Now we need to ask why it is that man was created according to Christ. Most Christians consider that we were created to serve and worship God. However, this thought is not correct. A glove is made according to a hand, with five fingers, for the purpose of containing a hand. Likewise, man was created according to Christ in order that man may contain Christ. The common human thought concerning man’s relationship with God is that God is high and almighty and that we are low and small; thus, we should kneel down and prostrate ourselves before God. However, it would be ridiculous for a glove to say to a hand, “You are so high and so great. I must prostrate myself before you.” That is not the purpose for which the glove was made. As human beings, we were created and made according to Christ not mainly to worship or serve Christ, nor to do good things to please Christ, but to receive Christ, to contain Christ, and to be filled with Christ.
Man was created according to Christ because man is a container, a vessel, to contain Christ. Two passages of the Scriptures prove that man is a vessel. Romans 9:21 says, “Does not the potter have authority over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor?” We are clay, and God is the Potter. God made us out of dust to be vessels of honor to contain Christ, who is God. Second Corinthians 4:7 says, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels.” We are earthen vessels made of clay, and as Christians we have the treasure within us. This treasure is nothing else but God in Christ. We are worthless vessels of clay, but today we have a priceless treasure within us, that is, God Himself in Christ.
God created man according to the image of Christ because man was intended to be a container for Christ, who is the peerless One. Although we are merely vessels made of worthless clay, today we have something worthy and precious, that is, God Himself in Christ, as a treasure within us. We must all realize, therefore, that man is a vessel made of clay according to the image of Christ.
Now we must see how, or with what parts, man as a vessel was made. Man is tripartite; he is a trichotomy, having a body, a soul, and a spirit. Genesis 2:7 says, “Jehovah God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” This verse reveals the way in which God created man. First, He used the dust of the ground to form a body. Scientists tell us that the human body is composed of the same elements as the dust. Our body is a body of dust and may be considered to be just a lump of clay. After forming man’s body, God breathed the breath of life into man’s nostrils. This breath became the human spirit (cf. Prov. 20:27). The body is man’s outermost part, and the spirit is man’s innermost part. When these two came together, a third item was brought forth, that is, the soul. The soul is man’s person, man’s self. We must be clear that we have a body outwardly and a spirit inwardly. Outside we have a body, inside we have a spirit, and between these two we have a soul. The soul is the medium between the body and the spirit. Therefore, man is of three parts: spirit, soul, and body.
This is further confirmed by 1 Thessalonians 5:23, which says, “The God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This verse tells us clearly that man as a complete person is of three parts: spirit and soul and body. It is easy to know the body, because it is something physical and material, but it is more difficult to know the soul. In the Scriptures a person is called a soul (Acts 7:14; Gen. 12:5; 46:15; Exo. 1:5). Therefore, in actual fact we are a soul. The soul is our personality, our self, and our being. It includes the mind for thinking and considering (Psa. 139:14), the emotion for loving, hating, and being joyful and sorrowful (S. S. 1:7; 2 Sam. 5:8; Psa. 86:4; 1 Sam. 30:6), and the will for making decisions (Job 6:7; 7:15). This is the self, our very being. However, it is even more difficult to know the spirit, because the spirit is the innermost, the deepest, part of our being.
As Christians, in order to know and experience Christ as our life in a practical way, we must know the difference between the soul and the spirit. In other words, we must be able to divide the spirit from the soul. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and operative and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow.” This verse tells us that the greatest help for dividing our spirit from our soul is the word of God, which is like a sharp sword with not one edge but two. Just as the joints and marrow are joined and sometimes mingled together, requiring a sharp, two-edged sword to pierce into them and divide them from each other, today our soul is very much joined with our spirit. The word of God is needed as a sharp, two-edged sword to pierce and divide the soul from the spirit.