Genesis 1:26-27
Genesis 2:7, 21-22
We have already noticed that God spoke 10 times in chapter 1.
Each time He spoke something was created or made.
Genesis 1 is the actual timetable of God’s creatorial work.
Each day was characterized by some new development.
On the 5th day God created life—He made fish and fowl.
On the 6th day He created the beasts of the earth.
The same day He also created man.
Neither the fish—fowls—bests nor man were brought into being through an evolutionary process.
They were created by a definite act of God. Quote v.7.
In the 26th and 27th verses we have the general account of the creation of man.
I much prefer to believe that I am a product of God’s hand rather than having developed from the lower animals.
In Genesis 2:7 and 21-23 we have the actual creation.
Reaffirm the glorious truth that God created man in His own image.
This belief was accepted by Christ—Matthew 19:4-6.
“Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning created them male and female.”
That man did not evolve from the lower animals is also confirmed by the unbridgeable gulf between man and beast.
Let me explain.
2:7—“And man became a living soul.”
Anyone who has watched a death-bed scene understands vividly that man has a physical body and also a soul.
At one moment the person is alive…the next he is gone.
His body is still there, but the life principle has departed: a dead corpse remains.
Man is not merely a body, but also has a soul and sprit.
The Bible teaches that a man exists as a three-fold being: body, soul and spirit.
1 Thessalonians 5:23—“And I pray God that your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The great difference between man and an animal is the fact that man has a spirit.
It is a man’s spirit that makes him God-conscious and makes it possible for him to communicate and have fellowship with God—the spirit gives us also the ability to know and reason.
Animals are not God-conscious, they are soulish, neither do they have the ability to know and reason.
Having explained to you what we believe to be involved in the term “spirit,” let us look at the word “soul.”
The soul is the seat of the emotions, passions, desires, affections and the will of man.
As a point of interest I believe the “spirit” to be the highest part of man.
If we describe man we say, “Body, soul and spirit.”
When God describes man he says “Spirit, soul and body.”
In the day that Adam sinned he died spiritually.
You shall surely die.
“Spiritual death” is the separation of the spirit from God.
When Adam sinned his spirit was not annihilated, but it was “alienated” from God.
Theologians have called this “the fall of man.”
What they mean by that is, the spirit which is the highest part of Adam’s complex being, instead of dominating him, it fell to the level of the soul and ceased to function separately.
That is why the unregenerate man is dominated by his soul, the seat of lust, passion and emotion.
In the work of regeneration the Word of God in the power of soul and spirit.”—Hebrews 4:12—“The Word of God is life-giving and powerful”, etc.
The spirit is rescued from the lower level to which it has fallen being brought back again into communion with God.
v.26—“Let us make man.”
This is the first time the word “us” is used in the creation story.
It seems that in the creation of man the supreme moment of creation had arrived.
Prior to this the earth was bathed in light—warmth.
God had clothed His handiwork in the verdant green of vegetation.
There were birds in the air—beasts and reptiles in the forests—fish in the sea.
These were brought into being by “And God said.”
The climax of all this creatorial power had arrived—the Triune God was involved—“Let us make man.”
Man was made in the image and likeness of God—v.27.
Man was distinctly different from the animals already created.
He stood on a much higher plateau.
God had created him to be immortal—man was also a creature with whom God could commune.
World dominion was given to man—Psalm 8:5-7.
“For you made him a little lower than the angels, and have crowned him with glory and honor. You made him to have dominion over the works of your hands, You have put all things under his feet. All the sheep and cattle, yea, all the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatever passes through the depth of the sea.”
This sublime creature with his unbelievable privileges ad heavy responsibilities was to live and move in kingly fashion.
Genesis 2:7—“Man was formed out of the dust of the earth.”
Genesis 2:19—The beasts and the birds were also formed out of dust.
The difference between the brute creation and man is that once God had made the body—He breathed into that body the breath of life and man became a living soul.
It is a sobering thought that we are but a handful of dust.
Whether we bury or burn the body, all that is left is dust.
One of the results of the fall of man is “dust you are, and unto dust you will return.”
What was the purpose for which God made man?
“I have created him for My glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.”—Isaiah 43:7.
The old question is, “What is the chief end of man?”
The answer, “The chief end of man is to glorify God.”
Hebrews 2:6—What is man that You are mindful of him? Or the son of man that You visit him?
As God created the original man, so God creates the new man.
John 1—“To as many as received Him”, etc. “You must be born again.”
1 Corinthians 15—“For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive.” “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation”, etc.
Romans 5—“For as by one man sin entered the world and death by sin, and so death has passed upon all men, for all have sinned.” We are sinners.
“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one man many were made righteous.”
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life”, etc.
Revelation 3:20—“Behold I stand at the door and knock.”