As mentioned in the previous chapter, man was made in the image and likeness of his Creator. Now in order to understand how YHVH Elohim could view natural and earthy man in His own image/shadow and likeness/character, we must rely on one of the Apostles' commentaries. The Creator, being Spirit, Word, Life and Light (glory), and having made Himself known in the things which He has created, has also made man in His image and likeness. But in what way does man express the image and likeness of the Creator?
YHVH Elohim formed man from the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life – "neshama", and thus man became a living being (nephesh chaya). Paul the Apostle writes: “And so it is written, ‘the first man Adam became a living being.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Master from heaven" (1 Corinthians 15:45-47).
Paul describes natural man as an entity that is sown: “But someone will say, ‘How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?’ Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain [seed] -- perhaps wheat or some other grain. But Elohim gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body” (1 Corinthians 15:35-38).
These verses portray what I call the principle of the seed: YHVH Elohim "gives it its form", as He has determined. He sows it, it falls to the ground and dies, but after being watered it comes back to life in a whole new form. The new figure, or shape, will look just like the parent plant, and will bear the same “image and likeness”. Thus, natural man (Adam) is actually only an outer shell of a seed, as it were. When that seed falls to the ground and dies, another image will appear, or be resurrected from the dust, becoming like the parent, and in this case the “Father” - YHVH Elohim..
Paul uses another analogy to describe this phenomenon, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of YHVH, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, according the original (likeness) of the Spirit of YHVH” (2 Corinthians 3:18). The Greek word metamorphoo is translated “transformed”. As we know, this is what happens to a caterpillar while inside its cocoon. How many of us, when looking at that caterpillar (natural man), can see the butterfly within (that is, the New Creation Man)?
Elohim placed His own breath (the neshama) into His created being and called him Adam (while in Hebrew adama is earth). Man was the only fashioned creature into whom YHVH Elohim breathed His own breath. But Adam's spirit-life would remain in its embryonic form until the appropriate season would come for Adam (the "seed") to be "sown". To use another metaphor, the Creator's Spirit-life within Adam was but a flickering flame. However, after falling away from the relationship with the Source, through disobedience, the flame diminished into a mere spark; a spark that would smolder until the time of redemption, when the wind/breath of the Spirit of YHVH would once again ignite it into a flame.
This original Spirit that was breathed into the core of human life was the tselem (image), and d’moot (likeness) of the Creator. Let us take a look at the meaning of these two words. The first is tselem (image), in which is hidden the word tsel (shadow or silhouette); a form that does not have its own existence apart from the object that blocks the light and casts its shape upon a given area.
The second Hebrew word d’moot, is much more revealing in that it comes from the root “dam” or "blood". Because life is in the blood and the nature is in the life, YHVH's life and nature would be resident in the "blood". “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of Elohim; and every one that loves is born of Elohim, and knows Elohim. He that loves not, knows not Elohim; for Elohim is love [agape]” (1John 4:7-8; 16). In a much more literal way, “YHVH was in Messiah reconciling the world unto Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19, emphasis added). How was that possible, unless the life of the Father was in Yeshua’s blood? Thus, without the blood/life of the Messiah, man cannot be anything but a two-dimensional silhouette in relationship to his Elohim. Interestingly, tzelem is also the term that Scripture often employs to describe the false gods, that is images and idols.
To reiterate the point: YHVH placed His very nature into the heart of man. The seed (man) would be sown under the guiding hand of the Husbandman and this inner life would remain hidden in the dust of his humanity, the earthiness of his being, until such a time that the Creator would send His Word in the form of another Man (His Son), who would take natural Adam into death and burial.
“For the love of Messiah constrains us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead, and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). When YHVH's Son died, all men died. “Or do you not know that as many of us as were immersed into Messiah Yeshua were submerged into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through immersion into death, that just as Messiah was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4).
In his horticultural analogy Paul concludes that there is an order: “For as in Adam [the seed] all die, even so in the Messiah shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Messiah the first fruits, afterward they that are Messiah's at his coming/appearing"
(1 Corinthians 15:22-23). In speaking of this order Paul emphasizes, first the natural (seed), then the spiritual. This "agricultural" reality has continued throughout all history. Scripture refers to those who will experience the process of death, burial and resurrection and calls them the “first fruit of the new creation” (James 1:18). Please note that James addresses his letter to the tribes of Israel.
