PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

This is a part of the history of God, with which man is involved. In God's history, He made a duplication of Himself, a copy of Himself. This duplication of God is for the expression of the invisible God. Genesis 1 and 2 are not merely the story of man's creation, but a full record of God's history in making Himself a duplication.

The Form of Man

When God created man, He first made a form for man. This was the body of man made of dust (Genesis 2:7). The body is the form of man. Never forget that God made man with a form and that this form is a "photo" of God's form. Man is in the form, the likeness, of God (1:26). The form of our body is marvelous. Besides God Himself, the most beautiful item in the whole universe is man's form. Consider your eyes, your eyebrows, your nose, your lips, your ears, and even your cheeks. Man is God's masterpiece.

The Breath of Life

Then God breathed the breath of life into man's form (Genesis 2:7). God did not breathe into any other created thing, but to create man, He breathed into man the breath of life. This breath of life was not God Himself, not the Spirit of God, but it was something out of God, something very close to God's intrinsic being. When this breath of life got into man's form, man became a living soul, a living, animate being with life. This is a part of God's history.

God made a duplication of Himself with a dusty form and the inward breath of life. That breath of life became the human spirit. In Hebrew the word for breath in Genesis 2:7 is translated spirit in Proverbs 20:27. Thus, God's breath of life becomes the spirit of man. The breath of life came into the body of dust, and man became a living soul with a spirit.

God was not within the man He created, but something within man, that is, the spirit of man, is very close to God. The outward form of man is of the dust, but the inner spirit is very close to God. This is why we say that man was made after God's kind. God is a Spirit, and God made a spirit for man to contact Him (John 4:24). Because we have a part that resembles God, we can contact God through that part. God is Spirit, we have a spirit, and these two spirits are of the same kind.

Creating Man with Many Virtues

In addition, God created man with many virtues. These virtues are copies of God's attributes. God has many attributes, but love, light, holiness, and righteousness are the four main attributes of God. God is love, God is light, God is holiness, and God is righteousness. When God created man, He made a copy of all these attributes in man's spirit. Therefore, man is a creature with virtues. The lions and the dogs do not have virtues. Only we men have virtues. We love. We like to be in the light and not in the darkness. We also like to be separated. We do not like to be common. We like to be righteous. These virtues were all damaged by man's fall, yet they are still here. They are the means for us to express God's attributes. God's attributes eventually became the reality of man's virtues. The attributes are the real thing; the virtues are the outward form. This may be likened to a glove and a hand. The hand, like God's attributes, is the real thing; the glove, like the virtues, is the outward form, the covering of the hand. At our regeneration, when we were born of God, the elements of God's attributes were born into our being, mostly into our spirit, so that we may express God in love, in light, in holiness, and in righteousness. These are God's attributes manifested as our virtues lived out from our spirit.

Even the teachings of Confucius recognized that the highest learning develops the spirit. Man should not behave himself according to his flesh or even according to his soul or his mind. Therefore, the Bible tells us that we must walk according to our spirit (Romans 8:4). In bodily form we resemble God because we have His likeness, and in our spirit we resemble God because we were created in His image of His attributes. Outwardly we have God's form, and inwardly, in our spirit, we have God's image, yet in our created state we still do not have God. God's desire is for the man created by Him to receive Him as the tree of life.

Placing Man before Two Trees

After God made man as a duplication of Himself, He put this duplication, a living being with a spirit, soul, and body, before two trees-the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life signifies God, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil signifies Satan. According to Genesis 2:9, all the trees in the garden were pleasant to the sight, but one among these trees was particular-the tree of life. The tree of life was good for food. God warned man not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that he ate of it, he would die (v. 17). This is also a part of the history of God in creating man.

A Flowing River and Three Precious Materials

By the side of the tree of life in Genesis 2, there was a flowing river, and this flow issued in three precious materials: gold, bdellium, and onyx stone (w. 10-12). Bdellium is a kind of pearl produced from the resin of a tree. Onyx stone is a most precious stone. We cannot fully understand the significance of these three precious materials until we read through the Bible and come to its end.

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