Up Is Down | Clip 2

• All right. Now, it’s the first time in the Bible in this passage that the word Jehovah or Yahweh is used. All through the first chapter of Genesis, the word is simply Elohim, the word for God. But Jehovah or Yahweh or whatever way we choose to pronounce the word is a personal name identifying God as a person.
• Likewise, Adam is a personal name, not just a general noun. So at this point in the record of creation, the emphasis is on personality. A personal God created a personal man for personal fellowship between them. Then notice some other points out of this description. God had to stoop to create man. He went down, not up.
• God imparted himself to man. He breathed his own spirit into that body of clay. Man combines in himself the highest and the lowest. One element is from God, the other’s from the earth. That perhaps will help you understand some of the struggles you go through because there’s two elements in you. One is from above, one is from beneath.
• And I’m sure I’m not the only person here in whom those elements sometimes come into conflict. And one part of me wants the thing that belongs to the above and the other part of me wants the thing that comes from below. You see, one of the features of the record of creation in the Bible is it explains what we’re like, why the things happen that happen in our lives.
• It’s got an answer. And I don’t believe any other alternative version supplies the answers. The other fact that I want to point out is that man relates to two worlds. Through his spirit, he relates to God. Through his body, he relates to this world. Let me just recapitulate those those features. First of all, it was a personal God who created a personal man for personal fellowship between them.
• Secondly, God stooped to create man. Thirdly, God imparted himself to man. Fourthly, man combines in himself both the highest and the lowest. And fifthly, through his spirit, man relates to God. Through his body, man relates to the world. Concerning the relationship that was brought into being between God and man through creation, I would say there are two key thoughts.
• The one I’ve already mentioned is fellowship. The second is implied in what I’ve said, dependence. The very word nephesh implies dependence. Something that has to receive before it can give out. I believe it’s true that when a baby is born into the world, the same thing still happens. In other words, somebody has to start the breathing operating.
• So in a sense, it takes us right back to the truth of creation. What was God’s purpose for man? It’s stated very simply in Genesis 1:26. Before the actual description of creation takes place, the purpose is given. Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them,” that’s the human race, not just one man.
• “Let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the earth.” So there are two features of man in God’s purpose. First of all, he was to visibly represent God in a way that no other creature did.
• He was to portray the likeness of the creator. Secondly, he was to exercise God’s authority on his behalf. Authority over the whole earth. Now, so long as man remained dependent, he ruled. That’s a paradox. See, today in most people’s thinking, the concept of ruling is being independent. But in God’s eternal provision to to rule, the man had to remain dependent.
• The moment he ceased to be dependent, he ceased to rule. Now, Satan had special enmity. Remember that his name Satan was not his original name. He was originally Lucifer, the lightbringer. But when he transgressed, he lost that identity and he became Satan. The word Satan means the adversary, the resistor, the opposer.