Were people created in God's physical image or spiritual one?

[mathinspiration]

It says that God created man both male and female in his image? Does it mean Adam had both sexes before Eve was created or that God's physical both? Are they separate? Does God have both physical image and spiritual one?

 

[MyGivenNameIsKeith]

It says that God created man both male and female in his image? Does it mean Adam had both sexes before Eve was created or that God's physical both? Are they separate? Does God have both physical image and spiritual one?

God's image is mind, body and, spirit. God the Father (mind), The Son Jesus Christ (body), and the Holy Spirit (spirit/soul). We as humans have a mind, body, and soul. As God is not a respecter of persons... the sexual nature is irrelevant and is only a function of the physical. Because when a person witnesses to another and reproduces the seed which was planted in him by passing along the Word of God, the reproduction process is seen in a spiritual fashion and not the sexual nature heretofore mentioned. Reproduction isn't about having babies, it is about increasing the number in the kingdom, more people come to know God. That is the essential role of parents and children. To raise children to know right and wrong and follow God and obey his commandments. Adam was a guy. He did not have both. You definitely are buying into the new age thinking a bit too much.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

The Scripture says that God is a spirit and no man has ever seen Him at any time. Therefore He is neither male nor female in our human sense. We are not made in the physical image of God but the image is one of character and nature; not our fallen, sinful nature, but the character that Adam and Eve had before the Fall, and the character and nature that Jesus showed during His time with the Jews. It is the same character that the Holy Spirit implants into Christian believers and it comes more to the fore as the believer's mind is transformed to be more Christlike.

We cannot view God in human terms. Those who maintain that God is female are trying to view Him in human terms. He made humans male and female because He values companionship and partnership, and gave humans the faculty to reproduce. God doesn't need this. He is self-sufficient. He doesn't need anything.

Jesus was incarnated as a man because in Jewish culture the male is the gender that has the most influence. The appearances of God in the Old Testament were of the second Person of the Trinity, the Son of God. He was clothed in so much glory that it would have been the death of anyone who saw his face. Moses had to have his face covered until God passed by, and he saw only the back parts of God. That was enough to cause the glory to be seen on his face for days afterward.

If we want to know God's nature and character, we need to look at 1 Corinthians 13 and Galatians 5 where it talks about the fruit of the Spirit. They are reflections of God's nature and character.

 

[MyGivenNameIsKeith]

The Scripture says that God is a spirit and no man has ever seen Him at any time. Therefore He is neither male nor female in our human sense. We are not made in the physical image of God but the image is one of character and nature; not our fallen, sinful nature, but the character that Adam and Eve had before the Fall, and the character and nature that Jesus showed during His time with the Jews. It is the same character that the Holy Spirit implants into Christian believers and it comes more to the fore as the believer's mind is transformed to be more Christlike.

We cannot view God in human terms. Those who maintain that God is female are trying to view Him in human terms. He made humans male and female because He values companionship and partnership, and gave humans the faculty to reproduce. God doesn't need this. He is self-sufficient. He doesn't need anything.

Jesus was incarnated as a man because in Jewish culture the male is the gender that has the most influence. The appearances of God in the Old Testament were of the second Person of the Trinity, the Son of God. He was clothed in so much glory that it would have been the death of anyone who saw his face. Moses had to have his face covered until God passed by, and he saw only the back parts of God. That was enough to cause the glory to be seen on his face for days afterward.

If we want to know God's nature and character, we need to look at 1 Corinthians 13 and Galatians 5 where it talks about the fruit of the Spirit. They are reflections of God's nature and character.

you totally dismissed the questions and provided your own views on the concept of why you think God did what. 1 Corinthians and galatians 5 talk about gifts that we are given. this does not imply these are the whole of god's nature. again I reiterate that you avoided the original post's questions.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

you totally dismissed the questions and provided your own views on the concept of why you think God did what. 1 Corinthians and galatians 5 talk about gifts that we are given. this does not imply these are the whole of god's nature. again I reiterate that you avoided the original post's questions.

1 Corinthians 13 speaks about love which is the basis of God's character. Also the fruit of the Spirit is the Spirit's character. These are not gifts but character attributes. I think you may have confused this with 1 Corinthians 12.

 

[MyGivenNameIsKeith]

1 Corinthians 13 speaks about love which is the basis of God's character. Also the fruit of the Spirit is the Spirit's character. These are not gifts but character attributes. I think you may have confused this with 1 Corinthians 12.

speaking of prophecy. then speaking of charity which is a fruit of love. I am not confused. again you avoided the original poster's questions by going to a tangent of my own. If you want to see God's nature and character, one need only look to Jesus Christ.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

speaking of prophecy. then speaking of charity which is a fruit of love. I am not confused. again you avoided the original poster's questions by going to a tangent of my own. If you want to see God's nature and character, one need only look to Jesus Christ.

I think that my answer was as good as yours. You went off talking about reproduction, and that was not in the OP's question. He was asking the question of whether we were created in God's physical image or spiritual one, and if physical was God both male and female. My answer in brief was that God is not human and therefore is not male or female, nor a combination of the two, and that the image of God in which we are create consists of His nature and character. I think my answer is quite appropriate. Anyway, you're not the OP and he can answer for himself if he wants, so stop the criticism.

