We’re going to do a deep dive into the creation of man so we can gain some insight into our nature.  Paul says the world by its wisdom doesn’t know God.  Well the same is true as it pertains to humanity.  The world by its wisdom doesnt know what it is to be human.  

Psa 139:6  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. 

We can’t know ourselves apart from God who created us.  The creation story is a kind of user manual for our humanity.  Its an education in human life.  It tells us what we are and why we are.  The creation of man is a lesson about the purpose for which you were born.  It helps you to grow in wisdom and stature, and intimacy with God and man.  

Gen 1:26  And 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.

Let us make the human being in our image.  Let them have, by their creation, that which is according to the image.  Let them also come to be according to our likeness through the faculties we gave them when we made them in our image … What we are is the image of God and why we are is for the likeness of God …… What we are is the image of God and why we are is for the purpose of communion with the Father, Son, and Spirit.  Thats how we see God in our flesh.

The part of us that is the image of God resides primarily in the soul (not the body).  God didnt have flesh at the time he said let us make man.  Jesus says in John 4:24 God is Spirit and seeks those who worship him in spirit and truth.  The Word, John says was in the beginning, thats interpreted Logos in the Greek, is the image we are created to reflect.  Paul says Christ is the image of the invisible God.  It’s our soul and spirit that possess the mind/intellect, free will, creativity, and the capacity for self-knowledge and knowledge of God.  It’s our rational, noetic(mind/way of thinking) capacity that reflects the Logos, who is the divine Reason, Wisdom, and ordering principle of creation. Christ is the Word; the mind; the wisdom; the Logos, the reasoning of God.  God created humanity in the image of His Logos so we can participate in the divine life.  God gave us the ability to be able to reason and think and contemplate; so we can have the capacity in our nature to be possessed of the mind of Christ; and be able to partake of the everlasting communion of Father, Son, and Spirit.  

Thats not to despise our flesh, or count our bodies as common, or irrelevant.  Quite the contrary.  Our bodies were made to see God.  They were made for Gods likeness.  God made our bodies from the material world.  He made our bodies from the dust of the ground to give us rule and dominion over the earth and over every living thing on the earth.  Thats how we can subdue the earth.  It’s a function of our nature.  

Let us make man in our image; the image of the Logos; the image of the invisible God; the only begotten Son.  That through them being made in the image of the Logos they will have the capacity in their nature to commune with us and see our likeness in their flesh.  And let us make man in such a way, that as a function of their nature they will have dominion over the earth and every living thing in the earth; so that through them having communion with us, seeing our likeness in their flesh, the whole earth and every living thing in the earth will partake with them in our communion, being deified along with them.  

Gen 2:4  These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,
Gen 2:5  And 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.
Gen 2:6  But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
Gen 2:7  And 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.

This gives us a closer look at how God made man.  From the dust of the ground God formed our bodies.  He made our bodies from the substance of the earthy things so dominion and rule over the earth would be part of our nature.  And by God breathing His own breath into our nostrils; the breath of life; He created within us a rational and understanding soul, which is the divine image of the Logos.  The soul does not preexist the body and the body does not preexist the soul.  As God was forming the body from the dust He was simultaneously breathing into our nostrils the breath of life.  

Our nature is conceived as two fold, made up of the visible man, the body, and the hidden man, the soul and spirit.  Paul describes the nature of human as two fold when he tells us about the inward man and the outward man in 2 Cor 4:16.  Both the soul and the spirit are the inward man.  They were both conceived in man by the Breath of God.  I would say the spirit, which is also translated as the “mind” or “way of thinking” is the highest part of the human soul, and the faculty by which man knows God and enters into communion with Him.  St John Damascene says … the soul does not have the spirit as something distinct from itself, but as its purest part, for as the eye is to the body, so is the spirit to the soul.  The spirit dwells in the depths of the soul.  

