Man [humanity]

God created man, male and female, in the image of God. God blessed man and commanded him to multiply and fill the earth. In love, the Lord bestowed upon man power to be stewards of the earth and govern its creatures. In the creation story, man is the crown of creation; the first man is Adam. Symbolized by Adam who sinned, mankind lives in rebellion against their Creator and thereby brought sin and death into the world. Regardless of his sinfulness, however, man remains in the image of God and is defined by it. Therefore, all human beings collectively and individually deserve love, reverence and respect. The eternally perfect image of God is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the "last Adam." Through Jesus Christ, God creates the new humanity over which sin and death no longer have power. In Christ man's likeness to God will be perfected. (1. Mose 1,26-28; psalm 8,4-9; Romans 5,12-21; Colossians 1,15; 2. Corinthians 5,17; 3,18; 1. Corinthians 15,21-22; Romans 8,29; 1. Corinthians 15,47-49; 1. John 3,2)

what is the human?

When we look up to the sky, when we see the moon and the stars, and contemplate the immensity of the universe and the mighty power inherent in each star, we may wonder why God cares about us at all. We are so small, so limited - like ants, that are hurrying back and forth inside a heap. Why should we even think he's looking at that anthill, called Earth, and why would he want to worry about every single ant as well?

Modern science is expanding our awareness of how big the universe is and how huge each star is. In astronomical terms, humans are no more significant than a few randomly moving atoms - but it is humans who ask the question of meaning. It is people who develop the science of astronomy who explore the universe without ever leaving home. It is people who turn the universe into a stepping stone for spiritual questions. It goes back to psalm 8,4-7:

“When I see the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have prepared, what is man that you remember him, and the child of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than God; you crowned him with honor and glory. You made him lord over the work of your hands; you put everything under his feet.”

Like animals

So what is the human? Why does God care about him? Men are in some ways like God Himself, but lower, but crowned by God Himself with honor and glory. People are a paradox, a mystery - tainted with evil, yet believing that they should behave morally. So corrupted by power, yet they have power over other living things. So far under God, and yet designated by God Himself as honorable.

what is the human? Scientists call us Homo sapiens, a member of the animal kingdom. The Scriptures call us nephesh, a word that is also used for animals. We have spirit within us just as animals have spirit in them. We are dust, and when we die, we return to the dust as well as the animals. Our anatomy and our physiology are like those of an animal.

But the Scriptures say that we are much more than animals. People have a spiritual aspect - and science can not make any statement about this spiritual part of life. Nor is philosophy; we can not find reliable answers just because we think about it. No, this part of our existence must be explained by revelation. Our Creator must tell us who we are, what we should do, and why he cares about us. We find the answers in Scripture.

1. Moses 1 tells us that God created all things: light and darkness, land and sea, sun, moon and stars. The Gentiles worshiped these things as gods, but the true God is so powerful that He could call them into existence simply by speaking a word. You are completely under his control. Whether he created it in six days or six billion years is nowhere near as important as the fact that he did it. He spoke, it was there, and it was good.

As part of all creation, God also created humans and 1. Moses tells us that we were created on the same day as the animals. The symbolism of this seems to suggest that we are like animals in some ways. We can see so much of ourselves.

The image of God

But the creation of humans is not described in the same way as everything else. There is no such thing as "And God said... and it was so." Instead we read: "And God said: Let us make men in our likeness that are in rule..." (1. Mose 1,26). Who is this "us"? The text does not explain this, but it is clear that human beings are a special creation, made in the image of God. What is this "image"? Again, the text doesn't explain this, but it is clear that people are special.

Many theories have been proposed as to what this "image of God" is. Some say it's intelligence, the power of rational thought, or language. Some claim it is our social nature, our ability to have a relationship with God, and that male and female reflect relationships within deity. Others claim it's morality, the ability to make choices that are good or bad. Some say the image is our dominion over the earth and its creatures, that we are God's representatives to them. But dominion in itself is divine only when exercised in a moral manner.

What the readers understood by this formulation is open, but it seems to express that people are in a certain way like God himself. There is a supernatural meaning in who we are, and our meaning is not that we are like animals but that we are like God. 1. Moses doesn't tell us much more. We experience in 1. Mose 9,6that every human being is made in God's image, even after humanity has sinned, and therefore murder cannot be tolerated.

The Old Testament no longer mentions "the image of God," but the New Testament gives additional meaning to this designation. There we learn that Jesus Christ, the perfect image of God, reveals God to us through His self-sacrificing love. We are to be made in the image of Christ, and in doing so we reach the full potential that God intended for us when He created us in His own image. The more we allow Jesus Christ to live in us, the closer we are to God's purpose for our lives.

