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Scripture Reading: Gen. 1:26a; Eph. 1:11b; Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 4:4b; Col. 1:15a; Phil. 2:6; Heb. 1:3; 1 Thes. 5:23; Heb. 4:12b; Gen. 2:7; Zech. 12:1; Prov. 20:27; Gen. 2:8-9
Prayer: Lord, we trust in You for the study of such a deep word. Lord, open up Your secrets and show us the hidden mysteries. Lord, we like to know Your heart with Your desire. We like to open ourselves to You. Lord, do open Yourself to us that we may have a thorough fellowship with You. Lord, do cover us with Your precious blood and anoint us with the anointing ointment. We need this. Thank You, Lord. Amen.
In the foregoing chapters we have covered four main things: God in His titles, God in His person, the divine economy, which is the eternal plan of God, and the divine dispensing. These four things serve as an introduction to the subject of this series of messages, which is “The Central Line of the Divine Revelation.”
I have been in the Lord’s ministry for over sixty-five years. Through all these years, by studying the word of God in the Bible and the writings of others, I have discovered that in the Bible there is a central line, which has been missed by Christianity. In most of the Christian bookstores it is difficult to find any publication concerning the dispensing of God or God’s economy. According to my knowledge, those of the inner life spoke much about God’s plan, and one of their writers, Mary E. McDonough, published a book entitled God’s Plan of Redemption. But the word economy was not used in regard to God’s plan. This might be because in Ephesians 1:10; 3:9; and 1 Timothy 1:4, the main verses in which the Greek word oikonomia is used, some versions of the Bible rendered this word as “dispensation.” “Dispensation” is not a wrong translation, but its denotation has been spoiled. A better translation of the word oikonomia is “administration” or “economy.” In the denotation of the word oikonomia, there is the thought of a household administration. Hence, God’s economy is God’s household administration.
In God’s economy the main item is to dispense God Himself into His chosen people. This thought is new. The word economy is in the Bible, but the word dispensing is not. Nevertheless, the fact of dispensing can be found in the Bible. The divine economy and the divine dispensing are the central line of the entire Bible.
During the past thirty years I have nearly finished the life-study of the entire Bible. Today I am beginning a new study of the Bible. The subject, points, and facts are the same, but the view is different. I call this study “The View of the Divine Dispensing according to the Divine Economy.” The title of this chapter is “God’s Creation of Man in the View of the Divine Dispensing according to the Divine Economy.” The phrase in the view of in this title is used to show that God’s creation of man was in the view of His dispensing. A view is different from a purpose. In doing anything we must have a view. In setting up a school or a business we should not do it without a view. In creating man God had a definite view. God created man in the view of His dispensing.
In eternity the Triune God must have held a council and made a counsel concerning the creation of man (Gen. 1:26a; Eph. 1:11b). A council, or a conference, must have been held among the three of the Divine Trinity. A council indicates that more than one person is involved. A council or conference must be held by a group of people. In Genesis 1:26 God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” This verse indicates that before creating man, the Triune God held a council in which the three of the Divine Trinity made a counsel concerning how to make man. This counsel was God’s view. God came in to create man in the view of His dispensing. Why did God create man in His own image and according to His likeness? The reason is that this was God’s view. Why did God create man by forming a body out of clay? And why did God form a spirit for man with the breath of life out of Him? Why did God, after His creation of man, put him in Eden in front of the two trees? Why was there a river flowing beside the tree, with three different kinds of precious materials produced in the flow of that river? The answer to all these questions is that God had a view, and this view came out of His counsel.
God’s creation is mentioned in a very brief way in Genesis 1, but the details of His creation, especially concerning His creation of man, were not defined and unveiled until chapter 2. Chapter 1 tells us only that God created man in His image and according to His likeness (vv. 26-27). But chapter 2 tells us that God made two parts of man — his body out of clay and his spirit out of the breath of life breathed out by God (v. 7). When these two parts were combined together, the soul was produced. In other words, the combination of man’s body and spirit produced a complete man.
The man created in Genesis 1 is both male and female. Man is a couple. In chapter 1 the male and female are mentioned (v. 27), but in chapter 2 the details of their creation are given. In verse 18 God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.” This indicates that it is not good for man to be a bachelor. By himself, a man is not complete. Man needs a counterpart; he needs another part to match him. A man is completed, or consummated, by his wife. Thus, God had to make a female to match the male. In making this counterpart God used a small part of man, a rib, to build a woman (vv. 21-22). Hence, the woman was something that came out of man and was a part of man. All females are just parts of the males. For this reason they cannot stand by themselves.
After the creation of the woman, God brought her to the man, and when the man saw the woman, he was very happy. Adam said, “This time this is bone of my bones / And flesh of my flesh” (v. 23). The male and the female became one flesh (v. 24). Eve came out of Adam, and she went back to Adam. Adam and Eve became one couple, one corporate person. In this way God’s creation of man was consummated.
