Creation

God created humanity in the image of God, after the likeness of Himself; Gen. 1:26, “…..Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…..” God is a spiritual being; Joh. 4:24, “God is a Spirit…..”   The definition of being is a state of existing. We know that God exists, and we know that God is a spirit; therefore, God is a spiritual being. Because God is a spiritual being, He does not have a physical body. God made Adam in the likeness of Himself; therefore, he did not have a physical body when God created him in Gen. 1:26.  Adam was not given a physical body until Gen. 2:7, “…..The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground…..”

Spiritual beings are souls; 1Co. 15:45, “…..The first man Adam was made a living soul…..”  Spiritual beings are souls, but they do not have physical bodies. It isn’t man’s body or man’s spirit that spend eternity in either heaven or hell.  It is his soul that lives forever, Mat. 10:28, “…..rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

When God created Adam, he did not have a body because he was like God; invisible.  He did not need a body to function in heaven, but he needed a body to till the ground on earth.  First, God created Adam’s soul, Gen. 1:27, “…..So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him…..”  Second, the Lord formed Adam’s body, Gen. 2:7, “…..God formed man of the dust of the ground…..”  Third, Adam received the spirit of life when God breathed in his nostrils, Gen. 2:7, “…..breathed into his nostrils the breath of life…..” The spirit or breath of life caused Adam’s body to become a living soul; Gen. 2:7, “…..And man became a living soul.”

The Hebrew word for spirit is ruach #7307, and it means wind and breath. When God breathed into Adam’s nostrils, God was putting His energy in Adam. The spirit of man causes his physical body to live.

God created Adam and Eve’s souls simultaneously, Gen. 1:27, “…..Male and female created he them.” Once Adam received his body and had the spirit of life enter his body, God then put him to sleep to design a body for Eve; Gen. 2:21-22, “And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. The creation of the soul, the formation of the body, and the breath of life, is the order God uses to create every individual’s soul, body, and spirit.