man in which the Spirit and Soul of man live (1 Corinthians 6:19). The Soul is the living component of Man (Genesis 2:7), the seat of Man’s affections (Song of Solomon 3:2), that part of man that has POTENTIAL IMMORTALITY (Matthew 10:28). The Spirit of Man is the breath (Spirit) of life that God breathed into man and he became a living soul (Genesis 2:7). Without the “breath of life” the soul dies bringing on the second death. In Matthew 10:28, Jesus said:
“And do not fear those who kill the Body, but cannot kill the soul; Rather fear Him who can destroy both Soul and Body in Gehenna.”
Matthew 10:28
Now the Spirit of man is not to be confused with the Spirit of God, who is a person himself and can also inhabit our bodies (John 14:17, John 16:7-8, John 16:13). Man begins life with two deaths to look forward to:
- Physical death, commonly called the first death. This death is inevitable for everyone (Hebrews 9:27).
- Death of the Soul, commonly called the second death (Revelation 20:13-15, James 5:20). The second death is the Lake of fire (Separation from God). This is the death we are trying to avoid.
All human beings are God’s creatures (Genos), because God is our creator. But God is not the father of us all. There is a vast difference between a creature of God and a Child (Teknon) of God. You must be born anew, into His realm to be His child. This is accomplished by clinging to, trusting in and relying on the Holy One of God (Christ) and believing in the One true God (John 17:3). Man is born in the image, likeness or with the attributes of God. We are not speaking of a physical body; God has none. But of a moral Spiritual likeness: Intelligence, emotion and will, overshadowed by morality or conscience. Man without God is subnormal, psychic, intellectual and body conscious. The Spiritual aspects have been erased. Man is created limited and dependent, that he may seek God!
Adam was created with a perfect nature, physically and spiritually; God wanted him to learn obedience, mature in character and progress to a place where he would give God pleasure and fellowship. Instead, he failed his first test losing it all; spiritually and physically. This plunged him and his offspring (us) into a death row situation. So Christ had to become the second Adam. Christ became the complete mature acceptable manifestation of God’s desire in man; thereby enabling him to ransom us from death row by his own sacrifice becoming the acceptable lamb without spot or blemish. One day he will rule as King of Kings and he wants us to mature to a place where we can rule with him. Let us strive for maturity and build a character that will prepare us for Brideship.