In the foregoing messages on the believers we have covered the believers’ status, designations, and symbols. These three matters all deal with what the believers are. Because the believers are a certain kind of person, they have a particular status, they are designated in definite ways, and they are symbolized by many different kinds of things. We come now to the believers’ life.
The life of the believers is in three stages: the stage of creation, the stage of the fall, and the stage of God’s salvation. We were created by God, we became fallen, and then we were saved. We have one kind of life in creation, another kind in the fall, and a third kind in God’s salvation. Therefore, as we consider our life as believers, we need to keep in mind that we have passed through the three stages of creation, fall, and salvation. Let us now consider the believers’ life in these three stages.
In God’s creation our life is a created life (Acts 17:26). Therefore, in creation we have not an uncreated life but a created life. When God created Adam, He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and Adam became a living soul (Gen. 2:7). In this way Adam obtained the created life of man.
As the Creator, God is the source of man. First, God used the dust to form man’s physical body, and then He breathed into that body the breath of life, which caused the body to become alive. As a result, man became a living soul. In Genesis 2:7 there is the strong indication that human life came from God. In this sense man was not only created by God but also produced by God. We are not told in the Scriptures that God breathed the breath of life into animals. Only in creating man did He breathe into man the breath of life. Proverbs 20:27 uses for “spirit” the same Hebrew word rendered “breath” in Genesis 2:7. This reveals that the breath of life breathed into man by God is the element of man’s spirit. Actually, this breath of life became man’s spirit. The point we are emphasizing here is that the Bible indicates clearly that man was produced by God. We do not say that in creation man was born of God, but we do say confidently that man was produced by Him. God formed man’s body, breathed into man the breath of life, and man became a living soul.
Immediately after man was created by God, in God’s eyes he was “very good” (Gen. 1:31) and “upright” (Eccl. 7:29). Therefore, the created life of man was originally good and upright. It was not only without sin but also without the knowledge of sin and the consciousness of shame. It was innocent and pure. Although this life was pure, it did not contain the element of God’s life.
Since our life in God’s creation is a created life, it is also a human life (Acts 17:25b-26), not a divine life. Furthermore, because our created life is human and not divine, it is a temporary life. Hence, in creation we have a created life, a human life, and a temporary life, not an uncreated life, a divine life, and an eternal life.
Our human life does not come merely from our parents; it comes from God’s creation. Our human life was created when Adam was created, not when we were born of our parents.
The human life created by God does not have the life and nature of God; however, the created human life does bear the image of God (Rom. 5:14; cf. 2 Cor. 4:4b). In God’s creation our life is a life of bearing God’s image.
Genesis 1:26 says, “God said, Let us make man in our image.” Colossians 1:15 and 2 Corinthians 4:4 both say that the image of God is Christ. Christ is the image of the invisible God. Because man was created in the image of God and the image of God is Christ, man was created in the image of Christ. In Genesis 1:26 God says, “Let us make man in our image,” but verse 27 says, “God created man in his own image.” Here “his own image” refers to the image of Christ. Therefore, man was made in the image of Christ.
Romans 5:14 says that Adam, the first man, was a “type of the coming One,” that is a type, a figure, of Christ. If we take a photograph of a person, that photograph is the figure, or type, of the person. We may say that Adam as a type of Christ was a photograph of Christ. Christ is the image of God, and Adam was a picture of Christ. As a photograph is the expression of a certain image, so man was made to be the expression of the image of God, which is Christ.
It is a very significant matter that the created human life is a life bearing the image of God, and we need to consider this in more detail. In the Scriptures the word “image” is used to refer to God’s being. Second Corinthians 4:4 says that Christ is the image of God, Colossians 1:15 tells us that Christ is “the image of the invisible God,” and Hebrews 1:3 reveals that Christ is “the effulgence of His glory and the express image of His substance.” Christ, the embodiment of God, is God’s image. Furthermore, according to the Bible, the image of God is related to His duplication. For man to be created in the image of God means that he was made in such a way that he could become God’s duplication. God created man in His own image with the intention that man would become His duplication. Since God created man for the purpose of man’s becoming His duplication, and since this purpose is indicated by the use of the word image in Genesis 1 we may go on to say that the word image implies the capacity to contain God. In order for man to be a duplication of God, he must have the ability to contain God. The man created in God’s image was to be God’s container. Because man was made to be such a container, there was the need for him to have the capacity to receive God as his content and to contain this content.
If we would understand the significance of the created human life being a life bearing God’s image, we need to realize that this involves the divine attributes and the human virtues. The Bible tells us that God is love and light (1 John 4:8; 1:5). Love is the nature of God’s essence, and light is the nature of God’s expression. The Bible also reveals that God is righteous and holy. God is righteous in His doings and holy in His nature. Therefore, God is love and light, and He is righteous and holy. God’s image is depicted by these four words: love, light, righteous, and holy. These are God’s attributes.
Because man was made in God’s image, man has love and light and the capacity to be righteous and holy. For God to create man in His image means that He created man with the capacity to have His love, light, righteousness, and holiness. Human love, light, righteousness, and holiness are what we call the human virtues. God created man in His image in such a way that man has the ability to contain God’s love, light, righteousness, and holiness. The human virtues were created by God to contain His attributes. This means that human love, light, righteousness, and holiness are created capacities to contain the divine love, light, righteousness, and holiness. The point here is that man has these virtues because he was created in God’s image, in the image of God’s love, light, righteousness, and holiness. The human virtues created by God are the capacity to contain God’s attributes. Therefore, God created the human life to be a life bearing the image of God.
If Adam had eaten of the tree of life and thereby had taken God into him as life, he would have been filled with God, and his human virtues would have been filled with God’s attributes. As we know, Adam fell by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil instead of the tree of life, thereby taking into him the life of Satan.