Day: August 22, 2021

Placing Man before Two Trees

After God made man as a duplication of Himself, He put this duplication, a living being with a spirit, soul, and body, before two trees—the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life signifies God, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil signifies Satan. According to Genesis 2:9, all the trees in the garden were pleasant to the sight, but one among these trees was particular, the tree of life. The tree of life was good for food. God warned man not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that he ate of it, he would die (v. 17). This is also a part of the history of God in creating man.

A Flowing River and Three Precious Materials

By the side of the tree of life in Genesis 2, there was a flowing river, and this flow issued in three precious materials: gold, bdellium, and onyx stone (vv. 10-12). Bdellium is a kind of pearl produced from the resin of a tree. Onyx stone is a most precious stone. We cannot fully understand the significance of these three precious materials until we read through the Bible and come to its end.

Exodus reveals that gold was the base of the breastplate of the high priest, and this breastplate was full of precious stones (28:15-21). In Matthew 13 we can see precious material once again. In this chapter the Lord Jesus first spoke of the wheat that produces the meal, the fine flour. This is good for the making of a loaf, which signifies the church, the Body of Christ. But that meal was leavened (v. 33), so the Lord followed in Matthew 13 to speak of the treasure (v. 44) and the pearls (vv. 45-46). This treasure must consist of gold or precious stones, the materials for the building of the church and the New Jerusalem (1 Cor. 3:12; Rev. 21:18-20). Pearls are also material for the building of the New Jerusalem (v. 21a).

In 1 Corinthians 3 Paul says, “You are God’s cultivated land, God’s building” (v. 9). The cultivated land, the farm, becomes the building through transformation. The believers, who have been regenerated in Christ with God’s life, are God’s cultivated land, a farm in God’s new creation to grow Christ so that precious materials may be produced for God’s building. As God’s farm, we need the watering (v. 6). This watering causes us to grow and be transformed into precious materials. Paul also says that God’s building should be built with gold, silver, and precious stones (v. 12).

In his first Epistle, Peter says that the Lord is a living stone and that we are the living stones who are being built up as a spiritual house (2:4-5). Eventually, at the end of the book of Revelation, the three materials—gold, pearls, and precious stones—are built up into a city. In the beginning of the Bible in Genesis 2, the materials are only existing there, but at the end of the Bible in Revelation 21, the materials have become a building.

The Form of Man

When God created man, He first made a form for man. This was the body of man made from dust (Gen. 2:7). The body is the form of man. Never forget that God made man with a form and that this form is a “photo” of God’s form. Man is in the form, the likeness, of God (1:26). The form of our body is marvelous. Besides God Himself, the most beautiful item in the whole universe is man’s form. Consider your eyes, your eyebrows, your nose, your lips, your ears, and even your cheeks. Man is God’s masterpiece.

The Breath of Life

Then God breathed the breath of life into man’s form (2:7). God did not breathe into any other created thing, but to create man, He breathed into man the breath of life. This breath of life was not God Himself, not the Spirit of God, but it was something out of God, something very close to God’s intrinsic being. When this breath of life got into man’s form, man became a living soul, a living, animate being with life. This is a part of God’s history.

God made a duplication of Himself with a dusty form and the inward breath of life. That breath of life became the human spirit. In Hebrew the word for breath in Genesis 2:7 is translated “spirit” in Proverbs 20:27. Thus, God’s breath of life becomes the spirit of man. The breath of life came into the body of dust, and man became a living soul with a spirit.

God was not within the man He created, but something within man, that is, the spirit of man, is very close to God. The outward form of man is from the dust, but the inner spirit is very close to God. This is why we say that man was made according to God’s kind. God is Spirit, and God made a spirit for man to contact Him (John 4:24). Because we have a part that resembles God, we can contact God through that part. God is Spirit, we have a spirit, and these two spirits are of the same kind.

