What does it mean to be human?

Man is of a totally different order than angels. He is made in God's image, that is, he is created to represent God. He is made “after God's likeness,” which involves similarity. God is a triune Being, Father, Son and Holy Spirit: man is a triune character, spirit, soul and body (1 Thess. 5:23). Animals are amoral: they do not have a moral nature. God has a nature of truth and of goodness. Man was created with the same faculties, though sin has now badly corrupted his nature and he has become immoral. Man is directly responsible to God, as animals are not. This responsibility involves man's authority over the lower creation. The fact is stated, “Male and female He created them.” Genesis 2:18-23 explains how the woman was created.

Man is of a totally different order than angels. He is made in God's image, that is, he is created to represent God. He is made "after God's likeness," which involves similarity. God is a triune Being, Father, Son and Holy Spirit: man is a triune character, spirit, soul and body (1 Thess.5:23). Animals are amoral: they do not have a moral nature. God has a nature of truth and of goodness. Man was created with the same faculties, though sin has now badly corrupted his nature and he has become immoral. Man is directly responsible to God, as animals are not. This responsibility involves man's authority over the lower creation. The fact is stated, "Male and female He created them." Chapter 2:18-23 explains how the woman was created.

Man was distinguished from all other creatures in that he was made the subject of divine counsel before his creation. "And God said, Let us make man, in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion," etc. (Gen. 1:26). There is a solemnity about this which commands attention. It was not a new kind of animal that was about to be brought into existence, but a moral being with marvellous endowments and possibilities. "Image" has reference to man's position as set here to represent God and rule for Him; "likeness" has reference to his moral being, as one capable of entering into relationships, and bearing responsibilities. Neither the image nor the likeness of God have been lost by the fall (Gen. 9:6; James 3:9).

There was a twofold act of God in the creation of man. First, his body was formed of the dust of the ground; then life was imparted to the clay by the inbreathing of Jehovah Elohim (Gen. 2:7). The life of man is thus a thing altogether distinct from the body. Let us note this carefully, for the lessons suggested by it are of the most momentous character.

Verse 26 shows us that from the outset man was the subject of Divine consultation or counsel. That God should say, "Let US," is worthy of note. Elohim is, as we have said, a plural Name. In the Old Testament the three Persons in the Godhead are not revealed, but now that They are revealed we can see that, inspired of God, the language of our chapter is quite consistent therewith. There was present to the Divine mind all that man would turn out to be, and he was only brought into existence after this consultation within the Godhead Himself. In verse 26 it is "Our image:" in verse 27 it is "His image." There is no incongruity for it is the eternal "Three in One" who speaks.

Man was treated in both the image and the likeness of God. The former word seems to be used in Scripture for that which represents unseen realities. The images of the heathen world represented their gods, without necessarily being like them, for indeed they had never seen the demons they worshipped by means of the images that represented them to their eyes. Man was made, then, to represent God to the lower creation over which he was set. But he was also made after the likeness of God; that is, he was really like God in certain important respects. Not in all respects of course, for God is infinitely holy and man was merely innocent. Still man was God's "offspring" (Acts 17:28-29), a spirit being, though clothed in a body of flesh and blood, and hence with intelligence and moral sensibilities, which are a reflection of that which subsists on an infinite scale in God Himself.

Man's constitution and being are altogether unique. As bearing God's image, he is the intelligent link between God and the lower creatures, having been placed among and over them as God's representative; as bearing God's likeness he is a moral being, capable of entering into relations with God as those under him could not possibly do. This world has witnessed no greater catastrophe than the fall of man. In one moment this highly gifted creature became a moral wreck, everything subordinate to him was involved in ruin, and all God's delight in the works of His hands was destroyed. "It repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart" (Gen. 6:6).