So there’s two distinct parts of us, but we don’t divide ourselves up as if we are two different creatures.  We are one human being with two distinct parts that are inseparably bound together.  It’s like the union we see between God and man in the person of Christ Jesus.  We are fearfully and wonderfully made for communion with God and creation.  There’s nothing else in Creation quite like us.  We are both material and immaterial, having a soul and spirit, and a physical body.  We have the capacity within our nature to be joined with God and the earth. By the grace of God we possess the capacity within our nature for communion with both the material and immaterial; the earthly and the heavenly.  Our bodies are one with the earthly realm, but they are also one with our souls.  Our souls are situated between God and the physical creation.  They have the power and ability to be connected to both.  We are made as temples so we can be a sort of doorway or portal through which God invades the material world.  We are earthen vessels, made to be the resting place of God, the place where heaven and earth collide and are made one.  Us in the earth and the earth in us, and God in us, and us in Him.  We see this in the incarnation of the Word.  Heaven and earth collided and were made one through God the Son being born as man.  

Man was made an earthen vessel, possessing a soul with a spirit.  Each having unique properties to help move us towards God.  The soul and the body were given to us as gifts so we can feel after God, so we can desire God, and through that be moved towards Him, as the apostle Paul says in Acts 17 “if haply we may find Him”.  

The soul and the spirit possess the capacity for the Logos.  They possess the ability to reason and think and understand.  The body was made sensuous.  It was given senses so it can touch and see and  perceive and explore and experience things.  And then communicate back to the soul what its found.   The soul takes the information from the bodies senses and uses that information to reason and think and consider and gain wisdom and knowledge and understanding.  Thats how we grow in wisdom and stature.  Thats what develops our will and desires and wants.  Your will is born out of what you desire.  It’s born out of what you want.  You will what you desire and what you want.  And you desire and want, what you perceive and understand to be good.  

Our bodies were given to us, being sensual, for us to be able to experience what is good.  We were made with sensual bodies so we can experience the goodness of creation.  From there our bodies communicate the goodness we are experiencing to our souls.  What happens now is our souls and our spirits begin to reason about the goodness; what is this goodness we feel; where does the goodness come from; what is the source of the goodness; so that in gaining knowledge and understanding about the source of the goodness we can feel after and grab ahold of the source of the goodness.  Trainers and other health professionals tell us all the time listen to your body.  One of the reasons babies get so upset when they feel something in their bodies is because they haven’t developed enough to be able to know what it is they feel; why they feel it; and what it means that they feel it.  

The neediness of these mortal bodies was foreign to Adam and Eve before the fall.  They were in the body, but they werent burdened with bodily needs.  They didnt need anything from creation to live.  They had no natural needs as we know them … Adam didn’t know sleep outside of Gods direct action to bring forth Eve(Gods the first anesthesiologist).  Adam and Eve werent inflamed with lust.  They weren’t subject to passions because they weren’t burdened by needing sleep, or food, or water.  When Jesus said he hungered after he hadn’t eaten in 40 days, thats what it means to be subject to passions.  Adam and Eve didnt even need the covering of clothing.  They couldn’t suffer harm from the water or the fire or the wind or any of the elements.  They couldn’t fall and break a leg.  They couldnt drown or fall off a cliff and die.  The only thing that could harm them prior to the fall was if they partook of the knowledge of good and evil after God said it would kill them.  

Jesus says man doesnt live by bread alone but by every word of God.  Adam and Eve were living in the garden by the Word of God.  They were in the body prior to the fall, but their body wasnt kept by the material world/earthly realm, rather their humanity was being kept by communion with God.  Their humanity was being kept by walking with God in the cool of the day. Their senses werent set on the lower things.  Their senses were touched by the things in creation, but their senses were a type of food for the soul, causing them to reason about the source of the beauty in Creation.  Adam and Eve werent left to reason alone.  God was walking and talking with them, reasoning with them, exercising their senses, helping them grow in wisdom and stature, helping them to come to the knowledge that the everlasting communion of God is the source of all goodness, moving them towards Him to partake of Him, through partaking of the tree of life.   

Prayer