Man in God’s Design

MEMORY VERSE: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” —Genesis 1:27

GENESIS 1:26 – 2:4; I CORINTHIANS 15:45-50

MAN’S eternal home in the Creator’s design is the earth. Man is a creature of earth, and nothing was ever said to our first parents contrary to this. He was created in the image of God. This is not a physical image, but a moral and intellectual image. Man has the ability to know right from wrong, and he is able to think and to reason. He cannot think on the same high plane as his Creator—his thinking is confined to a realm in which he was created to live; that is, the earthly.

God said, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa. 55:9) But man is able to reason with God on matters pertaining to his relationship with his Creator. God invites man to do this, saying, “Come now, and let us reason together, … though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”—Isa. 1:18

Man was commanded to multiply and fill the earth, not “replenish” the earth, as the King James Version states. “Replenish” is an erroneous translation, and falsely implies that the earth had been previously populated by humans, which is not the case, for Adam was the “first man.”—I Cor. 15:45

Every necessary provision was made for the sustenance of man on the earth. “God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.”

“God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it” In Exodus 20:10,11 reference is made to God’s rest day in connection with giving the Ten Commandments to Israel. Here we are told that God hallowed the seventh day, and made it holy. In Hebrews 4:4,5,10 reference is again made to God’s rest day, with the indication that it points forward to the Christian’s rest of faith in Christ. Paul wrote, “For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.”

God did not rest from the control of the universe, but turned over to his beloved Son the work of redeeming and restoring fallen man to life on the earth. He has confidence in his Son, so he is said to rest. We also have confidence in God’s beloved Son, so we also rest by faith in him, knowing that through him we shall receive life. Refraining from work on the seventh day tested the faith of the Israelites, and should have taught them a greater reliance on God for their needs of life.

The second section of our lesson gives us valuable information concerning Jesus’ role in the divine plan for the restoration of man to life on the earth. “The first man Adam Paul wrote, “was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.” The first Adam ceased to be “a living soul” because of his transgression, and the second Adam was made, by virtue of his work of redemption on the cross, and his resurrection and high exaltation, a “quickening,” or life-giving spirit being.

Jesus said, “For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even the Son quickeneth whom he will.” And again, “As the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself” (John 5:21,26)—the powers of life, that is, which can be used to impart life to others by means of a resurrection.

Paul reminds us that “the first man is of the earth, earthy:” but “the second man is the Lord from heaven.” It is the returned Christ, during his second presence on earth, who will serve in the role of the second Adam, in the sense that he will regenerate the dead and dying race of the first Adam.

Paul wrote further, “As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also which are heavenly.”

Speaking to those who hope to be with Jesus in the rulership phase of his kingdom, Paul explains that these will be exalted to the heavenly nature, even though while proving their loyalty to God they are fleshly beings. “Flesh and blood,” he says, “cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” The whole world of mankind, however, as humans will be blessed by that kingdom.

QUESTIONS

What is implied by the expression, “the image of God”?

Where is man’s eternal home?

What lesson does Paul draw from God’s rest day?

Who is the “second Adam”?

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