by: Peregrino (Jun) V. Taccad, Jr.
Text - Genesis 1:26- 2:25
Of all creations, MAN is the closest
to God. He created man in His very own image, as we all know. Man,
however doesn’t have divinity like God. No, we can never be supreme like Him. But man was made by God as the extension of
His being. He empowered man to have
dominion over all His other creations – to be little gods in this respect.
Man is the only creation whom He considered as His
“sons” and “little gods.”
· 'You are
"gods"; you are all sons of the Most High.'” Psalm 82:6
· But to all who believed him and accepted him,
he gave the right to become children of God. They
are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but
a birth that comes from God. – John 1:12-13
· Jesus answered
them, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are
"gods"'? John 10:34-38
And the Lord considered Man as His friends:
· You
are my friends if
you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant
does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for
everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. – John
15:14-15
· And the scripture
was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him
as righteousness," and he was called God's friend. – James 2:23
If dogs are considered as man’s
best friend, Man is considered by God as His “Best Friend” provided man obeys
Him, shows faithfulness and practices righteousness.
We can only exclaim “Oh!, What a privilege this is?”
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| This photo was taken from Daughter of Christ Blog |
He made man so that He can
carry-out His will. We always have that
philosophical question; “Why did God
created man?”, “What is it to Him if all
creations don’t exist?” According to the
scripture: He created all for His glory
and that, through His creations, His wisdom, power and authority will be
proclaimed in heavenly places.
· “Everyone who is called by my Name,
whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” – Isaiah 43:7
· And to bring to light for
everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all
things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made
known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. – Ephesians 3:9-10
Why God created Man? It is clear in the following verse that He
wanted someone to rule over the rest of the creations. From the start, it has been His intention to
make man as the leader. What is amazing
is that, Man has been made heirs and possessor of all things on earth and things
above the earth.
· And God blessed them. And God
said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and
have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and
over every living thing that moves on the earth.” – Genesis 1:28
If we think that God regrets creating us because
we will only give Him headache after all, NO!
Instead, He wrapped Man with His overflowing love.
· How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we
should be called children of God! And
that is what we are! – 1 John 3:1
A parent cannot just kill his
child if the latter is growing up to be disobedient and disrespectful. With all his love, the parent will just try
his very best to support him reform and guide him to be on the right
track. He may sometimes impose
disciplinary acts but he will never do anything to harm his child. How much more will our Father will do the
same to man whom He considered as His children?
Instead of destroying us, since He can easily to that, He instead made a
promise to bring man back to Him, so that He can protect man and save him from
hell. Right after man fell into the
first sin, he already put man within His territory, putting a wall to protect
man from Satan by the power of His curse.
· The LORD God said
to the serpent, "Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all
cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And
dust you will eat All the days of your life; And I will put enmity between
you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on
the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel." – Genesis 3:14-15
·
For God so loved that world
that He gave His only Son. Whoever
believes in Him will not be destroyed but have eternal life. – John 3:16
Man is indeed
a “Special Creation”
We are created by the Father
not by the power of His words as He did with light and darkness, heavenly
bodies and earth, water and dry ground. He did not just say, “Let there be man!” and
man came to being. No! He made us out of dust. In forming us, He chose to soak in dirt. He
let bits of mud splatter on His face, arms, legs and feet. Both hands might have been covered with thick
clay as He skillfully ran His fingers on His Obra Maestra. Imagine how filthy a
potter looks like while molding his jars and vases. Literally, He gave so much of efforts, time,
energy and talent to form man into something similar to His own form.
He finished molding the man and
looked at the lifeless figurine, did some retouching here and there and wiped
away every bit of blemishes and imperfections.
At the final touches, He repeatedly walked around the figurine,
inspected it very intently, took few steps backward to take farther view of it,
and smiled in great pleasure looking at His Obra Maestra, the fruit of His mixed
talent, effort and time.
Of course, again, He did not
shout at the wind to gather a force and blow into the figurine’s nose, neither
did He take a sturdy large leaf to fan the figurine’s face. Without hesitation, He put His lips against
the nose of the lifeless mannequin and blew into it the life-giving breath. Alas! Man is using God’s own breathe to live. And that air contains SOUL that makes man
move, feel, and think. Well after God
blew the figurine’s nose, all of a sudden the brain responded by delivering
electrical impulses and gave signal to the heart to pump. Life-giving blood starts circulating all over
the body. The clay face was slowly turning into flesh,
and all vital organs came to life. And
then, finally the man started to move.
Like his Creator, he has a powerful and complex intellect to rationally rule
the rest of the creations, equipped with complete faculties to sense what is in
his environment, emotions to be able to create wonderful relationships with his
environment, and talents to create beauty and enjoyment into his own world.
· For we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we
should walk in them. – Ephesians 2:10
Man was indeed destined to be
little gods, the rulers of all God’s creation.
