Thoughts on Man's Condition pt.2

Image of constitution:
John 4:24
24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

Image of Fellowship
Lev 19:1-219:1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: 'Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.

1 John 4:8
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Jer. 12:1
You are always righteous, O LORD,

Is 65:16
16 Whoever invokes a blessing in the land
will do so by the God of truth;
he who takes an oath in the land
will swear by the God of truth.

These Scriptures highlight God’s constitution which is Spirit and a few of His moral attributes, Holiness, Love, Truthfulness and Righteousness. Man was also created a spirit when God breathed the breath of life into him, possessing a soul (mind, will and emotions) and living in a body (1 Thes. 5:23).

Man in his original make-up was also holy, righteous, and capable of love and truth. It’s upon these basic truths that God and man can have fellowship. As two spiritual beings they can communicate spirit to spirit and because both are holy they can have fellowship since walking together is based on agreement and God cannot look upon evil and wickedness because of the pureness of His eyes (Hab 1:13). Man had the reality of all of his thoughts, emotions, will being conformed to God, so much so that it is safe to say that if God was a man with a body on earth in Eden that He would act and respond just like Adam.

Let us look at the third dimension of the image man has.

Image of function
Gen 1:3
3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
God spoke and it was so.

Gen 2:19-20
He (GOD) brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field.
God spoke and it was so, Man spoke and it was so, just like his Maker. Man also has the ability to make choices, just like God, to reason and think, to manipulate environments just like God. To create and pro-create. All of these are elements of Man’s original make–up that are essential for Man to fulfill his purpose, which is the next part of our archeological dig: Man’s Purpose.

It’s upon the basis of man’s original design being so interrelated and intertwined with God in the sense of his similitude of character, nature of constitution being spirit and ability that Man is able to fulfill his purpose as outlined by God. Let’s examine this:

26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
Gen 1:28

28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."


We already established that the image is one for fellowship and function. It is also should be noted that image comes first then what they can do, in other words the ability to do flows out of the IMAGE the blessing or the enablement in verse 28 also flows out of the image.
From this passage we can also see the realms and dimensions of function that man was designed for. God gave man 3 realms; earth, sky, and sea to subdue and these represented all of earth’s current dimensions at that point in time.

Now to subdue really means to conquer, subjugate. To do this Man must have knowledge of realm being conquered, the principles and processes that govern it as well as the nature of it with its inherent qualities. Man was supposed to operate in all of the earth’s affairs. Not only was he designed for all dimensions of life but also the management of the resources that lie within in each realm. So the sky is one realm and the birds are the resource, the earth is another and the livestock and things that crawl would its resource and lastly the sea and its fish. So man had to fill as well as multiply in every realm. As enormous as this task was, Man in his original state was more than able to accomplish it. This is so for two fundamental reasons: man’s image and his fellowship with God.

Even though man had the ability to reflect God perfectly and function in all the realms it was never to be done independently of God, but through on going fellowship. Here we see how fellowship and function overlap in the image and are mutually inclusive. Man needs both to be successful in his purpose, because only God knows everything and can download information (spirit to spirit) to him so that he can prosper in all his endeavors. Man was so in tune with God that he heard the sound of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. What that is really describing is Man’s ability to discern the movements, locations and activities of His Maker, who is Spirit in the midst of a his natural or physical environment.

This is vital if there is to be co operation between God and Man in the three realms. Basically, Man is God’s manager on earth, so man must be able to receive instruction from God, the board of directors. Today we have realms of science, law, medicine, business, and politics and so on. The plan for Man and God never changed …….man did. It is from this elevated level of existence that man has fallen.