Thus, a first-fruit of the seed of Adam was to come forth into the newness of life in the judicial order that YHVH predetermined.
YHVH Elohim formed man from the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life – "neshama", and thus man became a living being (nephesh chaya). Paul the Apostle writes: “And so it is written, ‘the first man Adam became a living being.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Master from heaven" (1 Corinthians 15:45-47).
Paul describes natural man as an entity that is sown: “But someone will say, ‘How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?’ Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain [seed] -- perhaps wheat or some other grain. But Elohim gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body” (1 Corinthians 15:35-38).
These verses portray what I call the principle of the seed: YHVH Elohim "gives it its form", as He has determined. He sows it, it falls to the ground and dies, but after being watered it comes back to life in a whole new form. The new figure, or shape, will look just like the parent plant, and will bear the same “image and likeness”. Thus, natural man (Adam) is actually only an outer shell of a seed, as it were. When that seed falls to the ground and dies, another image will appear, or be resurrected from the dust, becoming like the parent, and in this case the “Father” - YHVH Elohim..
Paul uses another analogy to describe this phenomenon, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of YHVH, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, according the original (likeness) of the Spirit of YHVH” (2 Corinthians 3:18). The Greek word metamorphoo is translated “transformed”. As we know, this is what happens to a caterpillar while inside its cocoon. How many of us, when looking at that caterpillar (natural man), can see the butterfly within (that is, the New Creation Man)?
Elohim placed His own breath (the neshama) into His created being and called him Adam (while in Hebrew adama is earth). Man was the only fashioned creature into whom YHVH Elohim breathed His own breath. But Adam's spirit-life would remain in its embryonic form until the appropriate season would come for Adam (the "seed") to be "sown". To use another metaphor, the Creator's Spirit-life within Adam was but a flickering flame. However, after falling away from the relationship with the Source, through disobedience, the flame diminished into a mere spark; a spark that would smolder until the time of redemption, when the wind/breath of the Spirit of YHVH would once again ignite it into a flame.
This original Spirit that was breathed into the core of human life was the tselem (image), and d’moot (likeness) of the Creator. Let us take a look at the meaning of these two words. The first is tselem (image), in which is hidden the word tsel (shadow or silhouette); a form that does not have its own existence apart from the object that blocks the light and casts its shape upon a given area.
The second Hebrew word d’moot, is much more revealing in that it comes from the root “dam” or "blood". Because life is in the blood and the nature is in the life, YHVH's life and nature would be resident in the "blood". “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of Elohim; and every one that loves is born of Elohim, and knows Elohim. He that loves not, knows not Elohim; for Elohim is love [agape]” (1John 4:7-8; 16). In a much more literal way, “YHVH was in Messiah reconciling the world unto Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19, emphasis added). How was that possible, unless the life of the Father was in Yeshua’s blood? Thus, without the blood/life of the Messiah, man cannot be anything but a two-dimensional silhouette in relationship to his Elohim. Interestingly, tzelem is also the term that Scripture often employs to describe the false gods, that is images and idols.
To reiterate the point: YHVH placed His very nature into the heart of man. The seed (man) would be sown under the guiding hand of the Husbandman and this inner life would remain hidden in the dust of his humanity, the earthiness of his being, until such a time that the Creator would send His Word in the form of another Man (His Son), who would take natural Adam into death and burial.
“For the love of Messiah constrains us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead, and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). When YHVH's Son died, all men died. “Or do you not know that as many of us as were immersed into Messiah Yeshua were submerged into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through immersion into death, that just as Messiah was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4).
In his horticultural analogy Paul concludes that there is an order: “For as in Adam [the seed] all die, even so in the Messiah shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Messiah the first fruits, afterward they that are Messiah's at his coming/appearing"
(1 Corinthians 15:22-23). In speaking of this order Paul emphasizes, first the natural (seed), then the spiritual. This "agricultural" reality has continued throughout all history. Scripture refers to those who will experience the process of death, burial and resurrection and calls them the “first fruit of the new creation” (James 1:18). Please note that James addresses his letter to the tribes of Israel.
Thus, a first-fruit of the seed of Adam was to come forth into the newness of life in the judicial order that YHVH predetermined.
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