God created man in a certain view, according to a certain design. This view was God’s blueprint. When someone builds a house, the first thing he must have is a blueprint. Then he builds the building according to the blueprint. He builds it in the view of the design shown in the blueprint. God made a design in His divine counsel. That counsel was the view in which God created man. When God created man, He had a blueprint. That blueprint was His counsel, and that counsel was the view in which He made man.
God created man in the view of the divine dispensing, which is according to the divine economy. In eternity the Triune God had a council and made a counsel concerning the creation of man. Ephesians 1:11 says that God works all things according to the counsel of His will. In God’s creation of the heavens and the earth and in His creation of man, a counsel was made. This counsel was made in God’s council. Our being chosen and predestinated to be the church as the Body of Christ was all according to the counsel that the three of the Triune God made among Themselves.
Man was created by the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Matt. 28:19). Genesis 1:26 says, “God said, Let Us make man.” Elohim, translated “God” in this verse, is a plural noun in Hebrew, implying the Divine Trinity.
Man was created by the Triune God in Their (inward) image. This image is Christ the Son as the expression of the invisible God in the essence of His attributes, such as love, light, holiness, and righteousness (2 Cor. 4:4b; Col. 1:15a).
The image of God refers to the inward image of the essence of God. Christ the Son is the image of the Triune God. He is the expression of the invisible God. God is invisible, yet He has an image, and this image is Christ the Son as the expression of the invisible God in the essence of His attributes. God’s attributes refer to His characteristics. God is love (1 John 4:16), God is light (1:5), God is holy, and God is righteous. Eventually, God is also holiness and righteousness. God has many other attributes, including mercy and kindness, as well as power, strength, and might.
In our speaking concerning this matter, we need to be careful to distinguish between attributes and virtues. If we are not careful, we may use these terms in a wrong way. An attribute denotes the very element or essence of something that has not yet been expressed. When an attribute is expressed, it becomes a virtue. Strictly speaking, as men, we do not have the attributes of love, light, holiness, and righteousness. The true attributes of love, light, holiness, and righteousness are of God and belong to God. But when God became a man to live on this earth, the attributes of God were expressed in human virtues. The attributes are of divinity, but the expressed virtues are through humanity. Thus, the expressed attributes are virtues, and the hidden essence and element of the virtues are the attributes.
The Triune God is a constitution of all His attributes. The totality of all the divine attributes is God’s inward essence. This inward essence needs an expression. The expression of the inward essence of God is His image, and this image is embodied in Christ. All the fullness of the Godhead is embodied in Christ (Col. 2:9). Christ as the image of God is the expression of the essence of God’s attributes, which are His very being. According to this image and in this image, man was made in Christ by the Triune God.
All human beings bear the expression, the image, of God. God is love, and we also have a kind of love. Our love is a copy of God’s love. God’s love is the real love, and our love is a photograph of God’s love. Human beings are pictures, figures, or photographs, of God in His attributes. God is also light. We as human beings also have some amount of light. We also like light and hate to be in the dark. When we do something in darkness, we do not like to let people know. But when we do something in the light, we surely like people to see that we are bright and of the light. We also like to be holy; that is, we do not like to be common. We like to be separated from the common things. We also like to be righteous and to do things right. We do not like to cheat people, even though at times we may steal from others because of our fallen nature. Even before we were saved, we all liked to be loving, bright, holy, and righteous. In our nature we wanted to love our parents, yet very often we did not. We realized that this was not good. This proves that we have a copy of God’s attributes. Hence, we bear God’s image.
Man was created not only in the inward image of the Triune God but also according to Their (outward) likeness. This likeness is the form of God’s being (Phil. 2:6), the expression of the essence and nature of God’s person (Heb. 1:3). Christ existed in the form of God, that is, in the likeness of God. When He became a man, He laid aside the likeness of God and took the form of a slave (Phil. 2:7). He laid aside the form of God, but He did not lay aside the essence of God. Christ laid aside the outward likeness, the form of God’s being. The form of God’s being is the expression of the essence and nature of God’s person. Hebrews 1:3 says, “Who [Christ], being the effulgence of His glory and the impress of His substance...” The essence of God is something within God Himself. This essence needs an outward expression, an impress, like the impress of a seal. Christ is the impress, the outward form, of God’s being.
Man was created as the highest of the created life. God’s creation is in the way of life. According to Genesis 1, the life that God created was of three categories: plant life, animal life, and human life. The first thing created on this earth by God through His Spirit was the plant life, including the grass, the trees, and the flowers. This is the life without any consciousness, the lowest form of created life. After the plant life God created the animal life. This life is on a higher level and is stronger than the plant life. The animal life has consciousness, but the plant life does not. Even the smallest animals, such as the ants, are very conscious. Eventually, God’s creation reached the highest level with the creation of human life. The human life has the highest consciousness. Although many of the animals are very clever and skillful, none of these animals can speak human language. Yet human beings have the ability to learn to speak any kind of human language. If an animal such as Balaam’s donkey (Num. 22:27-30) speaks human language, that is a miracle. Yet man can speak many different languages. This is an indication that man’s life is the highest among the created lives.
