The rebellion of Lucifer and his followers probably contributed heavily toward God's decision to create mankind but I suspect that God, in all His infinite wisdom and knowledge probably knew before hand that there would be some of the angelic beings which would not remain faithful to Him because they had a free will and could choose to defect from His fold if they desired. Therefore, I believe that God had a plan in the beginning for coping with that situation if and when it should occur. This plan involved the creation of a new creature which we now know as mankind.

       God was under no obligation to create angelic kind. Nor was He was under any obligation to create the human race. Likewise He did not have to give His Son to die for us. He did not have to pay that great price which we can not completely fully understand. But even still He did create us. In making us, He shared Himself with us. He created us in His image and likeness. To create us, to save us, though it cost Him the sacrifice of His Son, to make us part of His family, to take us to Himself and ultimately to come to reside with us forever. These are the acts of a God who is demonstrating a love in its ultimate form.

I.   The Image and the Likeness of God

       In the first chapter of Genesis, we are told that God created Man and Woman on the sixth day of the restoration. After the heavens had been restored, and the earth refitted and replenished, when all conditions were suitable and everything was ready, God gave life to our first parents, Adam and Eve, forming them and placing them in a place of perfection. God said the place was very good.

Genesis 1:26-27 (KJV)

²⁶And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. ²⁷So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

       In Genesis 1:26 it tells us that the primary purpose of Man's creation is his rule and oversight of the newly reconstructed earth including all its creatures. This purpose is reemphasized in the more detailed narrative of Adam's creation in Genesis chapter two:

Genesis 2:5 ((KJV)

⁵And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.

Genesis 2:15 (KJV)

¹⁵And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

       The Scriptures tell us that Satan was the first trustee of earth, which contained the original Eden, where he held the prestigious position of "covering cherub", i.e., the guardian of the throne of God on the Holy Mountain of the primeval, as yet unblemished earth. It was this pristine earth, long before the destruction of the original earth or the later 6 day restoration, of which he seized temporary control in his bid to lead the angels in revolt against the Lord Almighty. Placing Man on this same earth, which has now been rejuvenated, with a mandate similar to the one which Satan had rejected, is a clear indication that God meant Man and his offspring to assume a role very similar to the one given up by Satan and his followers: namely, faithful, obedient supervision of God's creation. In another study we have seen that while angels and men are quite different in some important respects (superior longevity, knowledge and absence of materiality possessed by the angels), we do share one similarity. We both possess spirituality of a type that mirrors the image and the likeness of our Creator; both species are intelligent, have a conscience, are morally responsible, and are capable of being put in a position of responsibility. But the most critical point of comparison in each case, for both Man and angels, is the ability of making a conscious choice to serve God faithfully or not.

       For the angels, the test involved continued allegiance to God or defection to the devil; for Adam and Eve it was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:16). But for both angels and Man there was a test and the corresponding ability of spirit to choose. God could have created all the beings He wanted to serve Him who would have been incapable of sin or rebellion. But God desires instead creatures who will choose for Him of their own free will, who will love Him and serve Him and worship Him willingly (Jn. 4:23). To be proper replacements for Satan and his followers, mankind had to possess a spiritual makeup that was essentially the same as the angels in two important respects: 1) the ability to make responsible and responsive choices, and 2) individuality (a unique personality). Like the angels (who are also "sons of God": Gen. 6:2; Ps. 29:1; 89:6; Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7), Man is a creature capable of exercising and responding to authority laid down by God, and, like the angels, every one of us must make these choices for ourselves. These two essential qualities of spirit (the ability to choose for God and the individual responsibility to do so) are referred to in the Genesis 1:26-27 description as the "image and likeness of God":

Genesis 1:26-27 (KJV)

       I believe that the first thing to understand about "image and likeness" is that the points of analogy between God and Man are entirely spiritual. Some misguided theologians have attempted to bring Adam's physical shape somehow into the picture of "image and likeness". The Scriptures tell us that God is a spirit and we must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Therefore, I do not believe that God exists in a body that is similar to ours in any way.

       The Hebrew word translated "image" in Genesis 1:26-27 is often used for statues of pagan idols which, after all, are meant to be exact replicas of some god or other. On this analogy (transferred to the spiritual realm), the image of God would seem to be a very clear reflection of Him. God made us to serve Him, therefore when we are obediently serving Him we are indeed acting in His stead. We are reflecting His image.

Psalm 82:6 (KJV)

⁶I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.

John 10:34 (KJV)

³⁴Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?

       This analogy of creatures called "mighty ones" (i.e., "gods") applies to the angels as well as to mankind, because by His delegation they too share in the authority of God the Mighty One.

Psalm 138:1 (KJV)

¹I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee.

Psalm 97:7 (KJV)

⁷Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods.

