Without elaboration we answer sonship. God wanted beings who should share His Nature and return His Love. The angels were thinking, choosing beings, but they were not created with the possibility of sonship. They could lose their original sinlessness and become sinful, but they were not created to share the Uncreated Life of God which is the essential condition for sonship. Unable to share His Nature, it follows that they would never be able to return the Uncreated Love of sons, which alone would satisfy His heart.
We read that this Uncreated Love is “shed abroad” in the hearts of God’s children (see Rom. 5:5), but we do not find a word in the Bible concerning the love of angels.
We now see that something more than personality, which may be defined as “self-consciousness plus self-direction,” is included in this expression concerning man’s creation in the image of God. He was created with a capacity for life on a higher plane. In other words, the possibility of sonship inhered in his original creation. This possibility of becoming a child of God, combined with the perception of the possibility and the power to choose the Uncreated Life of God whereby sonship would be realized, constituted man a free moral agent from the moment of his creation.
Until he should use his power of choice contrary to the perceived will of God, he would possess human righteousness and holy tendencies, but he would not be a child of God-for he would not have one spark of the Uncreated Life of God.
To sum up the foregoing, we may say that the expression concerning the creation of man in the image of God means that God bestowed upon man at his creation, intellect, sensibility, will, righteousness, conscience and the capacity for sonship.
Make very plain to the class the difference between potential sonship, which was man’s at creation, and actual sonship, which could be realized only through the use of his power of choice.
We will now consider the word “likeness.” Notice that the expression is “after,” not in His likeness. What is the likeness of God, after which this outer man was to be fashioned? We have already seen that the Eternal Son is the manifestation of God, i.e., God visualized. Long before God the Son-the Word-was “made flesh” (John 1:14) He appeared in human form again and again to human beings. Judges 13:2-22 and other passages in the Old Testament plainly reveal this fact. Now it was after this glorious form that the body was modeled. Yet here again we must keep the two planes of life distinct and separate. This glorious form was upon the plane of Uncreated Life; man’s was upon the plane of created life, far below. Man could never become God in His essential Deity, but it was possible for him to choose to partake of His Life which would glorify the human clay. We read that the human body of the Last Adam (see 1 Cor. 15:45), the Lord Jesus Christ, was thus glorified, and it is after this glorified likeness that the first man was patterned; therefore God’s objective in connection with the creation of the first Adam was the glorified Last Adam.
At this point exhibit a piece of white cardboard uniform in size with that illustrating Uncreated Life, having a short vertical line beginning some distance from the top and terminating in a small circle, while the words “Created Life” appear above, and “The First Adam,” below. (See Fig. 2.)
Hang the two symbols side by side that the marked difference may strike the eye. Ask the members of the class to state these differences, and drill them in the following statements:
Uncreated Life has no beginning and no end. It is self-existent and unchangeable.
Created Life has a definite beginning. It is bestowed by God, is dependent upon God and is subject to change.
Explain that the circle upon the card containing the symbol of Created human life denotes man’s endless existence. Do not allow the class to confuse endless existence with immortality. Strictly speaking, only Uncreated Life is immortal. (See 1 Tim. 6:16.)
The teacher may call attention to the three verbs that are used in the account of the creation of man. The first verb “make,” verse 26, asah (Hebrew), signifies “to fashion or to prepare.” The second is found in Genesis 2:7, “formed”-the Hebrew word yatsar, meaning to mold as a potter does the clay. The third is found in Genesis 1:27, “created”: The Hebrew bara signifies to call into existence that which has had no previous existence.
We may picture the Lord God, the Eternal Son, the manifested God, forming the body of the first man out of the dust of the earth that He had previously created; then imparting to the lifeless clay the human life-principle and creating at the same instant the wonderful inner man so prepared that it could choose His Life and be to His glory, joy and satisfaction. Notice that the expression “the breath of life” does not indicate the impartation of Uncreated Life. It simply denotes the impartation of the human life-principle. Compare Genesis 2:7 with Genesis 6:17; 7:15, 21-22.
In Isaiah 43:7 we find these three verbs used as in this account of man’s creation that we have been considering.
Picture the glory and dignity of man, and impress upon the class that no human life existed in the original earth which Lucifer had brought into a chaotic condition. Not until this last day of God’s reconstructive work did human life appear. The careful use of the verb “create” argues against the existence of human life prior to Adam, and no fossil human remains have ever been found as dating back to a more remote period, although many fossil remains of animals belonging to a far earlier period than the creation of man have been found.
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