Photo by Ozzie Kirkby on Unsplash
This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created -Genesis 5:1-2.
Man is the crowning figure in God’s creation. Every other thing created was created in preparation for their arrival, for their convenience, and to have all the necessary tools and resources to fulfil God’s plan and purpose for them and creation at large.
God created man: male and female in His own image. He did not make the male in His image and then the female in the male’s image. The imago Dei is intrinsic in man, and it is in equal essence in the male as it is in the female.
The divine DNA (if you like) stamps humanity with a quintessence that raises it infinitely above all of creation- that is, above every other created thing. It is what gives priceless value to the human person.
Human life is priceless. You cannot take it illegally without grave consequences in the eyes of God. Taking the life of a human is an affront to God’s image. It is an attack on the person of God Himself (Gen. 9:5-6; Rev 13:10).
Man is a spirit; he has a soul and lives in a body. On earth, we are spirit beings having a physical experience. We are not physical beings having a spiritual experience.
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground (the physical body), and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (the spirit man); and man became a living soul (the soul of man). Genesis 2:7, KJV.
Man was created before his physical body was formed (Genesis 1:26-27). Remember, God created man in His own image. He created them male and female, before forming the body of the male from the dust of the ground and then the body of the female with a part of the body of the male, which He had taken from the male.
When God breathed into the body of the male, he imbued the spirit-man He had already created into the physical body, and by implication, He did the same for the female after forming her physical body.
In light of the above, if the female was created to be a tool or resource for the male to achieve God’s plan and purpose for the male, then the female would have been created alongside the other creation or, at best, before the male.
The female was not ‘created after’ the male either; it was her physical body that was built from the physical material of the male physical body. Their physical bodies would make them function effectively in the physical world.
Also, it was imperative the material for the woman’s body is taken from the man’s, for it would become the basis of the affinity a man and a woman would assume when they became husband and wife: “bone of my bone; flesh of my flesh.”
A woman is not “flesh of your flesh” or “bone of your bone if she is not your wife. A wife is under the authority of her husband and not of every man. Some men think that every woman is under their authority. Not so bro…! If at work your boss is a woman, you are going to have serious challenges, thinking she is under your authority. You could one day go home, prematurely, with your last paycheque from that office. It would then be clear to you that a woman can have authority over a man, but definitely not over her husband.
The word used for created in “God created man” in Genesis 1, and the word used for formed in “God formed man from the dust of the earth” is not the same. The Hebrew word for ‘formed’ speaks to the handicraft of a skilled craftsman, as in a potter forming a vessel or work of art. The word also applies to the forming of the body of the female. God invested His skill or craftsmanship in building the physical bodies of the male and female like a potter would make a clay or porcelain masterpiece.
There are certainly differences between the male and the female physical make-up, and these differences are not obscure. The word ‘difference’ here would imply uniqueness where complementarity is the essence. This difference does not confer superiority or inferiority. Thus, the difference between the male and the female is not in superiority-ranking or hierarchical positioning. It is the complementarity of the sexes.
Put another way, the physical difference between the male and female is diversity in form, which is expressed in differences in function and responsibility towards the fulfilment of God’s purpose and plan for creation. However, their intrinsic nature and value are in the imago Dei.
The image of God is what makes us who we are, and that is the way we should relate with one other, whether married or unmarried. As the Apostle Paul says,
Wherefore, henceforth, know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more -2 Corinthians 5:16.
Mankind is a spiritual being and was created so. God formed the physical body of the man from the dust of the earth and then formed the physical body of the woman from a part of the side of the already formed physical body of the man. It is in this sense that the woman was made (or “built”) “from” or after the man.
Even then, when a child is conceived, God gives the spirit, which is the real person; the man gives the seed, and the physical body is formed through the woman. In this way, the male is also born of a woman.
Mankind, whether male or female, proceeds from God, who is the Father of spirits (Hebrews 12:9; Ecclesiastes 12:7; Isaiah 42:5; Zechariah 12:1).
For as woman was made from man, even so, man is also born of woman; and all [whether male or female go forth] from God [as their Author] -1 Corinthians 11:12, AMP.
It is through their physical bodies that, together, they would live and function on earth and subdue and replenish it. It is through the instrumentality of their physical bodies that they would be fruitful and multiply. The authority and responsibility to subdue and replenish the earth were not given to man as male, but to man as male and female.
Alexander Maclaren in his “Expositions of the Holy Scriptures” says:
Three facts as to humanity are thrown up into prominence: its possession of the image of God, the equality and eternal interdependence of the sexes, and the lordship over all creatures. Mark especially the remarkable wording of Genesis 1:27: ‘created He him; male and female created He them.’ So ‘neither is the woman without the man, nor the man without the woman.’ Each is maimed apart from the other. Both stand side by side, on one level before God. The germ of the most ‘advanced’ doctrines of the relations of the sexes is hidden here.
In addition to the foregoing, I would like to state that the Bible does not teach, infer, nor suggest anywhere that man was ever androgynous. This means that there was never a time that man had both male and female physical characteristics that were subsequently separated into male and female. Man is a spirit; he has a soul and lives in a body.
God made man in His image and His likeness. The realization of how the Lord made man and indeed all of creation should bring us into spontaneous praise as it did to King David:
Lord, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth,
Who have set Your glory above the heavens!
Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants
You have ordained strength,
Because of Your enemies,
That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?
For You have made him a little lower than the angels (Hb. Elohim),
And You have crowned him with glory and honour.
You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
All sheep and oxen — Even the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air,
And the fish of the sea
That pass through the paths of the seas.
O Lord, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth! -Psalm 8:1-9.
Man is a spirit; who has a soul and lives in a physical body.
This blog has been the concluding part in which I have shared a chapter in my book, Husband is not Master, Helpmeet is not Subordinate: The Marriage Relationship as God Intended It; Manhood, Womanhood and Male Headship in the Marriage Relationship.
Friend, I believe it has blessed you. Until next time, do not forget to keep living, loving and learning. Thank you.
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