Psalm 8:4-8 (KJV)

⁴What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? ⁵For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. ⁶Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: ⁷All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; ⁸The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

       This last passage is particularly applicable to our study because it provides a link between men and angels as God's delegates here on earth. The angels are described as "mighty ones", "gods" with a small "g", while Man, we are told, has been made "a little lower" than these entirely spiritual creatures who were the first to enjoy God's delegated sovereignty. Now Man has been made sovereign, as God's representative, over the earth and everything that God has created on the earth (in place of earth's original angelic sovereign, Satan, as we know from other scriptures such as Is. 14:12-20 and Ezek. 28:12-19).

       Now it is true that mankind fell in Adam (Rom. 5:12-21; 1Cor. 15:21-22). It is also true that, as a result of Adam's fall, Satan is the present "ruler of the world" (Lk. 4:6; Jn. 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 1Jn. 5:19). But the devil's usurped sovereignty has never gone and will never go unchallenged by God (Gen. 3:15; Rev. 20:10). God has used the sons of men to challenge the devil's temporary sovereignty which was destroyed in principle by the Son of God in His victory on the cross (Is. 42:3-4; Matt. 12:20; 1Cor. 15:54-57; 1Jn. 5:3-5) and will be totally destroyed at His return (Ps. 110:1; Rev. 19). Christ is the exact image of the Father (Heb. 1:3). And He will rule over the earth in complete and perfect sovereignty as delegated by the Father (Is. 9:6-7) until all His enemies have been crushed and the kingdom can be handed over to the Father (1Cor. 15:24-28). Then we shall witness the Father's unchallenged rule over the new heavens and earth where "righteousness dwells" (2Pet. 3:13), where there shall no longer be the slightest trace of evil.

Hebrews 2:5-9 (KJV)

⁵For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. ⁶But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man that thou visitest him? ⁷Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: ⁸Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. ⁹But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

       The scriptures just considered refer to the idea we have discussed above, namely that the central point of the image of God in Man is the ability to exercise and respond to authority, to act sovereignly in God's place where He so delegates, and to be responsible to Him for our actions.

Genesis 1:26 (KJV)

²⁶And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Genesis 5:1-3 (KJV)

¹This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; ²Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created. ³And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, and after his image; and called his name Seth:

       We know from our previous studies that mankind has been created for the glory of God. God is glorified by our obedience, by our response to His sovereign authority. Our will is not really "free" in the sense that we can choose the course of our lives without consequence. We really have only one choice: obey God. If we do, God is glorified by our obedience. If we do not, we suffer the consequences and God still enjoys a measure of glory by dealing with us in justice, though He would have preferred to deal with us in love. No, we really do not have "free will" in the general sense of the phrase. Either we choose to do God's will, or by default, we end up choosing to follow the present "ruler of this world" (Gal. 5:16-17). If we seek Him, follow Him, serve Him, and obey Him, we will find that in our lives we will be partakers in the delegated sovereign authority of God that was bestowed upon Adam so long ago. But instead of ruling over the perfection of Eden, our task is to manifest the glory of God by contesting whatever part of this battlefield called earth that the Lord has assigned to us. Whatever the spiritual gift, whatever the ministry, whatever the effect God has granted us, these are spheres of God's delegated sovereignty every bit as significant as Adam's charge over Eden. We serve at His pleasure, in His might and for His glory, demonstrating His power at work in our hearts here on this alien domain, once the devil's charge (but spurned), once Adam's charge (but lost), now the arena wherein some of Adam's fallen seed do choose for God - because He first chose us - rejecting the devil's authority, accepting God's sovereignty, and glorifying Him in Jesus Christ.

       Thus Man, as a replacement for Satan and the fallen angels, had to have the image and likeness of God. He had to be capable on an individual basis of exercising authority as delegated by God in order to reflect His glory by acting as His faithful steward (in place of the rebellious usurper: Eph. 2:2). Since His victory at the cross, Christ is now our immediate authority, our "head", all power and authority on heaven and earth having been granted to Him (Matt. 28:18; Col. 2:10; Matt. 9:6; Jn. 5:27; 17:2; Eph. 2:20-23):

1 Corinthians 11:5-7 (KJV)

⁵But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. ⁶For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. ⁷For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.