In man, once more we have a distinct addition, that of spirit; and by this it is, clearly, that he is created in the image of God. For God is Spirit, and the Father of spirits (Heb. 12:9). The son is therefore in the Father’s image; and in the human spirit, the mental and moral faculties are added to the instinctive and emotional ones. But then by this union the gain of the soul over that of the animal merely is easily to be seen. The law we have traced thus far manifests itself again; the soul in its turn acquires an inseparable union with spirit, by which it shares in the light of self-consciousness in which the spirit moves, and becomes partaker also in its immortality. The beast perishes, but not the soul of man, which they that kill the body cannot touch.9

As to the creation of man we can happily see more clearly. What is said of him is that he is "created in the image of God, as His likeness:" in some sort the reflection of Himself. The word "created" is very important; for it shows that the "image of God" does not refer, as many have thought, to the sovereignty man was to exercise over the earth, but that it was inherent in his very constitution. And it shows more than this: it enables us to say definitely in what it consists. For the word "created" is used as a different thing from simple "making," and implies the bringing forth of some new element of being, not involved in former production. Thus it is used in this chapter in regard to the original creation of heaven and earth, not of anything merely material afterward. It is used next of the introduction of the "living soul," soul being such a new element. And next it is used here, where in man spirit is added to soul. If this be really so, then spirit is that which is really the image of God in man.

As to man's creation in the image and likeness of Elohim, I think we must add the exercise of voluntary thought. This is of immense moral importance as connected with responsibility. It is not mere happy obedience to God, flowing from an undivided, untempted nature, kept in its unity by Him without another thought, but obedience connected with consequences; this we have revealed as the basis of all, not with knowledge of good and evil - it was no evil in se, but disobedience. But this was connected with another immensely important thing - the consciousness of a special connection with God, and God's special interest in him, wrought by breathing from Himself into his nostrils the breath of life.

Thus the tree of knowledge of good and evil was no arbitrary or cruel test applied to an unsuspecting, guileless being. It was absolutely essential, if man was to be man in any true sense of the word. He was to be bound to God, not by the rigid links of a blind necessity over which he had no control and to which he could not say aught. He must be left to the exercise of the freedom of a will which separates him from the beasts about him. These indeed may and do act in accordance with the instincts implanted within them, may devour flesh or feed upon the herb according to their natural endowment, but they are irresponsible because devoid of that individuality and freedom of will which distinguishes man from them for, as a matter of fact, it is not merely reason which distinguishes man from the lower animals, but that moral endowment which enables him to choose, which makes him to a certain degree the master of his surroundings and of his future.

Solemn and dreadful thoughts cluster here. We may easily, especially under the leadership of "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience," ask why God has brought such creatures into being, why He has endowed man with free agency, knowing that he would abuse it and forfeit the blessing connected with it? Our one and all-sufficient answer is, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" "Hath the clay power to say to the potter, Why hast thou made me thus?" Intelligent faith is content to bow and accept absolutely what God has done as perfection. Nay, more; as we have already suggested, we can even now understand the necessity of man being what he is. We can thank God for the creation of beings whose destiny to a certain extent is in their own hands, even though the fall has come in; for this very fall has been the occasion for the establishment of a relationship in grace with the Son of God who became flesh, a relationship which does not rest upon an untried, if unfallen, creature, but upon the eternal God Himself, who has in grace linked Himself with flesh and blood; and in the perfection of a will as free as that of Adam, and yet eternally incapable of evil or disobedience, yielded Himself up without spot to God, in obedience unto death, that He might bring us to Himself, not as unwilling captives, nor in the perpetual infancy of a dwarfed humanity, but with the full intelligence which goes on developing in ever greater measure — of intelligent, moral, responsible free agents, whose joy it is to recognize their absolute de pendence upon perfect grace and almighty power; who never again will dream of a freedom apart from God, and who will sing in the joy of new creation bliss, "We know no higher liberty than that of being bound to Thee."

We are, however, hastened to the tree of knowledge of good and evil, from which depends not only the fruit, but the whole destiny of man, as the responsible head of creation. All rests upon his obedience. It must do so. There can be no distinction between man and the beasts of the field unless the immense fact of responsibility is fully accepted. The object of God then in giving us this narrative is seen all the more clearly because it is divested of numberless details which we might desire to look into. We are left with the one great fact of our accountability. It is this which shows us our essential immortality, our God-given faculties, which link us with eternity, and with no passing framework of a creation prophetic still of one that is to come. Here too, without doubt, we have a foreshadow of the accomplishment of the purpose of God to bring man into responsible relationship to Himself, where at last He will, not in a childhood innocency which cannot be tested, but after all the outcome of sin and rebellion, find his home in the midst of the paradise of God, where he can enjoy without stint every pleasure spread before his adoring gaze, because he is now linked with One who is the truly responsible Head of it all, the Christ of God.