Let's go back to 1. Moses, because this book tells us more about why God cares so much about people. After saying, “Let us,” he did: “And God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; and created them male and female" (1. Mose 1,27).

Notice here that women and men were created equally in the image of God; they have the same spiritual potential. Similarly, social roles do not change the spiritual value of a person - a person of high intelligence is not more valuable than one of lower intelligence, nor does a ruler have more value than a servant. We were all created according to the image and the likeness of God and all people deserve love, honor and respect.

1. Moses then tells us that God blessed the people and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and rule over the fish in the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and above every living thing that creeps on the earth” (v. 28). God's commandment is a blessing, which is what we would expect from a benevolent God. In love, he gave humans the responsibility to rule over the earth and its living beings. The people were his stewards, they took care of God's property.

Modern environmentalists sometimes accuse Christianity of being anti-environmental. Does this mandate to “subdue” the earth and “rule” over the animals give humans permission to destroy the ecosystem? People are to use their God-given power to serve, not to destroy. They are to exercise dominion in a way that God does.

The fact that some people abuse this power and scripture does not change the fact that God wants us to use creation well. If we skip something in the report, we learn that God commanded Adam to cultivate and preserve the garden. He could eat the plants, but he should not use up the garden and destroy it.

Life in the garden

1. Genesis 1 concludes by saying that everything was "very good." Humanity was the crown, the capstone of creation. That was exactly the way God wanted it to be - but anyone living in the real world realizes that something is now terribly wrong with humanity. what went wrong 1. Moses 2–3 explain how an originally perfect creation was ruined. Some Christians take this account quite literally. Either way, the theological message is the same.

1. Moses tells us that the first humans were called Adam (1. Mose 5,2), the common Hebrew word for "man". The name Eve is similar to the Hebrew word for “living/living”: “And Adam called his wife Eve; for she became the mother of all that live.” In modern language the names Adam and Eve mean “man” and “everyone's mother”. what she in 1. Doing Moses 3 - sin - is what all of humanity has done. History shows why humanity is in a situation that is far from perfect. Humanity is embodied by Adam and Eve - humanity lives in rebellion against its Creator, and that is why sin and death characterize all human societies.

Notice the way how 1. Genesis 2 sets the stage: an ideal garden, watered by a river somewhere where it no longer exists. The image of God changes from a cosmic commander to an almost physical being who walks in the garden, plants trees, fashions a person out of the earth, who blows his breath into his nostrils to give it life. Adam was given something more than animals had and he became a living being, a nephesh. Yahweh, the personal God, "took man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it" (verse 15). He gave Adam directions for the garden, asked him to name all the animals, and then created a woman to be a human mate for Adam. Again, God was personally involved and physically active in the creation of woman.

Eve was a "helpmate" to Adam, but that word does not imply inferiority. The Hebrew word is used in most cases for God himself, who is a helper to people in our needs. Eve was not invented to do the work that Adam did not want to do—Eve was created to do what Adam could not do of her own accord. When Adam saw her, he realized that she was basically the same as he was, a God-given companion (verse 23).

The author ends Chapter 2 with a reference to equality: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed” (vv. 24-25). That's the way God wanted it to be, the way it was before sin entered the scene. Sex was a divine gift, not something to be ashamed of.

Something went wrong

But now the snake enters the stage. Eve was tempted to do something that God had forbidden. She was invited to follow her feelings, to please herself, instead of trusting God's direction. “And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and attractive, because it made wise. And she took some of the fruit and ate, and gave some of it to her husband who was with her, and he ate."1. Mose 3,6).

What went through Adam's mind? 1. Moses gives no information about this. The point of the story in 1. Moses is that all people do what Adam and Eve did - we ignore the Word of God and do what we like, making excuses. We can blame the devil if we want, but sin is still within us. We want to be wise, but we are foolish. We want to be like God, but we are not ready to be what He tells us to be.

What did the tree stand for? The text tells us no more than for "the knowledge of good and evil." Does it represent experience? Does he represent wisdom? Whatever it represents, the main point seems to be that it was forbidden, yet eaten from it. Humans had sinned, rebelled against their Creator and chosen to go their own way. They were no longer fit for the garden, no longer fit for "the tree of life."

The first result of their sin was a changed view of themselves - they felt that something was wrong about their nakedness (v. 7). After making aprons out of fig leaves, they feared being seen by God (v. 10). And they made lazy excuses.