2 Corinthians 3:18 (KJV)

¹⁸But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

       A comparison of the use of the word "image" in the two passages above reveals an apparent (though only apparent) contradiction: in 1 Corinthians 11:7, Man still bears the image, while in 2 Corinthians 3:18, the fact that we Christians should be in the process of being transformed into "the same image" has seemed to many to suggest that we do not at present possess the image of God (or at least that it has been marred in some way, and so needs to be repaired). The root cause advanced for this "defacing" or "erasing" of the image of God is Adam's fall. But at the heart of all such theories is inevitably the misconception that the image is, at least in part, related to the body of Adam. In fact, as we have shown above, both the image and the likeness of God are entirely spiritual. Since the fall, our bodies have become subject to corruption and infected by sin, but our spirits retain the same two critical facets bestowed upon them by God on the sixth day of re-creation: 1) the capability of exercising and responding to authority, and 2) the responsibility for our own individual personalities. 1 Corinthians 11:7 clearly states that Man is still the "image and glory" of God (exercising and responding to God's delegated authority as appropriate). And on closer examination, it becomes clear that 2 Corinthians 3:18 is talking about something quite different. In that passage the "same image" which we as Christians are being enjoined to emulate is that of Christ ( Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10). Christ is the exact image of the Father (Heb. 1:3), and our ultimate role model who followed the Father's will in perfect obedience (Matt. 16:24; 1Cor. 11:1). The "image and likeness" which is our common heritage as human beings is spiritual - but we are born in sin (Rom. 7:18 and; 24). As human beings, we have the potential to seek, follow and serve God, to willingly strive to transform ourselves into His Christ-like followers, but this requires obedience and response to God's authority in first believing in and then following Jesus Christ. Only in this way can we fulfill the potential of His "image and likeness" and bring the glory to God for which He created us, then re-created us in Jesus Christ (Jn. 3:3).

II.   The Creation of Man

       The creation of Man (Adam and Eve) in the image and likeness of God described in Genesis 1:26-27 can be summed up with these two general principles:

1.        We are all made in the image of God. That is, we all share an identical type of spiritual essence whose most salient feature is our ability to understand, exercise and respond to authority for the purpose of being obedient and faithful stewards of God on earth.
2.        We are all made in the likeness of God. That is, we are all unique personalities with an individual responsibility to respond to God's authority (i.e., ultimate "accountability" before God for how we use that free will as individuals).

       Genesis 1:26-27 tells us of this relationship between the Creator and His creature, Man, in general terms, in Genesis 2:7, we find a detailed description of the actual event of God's specific creation of the first human being, Adam.

Genesis 2:7 (KJV)

⁷And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

       The first passage, Genesis 1:26-27, tells us primarily about the essential aspects of Man's spirit, Genesis 2:7, however, describes for us the creation of Adam's body and God's quickening of that body by infusing it with a human spirit. In Isaiah we find the purpose for which Man has been created very clearly described:

Isaiah 43:7 (KJV)

⁷Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.

       In this passage from Isaiah we see a logical progression of the creation of Adam. The human spirit is created first, then the body is formed. Finally Man is "made" through God's breathing of the spirit into the body (exactly as in the Genesis 2:7 account).

       When we look at the text of Genesis 2:7 we see that the process of creation is exactly as described. The One doing the creation is identified here as none other than "the Lord God". This is a reference to the Lord, Jesus Christ, the very One who has been chosen to lead the fight against the devil and ultimately to replace Satan as world ruler (Jn. 1:3; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2). When He does so, it will be as the God-Man, a genuine human being who also possesses a body and spirit, but in eternal union with undiminished deity.

       Everything as described in Genesis 2:7 emphasizes the true materiality of Adam's body: 1) he is created from the dust, emphasizing his material origin; 2) his body is "formed", emphasizing the moldable nature of the process and often described of the potter at work (Is. 29:16; and 3) the very name Adam, emphasizes the man's close connection with the earth from which he was made.

       It is important to note that, the material, molded, earth-connected body does not result in life. Life occurs only after the Lord God puts a "living spirit" into this newly formed body. It is only as a result of God's breathing of a human spirit (the "breath of life") into the first man, that Adam becomes a "living person". This process which was observed by angels and recorded for all of Adam's posterity, makes it very clear that 1) Adam is both a spiritual and a material being; 2) neither the human spirit nor the human body is meant to exist without the other.

James 2:26 (KJV)

²⁶For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

2 Corinthians 5:1-3 (KJV)

¹For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. ²For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: ³If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.

III.   The Human Spirit

       I think that we can look at Adam's creation and let it represent a pattern for all of us. Today our bodies are not created as Adam's was but are now formed indirectly through natural procreation and not directly by the immediate creation of God. However, the pattern is still followed even today. The body is formed first in the mother's womb, the life-giving spirit is introduced by the Lord later when the body is born and the life giving breath and living spirit is given to it. While the body is still in the womb it may move and show life but it is an extension of the mother's life. It is not an independent living person. If while still in the mother's womb the mother dies the body within her body dies also as her body dies.

Acts 17:24-25 (KJV)

²⁴God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; ²⁵Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;

       The important point for the purposes of our current discussion is that just at it was at Genesis 2:7, so in the Acts 17:24-25 passage "life" is the result of God's gift of "breath", that is, the "breath of life" which is the human spirit. Only after God places the human spirit into the body does life begin, and apart from this infusion of spirit, there is no life. Other passages of scripture confirm that human life is the result of God's imparting of a human spirit, without which the body would be dead:

        1) The human spirit is given by God:

Ecclesiastes 12:7 (KJV)

⁷Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

Isaiah 42:5 (KJV)

⁵Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:

        2) The human spirit's entrance into the body results in life:

Ezekiel 37:5-6 (KJV)

⁵Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: ⁶And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

Luke 8:54-55 (KJV)

⁵⁴And he put them all out, and took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise. ⁵⁵And her spirit came again, and she arose straightway: and he commanded to give her meat.

