Man was made in God’s image
When God created human beings He only gave them a portion (a measure) of His Spirit because He kept back a residue (Malachi 2:15) and they stood up as living souls (Genesis 2:7). This means that the consummation of the spirit (breath) of God in a flesh body establishes the soul in man as the driving force of their decisions, and therefore destiny, thus man is predominantly driven by the flesh and the five senses because they do not have the fullness of God’s Spirit at birth, but that does not mean that they cannot discern right from wrong and hear God’s voice. 1 Corinthians 15:45-49 clearly indicates that mankind (first Adam) was of the earth, ie: earthy or natural. In other words, mankind is carnal and we depend on God for our spiritual well-being, thus a relationship with God becomes of paramount importance.
Man was therefore not made in God’s exact image and likeness like Jesus was, but rather in His image and likeness (Genesis 1:26), which can be compared to a copy of the original but not exactly like the original. The reason God gives to man only a portion (measure) of His Spirit is that He wants us to develop our individuality through experiences in the natural world via the soul based on free will, i.e. giving men the fullness of His spirit means that we would be clones of God and therefore exact copies and God is not going to duplicate Himself. Therefore God gives everyone a spirit with various giftings for His intended purpose for each individual, but the soul has free will to either keep us in the image of God or turn us away from the person God made us to be. I, therefore, believe the soul is the catalyst for making us who we are because it decides what choices to make, either based on the spirit’s direction, the desires of the flesh, or both. The gifts and abilities He gives us are quite diverse which we identify as we live and experience life and its challenges, where some will have the ability to work with their hands either in art or mechanical work, others in communication, others in understanding the sciences, and others in medicine, etc, see Exodus 31:1-6. However, God also gave every individual the ability to learn and thus we can improve our weaknesses as well.
The fact that Adam and Eve did not know good and evil and did not have the power to overcome temptation proves that man was never in God’s exact image and likeness. To be in God’s exact image is for the soul (mind, will, and emotions) to be able to overcome all types of temptations by the power of the spirit. IT IS THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT THAT GIVES THE SOUL ABILITY. God is God, and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, therefore Jesus was what He was (I Am), and therefore His soul would not deviate from His spiritual convictions, and by implication, He did not desire free will outside the boundaries of the Godhead or will of the Father, but to do what His Spirit required of Him. Mankind, on the other hand, has free will, because that is how God creates individuals with diverse abilities and personalities for His pleasure, and He tests their faith through challenges in the natural world for promotion into His Kingdom. The growing conviction of the soul in humans to follow God in faith will be tested with every challenge in the natural environment and success will result in the knowledge that God’s way is better than our way because love, joy, and peace, increase in our hearts. There can be no faith without challenges, therefore, being rich and believing in God does not automatically see us inherit eternal life, but maintaining our faith in God, regardless of the challenging circumstances, does. In other words, to sit comfortably in our expensive homes and cars without any problem does not show faith in God until we are challenged. It is the challenges in life that grow our faith as we hold onto God, but many get frightened and then shy away from God’s ways over time, and eventually, faith in God and His Word wanes, even potentially losing their salvation.
The Tabernacle of Moses represents the body of Christ and therefore the body of man
The Tabernacle of Moses was divided into the outer court and the inner court. The outer court represented the flesh which was where the washing/cleansing of the flesh and the sacrifices took place. The inner man was represented by the Tabernacle. The inner man was divided into the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place where the former represents the soul and the latter represents the spirit, but together they form one inner man which is what I believe goes to heaven upon death, i.e. both spirit and soul as one. Obviously, the flesh goes to the grave which is why in Revelation 11:1-5 the angel tells John to measure only the temple, those that worship there, and the altar, but not the courtyard because it will be trampled on by the Gentiles for 42 months. In other words, the Gentiles (Romans) would trample the flesh meaning that the Jews who rejected Jesus would be killed at the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, but those that worship God in spirit and truth will be saved, which is why he measured them to identify if they qualified for salvation, i.e. when God measures something he is identifying whether that thing is within the standard of God’s righteousness, and believers are righteous through faith in Christ.
God’s breath (spirit) permeates the human spirit as depicted by the Most Holy place in the temple of Solomon or Tabernacle of Moses because that is where God communicates with man, gives man intuition, and convicts the conscience of man. The dimensions of the Most Holy Place are in the form of a cube representing perfection because the spirit is perfect, and the inside is overlaid with gold representing divinity and holiness as per God’s qualities because the spirit of man belongs to God.
