15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. – John 14:15-17
imago dei
Such is the Latin that we translate the image of God. As we know from scriptures (Genesis 1:26), Adam and Eve were created to be God’s image bearers. Which simply means, God intended for His highest Creation to be a visible and “tangible” representation of Himself.
The breath of life God shared with Adam made him unique from the rest of creation in that Adam would not only have a physical body but an “immaterial” nature as well. This nature would be comprised of a soul and a spirit. This is the imago dei that separates humanity from the animal world.
When God breathed life into Adam, He imparted some defining characteristics into man; an ability to reason, a conscience, and the need for relationships. As rational, moral and social beings, man was both created to have dominion over the rest of creation (Gen. 1:28) and more importantly, to have fellowship with their Creator (Gen. 3:8).
A Fit Helper
When God looked over His creation, He said it was “very good” (Gen. 1:31), but His pronouncement of Adam’s plight in the Garden was a little different,18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him” (Gen. 2:18).
God’s creation was very good, but from God’s viewpoint, Adam wasn’t quite complete. There was a deficiency. God did not make a mistake, His work simply wasn’t finished. Adam and Eve and the rest of mankind would have to be taught a very important lesson; “it is not good that man should be alone”.
From the side of Adam, God would make an ezer (helper) that was kenegdow (fit) for him. In other words, God was going to make for Adam an ideal partner who was literally, “according to the opposite of him.” Eve would not be above or below Adam, neither superior or subservient, but rather “just right” for him. She would compliment him as only a woman can compliment a man (Gen 2:20).
Sadly, God’s highest creation rebelled. When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, death entered the world. But in His infinite wisdom, when God breathed life into the man He formed from the dust of the ground, He planted an eternal seed in him.
A Marred Image
When God created Adam and Eve, he gave them a free will. As much as God wanted their fellowship, He did not force their love for Him, which by definition would not truly be love. Rather God revealed His character to them and gave them the opportunity to meet with Him, but how they chose to respond was entirely up to them.
The disobedience of Adam and Eve in the Garden not only ushered death into history, but it also disfigured the image of God. The imago dei was now marred. The image that God intended His highest creation to reflect was now distorted.
Although the image of God is distorted, it is not destroyed. It is still the image of God that makes mankind unique. More importantly, it is the imago dei that makes man redeemable and worthy of redemption. Man might be capable of forgetting his Creator, but our Creator will never forget the eternal seed He has breathed into man.
One Flesh
Before Eve was created, God “paraded” all the beasts and birds before Adam to see what he would name them. Despite being made “out of the ground” as Adam was, none of the beasts or birds could suffice to meet Adam’s relational needs.
When Adam stood in the Garden he needed a helper fit for him to make him “whole” and complete. For his helper, God did not choose to create from the ground, but rather from Adam’s side. After making Adam fall into a deep sleep, God performed “surgery” on him by taking out one of his ribs and after closing him back up with flesh, God “fashioned” Eve out of Adam’s rib (Gen. 2:21-22).
When God brought Eve before Adam, he named her just as he had named the beasts and birds, but Adam immediately recognized her uniqueness and significance.
23 Then the man said,
“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman
because she was taken out of Man.”
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. – Gen. 2:23-24
God in the Flesh
In Eve, Adam was able to experience the joy of loving another person. As God’s image bearers, they could enjoy the physical and emotional intimacy they were created for. They could live out their lives in a very special union holding fast to one another as one flesh. Their relationship would forever serve as a model for marriage. One man and one woman becoming one flesh.
But their union isn’t only a model for marriage as God designed it, it is also a model of the union between Christ and the Church. His unique relationship with His bride (Eph. 5:31). But before Christ could be united with His bride, He had to redeem her. The bite that Adam and Eve took of the forbidden fruit would have grave consequences.
The need that Adam had as he stood in the Garden without a helper fit for him, was a mere shadow of the need he created by his disobedience. Although he now had a wife at his side, his fellowship with God was damaged. Sin had created a barrier that had to be dealt with. Ultimately, only God could deal with it, so He came to earth as a man wearing human flesh.
God is jealous for His glory. God is jealous for imago dei.
Paracletes
As we looked at in our last study, before Jesus returned to the Father, He promised to send another Paraclete of which He was the first (1 John 2:1). The word Paraclete literally means to be called alongside. Like Adam in the Garden, we stand in need of a helper. One to come alongside us and make us complete. We need someone to make us whole in a sense that no other created being can.
In Christ, God made propitiation for our sins by shedding His blood on the cross of Cavalry and dying for our sins. As we have mentioned previously, Jesus has ascended to the right hand of God where He acts as our Paraclete, advocating on our behalf.
Although we have already introduced the theme of the Holy Spirit as our helper, there is so much more to look at. I believe that if most of us were honest with ourselves, we would have to admit that the “attention” we give to the Holy Spirit is either inadequate or misguided.
Although an equal member of the Trinity, it seems that too often He is delegated to a “secondary” status. The worship we give Him is disproportionate to that which we give the Father or Son. Perhaps it is because humanly speaking we can relate to the terms Father and Son whereas Spirit is a little more elusive to our earthly thinking.
Perhaps many of us shy away from placing proper emphasis on the Holy Spirit as a reaction to those that we deem placing “too much” emphasis on the Holy Spirit or His power. Whatever the reason, it is possible that in our behavior, whether intentional or not, many of us are grieving the Holy Spirit.
God has created us in His image. He has created us as relational beings whose greatest need is fellowship with Himself. Accordingly, He has given us the Holy Spirit, who we will be studying in further detail.
Stay tuned. Stay in tune with the Spirit!