Lessons from Adam and Eve #2

The creation of Adam in God’s image and likeness had no reference to God’s physical form because He is not a physical being.  Again, He may have to power to display any physical form He desires, but He is a Spirit.  Ironically, humans grapple with how Jesus could be fully God and man but do not have the same difficulty defining humanity.  The reason for this is that most of us have not tapped into the spiritual capacity of our natures.  This begins to define why such a conflict exists between the carnal and spiritual.  It explains why the carnal man cannot understand the spiritual world, nor discern spiritual truths.  When he thinks of himself, he sees a physical human being with physical desires and wants that are fulfilled by filling the physical vat of life.  His hopes, dreams, and aspirations are tied to this world so that even the religious devotee thinks of heaven as a place to go when he can’t stay here any longer, and where he can rejoin Mom, Dad, and the family.  

God has placed within the human race a great gift that not only blessed the human race with his presence (spiritually), but provided Him a fellowship with beings who will honor Him, and give Him glory.  The whole creation does this to some degree, but the human race accomplishes this purpose like no other creation (1 Peter 2:9). Continuing this thought further, we are led to wonder how much of God’s eternal plan is predetermined since God has created a being like Him with similar attributes of creativity, design, will, and purpose.  In that position, man was given dominion over all creation, even the right to choose which names would be attached to them.   God did not give him the names for the animals, although, He may have known what names would be given to them.   He was given the right to choose which names each identify each species.  But, why did God create all of this? This question can be answered in part by a few texts but we still struggle to find a satisfactory answer. It appears to me that God desired fellowship with a creation of His that, like Himself, has the power to create, rule, and choose his own direction.

Would God be glorified if the man was only a pawn, created to perform in the way God designed him?   We would have to admit that God would be glorified for His creation to perform the way He designed it just as human innovation and inventions give the creator honor when it fully operates as expected.   But,  unlike human creation, God would receive more honor for having placed in man a spirit like Himself who has the power to choose which path he will take, to give him free will, and the power to accomplish his plans.  Creating man in His image and giving him this power of choice gives God more glory than anything man could create because for man to freely submit his will to God’s will when he could choose to fulfill his own will, gives greater honor.    Which would you think would give God more glory – a person who merely fulfills what you design him to do or a person who freely obeys of his own volition?  One speaker gave the real-life example of his father making him shine his shoes every Saturday night in preparation for Sunday morning church.  He hated it as a boy, but one weekend, he and his wife took visited his parent’s house.  For the first time, he found complete joy in shining his father’s shoes because he knew how much his father appreciated it.  We can all relate to the pure joy of doing for another that we love in order to please them.  But, just imagine the unimaginable joy of the father to have his grown son shine his shoes, not because he had to do it, but because he wanted to do it.   That same emotion is a powerful driving force behind our actions.   However, love is not just an emotion.  It is a choice to act in the interest, desire, and pleasure of another.  This honors and glorifies God.