In likewise manner, though speaking for the body of Christ as opposed to one believer, Revelation 21 is clear in that the city coming (appearing) from heaven in the form of a cube made of clear gold represents the perfected bride of Christ and thus it is a spiritual city of believers without blemish, i.e. it is not be a physical city. Besides, physical cities do not come down from heaven but the Holy Spirit is heaven itself, who creates a city of believers. In other words, the Kingdom of Heaven will be manifest in the new Heaven and Earth by the Holy Spirit, and Jesus will transform our bodies into glorious bodies (Philippians 3:20-21) or “the new Jerusalem” because collectively we are like a city (Matthew 5:14) and the Holy Spirit is like a fire around us and in our midst (Zechariah 2:4-5). We have this city available to us today because when we worship God we experience the love, peace, and joy of the Holy Spirit within us and without. We also see that the new Heaven and Earth in verse 1 has no sea (people of the nations) because the nations are all part of the Kingdom of Heaven as one in Christ where there will be no more tears or death. The sea often represents the people of the nations in scripture, and all Christians are one nation in Christ, even today, if we abide in Christ.
The 12 gates on the walls around the city represent the 12 tribes of Israel who were the patriarchs whom God chose to begin His journey with Israel so that they could disciple the rest of the world. We therefore enter through the gates, representing the patriarchs to whom belong the oracles, into the Kingdom of God Who took away the partition between Jews and Gentiles (Ephesians 2:14) making them one. The 12 gates were made of pearls which represent the scriptures as the oracles belong to the Jews, as Paul states in Romans 3:1-2.
The 12 precious stones in the foundation of the city, however, represent the 12 apostles of Jesus because they were the foundation of the Christian faith and scriptures through Jesus Christ. The streets are pure gold as glass representing the fact that believers will walk in transparency and divinity (clear gold). The size of the city (believers) being 144 cubits is reflective of the 144,000 virgins in Revelation 7 which included all the tribes of the world, ie: the number 12 represents completeness and when it is multiplied by itself (12 x 12 = 144), it represents the fact that the twelves tribes were to disperse the gospel to include the gentiles in their completeness. The 144,000 virgins are not men who have not had sex with women, otherwise, God’s message of the Gospel becomes legalistic and against the principles of Christ and Paul’s teachings, therefore, it represents those Jews and Gentiles who have washed their clothes by believing in Jesus and have become pure in faith.
The conscience within the heart of man is represented by the law sealed in the ark of the covenant, with the mercy seat as the lid that overrides or locks in the law, and the angels of God with wings spread out over the mercy seat represent the grace of God over our conscience, which is why it is called the throne of grace, Hebrews 4:16, for if our heart condemns us (because of law) God is greater than our heart 1 John 3:20, ie: God gives us grace and mercy just as if we had never sinned. God spoke to the high priest on the day of Atonement from the mercy seat with the overhanging angels, which represented His love, mercy, and grace, and thus direct communion with man. Jesus Himself understood this and why He told Jerusalem that He wanted to protect it like a hen protects her chicks under her wings (even if they had sinned), but they would not believe in Him, and thus their city was left desolate, Matthew 23:37-38. We see from this picture in the OT that life comes from God’s grace and mercy which trumps the law of sin and death, and the reason God told Israel that He prefers mercy over sacrifice (Hosea 6:6).
Jesus was made in God’s exact image
Jesus was the only living human being that was made in the exact (express) image of God (Hebrews 1:1-3) and therefore the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). Note, the scripture does not say in the exact likeness of God but in the exact image of God. The question we then need to ask is, was Jesus exactly the same as God in spirit, soul, or body? The answer must be in spirit because it was His spirit that had the full measure (all the qualities) of the Spirit of God as expressed in John 3:34-35, not His soul. It cannot be the soul because it has free will and needs development or nurturing as we experience life in the physical/material world, and as we know, anything is possible, which also applied to Jesus who followed the spirit and adapted His soul to God’s ways without deviation because He had the fullness of the spirit. I therefore believe the soul and body are in the likeness of God.
What is God’s image in mankind?
The human spirit consists of the conscience, intuition, and fellowship with God, but God also endows us with gifts and abilities for God’s purpose on Earth. These gifts and abilities may come naturally at an early age when we start to experience life and uncover our strengths and weaknesses, or much later when we accidentally do something unexpectedly well and realize a strength in us. Also when we serve in His Kingdom we develop our soul based on His Word which is spirit and life (John 6:63) and we grow in faith and into the stature of Christ (Ephesians 4:10-15). The human spirit communicates with the soul as we experience life through a very low voice which can often be missed, which is why we need to set time aside for God and be still to hear His voice, Psalm 46:10. Most people lose this voice and God’s blessings because the lust and pride of the world influences them into carnality which is counter-productive for spiritual development (Matthew 13:1-23 & Galatians 5:17-26).
