Designer Living

Posted on July 1, 2007

 

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Genesis 2:4-18

One of my favorite “toys” as a kid was play-dough. I can still remember a Sunday School teacher using play-dough in the classroom that she had made at home. I loved the smell and I was probably one of those kids that ate the play-dough. But it was fun to shape things out of it. In the beginning of God’s creation, on day six, God carved out of the clay of the earth a man.

The great theologian, Clint Eastwood, once said, “A man ought to know his limitations.” That’s true for life. We are not gods, we are human beings. Genesis, chapter two, tells the story of the beginning of all of the human family. If you want to know what you are, where you came from, and what life is all about, you must begin at the beginning.

ONE GREAT TRUTH: Knowing where we came from is the beginning of knowing how to live life the way God intended.

What was God’s intent for us? What is the high calling of humanity to which we all must strive? What does it mean to be human?

GOD FORMED MAN…

I.          God formed man to be physical. (2:7)

We are literally dirt. There are 59 elements in the human body. All of them are found on the crust (the dirt) of the earth. Physically speaking, we are worth less than $10.00! We are lowly, we are just dust.

Psalm 103:14 even states that God “knows our frame” and “remembers that we are dust.”

We are designed to enjoy and to interact with the world around us. God made all physical things, culminating with the creation of man. And look at the paradise He prepared for us. Verse 9 of Genesis 2 tells us that God made everything in Eden for Adam and Eve to enjoy. It was all “pleasant to the sight” and “good for food.”

II.         God formed man to be spiritual. (2:7)

God breathed the breath of life into man. Physically, this is the scientifically unexplainable aspect of who we are. You can explain all of the physical parts of man scientifically, but you can never understand the principle of life. It is of God alone.

Man is spiritual so that he might relate to God spiritually. Think of the closeness and intimacy expressed in this picture. God picks up his creation, freshly formed, and breathes into his nostrils, as though resuscitating him, the breath of life. God wants us close and our spiritual side is given that we might know Him.

III.        God formed man to be intellectual. (2:7)

The “soul” is the word psyche. It has to do with all of our emotional and intellectual capacities and our personality. We were formed to be thinkers and to make choices. It is what sets us apart from the animal kingdom.

IV.        God formed man to be responsible. (2:15)

God gave to man responsibility. He was to “keep” the garden. We were designed to be stewards of the earth, to be keepers and managers of all of the physical resources that God has placed at our fingertips.

V.         God formed man to be moral. (2:16-17)

God gave mankind a rule – do not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. That’s it. Just one rule. And, of course, man did not keep that rule. Nevertheless, God planted in the heart of man a law of nature, or a law of good and evil, that drives us to be moral creatures. All of mankind possesses this inner law, but none keep it.

VI.        God formed man to be social. (2:18)

We will be spending a week or two on this one theme – the first marriage and family relationship of humankind and the implications for all marriages today. For today, simply realize that God has made us to be social creatures. We were made to fit with others.

God’s original design for us has been marred by sin. We often attempt to fix our sinful nature ourselves, but we never can and we never will. God, however, has redeemed us from our sinful nature with the death of His Son, Jesus, on the cross. By trusting in Him, we can begin to be restored to God’s original design for our lives.