I. In God’s Creation, The Human Life Is The Highest Life Because Man Was Created In God’s Image And After His Likeness

According to Genesis 1:26, before God created man, the Triune God held a kind of “council of the Godhead,” a council among the divine Trinity, to make the decision regarding the creation of man in His image and after His likeness. Thus, the creation of man involved the divine Trinity. Therefore, the human life is the highest life. Man was created for the accomplishment of the purpose of the Triune God.

A. God’s image is the expression of all that He is. The image of God is Christ (2 Cor. 4:4).

This image is not a physical image, but the expression of all that God is in His attributes and virtues. God’s attributes and virtues are love, light, holiness, righteousness, etc., all of which are in Christ. Therefore, Christ is the expression of all that God is. Man was made in the image of God, and the image of God is Christ. This indicates clearly that man was created for Christ to enter into him, that He may be expressed by man as His vessel.

B. God’s likeness is God’s form extrinsically.

Intrinsically, God possesses all that He is; extrinsically, God has His likeness. In Genesis 18, God appeared to Abraham in the likeness of a man in a visible way. Man’s outward body was created after the likeness of God. The form of man is the form of God, because man was created after the likeness of God.

II. God Created Man In Three Parts: Spirit, Soul, And Body

It is clear that man was made in three parts: the outward body, the inward spirit, and the soul as the very being of man. This is why 1 Thessalonians 5:23 says that our whole being is composed of our spirit, soul, and body. We are tripartite.

A. The body is the physical body, belonging to the physiological level, contacting the things of the material realm, and is the most superficial part.

Genesis 2:7 says that God formed a body for man with the dust of the ground. The physical body is for man’s existence. Without such a physical body formed with the dust, man cannot exist. We have a body of dust as our physical organ and its five senses, to contact the outward, physical world.

B. The soul is the mental faculty, belonging to the psychological level, contacting the things of the mental realm, and is a deeper and more mysterious part.

The soul is our very being and is composed of the mind, emotion, and will. This is according to the revelation of the Bible. The Bible shows us that in our soul, we have our mind to think or consider things (Psa. 13:2); we have our emotion to love or hate (1 Sam. 18:1), to like or dislike (Isa. 61:10); and we also have our will to make choices (Job 7:15). These are the functions of the soul.

C. The spirit is the deepest part of man, belonging to the spiritual level, and contacts the things of God (John 4:24, Rom. 1:9).

God created man with the breath of life to be man’s spirit for man to receive God. This is also recorded in Genesis 2:7. After God formed man with the dust of the earth for his physical body, God breathed the breath of life into the nostrils of man. The Hebrew word for breath in Genesis 2:7 is rendered as spirit in Proverbs 20:27. This is a strong proof that the breath of life that God breathed into man’s body was eventually the spirit of man. God created man with a spirit with the purpose for man to use it to receive Him as life.

III. The Spirit Of Man Was Specifically Created By God (Zech. 12:1; Job 32:8)

Zechariah 12:1 says that the LORD stretches forth the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him. The created heavens are for the earth, and the earth is for man, and man’s spirit is for God. Man’s spirit is the organ that can receive God, enjoy God’s life and God’s Spirit, and become one spirit with God. That is why the spirit of man is so crucial and important, to the extent that it reaches even to the stretches of the heavens and the earth, for the accomplishment of God’s will.

IV. The Tripartite Man Was Created To Have A Spirit As The Receiver And Container Of The Divine Life Of God (Gen. 2:7; Prov. 20:27)

Ezekiel 36:26 says that God will give us a new heart and a new spirit. A new heart is for loving and seeking God, and a new spirit is for receiving God. The heart is a loving and seeking organ, and the spirit is a receiving organ. 2 Timothy 4:22 says, “The Lord be with your spirit.” Our spirit is the place in which God dwells and abides. Therefore, our spirit is the organ for containing God.

V. The Spirit Of Man Is For Man To Receive The Spirit Of Life So That Those Who Believe Into The Lord Can Be Regenerated With His Divine Life (John 3:6)

Here, the spirit of man means the regenerated spirit of man. Regeneration is accomplished by God’s Spirit bringing God’s life, that is, the eternal and uncreated life of God, into man’s spirit. Therefore, regeneration means that besides having man’s natural life, man receives also the eternal life of God.

VI. The Spirit Of Man Is For Man To Contain The Spirit Of The Lord As Life (2 Tim. 4:22)

The Lord’s Spirit is the Spirit that quickens and gives life to man. He is the Christ, the Son of God, the One who as the embodiment of God’s life, dwells and lives in our spirit. So, we must exercise our spirit and let Him abide in us as the all-sufficient grace.

VII. The Spirit Of Man Is Also For Man To Join Himself To And Be Mingled With The Consummation Of The Divine Spirit Of God As One Spirit (1 Cor. 6:17)

The spirit of man was created for a singular purpose. God created this organ to enable man to become one spirit with the Lord. 1 Corinthians 6:17 says, “...but he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” This verse is perhaps the most important verse in the whole Bible.

VIII. The Practical Ways For Us To Exercise Our Spirit To Contact God Are

A. Calling upon the name of the Lord.

Calling upon the name of the Lord is not only the secret of salvation, but also the secret to enjoy the riches of the Lord. Since the time of Enosh, the third generation of mankind, all the way up to the present New Testament believers, all the redeemed elect of God applied this secret to enjoy the redemption, the salvation and all the riches of Christ (Acts 2:21 note 1).

B. Pray-reading the word of God.

Ephesians 6:17 says that we have to receive the word of God by means of all prayer and petition. Therefore, whenever we come to read God’s word, we must do so by prayer.