All things were created because of man and as a gift to mankind. He saw that man will never be happy without
companions, so he formed animals from the ground, and a special partner in
ruling all other creations, the woman, who came from the man’s own bone and flesh.
Man has Body,
Soul and Spirit
What else is special with man?
Man exists in corporeal body. It is needless to search for scriptural proof
that we have physical body as we are not here today without it.
Besides the physical existence,
man has a soul – “Nephes”
in Hebrew (Genesis 2:7
) that animates him. The word “Nephes” or Soul was used also in the
following verses: Genesis 1:30 –
everything that has nephes or soul in
it. (NIV used “LIFE” instead of “SOUL”). An animal too has soul that gives them life, senses
and breathes.
However, man differs from
animals because man has SPIRIT that makes him positively rational and connects
him to his Creator. The SPIRIT is what
makes man closer in looks to his Creator.
·
God is spirit, and his
worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. – John 4:24
This spirit does not coexist
with the body and soul, but will only come to being as a result of the man’s
decision to be one with his Creator through baptism in the name of Jesus
Christ. In the Scripture, this process
has been called, being “Born Again”.
· Jesus answered, “I tell you the
truth, no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born of water and
Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but
the Spirit gives birth to the spirit. – John 3:5-6
The spirit was the part that
died right after Adam and Eve committed the first sin, as God had warned them
not to eat the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. This spirit is man’s connection to God,
that’s why when sin came in, the connection was severed, the couple hid from
God, and eventually, they were sent out of the Garden of Eden.
But God still made a remedy so
that we can regain back the lost spirit.
Through sacrifice of atonement (or at-one-ment with God), man can communicate to God. He demolished the practice of offering
sacrifices (as instructed by God in the old testament) when He sent Jesus into
the world as the ultimate sacrifice. Jesus then became the mediator for us to
communicate to Him. Through the power of
baptism, man receives God’s forgiveness that consequently opens the
communication line between man and God, through Christ.
· Repent and be baptized in the
name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins - Acts 2:38
· For there is one God and
one mediator between God and
mankind, the man Christ Jesus – I Timothy 2:5
But what happened to the Soul
when a person dies? The Bible said:
· He
should know that the one who turns a sinner back from his wandering path will save that person’s soul from death
and will cover a multitude of sins. – James 5:20 (New English Version)
· If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol. – Proverbs 23:14
The soul has
only but two destinies, Eternal Death in Hell or Eternal Life in Heaven. Since this SOUL can feel and think, it will
certainly feel everything that Hell has to give – gnashing of teeth due to
excruciating pain in hot flames of burning sulfur. On the other hand, in Heaven, there is an
eternal bliss, peace and joy.
How about
the Spirit?
·
…hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh
(punishment by law); so that his spirit “MAY” be saved on the day of the Lord.
– 1 Corinthians 5:5
·
My God, my God, Why have you
forsaken me? - Mark 15:34 - separation from God because of our
sin.
Both soul and spirit will go to
God if we lived faithfully to Him. But
those who chose to walk in evil ways, their spirit remain dead but their souls
– with complete senses, will go to eternal damnation through hell.
Man’s as God’s Extension of His Being
In
this lesson, we are faced with the great challenge to maintain our likeness
with our Creator. We must further search
the scripture and better understand the Nature of God so that we can manage our
lives according to our label as the “Extension of God’s being”.
The following truths are
derived from the Bible to guide us on how we start living our lives according
to God’s nature.
Truth No. 1: God is Love - We are Love
Of all creation, man carries
the LOVE of God. He Fathered man, He
saved man from eternal damnation by sacrificing His only Son on the cross. With this act, He modeled out His very
nature, LOVE. So, He literally wants us
to bear that nature as well when Jesus said,
· The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as
yourself.’ There is no
commandment greater than these.” – Mark 12:31
This was profoundly reiterated by the Apostle John
in his writing:
· Dear
friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of
God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because
God is love. – 1 John 4:7
Reflection
1: HOW CAN WE SHOW LOVE AS MUCH AS WHAT
GOD SHOWED US?
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Truth No. 2:
God is Holy: We are made Holy and Let us maintain our holiness
Through the life sacrifice of Christ, God had
cleansed us from sin and we are made holy through act.
· Both the one who
makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus
is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. – Hebrews 2:11
Since we became new creation by complying with Christ’s
requirement of salvation, we have to live our lives in holiness. Holy means being “SET-APART FOR GOD”.
· but like the Holy
One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, "YOU SHALL
BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY." – 1 Peter 1:15-16
When Jesus underwent
temptation, it was God’s plan to model out how we should battle against Satan’s
deceiving schemes. The Word/Scripture
was given to us as our sword and shield which we will raise against all kinds
of temptations to keep our holiness intact.