Revelation 11:11 (KJV)

¹¹And after three days and an half the spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.

        3) The human spirit's exit from the body results in death:

Job 34:14 (KJV)

¹⁴If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath;

Matthew 27:50 (KJV)

⁵⁰Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.

Acts 7:59 (KJV)

⁵⁹And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

       The Hebrew words used for the human spirit are ruach, literally "wind", and neshamah, literally "breath". The Greek word for the human spirit is pneuma, and is also the word used for both wind and breath. A point that Hebrew ruach and Greek pneuma have in common is that, in addition to the human spirit, they are also used in scripture to refer to the Holy Spirit or to literal wind. What is clear at this point is that wind and breath are largely invisible, though both are very real phenomena. Breath-wind thus makes a perfect analogy for the immaterial, unseen part of Man which quickens the body and results in life upon implantation, that is, the human spirit:

        a) The human spirit is who we are:

       The human spirit is more than just a life-force that animates the body; the human spirit is essentially "who we are". Our will and self-determination, our conscience, our understanding and mentality, our consciousness and self-consciousness are, while not independent of the body, essentially aspects of the particular, individual human spirit that is us. Below is a list of scripture passages touching on the human spirit in its facets, qualities and functions. Taken together, they paint a vivid picture of what the human spirit is in the Bible, namely our "inner person", the real "us". The spirit is the place of . . . . .

conscience:

Proverbs 20:27 (KJV)

²⁷The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly.

reflection:

1 Corinthians 2:11 (KJV)

¹¹For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

perception:

Mark 2:8 (KJV)

⁸And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?

refreshment:

2 Corinthians 7:13 (KJV)

¹³Therefore we were comforted in your comfort: yea, and exceedingly the more joyed we for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all.

wisdom:

Job 32:8 (KJV)

⁸But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.

willingness:

Matthew 26:41 (KJV)

⁴¹Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

will:

Acts 19:21 (KJV)

²¹After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome.

intellect:

Romans 1:9 (KJV)

⁹For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;

personality:

1 Corinthians 5:4-5 (KJV)

⁴In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁵To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

mentality:

1 Corinthians 14:14-15 (KJV)

¹⁴For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. ¹⁵What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.

growth:

Ephesians 4:23-24 (KJV)

²³And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; ²⁴And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

knowledge:

Romans 8:16 (KJV)

¹⁶The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

worship:

John 4:24 (KJV)

²⁴God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

blessing:

Ephesians 1:3 (KJV)

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

       When we die, our bodies return to the ground, but, as believers in Jesus Christ, our spirits return to the God that gave them (Rev. 7:9) to await resurrection and their entrance into a new "resurrection body". The loss of our present bodies will not change the essential facts of who we are because our real characteristics are contained in our spirit which represents the image of God for us. And the day will come when we shall receive our eternal body for which we so eagerly hope (Rom. 8:23). Our bodies are important (1Cor. 6:13), but rather than being who we are, they are properly tools for who we are, that is, for the use of our spirits to be employed in the service of God (Rom. 6:20; 2Tim. 2:20-21). We have frequently heard that "all men are created equal". This is not true because some of our bodies contain more capable tools than others. Our spirits must exist in the body to which they are assigned and they must make the best use of those bodies.

Romans 12:1 (KJV)

¹I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

1 Corinthians 6:20 (KJV)

²⁰For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (KJV)

²⁴Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. ²⁵And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. ²⁶I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: ²⁷But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

2 Corinthians 5:10 (KJV)

¹⁰For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

Philippians 1:20 (KJV)

²⁰According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.

       After the fall of Adam, however, the body often influences our spirit to do things which are displeasing to God. So, as believers in Christ, we find ourselves caught between the body's influence and the divine influence of the Holy Spirit. Our spirits thus face the choice in this life of whether to follow the Holy Spirit in the service of God the Father and Jesus Christ our Lord, or instead to give in to the desires, cravings and lusts of our sinful bodies.

John 6:63 (KJV)

⁶³It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Romans 6:13 (KJV)

¹³Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

Romans 7:18 (KJV)

¹⁸For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

Romans 8:12-13 (KJV)

¹²Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. ¹³For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

Romans 13:14 (KJV)

¹⁴But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

       b) The human spirit is created by God:

       In six days, God re-established and refurbished the heavens and the earth. These may have been 24 hour days or they may have been a much longer period of time of God's choosing. But the seventh day of rest is not to be interpreted to mean that from this point forward, God no longer creates, only allowing His creation to roll along entirely on its own momentum. He still creates today.

John 5:17 (KJV)

¹⁷But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.

       The human spirit is not passed down biologically through natural procreation, nor was it "pre-made" in eternity past, then deposited in a heavenly storehouse for later implantation. The human spirit is the immediate creation of God which is given at our birth.

