Debrecen Messages #8 -Genesis 1–2 and the One New Man: God’s Purpose for a New Humanity

Okay, we’re made in the likeness of him. Some word says that he was made in the likeness of man. Now, I can’t reconcile those two verses. I just thought I would mention them, those two thoughts. He is in our image and we are in His image.

Before we go any farther, I want to introduce to you a thought, or a concept, of which you perhaps are not familiar. And that is the emphasis on the word man. It is a fascinating emphasis. You know that we look at him as Son of God, and we know and acknowledge him as Son of God, and that is very, very important to us because there was so much question put upon Him when He was on earth as to who He was.

And finally, at the trial, they asked him, we adjure you in the name of the living God. Are you the Christ, the son of the living God? And he said, “You said it.” In another place, He said “I am,” and that was the word of God so sacred that you do not pronounce it, which was in itself a declaration of being God. So we are fascinated with the fact that he is the son of God. Jesus had been the son of God for eternity. He was used to being the son of God. What was new to him was being the Son of Man. And what was important to him was to be Man.

Now, we’re going to stop and look at that for just a moment. And this again brings us back to yesterday’s message. This is important: That man rule the earth is important to God.

We always think of, you know, more these days, God’s going to win, and Jesus, the Son of God, is going to rule the earth. Well, praise the Lord, and that’s accurate, but from the viewpoint of God, from the viewpoint of the Lord, man is incredibly important.

Now, what did Jesus keep calling himself? Son of man. What? Son of man. Son of man. Now, do you ever wonder why He did that? Why didn’t He say Son of God? But he was always saying, ‘I’m the Son of Man.’ I’m the Son of Man. I’m the Son of Man. I’m the Son of Man. I’m a man. Forget the fact that I, yeah, it’s breaking, isn’t it, brother? Yes. Forget that I’m God. That’s the subtle fact as far as I’m concerned. From Jesus’ view, I’m speaking, but I’ve come, I’m a man. What did he do? He put himself not in the place of almighty creating God. He put himself in the place of the plan of God. He put himself in the place of Adam and said, I have come here to do what a man is supposed to do, in that place in the plan of God.

And he came here, and I’ll use this word to make a point. Don’t try to make this into theology. He came here as Adam. Well, Gene, he didn’t come here as Adam. I know he didn’t come here as Adam, but stay with me a minute. He came here as that man spoken of in Genesis 1. He came to this earth as a man.

Now, let’s go a little further. In the New Testament, there is a new creation. Is the new creation God? Is it the sons of God? No. You have been made a new what? A new species. Very good translation. A new man, one new man. Why didn’t he say, now you’re the sons of God? No, he didn’t say that. He said, Now you are a new man. Replacing the old man, and we’re back to Genesis 1. And it is a man. And it’s a woman. I want to fill that in too, because it’s a them. It’s a them, not a him. It’s a them. I could sit here all morning and just say, it’s a them, it’s a them, it’s a them.

Now, Lucifer comes like a snake gliding over the desert sands and meets someone fasting and says to him, You and I spent a lot of time together, Son of God. Nothing to it. Son of God. He is willing to confess that he is the Son of God? Bow down before me. Who would have bowed down before Lucifer if Jesus had responded? It would have been a man, and we would have had the problem with the garden all over again.

When you read the story of what is called the temptation, you have a second garden situation. Three times the snake tempts Jesus, and each time Jesus says, Man. He does not say God. He says Man. Man. Man. Now, Daniel, you must understand that the battle rages between Lucifer and man, not Lucifer and God. Man was put upon this earth to rule this earth and subdue it. And Lucifer came to a man and took away his place, and Jesus Christ came in the likeness of human flesh, and He came here and made Himself, he centered Himself as a man, not as God, to present Himself as the one who, as Man, to rule the earth and bear the image of God. And each time he put himself before Lucifer as a man and said to Lucifer, Man, man, man, and Lucifer went away defeated. And the second garden tragedy did not take place. Adam was to be the fountainhead of humanity, and then Christ came to be the fountainhead of humanity. A new human, yes.

The Lord cannot do anything with the old race that came to rule the earth, so he does away with it on the cross and creates not a new divinity, but a new humanity. And I want you to know something. Jesus didn’t stay on this earth very long. It’s still a man who’s to rule.