Reflection 2: HOW CAN WE MAINTAIN OURSELVES HOLY AND HOW
CAN WE MODEL OUT HOLINESS TO OTHERS?
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Truth No 3:
God is good: Man is created good
(Mark
10:18; Genesis 1:27; Psalms 139:13-16)
Man is created in His likeness,
so man must be good by nature. It so
happened that satan deceived man and the latter became corrupted in the end. Since then, man has been bearing the curse of
sin and it became a cancer in his body, soul and spirit, until God delivered a
cure to this cancer through the sacrifice of His only Son.
Although, we have the free will
to walk through either goodness or evil, The Father, through Apostle Paul, called
us to be good like Christ.
· Be kind and
compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God
forgave you. – Ephesians 4:32
And the Lord Jesus encouraged us to be good.
· Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls. – Matthew 11:29
· Matthew 5:1-2
Be-Attitudes
Reflection 3: HOW CAN WE BUILD THE CHARACTER OF BEING GOOD
THROUGH THE VERSES THAT WE READ? – Create a Checklist… memorize the Be-Attitudes,
understand them well, and try to plan out to live according to it.
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Truth No. 4:
God is the Savior: Man is commissioned
to be savior too
The first epitome of a savior is Noah, who
invested his life in building the gigantic boat to save the people and animals
from the great flood. Genesis 5-9.
Another is Joseph. Genesis 37-50 narrates how he became a savior
to all in a very long process involving dramatic struggles and hardships. After enduring them all, the plan of God for
his life came to a very clear picture.
If he did not persevere and did not focus on the plan of God, his family,
household and the whole Egypt might have been perished in those times of deadly
famine and drought.
In Exodus 3, Moses was
appointed by God Himself to be the savior of the Israelites from the bondage of
Egyptian rulers. Although he viewed this
as a big task, and it means going against those who raised him, still he
obeyed. Although Moses did not reach the
promise land, his achievements in taking the people out from the bondage of
miserable slavery in the hands of the Egyptians can never be discounted. God used him to be an inspiration to modern
day disciples.
God’s prophets poured their
lives into God’s messianic mission.
Later in the New Testament,
Jesus ignited the spirit of heroism and showed mankind how to live for others,
hence to be saviors. The disciples, in
full determination and courage, followed His trails. John the Baptist, James, and Paul were
beheaded; Stephen was stoned, John was exiled to death, Peter was crucified
upside down, and the others suffered the same fate. One thing in common about them was their willingness
to sacrifice, go through hardships of persecutions, and die for the salvation
of others, not physically but spiritually. Not for any other ruler but for God. If you are familiar with the song, “Impossible
Dream”, it describes vividly the heart that we should possess if we want to
follow God – unselfish heart focused on the salvation of others.
Reflection 4: Discover how you can take part in God’s
mission to save the world. Ask yourself, “Am I willing to give up everything I
have and focus on God’s work of salvation?”
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Truth No. 5 God
is Light: Man is commissioned to bear the light
· This
is the message we have heard from
him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet
walk in the darkness, we
lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,
and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all[ sin – 1 John 1:5-7
God commanded us to live in His
light, to be a guide to those who are living in darkness, and to bring back
righteousness into this chaotic and wicked world. When God entered through time and space by
physical incarnation, He dwelt among mankind, and brought rays of light to the
hopeless world. While He was here, He
taught man how to live in the light and commission them to bear the light. (Mat 5:14-16)
· “You are
the light of the world. A
town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a
bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the
house. In the same way, let your light shine before
others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your
Father in heaven. – Matthew 5:14-16
Reflection 5: HOW DO WE SHOW OUR LIGHT? HOW CAN WE GUIDE OTHERS THROUGH THE RIGHTEOUS
PATH? Remember, a blind cannot lead
fellow blind just as the Lord Jesus said.
The challenge for us is to grow more in the knowledge of the Truth.
This lesson challenges us to examine our lives and to see whether we are acting in the way God wants us to act, or else we are already deviating from His purpose for us. We have to realize where we came from, what
we are made for, and how we continue on with the gift of life that God gave
us. We have to realize how special we are as a creation of God. Let us decide, once and for all, to
follow Him and be willing to be an extension of His Being.
Prayer: Lord, we know that we are your creation and
we ought to be praising you and glorifying your blessed Name. You made us in order to proclaim your wisdom
and glory in heaven and on earth, and you have loved us far above the other
creations, nearest to your heart. You
molded us closest to Your own image and positioned us next to You as ruler of
all Your creations. Help us to be like You,
in Love, Righteousness, Holiness and Purpose. Help us to capture your heart to save mankind.
Give us more wisdom to understand Your Words and guide us as we give-in to your
purpose. Thank you God for creating us
as the most special being among the rest.
Thank you, Father for setting us apart as the extension of Your powerful
being. In Jesus Name. Amen
