Nothing that God has made so defies understanding, at least in the depth we would like, as man himself. A human being remains the very most complex and mysterious of all the works of God. It’s humbling to admit it, but it is undeniably true that that which most perplexes us is the very species of our own being. And, this incredible complexity was all resident in the first of the human species God ever made…the man, Adam. Was there, in fact, such a being as the historical Adam, the first man as recorded in Genesis 1 and 2? Well, of course! Jesus Christ said so. “Have you not read,” said Jesus in Matthew 19, “that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female?” Additionally, phrases such as “Seth was the son of Adam, who was the son of God.” Romans 5 says, “Death reigned from Adam to Moses.” First Corinthians 15, “As in Adam all die, and the first man, Adam, was made a living soul.” And in following in 1st Timothy, Paul answers us, “Adam was first formed, then Eve.” Only those denying the inspiration and reliability of the Scriptures call the historicity of Adam and Even into question. Taking the Genesis text at face value, Adam was the literal, biological, first human being made and created by God. The Hebrew word “yatsar” is used. It means “God made made”. Yatsar…formed or shaped man from the dust of the ground. It’s a word used of a potter who molds and shapes the clay. Yatsar, translated by the English word “made” suggests previously existing materials were utilized by God, and the text confirms Adam being made of the dust of the ground, as opposed to “bara” which connotes the idea of something having been created or brought into being from nothing. No pre-existing materials. So, Adam is said to have been created and made. Which was it? Both! In his physicality, Adam was made, molded into a human body from pre-existing earth. But Adam’s higher order, is spirit which was non-physical, was produced out of nothing. Adam was both material in his body and immaterial in his spirit.
When Adam is said to have been created or made in the image and likeness of God, one can only wonder whether the “image” may refer to the physical appearance of God while the likeness referred to the spiritual nature of God. But, it has already been established that God is Spirit. How, then, can one refer to the physicality of God? Good question! A Christofoney may be involved. The word literally means “an appearance of Christ”, and how would Christ have appeared before He had a body when He became flesh and was born as the Babe of Bethlehem? Remember that Christ, being eternal, pre-existed before Bethlehem. In that pre-incarnate position, He appeared several times in the Old Testament well before He was made flesh in Bethlehem.
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