The conscience directs us in our moral ways and becomes seared (hardened) if we repeatedly ignore a particular moral issue, meaning that the conscience never again communicates that particular moral issue as the soul has overpowered the influence of the spirit, i.e. the spirit becomes subdued. The more this happens in different areas of our lives the more carnal we become, and the more we divert from God’s likeness in the soul, and the more the human spirit becomes subdued as the soul dominates the spirit. The move away from listening to God’s spirit also introduces obedience to other spirits such as hatred, jealousy, greed, lust, addiction to all sorts of things, etc. The spirit from God in man does not change though it may get subdued by the soul but the spirit of the mind (subconscious mind) does change depending on our desires and belief systems, and I believe that this is why Paul says that we should keep our spirit, soul, and body preserved in 1 Thessalonians 5-23. This does not mean that the spiritual aspects of God placed in man can get corrupted, though they do get subdued, however, Paul is referring to the fact the spiritual things that are placed in our soul, or specifically, the spirit of the mind (subconscious mind) get corrupted.
Intuition and fellowship with God are based on how much we desire a relationship with God and how obedient we are after He has instructed us of our task. If we become disobedient, God slowly withdraws His presence from us and we no longer hear Him. However, renewing the desire and passion for God will bring His presence back.
I, therefore, believe that the human spirit is what is meant by being in the image of God because it is the human spirit where God has placed His diverse abilities and morals in every individual, but only Jesus Christ received the exact qualities and power in His Spirit, Hebrews 1:1-3. It is the conscious mind that makes decisions and influences the spirit of the mind which is our subconscious mind. When we repeat certain actions, whether favorable or not, it strengthens the spirit of the mind (subconscious) to the point that we automatically do things without even having to think about them, because those actions have become part of us. That’s why we are told to read the Bible and act upon it so that we can replace old habits.
As a side note, evil spirits can also communicate with the person’s soul in people who open themselves up to the spiritual world, and thus they think they are hearing God. Christians can also hear from evil spirits because they are not perfect until they walk in complete unity with God. Even dreams can come from the wrong spirits because the devil counterfeits everything that belongs to God. Remember that the devil is a spirit and can thus infiltrate and deceive people via voice or dreams. The closer we get to God the less chance evil spirits can communicate with us, though they may try.
The body has no ability of its own – its spirit that gives life
Mankind needs to understand that although the body is wonderfully made and based on living organisms, it has no life force or intelligence of its own because flesh, blood, and bones have no ability to give life, think, reason, or deduce anything without the Spirit (breath) of God being present. Just like a car that is wonderfully made but cannot start without gas and electricity. Thus mankind has to have a spirit to give life to the flesh, and knowledge and understanding to the soul. Take birds as an example, they are soulish, however, God put a spirit in them to make them live and understand how to navigate the globe, however, they are not spiritual as they have no understanding of their relationship with God because God gave them no ability for this in their spirit. God knows exactly how to develop physical bodies based on the abilities He wants to give them through the spirit. It is then the consummation of the spirit and body that gives rise to the soul’s knowledge as we discover God’s gifts and abilities through life experiences. We could then say that God assists birds via the spirit he put in them though it’s the soul of the bird that learns to navigate the globe as the spirit does the prompting.
Because humans have the intellect or reasoning ability, the question then is what spirit do we accept based on the words we hear and knowledge we gain? Words are spirit and life or death and if we receive God’s words we receive life, however, if we receive words contrary to God’s word we receive death because we are accepting in faith another spirit that is not from God, see John 6:63, and that is exactly what Eve did, and that spirit was the fallen angel that rebelled against God, known in scripture as the serpent or Satan, known as Lucifer in the garden of Eden. I was walking in my house in 2008 and I heard God say. “Jorge, you know my words are spirit and life, therefore what are words that contradict my word?”. I answered, “Spirit and death”. As I received no answer, I assumed that I was spot on. In other words, if Adam and Eve received words from God and did them, they would never die but be transformed (metamorphosed) at some point, but when we receive words that are not of God, we receive death. I do not mean that words suddenly make us die, but rather, the words we have faith in result in a direction for our lives which can be a good life or catastrophic life.