Numbers 16:22 (KJV)

²²And they fell upon their faces, and said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation?

Isaiah 57:16 (KJV)

¹⁶For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made.

Zechariah 12:1 (KJV)

¹The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.

1 Timothy 6:13 (KJV)

¹³I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession;

Hebrews 12:9 (KJV)

⁹Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

       c) The human spirit is implanted by God at birth:

       Adam and Eve, while not born in the manner of their offspring, do demonstrate the pattern of God's creation of every human life. Adam's body was formed by the Lord from the dust of the ground and then the Lord breathed into his nostrils the "life-giving breath". It was as a result of this implantation of the human spirit by the Lord that Adam became "a living person". Eve's body was formed from Adam's, and though we are not told we assume a similar "breath of life" was given to her also. For all human beings since, however, the process of physical birth has been the means of producing and providing bodies for us all. Along with physical death, physical birth forms the first of the two natural end points of human life that scripture takes for granted from Genesis to Revelation (Gen. 4:1; Job 3:11; Eccl. 3:2; 7:1; Rev. 12:2). As the spirit departs from every human being at death (Eccl. 12:7), so it is implanted in the body of every human being at physical birth. And just as it is the departure of the spirit which results in death (Acts 7:59), so it is the implantation of the spirit that quickens the new born, making him or her a "living independant person" after the fashion of Adam and Eve.

       Therefore I believe that the development of the body in the womb is for us what the Lord's formation of Adam's body from the dust was for him. Birth is then the point at which God instills us with the breath of life and we become an independent living being. That point is the same point in which God breathed the breath of life into Adam in his case. The case of the first Adam was unique; he is the only person whose body was formed by the Lord from the dust of the ground. In the case of the last Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ, the taking on of true humanity by undiminished deity is the most unique event that has ever transpired in the history of the universe. His conception and physical birth was also unique, for He was conceived and born of a virgin by the power of the Holy Spirit. I believe that His physical birth was also different than we experience today because some of the uncanonized scriptures indicate that Mary, the virgin mother of Jesus, still had the properties of a virgin even after Jesus was born. I don't think that this is surprising since we remember in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned God told Eve that from that day on the woman would be required to endure much more discomfort and pain with child birth. If this is so, how did God plan for women to give birth prior to that time? We are not told but I wonder if He didn't allow Jesus to be born physically in accordance with His original plan. In any case after Jesus was born and received the breath of life from God, the remainder of his earthly life followed the same pattern as all human lives follow. The Scriptures tell us that as a child Jesus grew in wisdom and stature just as any other child. He came to share in our humanity so as to rescue us from the common fate of wrath that was our lot through our descent from Adam, and so His life had to be after the pattern which we all have in common. He received a genuine human spirit at His birth and lived His life in the identical conditions, experiencing joy, pain and sorrow just as we do. He endured the same daily challenges that all humans endure but did so in the perfect will of His Father.

Hebrews 10:5 (KJV)

⁵Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:

Hebrews 10:7 (KJV)

⁷Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.

       Though His body was conceived by the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ began His human life just like we all do: at birth. This explains why at Matthew 1:20-21 the angel tells Joseph "that which has been engendered in her is from the Holy Spirit, and she will give birth to a Son", and why at Luke 1:35 Gabriel tells Mary "the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; for this very reason that which is being born will be called holy, the Son of God". Both the grammar of these passages (Greek neuters: "that which") and the prophecies here which are both primarily concerned with the birth of Christ, make it clear that it is not His conception, but His birth that is our Lord's point of entrance into the world after the pattern by which we have all entered it: the physical birth of our bodies followed by God's breathing into us of our human spirit. The star of Bethlehem and the angelic chorus that herald His arrival are celebrating not His conception but His birth (Lk. 2:8-20), the point when He first drew breath as a human being (Phil. 2:6-7; Heb. 2:14), for that is the point at which the Father brought His Son "into the world".

Hebrews 1:6 (KJV)

⁶And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.

Job 33:4 (KJV)

⁴The spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.

       Let us once again return to the analogy of breathing. Recall that "breath" or "wind" is the basic meaning of both the Greek and Hebrew words for spirit pneuma and ruach respectively. Breathing is a function of our physical life that only occurs after birth and ends with death. Breath, a manifestation of physical life which is coexistent with that life, is therefore the perfect symbol and analogy for the life that begins at birth, when God puts our human spirit into our body and ends at death, when that same spirit leaves our body. This is why Jesus, to explain our need for eternal life, told us we must be born again (not "conceived again"), for birth is the point where life begins by means of an act of God, whether it be the first or the second birth (Jn. 3:3).

       Thus it is the human spirit that is all-important, not this flesh that profits nothing because it will not long endure in its present form. But the body is the battleground whereon this battle we wage against the "principalities and powers" of Satan is being fought out (Eph. 6:12). We have mentioned that the human spirit will of necessity follow either the sinful flesh (influenced by the devil's world and all that is in it) or the Holy Spirit. In order to fully understand the mechanics of this process, we must first consider a subject that we have so far deliberately avoided: the so-called "soul".

