"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female He created them"
As I was preparing to teach my class this week, I revisited a question I have wrestled with for some time now: when God creates man and woman He clearly states that He creates them in His own image and likeness. He created two people (two genders) to reflect His own image and likeness - meaning a man and a woman display the attributes and an image of who God is. As a Bible-believing, orthodox Christian this is actually a little preplexing because our glorious God is a triune God - one God existing in three united, yet distinct persons. So why would God create only two people to reflect His triune image? Doesn't this sort of leave one of the persons in the Trinity out?
While I was thinking about this it struck me that I had missed something which is there to see for all who have eyes to see. Let me try to explain this by referring back to an essay by my dear friend Jonathan Edwards - this is his attempt at describing the Trinity of God:
"And this I suppose to be that blessed Trinity that we read of in the Holy Scriptures. The Father is the Deity subsisting in the prime, un-originated and most absolute manner, or the deity in its direct existence. The Son is the Deity generated by God's understanding, or having an idea of Himself and subsisting in that idea. The Holy Ghost is the Deity subsisting in act, or the Divine essence flowing out and breathed forth in God's Infinite love to and delight in Himself. And I believe the Whole Divine essence does truly and distinctly subsist both in the Divine idea and Divine love, and that each of them are properly distinct Persons."
Jonathan Edwards, "An Unpublished Essay on the Trinity"
I realize that this begs some explanation so I will humbly attempt to give a quick exposition of what Edwards is trying to say.
God the Father is first in the God-head. This is self-evident in the fact that God the Son is the "begotten" Son of God and in the fact that God the Son submits His own will to the will of God the Father. Now, the Son is described in the Scriptures as the wisdom of God. "...Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." (1 Corinthians 1:24) 2 Corinthians 4:4 tells us that the Son is also the image of God: "...to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." Furthermore, Philppians 2: 6 says that Jesus is the "form" of God, Colossians 1:15 says that the Son is the "image of the invisible God," and Hebrews 1:3 powerfully states that "Who [Jesus] being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person." All of these verses point to an astounding fact concerning God the Son - He is the understanding and the idea that God the Father has of Himself, the perfect understanding and idea that only a perfect and eternal being could have. This perfect idea and understanding begets the second person of the Trinity; the glorious and eternal Son of God.
So far we see that God the Father begat God the Son and that God the Son is God the Father's perfect idea and understanding of Himself - embodied in a person, the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Our verse in Genesis would make perfect sense if this was the end of God and there was no third person in the Trinity. But, thanks be to God, there is a third person - the blessed Holy Spirit of God.
In order to understand the Holy Spirit we must think spiritually and not in a sequential or exclusively human way. We must think God's thoughts after Him and seek His glory and majesty to understand Who the Holy Spirit is and how this relates to our passage in Genesis.
God the Father loves God the Son perfectly and eternally. God the Son loves God the Father perfectly and eternally. The essence of love is delight, enjoyment, passion and eternal admiration. This is the unity that is shared between God the Father and God the Son. They are two distinct persons enjoying a perfect unity of love and delight in each other. Now think with me for a moment about what I just said and see if the Holy Spirit does not appear in the very words that I wrote. Does not the Bible tell us that "God is love?" Does not the Bible say that "if we love one another, God dwells in us?" Does not Psalm 36 speak of God's delight in Himself: "They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink form the river of your delights." This Psalm can easily be misunderstood to be saying that it is the "delightful river" we are given to drink of, but this is errant. It is speaking of God's delights and this same reference to river or water is strewn throughout the entire Bible in references to the Holy Spirit. In Revelation 22 we see the glorious Kingdom of God where between the Father and the Son flows the river of life - there is no other mention of the Holy Spirit in this picture anywhere. We see Jesus, in the Gospel of John, speaking to the woman at the well about water that will well up in her to eternal life. We could go on and on. What the Scriptures are telling us is simply that God the Holy Spirit is the embodiement of God's love to and delight in Himself. This love or "divine essence," which Edwards calls it, breathes forth the third person in the Trinity. The perfect love and delight that God has in Himself, or that is enjoyed between God the Father and God the Son, begets or breathes forth a third and distinct person - the Holy Spirit Who is God.
