God created mankind – Adam

How God created heaven and earth was discussed in the two previous studies.

During the sixth day of creation God said:

Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness… (Genesis 1:26)

God speaks here in the plural form ‘us’, i.e. He speaks here as the triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Until now everything was created from nothing, by the power of the spoken Word of God.
God said (also translatable as: gave the order): Let there be light …, let there be a vault …, Let the land produce living creatures (also: bring forth, deliver) … etc. … and it was so.

God gave no order when He resolved to make man, but acted Himself.
He said: Let us make mankind.

make – also to be understood as: to form, to bring into existence, to bring forth.

God also indicated how He was to make mankind:

in His image – also: likeness – picture.
– that is: man’s outward appearance, a body.
In His likeness – also: looking like – resembling.
– that is: man’s character, spiritual, intellectual.

How God made mankind is described in the second chapter of Genesis:

… Then the LORD God formed (also translated as: potter (1 Chronicles 4:23), brought to pass (2 Kings 19:25), made (Isaiah 29:16)) a man

From the dust of the ground
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;
and the man became a living being. (living soul). (Genesis 2:7)

Just a comment: There is an interesting play on words in Hebrew for ‘mankind’, for ‘man’, the first man, ‘Adam’ and ‘dyed red’, which is explained in a separate document.

God formed the physical man.

Then God said:

“Let us make mankind in our image, …” (Genesis 1:26)

… Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground … (Genesis 2:7)

After God had said what He was intending to do, He moulded an image from ‘the dust of the ground’.

That moulded ‘image’ was man’s future body, the first man, Adam.

Who God is was already perceptible in that image, for that image was formed ‘in His image’.

Legs and feet, to be mobile and to be able to move around.
Arms and hands, to depict something, to make something, to embrace someone, or to take him by the hand and lead him.
Ears to hear.
Eyes to see.
A nose to smell and a mouth to speak.

However, everything was still lifeless and was not yet functioning ….. it was just an image.

God formed the spiritual man.

Then God said:

“Let us make mankind in our image, …” (Genesis 1:26)

… Then the LORD God formed a man … and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life … (Genesis 2:7)

After God had moulded a body, He breathed His breath of life into its nostrils …

… and the man became a living being (Hebrew: a living soul). (Genesis 2:7)

At the moment God breathed the breath of life into its nostrils, the image came to life and it became a body of flesh and blood.

More!
God is Spirit. At the moment He breathed the breath of life into the image’s nostrils, it became a living body, because He had breathed a soul and a spirit into it.

Soul and spirit are divine and they belong to the spiritual world, which is eternal.

… and the man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)

Jesus confirmed this, when He said: The Spirit (of God) gives life, (John 6:63)

Man is a soul.

Man did not receive a soul.
Man BECAME a living soul.
Man has no soul, man is the soul.
Man is created, in God’s image, like God is. His name is I AM.

Personality, character, conscience, will, feelings, desires and emotions belong to the soul, are the soul.
The soul is me. I am the soul.

This is explained in the study about the soul.

Man is a living soul.

The notion of ‘life’ in the Bible has the meaning of: being visible, having experience, having a relationship, or being able to form one.
Death and life have a spiritual dimension.

The first man, Adam, became alive because his personality became visible and he was able to form a relationship in the visible and the invisible world.
Man, as a soul, received two ‘instruments’ to this end.

The soul, man, is able to express itself in the visible world by means of the body.
The soul, man, is able to express itself in the invisible world by means of the spirit.

Man is a soul and has a body. With this he is able to express himself in the visible world. He has a spirit, in order to express himself in the invisible world.

Contact can be made, and a relationship formed, with another soul, another person, through the body’s senses: sight, speech, hearing, feeling.

Contact can be made by the spirit, and a relationship can be formed, in the invisible world, with the triune God, the Creator of heaven and earth.

Man is created for eternity.

Spirit and soul belong to the invisible world and are eternal.

Adam was created as an eternal personality, just as God is eternal.
A person, a soul, is begotten, is born, for eternity and will exist eternally.
The body belongs to the visible world and is temporary.

Soul and spirit continue to exist when the body ceases functioning and once again returns to dust.
As God is eternal, so man is also eternal and he lives on, even though the body has died.

It is said that someone has ‘died’, is dead, because the body is no longer functioning.
The person, the soul, is no longer able to make himself known via the body in the visible world.
The person himself lives on in the invisible world.

Man as spirit, soul and body in relation to God

Man became a living soul by the breath of life from God.
Soul and spirit are of divine origin.
Man is of divine origin in the depth of his existence, his ‘being’, his ‘soul’.

In the study ‘God is light’ it is explained that God’s character is of multicoloured intensity, the overtone of which is LOVE.
God is love and His love was breathed into Adam simultaneously with the breath of life.
Adam was, man is, love in the depth of his being.

Love has no reason to exist in itself, however.
Love can only exist if it is able to be shared in a relationship with someone else.
This is the reason why God created Adam. His intention was to be able to build up a mutual relationship with Adam, in love.

God desires such a relationship with every person in this world.
As a loving Father, He still cares for the people He has created.

Just as a father tries to create a pleasant atmosphere for his children, so God created an unbelievably beautiful world for mankind.
And He expressed His heart’s desire when He said:

… I thought you would call me ‘Father’ (it says literally: that you would cry: Dad!) and not turn away from following me. (Jeremiah 3:19)

To be continued with: ‘God created the woman’.

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God created mankind – Adam.