IV.   The Dichotomy of Man

       Probably no concept has been responsible for greater misunderstanding of what the Bible actually has to say about the constitution of Man than that of the soul as a supposed third element in that constitution. For the Bible does not describe Man as a trichotomous being (composed of body, "soul" and spirit), but rather as a dichotomous one (body and spirit being the only two discrete elements of his nature).

       a) Definition and Etymology:

       All other things being equal, "soul", our word for something spiritual, immaterial and animating, would not be a bad translation for the Greek pneuma or the Hebrew ruach (both of which we have translated as "spirit" above). The problem is that while "soul" could be a synonym for the human spirit (ruach and pneuma), it is misleading as a translation for the Hebrew and Greek words that are most often used to speak of individuality or personality. For while there is no third, distinct element in Man's constitution (and nothing in the Bible teaches that there is), translating the words as "soul" (an unfortunately common occurrence in the English versions), strongly (and wrongly) implies that there is just such an additional separate part to our human makeup.

       When the Lord first breathed a human spirit into Adam's newly formed body, the result was that he (Adam) became a "living being". As is obvious from the context of Genesis 2:7 (and other commentary on this passage from the Bible itself: 1Cor. 15:45), this phrase refers to the whole person of Adam as now being alive (something that was not true before the Lord gave him a spirit). Thus the words "living being" cannot refer to some third part of Adam's constitution, for this phrase visualizes Adam as a whole and cannot in the context be limited to one part of him (i.e., the verse says "he became a living being/person", not "he also then acquired a soul [in addition to his body and spirit]" or anything of the sort).

       I am reminded of the following example: I have some pieces of wood and some nails. What do I have at that point? Just a pile of sticks and a pile of nails. But if I properly form the sticks into a specific shape and I take the nails and apply them in the right places my sticks and nails become a box. Do I have three things now? No, I still only have sticks and nails, but have so combined them to create a box. What happens if I pull out the nails and lay them aside and lay the sticks aside? Do I still have a box? No, the box has ceased to exist. I think that the same analogy applies to the body (sticks) and the spirit (nails). The soul or living being (box) exists only when there is a combination of the body and spirit.

Genesis 2:7 (KJV)

⁷And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

       Two elements are clearly present here: 1) the body, formed from the earth; 2) the spirit, breathed into the body by the Lord. The result of the combination of body and spirit is that the first man "became a living person". Notice that the verse does not say that the Lord also created a soul/person as some third, distinct element. Quite the contrary. When the two true elements of Man's constitution combine, he becomes a soul/person. That is why wherever the word nephesh is used in the Old Testament, and wherever the word psyche is used in the New Testament, one can almost invariably translate these words "person" or "individual" or "self" (or make use of some other personal pronoun) in place of the misleading "soul" (compare the KJV renderings of the following: Prov. 19:8; Is. 32:6; Acts 7:14; 1Pet. 3:20):

Leviticus 4:2 (KJV)

²Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the LORD concerning things which ought not to be done, and shall do against any of them:

       As it is used in the Bible, the term "soul" always has the entire person in view. This is also why the Bible consistently distinguishes between the real inner person and the body which houses it as the only two discrete parts of the divinely created human nature. I think that this concept is difficult for many to accept because they were erroneously taught even at an early age that people have souls which are a special part of us. As a very young child I remember memorizing the following pray which I said at bedtime:

       As we have just seen this little prayer conveys an erroneous message but would likely leave an everlasting impression upon a young child and would influence his thinking as he grew into an adult.

Matthew 10:28 (KJV)

²⁸And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

John 2:21 (KJV)

²¹But he spake of the temple of his body.

2 Corinthians 12:2-4 (KJV)

²I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. ³And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) ⁴How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

       Being creatures who possess both body and spirit, it is also true that these two parts of our nature are intimately related. As we have suggested above the human spirit is, at present, limited in its capabilities of expression because of the limitations of our present bodies (Matt. 26:41). Currently, our spirit has to work through our body (which is constantly struggling against the human spirit's will). For these reasons, the writers of scripture frequently refer to people in terms of the whole person, in which case the word "soul" is often the term of choice. But it is critical to understand that by "soul", the entire human being, body and spirit, is meant - the one thing that "soul" never means in scripture is the immaterial part of Man exclusively.

Hebrews 4:12 (KJV)

¹²For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

       Just as the marrow cannot normally be separated from the bone without destroying life (especially from the 1st century A.D. perspective), so the spirit is, for all practical purposes, one with the life it enjoys in the body.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 (KJV)

²³And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

       "Life", or "soul" is here sandwiched in between the spirit and the body, because "life" (or "soul") is the result of body and spirit being combined by the Lord (Gen. 2:7). Only in this union of spirit and body, complete and intact, can there be a "living soul", a "living being".