Creating Man with Many Virtues

In addition, God created man with many virtues. These virtues are copies of God’s attributes. God has many attributes, but love, light, holiness, and righteousness are the four main attributes of God. God is love, God is light, God is holiness, and God is righteousness. When God created man, He made a copy of all these attributes in man’s spirit. Therefore, man is a creature with virtues. The lions and the dogs do not have virtues. Only we men have virtues. We love. We like to be in the light and not in the darkness. We also like to be separated. We do not like to be common. We like to be righteous. These virtues were all damaged by man’s fall, yet they are still here. They are the means for us to express God’s attributes.

God’s attributes eventually became the reality of man’s virtues. The attributes are the real thing; the virtues are the outward form. This may be likened to a glove and a hand. The hand, like God’s attributes, is the real thing; the glove, like the virtues, is the outward form, the covering of the hand. At our regeneration, when we were born of God, the elements of God’s attributes were born into our being, mostly into our spirit, so that we may express God in love, in light, in holiness, and in righteousness. These are God’s attributes manifested as our virtues lived out from our spirit.

Even the teachings of Confucius recognized that the highest learning develops the spirit. Man should not behave himself according to his flesh or even according to his soul or his mind. Therefore, the Bible tells us that we must walk according to our spirit (Rom. 8:4). In bodily form we resemble God because we have His likeness, and in our spirit we resemble God because we were created in His image of His attributes. Outwardly we have God’s form, and inwardly, in our spirit, we have God’s image, yet in our created state we still do not have God. God’s desire is for the man created by Him to receive Him as the tree of life.

THE CREATION OF MAN

Genesis 1 and 2 are very strange, wonderful, and mysterious in the revelation of God’s creation of man. This is a marvelous step in God’s history. God’s creation of the universe, with the heavens, the earth, and millions of items, is not as strange, wonderful, or mysterious as His creation of man. We need to consider a number of the mysteries related to God’s creation of man.

God Creating Man 
in His Image and according to His Likeness

First, God created man in His image and according to His likeness (1:26). This means that God made a duplication of Himself. He made a copy of Himself. He took a “photo” of Himself. We need a definite and accurate definition of God’s image and God’s likeness. God’s image refers to God’s inner being, and God’s likeness refers to God’s outward form. Since God is invisible, how could He have a form? This is very mysterious.

In Genesis 18 God appeared to Abraham in the form (likeness) of man. Three men came to Abraham, two of whom were angels, but the third One was Jehovah (vv. 1-2, 22; 19:1). Even at Abraham’s time, long before His incarnation, God came in the form of man. Abraham talked to God, and God had a meal with Abraham. That meal was cooked by Abraham’s wife Sarah. Abraham even served water to this wonderful man for Him to wash His feet. God was there in the form of a man. According to our “legal” mind, we would wonder how this could happen. God did not become incarnated to be a man until much later, as recorded in John 1:14. But about two thousand years before Christ’s incarnation, God appeared to man in the form of man already. This is a mystery. This shows us that no one can thoroughly understand the person of God in His Divine Trinity, but we can see all the points concerning Him in the divine record.

God has an inner being and an outward form. His inner being is actually His image constituted with all His divine attributes. God is love; God is light; God is holiness; God is righteousness; God is many items. All these items are the divine attributes. Man was made according to the inner image of God’s attributes. Even after the fall, we human beings still have the image of all the attributes of God.

God’s likeness is His outward form. Abraham saw God in the form of a man. Ezekiel and Isaiah also saw Him in such a form, sitting upon the throne (Ezek. 1:26; Isa. 6:1). God appeared in the form of man. Man’s form is a copy of God’s form. God’s form is the original, and man’s form is the duplication, the Xerox copy, of God’s form.

This is a part of the history of God, with which man is involved. In God’s history He made a duplication of Himself, a copy of Himself. This duplication of God is for the expression of the invisible God. Genesis 1 and 2 are not merely the story of man’s creation, but a full record of God’s history in making Himself a duplication.