Man, as the highest created life, was created according to God’s kind (Gen. 1:26-27). Genesis 1 tells us that all the plants were created according to their kind (vv. 11-12). Today, if you plant a peach tree, it will produce peaches. In the same way, if you plant an almond tree, it will produce almonds, not bananas. It is the same with the animal life (vv. 21, 24-25). Crabs in the water produce other crabs according to their kind. Crabs cannot produce turtles. Crabs are in one family, and plants are in another family. Mankind, however, is according to God’s kind.
When two trees are grafted together, they must be very similar or they cannot grow together. For example, a branch from a peach tree cannot be grafted into an apple tree. However, a branch from a peach tree of one variety can grow together with a peach tree of a different variety. The two can grow together because they are of the same kind. In the same way, we can be grafted into God (Rom. 11:17-24) and grow together with Him (6:5) because we and God are of the same kind.
Man was created as a tripartite being (1 Thes. 5:23; Heb. 4:12b). The first of man’s three parts is his body. The body was formed with the dust of the ground to be man’s outward organ, having physical consciousness to contact the physical world (Gen. 2:7a). All our physical members, such as our legs, mouth, hands, and arms, are part of this outward organ.
The second of man’s three parts created in Genesis 2 was man’s spirit (v. 7b). Man’s spirit was formed with the breath of God to be man’s inward organ as God’s recipient, having spiritual consciousness to contact the spiritual world (Zech. 12:1; Prov. 20:27). Proverbs 20:27 says, “The spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah.” Jehovah enlightens us through our spirit. If we did not have a spirit, we would not have light or anything that would enlighten us inwardly. In the Old Testament the Hebrew word used most often for the spirit is ruach. This word in Hebrew means “spirit,” “breath,” or “wind.” But the word for spirit here in Proverbs 20:27 is not the Hebrew word ruach but neshamah — the same word used in Genesis 2:7 for breath. Hence, according to Proverbs 20:27, the breath of life in Genesis 2:7 is the very spirit of man. God formed a spirit with the breath of life. Neshamah, the breath of life, is the source of the spirit and the element with which the human spirit was formed. The body was formed with the element of dust, and the spirit was formed with the element of the breath of life out of God. This breath of life out of God was not God’s Spirit. It was not the Spirit of God but something very close. The source of our body is the ground, but the source of our spirit is God. Our breath is nearly identical with our very being. Without breath we would die. Yet there is still a big distinction between our breath and our self. God’s breath of life was not His Spirit but the very element with which God formed man’s spirit.
God created man by forming two things. First, He formed the body with the element of the dust. Second, He formed man’s spirit with the element of His breath of life. Thus, our spirit is very precious because our spirit is close to God. The dust is not very close to God, but our spirit is very close to God. This is why in a quiet time even the atheists have something within them that says, “What if there is a God? What will happen to me?” Some may say that they are atheists and teach others to be such. But at night something within them says, “If there is a God, what should I do?” This something within them is the spirit of man.
A few days ago the brothers distributed one hundred seventy thousand pieces of literature in Moscow and Saint Petersburg (formerly Leningrad) in the Soviet Union, and they received twenty-four thousand names of people who wanted books and publications. The brothers reported that there was a burning thirst within the unbelieving Russians for the truth of the gospel and for God. They have been under atheism for more than seventy years, yet this teaching could not change their nature. No one can change their nature. They do have a part within them formed with the breath of God. This element remains with every human being. Thus, it is easy for an atheist to turn to God. The reason for this is that there is a recognizing organ — the spirit — within man.
The soul was the third part of man’s being that was produced by God’s creation. In contrast to the body and the spirit, the soul was not formed with a certain element. The soul was produced by the combining of the human spirit and the human body. The soul, comprising the mind, the emotion, and a free will, is man’s self and has the psychological consciousness to contact the psychological world (Gen. 2:7c). A man is a soul. When Jacob and his family went down to Egypt, the Old Testament says that seventy souls went to Egypt (Exo. 1:5, lit.). In the same way, Acts 2:41 records that about three thousand souls were saved on the day of Pentecost. Man is a soul, and the soul is the totality of man’s body plus his spirit. When the body and spirit are put together, the total is a soul. This soul is man himself, comprising his mind, emotion, and free will. Hence, the perfect man created by God is a soul with two organs, the body as the outward organ and the spirit as the inward organ.
The first two chapters of the Old Testament give us a design of how God created the heavens and the earth and how He created man. The creation of man is God’s preliminary preparation for the dispensing of Himself as the Triune God into the tripartite man according to His economy. This is the new way to study Genesis 1 and 2.