I hope I did Edwards' explanation at least some justice in what I just wrote. But I am more concerned with you understanding what was just, in fact, said than with my ability exposit the thoughts of Edwards. I said, and I believe that God has said, that God the Father and God the Son exist in a perfect union and relationship of love and delight in each other. This delight in and love for each other is, in fact, the Holy Spirit Himself. Consider also that if this is so, it means that the Holy Spirit is in God the Father because He is the love which the Father has for the Son. As well, the Holy Spirit is in the Son because He is the love which the Son has for the Father. Finally, consider that both God the Father and God the Son are in the Holy Spirit exactly because the Holy Spirit is the essence of both God the Father and God the Son - He is love.
If you still doubt what is being said, consider with me how Jesus explains the unity which He and the Father share and how we are given the gift of partaking in this unity in John 17:
"The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."
John 17:22-26
I almost weep just seeing the beauty of what Jesus is saying to us here. He speaks of perfect oneness that He and His Father share - a perfect and eternal oneness that He wants us to taste and have. But if you pay careful attention here you will see that the Holy Spirit is never mentioned in name here - at least not the name by which we know Him. Instead, Jesus speaks of the love the the Father and the Son have for each other and that this love unifies them. Jesus speaks of "knowing" God the Father and this is a clear allusion to the way the term is often used in describing a husband and wife knowing each other intimately. There are references here to the Holy Spirit, to be sure, but the language is that of love and intimacy. And the final proof that Jesus is speaking of the Holy Spirit comes at the end of the passage. Jesus says that He wants the love with which the Father has always loved Him to be in us. And He doesn't stop there - He also says that He wants Himself to be in us. Do you see that Jesus is speaking of the blessed Holy Spirit here? Do you see that there is no distinction between Jesus speaking of the love and delight in each other that He and the Father enjoy, and the Holy Spirit? And do you see that Jesus wants this love (that is, the Holy Spirit) to be in us? Finally, do you see that Jesus wants to be in us and that this is a reference to the Holy Spirit being in us - Romans 8:9 refers to the Holy Spirit as "the Spirit of Christ."
The Holy Spirit is none other "God's infinite love to and delight in Himself" subsisting in the third person of the Trinity. "...because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." (Romans 5:5)
But how does this relate to the question I posed at the beginning? Does this understanding explain why God created two people to reflect His image and not three? Yes it does! It does so because of what God states in Genesis 2:24. "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." The Hebrew word for one here is the same word we find in Deuteronomy 6:5 - echad - and it means multiple things coming together to become one. This is the description given to the Israelites of who God is - He is one God, but multiple persons coming together as one. And how do the man and the woman become one? In love to and delight in each other. Through emotional love for each other and through the intimate act of making love they become echad, or one.
The image of the third person in the Trinity is not missing at all, it's right there in front of us for our awe and amazement. The image and likeness of God is complete in the creation of the man and the woman because they love each other and delight in each other. The Holy Spirit is supposed be reflected in the love which is between the man and the woman. Humor me for only one minute more here, please :) Does not Jesus tell us that we cannot see the Spirit but that we can see His effects (a paraphrase of John 3:8)? It is the same with love between a man and a woman. We cannot see love itself, but we can certainly see the effects of it on both the woman and the man. Love leads to unity, delight, peace and joy. Love between a man and a woman makes them both patient, kind to each other, gentle with one another, faithful to each other and it makes them self-controlled when dealing with each other. This is at least what love is supposed to do and it is, in fact, what real and lasting love does to people. If this last list of effects of love sounds familiar to you it's because you have seen it before - in the Bible.
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control..."
Galatians 5:22-24
The next time you think of how we reflect the glory of God think not only of a man reflecting one part of God and the woman reflecting the rest of Him. Think instead of how the image of God is completed by love flowing between two people and seeing that love as the thing (or person, in the case of God) that unites them. God is three distinct persons existing in a perfect relationship of love and delight - God the Father and God the Son love and delight in each other perfectly and this love and delight is God Himself, the Holy Spirit, the essence of God.
Husbands, love your wives because the image, likeness and glory of God is at stake. Wives, submit to and love your husbands because the image, likeness and glory of God is at stake. What a glorious and majestic God we serve who created us to reflect His glory this way - by loving and delighting, by having joy!
Blessings,
Kristian
No comments:
Post a Comment