Man: his creation, calling and Communion - Chambers, Oswald
Chapter II Man: his creation, calling and Communion
Man’s Making
1. The man of gods making (genesis 2:425)
(a) the image of god ( john 4:24)
(b) the image of god in angels (genesis 6:2; psalm 89:6; job 1:6; job 38:7) (c) the image of god in man (genesis 1:26; psalm 8:45)
2. The manner of mans making ( john 1:3) (a) mans body (genesis 2:7) (b) mans soul (acts 17:28) (c) mans self-consciousness (proverbs 20:27; 1 Corinthians 2:11)
N. B. Visible creations that surround man are not in the image of god. S ome notes will be given on the appearances of angels in our material universe. Some notes also on the human representations of god.
1. The man of gods making (genesis 2:425) gods heart is, so to speak, at rest now that he has created man.
(a) The image of god
God is a spirit. ( john 4:24) this is a mountain-peak text which reveals a whole tableland of gods revelation about himself.
(b) The image of god in angels
Now there was a day when the sons of god came to present themselves before the lord, and Satan came also among them. ( job 1:6; see also genesis 6:2; psalm 89:6; job 38:7) the phrase sons of god in the old testament always refers to angels, and we have to find out from the context whether they are fallen angels or not. Angels have no physical frame, they are not like man, and they are not manifested after this order of things; since, however, they are called sons of god, the inference is clear that they bear the image of god.
(c) The image of god in man
And god said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness. (genesis 1:26; see psalm 8:45) in its primary reference the image of god in man is to the hidden or interior life of man. The image of god in man is primarily spiritual, yet it has to be manifested in his body also. Thou hast made him but little lower than god (RV) or than the angels (psalm 8:5). Mans chief glory and dignity is that he was made of the earth, earthy to manifest the image of god in that substance. We are apt to think that to be made of the earth is our humiliation, but it is the very point of which gods word makes most. God formed man of the dust of the ground, and the redemption is for the dust of the ground as well as for mans spirit. Mans body before he degenerated must have been dazzling with light. We get this by inference from genesis 3:7, and the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. Man was obviously naked before his disobedience, and the death of his union with god was instantly revealed in his body. (we shall deal with this point in the next chapter. )
from these revelation facts in gods book, men have reasoned backwards; they have said that because men have bodies, therefore god has a corporeity too. This error began centuries ago and is continually being revived. The bible does speak of the form of god who, being in the form of god (Philippians 2:6); but the error has arisen from our too read- ily inferring that form means physical body. In the old testament there are allusions over and over again to what is called the anthropomorphic view of god; that is, god is represented as having hands and limbs and looking like a man, and from this it is easy to draw the inference that god has a body like man. All these old testament pictures of god are forecasts of the incarnation. There are passages in the book of Isaiah which reveal apparently conflicting statements about god, he is represented in many contradictory phrases; but all these contradictions blend in that unique being, Jesus Christ, the last Adam.
The great triune god has form, and the term that is used for describing that form is glory. And now, o father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which i had with thee before the world was ( john 17:5). Our word trinity is an attempt to convey the externally disclosed divine nature, and glory is the bible term for conveying the idea of the external form of that triune being.
This will be alluded to several times in the course of our studies in biblical psychology, and we shall thus become familiar with this profound revelation. ) god is sometimes referred to as the sun, but the sun is never stated to be made in the image of god, although there are illustrations of god in gods book drawn from the sun. But nowhere, is it stated that god made the sun in his own image. In the bible record angels certainly did appear to men. We may take it from the revealed facts in gods word that angels have the power of will to materialise and to appear to human beings when human beings are in suitable subjective conditions. This power is given to good and bad angels alike. It is probably to this that Paul refers Ephesians 6:12: for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. This inference is a great guide in regard to spiritualism. Spiritualism, according to the bible, is not a trick; it is a fact. Man can communicate with beings of a different order from his own, and can put himself into a state of subjectivity in which angels can appear.
2. The manner of mans making
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. ( john 1:3)
God did not create man by direct fiat; he moulded him by his own deliberate power (see genesis 1:26 27). A common mistake is to infer that the soul was made along with the body; the bible says that the body was created prior to the soul. Mans body was formed by god of the dust of the ground; which means that man is constituted to have affinity with everything on this earth. This is not mans calamity but his peculiar dignity. We do not further our spiritual life in spite of our bodies, but in and by means of our bodies. Then we read that god breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul, i. E. , a soul-enlivened nature. There is another breathing mentioned in john 20:22, when our risen lord breathed on the disciples and said, receive ye the holy ghost. This has not the same meaning as genesis 2:7, where god breathed into mans nostrils the breath of life which became, not gods spirit, but mans. Jesus Christ breathed into his disciples holy spirit, and mans spirit became energised by the spirit of the son of god. When god breathed into mans nostrils the breath of life, man did not become a living god, he became a living soul. Consequently in man, regenerate or degenerate, there are three aspects spirit, soul and body. The uniting of men personality, spirit, soul and body, may be brought about in various ways. The bible reveals that sensuality will do it (Ephesians 5:5); that drunkenness will do it (ephesians 5:18); and that the devil will do it (Luke 11:21); but the holy spirit alone will do it rightly, this is the only true at-onement. When our personality is sanctified,
it is not gods spirit that is sanctified, it is our spirit. And 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 (1 Thessalonians 5:23). Pauls injunction to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit refers to mans spirit. Gods in breathing into mans nostrils the breath of life called into actual existence his soul, which was potentially in the body, i. E. , existing in possibility. Mans soul is neither his body nor his spirit, it is that creation which holds his spirit and his body together, and is the medium of expressing his spirit in his body. It is not true to state that mans soul moulds his body; it is his spirit that moulds his body, and soul is the medium his spirit uses to express itself. It is impossible for us to conceive what Adam was like as god made him his material body instinct with spiritual light, his flesh in the likeness of god, his soul in absolute harmony with god, and his spirit in the image of god. In the personal life of a man who has fallen away from god, his soul and his spirit gravitate more and more to the dust of the earth, more and more to the brutish life on one side and the satanic life on the other. The marvellous revelation is that in and through Jesus Christ, our personality in its three aspects of body, soul and spirit, is sanctified and preserved blameless in this dispensation; and in another dispensation, body, soul and spirit will be instinct with the glory of god.
Whenever an old testament character succeeded in perfectly doing gods will, earth seemed to lose its hold on him, e. G. , Enoch, Elijah. Again, why did not Jesus Christ go straight back to heaven from the mount of transfiguration? He was standing in the full blaze and glory of his prein carnate glory; but he emptied himself (rv) a second time of the glory of god, and came down from the mount to the humiliation of the cross. When Jesus Christ comes again, those who are saved and sanctified will be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye; all disharmony will cease and a new order will begin.
What does glorification mean? Adam is never spoken of as being glorified in the first decades of creation. Glorification is Christ enthroned in fullness of consummating power, when having subdued all things unto himself, he enters back into absolute deity as in the beginning before any creations were See 1 Corinthians 15:28).
That is where our vocabulary will not go. To sum up: god made man in his own image and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became, not a living god, but a living soul, a soul-enlivened nature; his whole bodily temple, every corpuscle of blood, every nerve, every sinew, was the temple which could manifest harmony with god, i. E. , manifest the image of god in the form of man, through faith and love. The angels can manifest the image of god only in bodiless spirits; only one being can manifest god on this earth, and that is man. Satan thwarted gods purpose, and then laughed his devilish laugh against god, but the bible says that god will laugh last. The lord shall laugh at him: for he seeth that his day is coming (psalm 37:13).