Genesis 1:26 says that God created man in His image and after His likeness. God created man in this way because it is His intention that He be expressed by man. Genesis 1 indicates that every living thing was created according to its kind. Man, however, was made not after his own kind, but after God’s kind. Do you have the boldness to proclaim that, as a human being you are after God’s kind? If we realize that we were made in God’s image and after God’s likeness, we should have the boldness to say that we were created after God’s kind. However, to say that we are after God’s kind does not mean that we are God or that we shall ever become God. But according to Genesis 1:26-28, we human beings are after God’s kind.
Adam in Genesis 1 had the image of God and the likeness of God, but he did not have the life and nature of God. Therefore, according to Genesis 2, God placed man in front of the tree of life. This indicates that Adam needed to partake of God’s life with the divine nature. Even though Adam had been created in God’s image and after His likeness, he still needed to eat of the fruit of the tree of life in order to have eternal life. In the first two chapters of Genesis we thus have a complete record of God’s creation of man.
Adam in Genesis 1 and 2 did not have eternal life. Rather, he simply had the human life as a vessel to contain the divine life. Romans 9 indicates clearly that man is a vessel. Our human life is a vessel to contain the divine life. But before man received the eternal life, he fell. Therefore, God sent His Son to be a man with blood and flesh to accomplish redemption and to bring fallen man back to God’s original purpose. Redemption thus recovers man to God’s purpose. Hallelujah, through the blood of Christ shed on the cross, we, fallen sinners, have been redeemed! Both Romans 3 and Galatians 3 speak of God’s marvelous redemption.
Redemption, however, is not an end in itself. It is a procedure, part of a process, to reach God’s goal of sonship. For this reason, both Romans and Galatians indicate that Christ redeemed us that the divine life could be imparted into us for our regeneration. We had been created by God, but we still needed to be regenerated. Although we were created with the human life, we needed to be regenerated with another life, the divine life. Thus, redemption issues in the impartation of divine life. This is regeneration. By the regeneration of the Spirit, we become sons of God.
Man in Genesis 1 was only a creature of God. He was not yet a son of God. According to Genesis 1:26, God created man in His image and after His likeness, but He did not beget man with the divine life at that time. There in Genesis 1 God was our Creator, and we were His creatures. But after Christ came to accomplish redemption and we believed in Him, His blood made it possible for the divine life to be imparted into us. In this way, we were regenerated, and God became our Father.
In creation God was our Creator, but in regeneration He becomes our Father. Now, having been regenerated, we are not merely creatures of God—we are sons of God. Hallelujah, God is both our Creator and our Father! As the Creator, He created us, and as the Father, He begot us. Now we can declare boldly that we not only have the image and likeness of God outwardly, but that we have the life and nature of God inwardly. We are living sons of God! God’s economy is to impart His very life and nature into us to make us His sons.
Now we must come to a crucial point and ask an important question: Since we are sons of God, should we live as God’s creatures or as God’s sons? In other words, does God want us to live a creature life or a son life? There can be no doubt that God’s desire is that we live as sons, not as creatures. But how can we live as sons of God? First, to live as a son of God, we must become a son of God. The only way to become a son of God is to believe in the Lord Jesus and receive Him. John 1:12 says that those who receive Christ have the authority to become children of God. As children of God, we have been born “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13). Hallelujah, we have become sons of God by believing in the Lord Jesus!
Now that we have become sons of God we need to realize that we are more than creatures. As those who are sons and not merely creatures, we should not live a creature life but a son life.
There is a great difference between living the life of God’s creatures and living the life of God’s sons. For example, both the Bible and Confucius teach submission. But Confucius’ teaching concerning submission is merely ethical. The Bible’s teaching about submission is related to our living as sons of God. The teaching regarding submission found in the classical writings of Confucius only helps us to live as creatures of God. It has nothing to do with living as sons of God. No matter to what degree a Chinese person may practice submission according to the teachings of Confucius, he is still living as a creature of God, not as a son of God.
In one of his writings called The Highest Learning, Confucius speaks of developing and cultivating the “bright virtue.” To him, the highest attainment in ethics was to cultivate this bright virtue. Nevertheless, no matter how much we may develop this bright virtue according to the teachings of Confucius, we are still creatures of God.
What Confucius called the bright virtue is actually the conscience. Thus, to develop the bright virtue is to develop the conscience. But even if one develops his conscience to a very high degree, he is still merely a creature of God, because he does not have the life of God. However, we who believe in Christ have the divine life and the divine nature. Now that we are sons of God, it should not be our goal to develop our bright virtue. To do this is simply to improve our living as God’s creatures. Instead of teaching us to improve our living as creatures, the Bible charges us to live as sons of God.
Ethics improves the human virtues of God’s creatures from one angle, and religion develops them from another. Both with religion and ethics the principle is the same. However, in contrast to both ethics and religion, it is not the goal of God’s salvation to develop the virtues of God’s creatures. First, God’s goal in His salvation is to make us sons. Second, His goal is to supply us with the divine life that we may grow. Third, God Himself as the life-giving Spirit dwells in us to live, move, and work in us. The disciples of Confucius may boast in their bright virtue. They may be proud of the fact that they have cultivated and developed this virtue. However, our boast is not in our bright virtue. Our boast is that we have God Himself living in us. Due to the influence of our religious background and environment, we Christians may not realize how wealthy we are. Our wealth is the Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.