1 Corinthians 15:45 (KJV)

⁴⁵And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

       For Adam and for us, the body is attuned to the "soul" or "physical life" we now lead, but when we follow Christ in resurrection, it will be attuned to the human spirit and to the eternal life that we shall live with Him forever. In the verses that precede and follow 1st Corinthians 15:45, Paul explains this principle, and so I think it is worth our while to quote the passage at length:

1 Corinthians 15:42-49 (KJV)

⁴²So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: ⁴³It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: ⁴⁴It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. ⁴⁵And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. ⁴⁶Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. ⁴⁷The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. ⁴⁸As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. ⁴⁹And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

       The body is a home for the spirit, and this body we now inhabit is more "soulish" (i.e., more attuned to the physical life we now lead), while the resurrection body will be more attuned to our spirit, giving our spirit much greater rein than we can now even imagine for our service to and appreciation of the Lord.

1 Corinthians 13:12 (KJV)

¹²For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

       b) The heart: interface between body and spirit:

       The word "soul" is not the only biblical word that refers to the whole person, a combination of spirit and body into a living human being. The word "heart" likewise refers to the human being as a unity, but with a special twist: the Scriptures use the term "heart" to refer to the whole person from an internal point of view, focusing on and encompassing all the facets of the inner life (e.g., mentality, volition, emotion, conscience, etc.).

Proverbs 19:21 (KJV)

²¹There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.

       The "heart", then is the Bible's word for the interface between the body and the spirit. That is to say, when scripture mentions the "heart", it is referring to the inner spiritual, mental and emotional functioning of our person, of our human spirit thinking, planning, emoting, deciding, all through the apparatus of the body (via the brain, the mind, etc.). In our present constitution, the body is a tool for our spirit's expression. For example, genetic, developmental and environmental factors have a great deal to do with our current capacity for thought and memory, for emotional control and expression, in a way that will not be true of our resurrection body. When that great day of our resurrection arrives, we shall no longer be subject to the limitations and the temptations of the home we now inhabit. But as things stand now, here in this present body of corruption, the limitations are severe, and the temptations intense. "Heart" is the essence of our inner selves, where only God can know our true thoughts, our true motives.

Jeremiah 17:9-10 (KJV)

⁹The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? ¹⁰I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

       As to the term heart, in Hebrew, Greek and English, it does refer in secular usage to the physical organ that pumps life-sustaining blood throughout our physical bodies. Its selection as the "pith" of who and what we are as individuals is, therefore, no accident. As the queen among our bodily organs, at the center of our physical being, and inextricably bound up with the circulation of the blood, a fluid recognized from earliest times as essential to our continued physical existence, the "heart" was a natural choice to designate our inner person. "Blood is the [symbol of] the life-soul" (Deut. 12:23) - physical life, that is, and it is in the heart that we generally imagine this life to be concentrated. This is why Old Testament scriptures connect the blood with the "soul" (Gen. 9:4): when the blood flows out, so does the physical part of life, just as when the breath-spirit departs, so does the spiritual part of life. We can see the end of the physical life in the blood spilled upon the ground, but the spirit's departure is invisible.

Ecclesiastes 3:21 (KJV)

²¹Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?

2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (KJV)

⁴(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) ⁵Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

Romans 7:23 (KJV)

²³But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

1 John 3:20 (KJV)

²⁰For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.

c) The word "soul" used as a synonym for "heart":

       Finally, it is necessary to point out that there are times when instead of "heart", the center of the "living being" we now are (thanks to the union of our spirit and our body), writers of scripture employ "soul" as a term synonymous to "heart". This development is common enough in literature. In the case of the use of "soul" for "heart", the whole of our "living person"("soul") is substituted for the nucleus of that person (i.e., our "heart", where all thoughts, emotions, decisions and pangs of conscience occur). Problems of interpretation only arise if one mistakenly takes this common literary device to mean that somehow the "soul" is a separate entity of our makeup (rather than the entire "being" we have seen it to be, encompassing our body and spirit in a living union):

Deuteronomy 6:5 (KJV)

⁵And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul (i.e., your whole person), and with all thy might.

Proverbs 23:7 (KJV)

⁷For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.

