by Jacob Ninan
God created man after completing the creation of the whole universe including the animals, birds and fish. Man was His ultimate creation, for whom He had made the whole universe ready. "God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them" (Gen.1:27). What does it mean to be made in the image of God? Obviously, this does not mean any physical resemblance because God is a spirit and has no physical form.
Man is different from all the other living beings on earth. God created Adam in a special way by forming his shape from the mud of the ground and breathing life into the nostrils. This made us different from all other living beings. Animals have a body and mind (soul), but we have body, soul and spirit (1Thess.5:23). It is with our human spirit, which comes alive through the work of the Holy Spirit, that we can communicate with God who is spirit. Even if we go into the deepest jungles on earth where uncivilised people live, we can find some semblance of worship to God, even if they don't have any proper knowledge of the true and living God. But we never see even intelligent animals like chimpanzees or gorillas huddled together trying to worship God. Another thing is that it is because animals don't have eternity in them that God has allowed us to kill and eat them! Our spirit is eternal from the time we are created, and we choose where we will spend that eternity—either in hell or heaven!
We must be clear that even though we are created in the image of God, we are only created beings and not God. The influence of eastern religious concepts on Christianity has brought in error into some Christian doctrines saying that we are also gods. No. God is the Creator with infinite attributes and we are only finite creatures with many limitations on every side. Our similarity with God is only that we have been created with many functional capabilities similar to God but in a very limited way.
Angels and demons are also created beings. They are spirit beings without bodies. Their capabilities are much greater than ours, and we call them supernatural. However, they too are very limited compared to God, and they are also subject to God's final authority.
We can examine our similarities and dissimilarities with God by considering a few attributes of God.
Omnipotence
This means that God is almighty (Rev.19:6). His powers are infinite and He can do whatever He wants. There is 'nothing' He is unable to do, when He decides to do anything (Jer.32:27). He can stop the sun from moving across the sky (actually stop the earth from turning), raise people from the dead, cause fire to fall from the sky, etc. Of course, we can't do anything like that, and that is why we call them miracles. But for God they are as easy as anything else. Satan and his demons also can do many 'supernatural' things which we can't do. But they are still under the overall control of God.To believe that God is almighty is a minimum requirement of faith (Heb.11:6). For some 'Christians' who think it is a great feat of faith to believe that God can do miracles, it is likely that their actually don't know much of God.
Have you thought that even though we call God almighty, there are some things God cannot do? He can never do anything that is contrary to His nature. For example, He can never tell lies or bluff. When He gives us promises such as, "I will never leave you or forsake you," we can be completely sure He will keep them. If we hesitate to believe that, then we don't know Him personally.
Omniscience
God knows everything. As Creator, He knows every single that happens anywhere in the universe, from the level of stars and galaxies to the level of electrons inside atoms. He know the past, present and future because He is the one who has created time. We live 'inside' time. But for God, one day or thousand years are all the same. He has foreknowledge of what is going to happen, and He has already made all plans to deal with them. Demons don't know the future. So if a demon-assisted astrologer tells you the future, the demon is trying only to deceive and mislead you!It is comforting to know that our Father knows all about us—what is happening to us, what someone is scheming against us, what we are thinking, how we feel, etc. (Psa.139:1-4). In fact, He knows what we are going to think, and what we are going to do before they happen! On the other hand, we must not forget that He knows even the intentions of our heart (Heb.4:12,13). This tells us to fear Him and that we cannot fool Him, or try to justify our wrong actions.
Omnipresence
As the Creator of the universe and since He is a spirit not limited by a physical form, God is present everywhere at the same time. There is nowhere we can go to get away from Him (Psa.139:5-12). Darkness or closed doors cannot hide anyone from Him. He watches not only the galaxies but also each of us, and nothing escapes His notice (Prov.15:3). This too is comforting as well as fearful.Even though demons are also spirit beings without bodies, they are obviously limited in space to being in only one place at a time. But they too travel around (Job.1:7). They have a wide network of demons in different places and they report to Satan through a hierarchy. We human beings also cannot be in two places at the same time, but we have the ability to move around to different places.
Sovereignty
When a country declares itself to be sovereign, it means that it makes it own laws and runs the country without any interference from others. God is sovereign in that He does whatever He pleases (Psa.115:3) and no one can oppose or question Him. He is the highest authority there is, and everything else is subject to Him. When He created angels and human beings, He has created us too with sovereignty, which we call our free will. But His will is supreme, and our will is limited in every way because of our finiteness.Some people misunderstand the sovereignty of God in that they think that everything that happens is from God. If we follow in that direction, we will have to admit that even evil is coming from God. But that is ridiculous (Jas.1:13). No. Since God, in His sovereignty has created us with a limited level of free will, actually God's will and our will work together. When we want to be godly, we deny our will and do God's will.
It is comforting to know that even when evil things happen to us because of the misuse of human free will and the resulting sin, God causes even that evil to produce something good for us—to make us a little more like Jesus (Rom.8:28). God holds ultimate control over everything and can intervene wherever necessary to thwart man's or Satan's evil plans and to run His own plans (Prov.21:1). We remember how He raised up Esther to overrule Haman's plans to destroy the Jews, and how He turned around the evil that Joesph's brothers did to him to do good to him and others in the end.
The Fall and the restoration
When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, everything about them began to degenerate. Their bodies began to get sick and finally die. Their thoughts left the good and right path and became foolish. Their minds began to get flooded with negative feelings. Their ability to make good choices became distorted and they began to make wrong choices thinking that they were right. All the rest of creation also began to undergo decay.It was then that God opened up His way of salvation that He had already prepared before He even created the world. His goal is to restore man to the original image He had in mind. It was not enough to restore man to the condition of Adam and Eve before they fell. At that time they were innocent but untested people. When they were given a test, they fell. Now God wants those who will make a choice for Him and submit entirely to His ways. God has already predestined those whom He has chosen according to His purpose to become like His first Son, Jesus (Rom.8:29). But what we find is that all such people, including us, have not automatically become like that! The problem is our free will. It is only when we, by our own free will, choose to deny our own sinful desires and do God's will that we can become godly.
God does not want us to live like the rest of the world but to become conformed to His nature by doing all of His will (Rom.12:2). How do we get to know more and more of the will of God except by studying and meditating on the word of God which alone can give us the wisdom that will lead us to salvation (2Tim.3:15)?