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Scripture Reading: Gen. 2:7-9, 15-17; Rom. 9:21, 23; 2 Cor. 4:7; John 1:11-12; Col. 2:6
I. With a spirit as the receptacle to receive God:
А. The human spirit being very close to God the Spirit.
B. The human spirit being able to contact God and to be one with Him — John 4:24; Rom. 8:16.
II. With a mind to understand God — Luke 24:45; Rom. 12:2.
III. With an emotion to love God — Matt. 22:37.
IV. With a will to choose God:
А. Two trees, indicating two wills, two sources, and two possibilities for man to choose.
B. Being charged to eat the right tree, indicating that God created for man a free will and that God wanted man to exercise his free will to choose Him.
V. God’s prohibiting man from eating the tree of knowledge indicating that God wanted man to receive Him as life by enjoying Him — John 1:11-12; Col. 2:6.
VI. Man needing to be God’s vessel to contain Him — Eph. 3:17a.
Focus: The focus of this lesson should be man being God’s container.
In this lesson we want to see that the man created by God is a vessel of God.
God’s intention in making man is to have a vessel that can contain Him and express Him. In this lesson we want to stress this one crucial point — the man created by God is a vessel. Among many Christians this concept is absent. Many Christians think that man should be used by God as an instrument. The highest thought they have is that man should be God’s servant. But the thought of man being a vessel of God is not with them, because there is not such a thought in our human mentality.
In God’s thought man is just a container, not a means or an instrument. Unless man can be a vessel, a container to contain God and to be filled up with God, man can never be used by God to fulfill His purpose. Balaam, the Gentile prophet, was someone used by God, but in a very, very negative way. This is because he was a prophet but he did not become a vessel to contain God. He was not a container of God.
In Romans 9:21 and 23 Paul tells us that God’s creation of man was just to produce, to create, man as a vessel to fulfill God’s purpose. God created man as a vessel to contain Him just as a potter makes a vessel of clay to contain something. Second Corinthians 4:7 also conveys this thought. The apostle Paul considered himself as an earthen vessel to contain a treasure, and the treasure is just Christ, the very God. Thus, in Romans 9 and 2 Corinthians 4 we can see a clear revelation that man was created by God to be His vessel to contain Him.
As a container to contain God, man needs a receptacle to receive God, and this is the unique difference between God’s creation of man and His creation of other things. God did not give any other created thing a spirit except man. According to Genesis 2:7, God created man with the dust to form a body. Then He breathed the breath of life into man’s nostrils, and man became a living soul. Genesis 2:7 shows us a picture of man as a vessel made by God.
There is the need of a receptacle within man to receive and contain God. Today’s radio has an outward box and an inward receiver to receive the invisible radio waves. Genesis 2:7 shows us that man has an outward body made with dust, and an inward receptacle, an inward receiver, produced by God’s breath of life. This inward receiver is the spirit of man.
The human spirit is very close to God the Spirit. Many Bible readers mistakenly think that the breath of life breathed into the nostrils of the dusty man was the life of God. They consider that at the time of creation, God imparted His life into man’s earthen body. They do not see the difference between God’s breathing the breath of life into man in Genesis 2:7 and the Lord Jesus’ breathing the Holy Spirit into the disciples in John 20:22. When the Lord Jesus breathed the Spirit of God into the disciples, the eternal life entered into the disciples. But when God breathed the breath of life into the dusty body of man, that breath of life became man’s human spirit.
Two principles do not allow us to say that God’s life entered into man at his creation when God’s breath of life was breathed into him. The first principle is that of man’s free will. If God had put His eternal life into man at his creation, there would have been no need for man to exercise his free will. This would mean that God’s creation accomplished His purpose without the exercise of man’s will. This is against the divine principle of God giving man a free will.
Furthermore, according to the whole Bible, it is not only against the divine principle of man’s free will but also against God’s economy to say that man received God’s eternal life at his creation. The whole Bible shows us that after God’s creation, God wanted man to choose Him, so He put man in front of the tree of life, expecting that man would freely choose to receive God into him as life. It would be against His economy for God to put His life into man at the creation of man.
After the fall of man, God closed the way to the tree of life. According to the revelation at the end of Genesis 3, God closed the way to the tree of life so that fallen man would not live forever with his sinful nature (vv. 22-24). This shows us that man did not have the eternal life of God at the time of creation. Actually, man could not receive God’s eternal life until the Lord Jesus passed through death and resurrection to accomplish redemption to solve the problem of sin for man and to release the eternal life of God.