God explained the consequences: Eve would bear children, which was part of the original plan, but now in great pain. Adam would till the field, which was part of the original plan, but now with great difficulty. And they would die. In fact, they were already dead. "For in the day that you eat of it you must surely die" (1. Mose 2,17). Their life in union with God was over. All that was left was mere physical existence, far less than the real life God intended. Yet there was potential for them because God still had His plans for them.

There would be a fight between the woman and the man. "And your desire shall be for your husband, but he shall be your lord" (1. Mose 3,16). People who take their affairs into their own hands (as Adam and Eve did) instead of following God's instructions are very likely to have conflict with one another, and brute force usually prevails. That is the way society is after sin enters once.

So the stage was ready: the problem that people face is their own, not God's, mistake. He gave them a perfect start, but they messed up and since then, all people have been infected with sin. But despite human sinfulness, humanity continues to be in God's image - battered and dented, we might say, but still the same basic image.

This divine potential still defines who humans are and this brings us to the words of Psalm 8. The Cosmic Commander still cares for humans because he made them a little bit like himself and he gave them authority his creation - an authority they still hold. There's still honor, there's still glory, even if we're temporarily lower than God's plan for us to be. If our vision is good enough to see this picture, it should lead to praise: "Lord our Ruler, how glorious is your name in all the earth" (Psalm 8,1. 9). Praise be to God for having a plan for us.

Christ, the perfect picture

Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, is the perfect image of God (Colossians 1,15). He was fully human, and shows us exactly what a human should be: completely obedient, completely trusting. Adam was a type for Jesus Christ (Romans 5,14), and Jesus is called “the last Adam” (1. Corinthians 15,45).

"In him was life, and life was the light of men" (John 1,4). Jesus restored life that was lost through sin. He is the resurrection and the life (John 11,25).

What Adam did for physical humanity, Jesus Christ does for spiritual overhaul. He is the starting point of the new humanity, the new creation (2. Corinthians 5,17). In him all will be brought back to life (1. Corinthians 15,22). We are born again. We start again, this time on the right foot. Through Jesus Christ, God creates the new humanity. Sin and death have no power over this new creation (Romans 8,2; 1. Corinthians 15,24-26). Victory was won; temptation was rejected.

Jesus is the one we trust and the model we should follow (Romans 8,29-35); we are transformed into his image (2. Corinthians 3,18), the image of God. Through faith in Christ, through His work in our lives, our imperfections are removed and we are brought closer to what God's will we should be (Ephesians 4,13. 24). We step from one glory to another - to a much greater glory!

Of course, we are not yet seeing the image in all its glory, but we are assured that we will. "And as we bore the image of the earthly [Adam], so shall we also bear the image of the heavenly" [Christ] (1. Corinthians 15,49). Our resurrected bodies will be like the body of Jesus Christ: glorious, powerful, spiritual, heavenly, imperishable, immortal (v. 42-44).

John put it this way: “Dear ones, we are already God's children; but it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when it is revealed, we will be like it; for we shall see him as he is. And everyone who has such hope in him purifies himself, just as that one is clean" (1. John 3,2-3). We don't see it yet, but we know it will happen because we are God's children and He will make it happen. We will see Christ in his glory, and that means we will have similar glory too, that we will be able to see spiritual glory.

Then John adds this personal comment: "And everyone who has such hope in him purifies himself, even as that one is clean." Since we will be like him then, let's try to be like him now.

So man is a being on several levels: physical and spiritual. Even the natural man is made in the image of God. No matter how much a person sins, the image is still there, and the person is of tremendous value. God has a purpose and a plan that includes every sinner.

By believing in Christ, a sinner is modeled after a new creature, the second Adam, Jesus Christ. In this age we are as physical as Jesus was during his earthly ministry, but we are being transformed into the spiritual image of God. This spiritual change means a change in attitude and behavior that is brought about because Christ lives in us and we live by faith in him (Galatians 2,20).

If we are in Christ, we will perfectly bear the image of God in the resurrection. Our minds can't fully comprehend what that will be like, and we don't know exactly what "the spirit body" will be, but we know it will be wonderful. Our gracious and loving God will bless us with as much as we can enjoy and we will praise him forever!

What do you see when you look at other people? Do you see the image of God, the potential for greatness, the image of Christ being shaped? Do you see the beauty of God's plan at work by giving mercy to sinners? Do you rejoice that he is redeeming a humanity that has strayed from the right path? Are you enjoying the glory of God's wonderful plan? Do you have eyes to see? This is far more wonderful than the stars. It is far more beautiful than the glorious creation. He has given his word, and it is so, and it is very good.

Joseph Tkach

Man [humanity]