 

[MyGivenNameIsKeith]

I think that my answer was as good as yours. You went off talking about reproduction, and that was not in the OP's question. He was asking the question of whether we were created in God's physical image or spiritual one, and if physical was God both male and female. My answer in brief was that God is not human and therefore is not male or female, nor a combination of the two, and that the image of God in which we are create consists of His nature and character. I think my answer is quite appropriate. Anyway, you're not the OP and he can answer for himself if he wants, so stop the criticism.

it concerned male and female in a physical capacity according to his image. one would think the reproduction process is relevant in this regard, for it concerns purpose. Thus I answered the questions posed. Good day.

 

[DW_in_AR]

It says that God created man both male and female in his image? Does it mean Adam had both sexes before Eve was created or that God's physical both? Are they separate? Does God have both physical image and spiritual one?

I think it's worth pointing out that the imago Dei comes from the Elohist creation story, while Adam and Eve belong to the Yahwist creation story. It may not be productive to apply themes from the Elohist story to events in the Yahwist story.

 

[ViaCrucis]

It says that God created man both male and female in his image? Does it mean Adam had both sexes before Eve was created or that God's physical both? Are they separate? Does God have both physical image and spiritual one?

God doesn't have a "physical image". The "image and likeness of God" does not refer to form, it refer to what human beings were created for, they were created to bear God's image in the world, to reflect God. That image was marred by sin, and restored in Jesus Christ, and in Jesus we see humanity as it is supposed to be. We see God in Jesus, because Jesus is "the image of the invisible God" and "the fullness of Deity in bodily form", He says, "If you have seen Me you have seen the Father"; as the only-begotten Son and Word of the Father made flesh Jesus uniquely and distinctly makes God known to us, He shows us God. We see God as the One who pours Himself out in love, "Have this same mind in you that was in Christ Jesus, who though being in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but instead emptied Himself, taking on the form of a slave,"

Jesus shows us God, and also shows us what it means to be truly human. As human beings we were created to bear God's likeness, not some appearance or the like, but to be creatures which reflect Who God is in His creation.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[stevevw]

It says that God created man both male and female in his image? Does it mean Adam had both sexes before Eve was created or that God's physical both? Are they separate? Does God have both physical image and spiritual one?

This is an interesting question as there is a difference between the physical and the spiritual. The bible says God is spiritual and has no form so to be made in his image must be about something other than our physical bodies, gender and sex. If this is the case then the physical creation of our bodies is secondary to the creation of humans in Gods image as a spirit. I think it does not matter so much about how our physical bodies came to be.The important thing is it is our spirit that is what makes us like God and that is why we need to live by the spirit as Paul says. Our spiritual self will live on when our physical bodies decay.

 

[Eloy Craft]

The community of man in the image and likeness of God

Before sin we are like God and even more like Him than angels. As a Trinity of Persons God is a community. Gen. 1 God makes 'them' male and female and 'they' are His image and likeness. He commands them to multiply and populate. In this we see that the human family is a community of persons in the image of God. Father mother and child. A family has an internal conversation exclusive to themselves. God has an internal conversation exclusive to Himself. Jesus included man in the conversation of God. God is a family and a community. The image and likeness of God is any or all humanity in communion with Him and in that communion are One like God. In Gen 1 we see an earth populated by people in communion with one mother and father who together are one image and likeness of God. God made man a family and a community of persons like God is a family and community of Persons. The community of man in the likeness of God makes God's will active and God's image visible on earth. God's will on earth as it is in heaven.

Man in the image and likeness of God

Gen 2. God made Adam in His image and likeness. Like man in Gen 1 man now has multiplied and populated the earth. All mankind is one in the image and likeness of Adam. Until Jesus came down from heaven the image and likeness of God was not visible on earth. Jesus is like God and made His image visible on earth. That is what our bodies are for. To make God's image visible on earth. In God's likeness we make God's will active on earth and that activity makes God's image visible. That is what it means to glorify God. Jesus is like His Father and in that likeness did God's will so God's image is visible again on earth.

Man is a composite of material and spiritual substance. The human person is a body and soul. This is an image and likeness of all creation. The only creature that is made of both heaven and earth. The image and likeness of all creation as one creation is man as one person.

The knowledge of good

In the likeness of God the conscience is the sanctuary where God's voice is heard and His will is known at every moment. Do this, don't do that. In that way every person in God's image and likeness spontaneously does what God would do at every moment. No ego. Man naturally and
spontaneously worships and glorifies God in every act in every moment as the moment proceeds.
The perfect worship leads man from perfection to perfection until the purpose and reason he is created for is fulfilled. To lift man up to Himself and let him live forever in heaven and be Divine like God


The knowledge of evil

In the image and likeness of God man knows evil only in the dictates of conscience that guides his will to the good at every moment.
Knowledge of evil is circumstantial and only evident when conscience guides the will to it's true object, the good of God. Until evil personified made his voice heard in the sanctuary where man listens to the voice that tells him 'do this not that'. The woman listened to the voice of evil that said ' do this not that' so the woman put the serpent in the sanctuary of God. Adam listened to the voice of his wife and the beast. Adam in the likeness of the beast was the image of a man that is worshiped and glorified instead of God.

 

[SkyWriting]

It says that God created man both male and female in his image? Does it mean Adam had both sexes before Eve was created or that God's physical both? Are they separate? Does God have both physical image and spiritual one?

After man was created with all the other animals
God re-made man into His Spiritual image.