V.   The Creation of Eve

       Up until now we have been speaking of mankind in the generic sense, "Man" with a capital "m", a term which comprises both genders of our species. Before we move on to the original status of our first parents in the garden of Eden along with their temptation, fall and judgment, we must first consider what the Bible has to say about the creation of Eve and its implications. To appreciate the nature of Satan's attack on Adam and Eve and the consequences of their sin to all subsequent relations between men and women, it is first necessary to understand that the status of the relationship between the first man and the first woman in paradise before the fall was very different from what would exist when they had been expelled from the garden of Eden after the fall:

Genesis 2:18-24 ((KJV)

¹⁸And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. ¹⁹And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. ²⁰And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. ²¹And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; ²²And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. ²³And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. ²⁴Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

       As it was with Adam, so the creation of Eve's body is unique. Neither of our first parents were born, Adam's body being formed from the dust of the ground and Eve's constructed from part of Adam's. In terms of her inner essence, however, that is to say her human spirit, we have no additional information given in the passage above. What we do have, however, is the statement in Genesis 1:27 that delineates the creation of the spiritual essence of both Adam and Eve:

Genesis 1:26-27 (KJV)

²⁶And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. ²⁷So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

       Verse twenty-six clearly applies to all human beings, so that we may say that all mankind in a corporate sense must possess the image and likeness of God, and, consequently, the mandate to respond to God's authority. Neither of these verses supply any basis for finding spiritual differences between men and women. It must be assumed, therefore, that the human spirits of men and women are exactly the same, and that the mention of male and female categories in the following verse is strictly a reference to our respective bodies.

       The first point (that of identical spiritual essence between men and women) is easily supported by scripture. In Christ, a spiritual relationship, there is "no male or female" (Gal. 3:28); men and women are equally "fellow heirs of the gift of eternal life" (1Pet. 3:7); and, in eternity, both are relieved of the institution of marriage with its respective biblical roles (Matt. 22:30). We may also make a persuasive "argument from silence" and add that in all the passages of the Bible that speak of our hope, our resurrection and reward, one searches in vain for any evidence of significant distinction between men and women in eternity based on gender.

       As joint possessors of an identical spiritual essence, men and women thus both have the same opportunity and the same responsibility of responding to God's authority in an appropriate way (i.e., we each have both the "image" and the "likeness" of God to which the opportunity of free will and the responsibility of free will correspond respectively). In Eden, a perfect world without sin, we have every reason to believe that the issue of relative authority between Adam and Eve was in fact a non-issue because of the absence of sin and the perfect circumstances of Eden. It is only after the fall that the relationship between husband and wife comes to turn on the issue of relative authority. Just as the male role was altered by the fall (i.e., Satan usurped Man's rulership over the earth and the perfection of Eden was replaced with the toil and hardship of this present world), so also the female role was changed dramatically in respect to authority relationships. For this reason, scripture is careful neither to deny woman's spiritual equality, nor to minimize the post-fall authority of the husband despite her spiritual equality evident in the Genesis account. For before God we are all equal, but in this present corrupt body, we all find ourselves under various forms of authority, all ultimately delegated by God, and our proper response to that authority is intimately connected to the spiritual conflict that now rages unseen all around us (Eph. 6:11-12):

1 Corinthians 11:8-12 (KJV)

⁸For the man is not of the woman: but the woman of the man. ⁹Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. ¹⁰For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. ¹¹Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord. ¹²For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God.

       This passage clearly affirms what we have stated above, namely, that there are two ways of looking at this issue which are only superficially contradictory. Creation teaches both of these principles: 1) the authority of the husband over the wife; and 2) the equality of men and women before God. Paul switches the order in which these two principles are treated in Genesis 1:26-27. He first reproves the Corinthian woman for tearing and disheveling their hair in mourning after the pagan manner . Using the priority of creation as an argument for their obedience on this point, Paul argues that such a practice dishonors their husbands by effacing the symbol of respect they are due by this priority of creation (1Tim. 2:13). However, having established the obligation for the Corinthian women to respond to their husbands' authority on this point of abuse, he is quick to anticipate the false conclusion that men are somehow "better" than women in the eyes of God. In truth, he tells us, we are all equal "in the Lord", with absolutely no advantage accruing to the male gender, nor any disadvantage to the female gender. This lesson too, Paul reminds us, is taught by the natural order of creation: since neither men nor women can exist without the other, it stands to reason that God does not place a premium on either gender. And in fact, all things originate from the creative hand of God, so that neither gender has any grounds for boasting -- all of us are subordinate to God's authority. Whatever authority a husband has over a wife, an employer over an employee, a government official over a citizen, a pastor over a member of his congregation, all these forms of authority have been delegated by God for His own wise and sovereign purposes, and it is well to remember that there is not a man nor a woman who is not subject to many forms of God's delegated authority as long as he or she continues in this present life. The predominate reason for the current distinction in authority between the sexes is the marriage relationship and the obligations it places upon both parties, but in eternity, there will be "no marrying nor giving in marriage" (Matt. 22:30).

       The present status quo of authority distinctions in the institution of marriage will not exist in eternity, where there will be no corruption and no marriage. The relationship between the first husband and wife in Eden, however, occupies a middle ground between our present circumstances and our future hope. There was marriage in paradise (and certain central points of that marriage relationship continue today as they were in the beginning: Matt. 19:3-9). But the specific delineation of the husband's authority over the wife which we find stated in principle in Genesis chapter three (and spelled out in detail in the New Testament epistles: Eph. 5:21-33; Col. 3:18-19) was apparently lacking for the simplest of all possible reasons: it was unnecessary.