Some wrongly say that man received the life of God at his creation based upon Luke 3:38, which says that Adam was the son of God. They maintain that Adam must have had the life of God; otherwise, he could not have been a son of God. But the angels are also called the sons of God (Job 1:6; 38:7). This does not mean that the angels have God’s divine life with God’s divine nature. In the Bible the word son has at least two meanings. One meaning is that a son is one who was born of the Father by the Father’s life with the Father’s nature. The second meaning is that a son is one who was created by God. Because Adam and the angels were created by God, they are called sons of God. God was their origin. Even adopted sons can be called sons of their adopted father, but they do not have his life and nature. Adam was considered the son of God because he was created by God, even as the heathen poets considered all mankind to be the offspring of God (Acts 17:28). Mankind was only created by God, not regenerated of Him. This is absolutely and intrinsically different from the believers in Christ being the sons of God. They have been born, regenerated, of God and possess God’s life and nature (John 1:12-13; 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:4).
Although man did not receive God’s life at his creation, he was created with a human spirit, which came from God’s breath of life. Thus, although the human spirit is not the Spirit of God or the divine life of God, it is very close to the Spirit of God. This is why the human spirit can receive God the Spirit. A substance like copper has the ability to receive electricity, but wood or paper does not. Between the electricity and the copper there is no insulation but rather a kind of transmission. Likewise, between God the Spirit and our human spirit there is a kind of transmission; there is no insulation. But between our physical body and the Spirit of God or between our psychological being and the Spirit of God there is a kind of insulation; there is no transmission. Because the human spirit comes out of God’s breath of life, our human spirit is very close to God the Spirit. We have to stress this because this will lay a good foundation for the following lessons on life. We cannot help people to go on in life if we miss this very crucial point.
Because our human spirit is close to God, and there is a transmission between God the Spirit and our human spirit, our human spirit is able to contact God and to be one with God. John 4:24, which says that God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit, proves that our spirit is able to contact God. Romans 8:16 says that the Spirit witnesses with our spirit. This verse uses the preposition with. This means that God’s Spirit is one with our spirit. This little word with is very precious, indicating that now our spirit is one with God’s Spirit. We need to stress these points again and again, especially with the new ones. The new ones who have come into the church life in the last two years need this kind of help.
Man was made not only with a spirit but also with a mind to understand God (Luke 24:45; Rom. 12:2). To contact God, to receive God, and to contain God are one thing, but to understand God is another thing. We have a spirit to receive God, but we also have a soul, a psuche. In referring to people, the Bible calls them souls (Exo. 1:5, lit.; Acts 2:41). Every person is a soul. We are a psychological being, a soul, with the faculty of understanding. God created man with a mind, a part of the soul, so that man could understand God. The understanding is the function of the mind. Luke 24:45 says that the Lord opened the mind of the disciples to understand the Scriptures. This is a very good verse proving that we need to understand God.
Man was also created with an emotion to love God (Matt. 22:37). The Bible shows that in our psychological being, besides the mind as the understanding organ, there is also the emotion as the loving organ. Matthew 22:37 says that we should love the Lord our God with all our heart and all our mind. The mind is also a part of the heart, but it is separately mentioned in this verse. Since the mind is separately mentioned here, surely this indicates that the heart in this verse must refer to the loving function of the heart, that is, the emotion. After we receive God, we have to understand Him. After we understand Him, surely we have to appreciate Him, like Him, love Him, and treasure Him. Thus, an emotion, the loving function of our heart, was also prepared for us by God.
Man was created with a will to choose God. Without his will, man would have no choice, no decision, no direction, and no goal. Thus, God created a strong choosing organ for man. In our psychological being, our will is the strongest part. Even after the fall of man, God still somewhat preserved the human will for His purpose. When we believe in the Lord Jesus, this is a strong determination on our part by the exercise of our will. Martin Luther is an example of a person whose will was very strong, so he had great faith. To have strong faith always depends upon a very strong will.
God putting man before two trees indicates that man had a free will. The two trees show that in this universe there are two wills, two sources, and two possibilities for man to choose. God put man before the two trees in a neutral position. This indicates that man surely by that time had a strong free will; otherwise, God would not have put him in front of two choices.
After God put man in front of two choices, God warned man not to choose the wrong tree and charged him to eat the right tree (Gen. 2:16-17). This indicates that God created for man a free will and that God wanted man to exercise his free will to choose Him.
God’s prohibiting man from eating the tree of knowledge indicates that God wanted man to receive Him as life by enjoying Him (John 1:11-12; Col. 2:6). To eat is a matter of enjoyment. God wanted man to receive Him in the way of joy, in the way of enjoyment, not in any other way.
Man has to be the vessel of God to contain Him. This is the concluding emphasis of this lesson. To emphasize this we should use Ephesians 3:17a — “That Christ may make His home in your hearts.” We have to tell the saints that a home is a big vessel. All the dwellers are contained in their dwelling places. The house contains us. Thus, we have to be God’s vessels to contain God.
In the book of Ephesians, Paul strongly charges us to be the home of Christ. He desired to see that Christ might make His home in our hearts so that we might be His real vessels. The teachings in Christianity miss this. They stress many other ethical things but not the point that we have to let the Lord make His home in our hearts so that we may be His vessels to contain Him. The focus of this lesson should be man being God’s container.
