I must confess that today's study is very dear to my heart and most exciting as well. I hope you find it equally so! Though it may seem off topic, and does not continue exclusively in Genesis, it is my prayer that you will understand why I mull over this piece for today. There is so much meat to be gleaned from by truly comprehending how complex, thorough, and loving God truly is.
We have come to the point where the earth was ready for God's final creation. His handiwork, His masterpiece, would come to life with absolutely everything he would need in order to exist without want. The warmth of the sun, the fruit of the trees, the water to drink, the animals, everything he needed was set in the world. All that was missing was man himself. So, once again, God spoke.
"Let us make man in our own image." This single verse points out that there is much more to God than meets the eye. It reveals that every one of the three aspects of God participated in this creation. We are going to focus on these eight simple words that encompass a not quite so simple yet ever important truth.
The Bible teaches us that God is three in one, what we call the Trinity. There is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. He is one, yet they are three; He is three in one. They are all part of the one same identity. I have heard many different attempts at defining it, but I think the simplest way I have heard it described is also the first.
If you take a look at an apple, it is a single piece of fruit. But there are different aspects of the fruit, each distinct from one another, yet all part of the one fruit. You have the skin, you have the meat in the middle, and you have the core which has the seeds. They can be separated, but they are all a part of the same apple. God is the same way, only more so. Though He is one, He can also, in effect, separate the different pieces of Himself from one another while continuing to hold the same integrity, without change. Who He IS never changes. Hebrews 13:8 states that he is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Perhaps the best example of this is given in the New Testament, in the book of John, when Jesus is talking with His disciples. He tells them that He comes from the Father and that when He has to leave, that the Father would send another, the Comforter, who would guide them. He is, of course, referring to the Holy Spirit who manifests Himself in the second Chapter of Acts.
In the same fourth book of the New Testament, John shares some of his insight with us. John was one of the original 12 disciples of Jesus when He walked this earth. His gospel is probably the most well known because he knew who he was in Christ and his book focused literally on the love of Jesus. He was known as the Beloved Disciple. Having a grasp of God's great love for mankind, John spread the good news of that love. How fitting it is, then, that the very first verses of his first book focus on the very beginning of creation itself. He describes the character of the Son in John 1:1-2.
"In the beginning was the Word; and the Word was with God and Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men." [Emphasis mine] Several places describe Jesus as being the Word of God, including this verse. He is the living Word of God. How magnificent to think that when God spoke the different things into being that it was the very essence of Jesus ~ before He ever became flesh on this world. "Let there be light." "Let the dry land appear."
It is by Him that we have received forgiveness of our sins. It is by Him that all things were created in heaven, in earth, visible, invisible. He set up the order of authority because He was under the authority of the Father. He came before all things. It is because of HIM that all things exist. He is the head of the church. We follow His example. His blood reconciles us to the Father. It is written in the New Testament, in the book of Colossians 1:14-18
We have already met the Holy Spirit. It is His presence that moves over us just as it moved over the face of the waters. It is He who stirs our hearts and draws us to Father God. No one comes to God but that He draws us, and God wishes that no man should be separated from Him. He gives us the power to resist temptation and He is the one to bring the Word of God to our remembrance when we are being attacked. He guides, teaches, and directs us in the same manner that He moved over those waters.
The Father heart of God is the ultimate authority. He commands. His will is dominate above all. He is the one who loved us before the foundation of the world was laid out, preparing a way so that we could take part in the inheritance. He is the One who set in motion even then the plan to deliver us from the power of darkness. He is the one who has brought us into the Kingdom. This truth is also found in Colossians, just a few verses earlier.
Every good gift, every perfect gift which we receives comes from the Father heart of God, from the LORD of Love. You can read that promise also in the New Testament, in James 1:17. Jesus also described the Father as loving in another scripture. In Matthew 7:9-12, the first book of the New Testament, He was teaching the multitudes about God's desire for us. If we being sinful men grant bread and fish to our sons who need it, how much more will the Father in Heaven, who is pure in His love, give us perfect gifts when we ask Him? He showed us that the Father is better than the greatest earthly Father, because He is the one who truly desires to give us good gifts when we ask for them.
Genesis 1:2 is perfectly clear in relating that the Holy Spirit of God took part of creation, but if you read those verses, Colossians 1:12-20, all together, you will see the full connection of the role of the Father and the Son as well. Genesis 1:26 shows the perfect unity in the heart of God in the creation of man. Even here, the Son knew the price He would one day have to pay for the salvation of humankind, but He was in complete agreement in this creation because He already knew us and loved us.
How fitting that the first book of the Bible and the last show this foreknowledge of Christ. He did not create man before He knew the sacrifice He would make. Revelation 13:8 mentions Jesus, "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." This is also backed up by Peter, another of the original disciples of Jesus, when he tells us in I Peter 1:19-21 that before the foundation of the world Jesus was the chosen, spotless lamb, whose blood shed was our only hope in God. Matthew, yet another disciple of Jesus, in Matthew 25:34, recalled Jesus' very words in a parable about the kingdom of God in which the Son Himself welcomes the ones on His right to enter the kingdom that was laid out for them since the creation of the world. Jesus was fully knowledgeable even then of what He would have to suffer for us. There was no question in His mind. And yet He loved us. Yet He loved me and He loved You. Though He knew, yet He still said, "Let us make man in our own image."
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