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

Just recently, a scientist said, in looking at all the information about creation, he made the statement, it looks like someone was expecting us. Man so perfectly fits into creation, and it was so perfectly prepared for him, he said it really looks like someone was expecting us to get here. And scientists are coming more and more to this all the time. There are too many things happening that they’re discovering that if it had just moved a little, it would have never happened. Not one thing, but dozens. And there would have been no place for man. And it’s like, well, this was just right, but then this, that wasn’t enough. This had to be just right. And then this, and then this. And then it was all there. And everything had happened just perfectly. And then suddenly man comes.

And that’s what this passage is telling us, and then man came.  All right, a mist, and then suddenly seasons. And I want you to just stop for a moment and look at a verse that says, “and there was no man to till the ground.” I just want to talk about that from a spiritual viewpoint.

I proclaim a Christ of grace. I proclaim a Christian life that cannot be lived by man, that you and I are not able to live the Christian life, and I’ve often quoted Jesus when he said I can do nothing of myself. Now, if you are inclined to be lazy, you’ll grab that and say, Well, God can do it all. I’m going to sit here until God moves my arms up and I go… In fact, if I were you and had that attitude, I would stop breathing and say, Only God can breathe. Don’t breathe.

There’s a beautiful statement. A man cannot seek me; God is speaking. A man cannot seek me unless he has already found me. That heart of yours should be seeking that Christ who lives the Christian life, that heart should be pursuing His doing it all, and you doing nothing. there is a pursuit of Christ, and beyond that pursuit of Christ, there is a cooperation of man and God. These are very strong words, but I’d just like to say God can’t do anything without us, we can’t do anything without God, but what is it God cannot do without us? He cannot accomplish his purpose in creation unless he has man; he might as well fold creation up if there’s no man. There’s no purpose for creation except you. You are his purpose, or at least you are the instrument of His purpose.

Now, from the viewpoint of man, we can do nothing of our own strength. That which is spiritual is for the Lord to do. Now, what can we do? Well, God has given us, and we’re going to find this out, God has given us a soul and a spirit, and Paul says somewhere, whoever it is you work for, work for him with all your…Do you know the next word? You’re a slave, work for your master with all your… I don’t know, no, absolutely not. Well, is it spirit? It’s not spirit. No man owns your spirit or can buy it or even rent it. Don’t ever rent out your spirit to anybody.

All your soul. Your soul. I’ve got a soul for earth. I’ve got a spirit for heaven. So, we do work on this earth, but we don’t work to the point that it destroys the place of our spirit in our lives. Will you please remember that? We have to be balanced. Not too much spirit, not too much soul. We’ll come to that some more.

I want you to know that God made a planet that wouldn’t work without man in it. And God said, there’s no one here to till the ground. There’s no one here to work. There’s no one to take care of this planet, and therefore, he made man.

And now we get a, in Genesis 1, we got this kind of account of man’s creation. Now we’re going to get a larger one. I think I want to repeat this. In the fulfillment of his purpose, you work with him. He needs you, but as you will see, it is those things that are spiritual that are done by the spirit; those things that are for the soul are done by the soul. Many years ago, I had a dear friend, his name was James Barber, he’s dead now, he died of cancer, and when I first met him, he was just leaving the traditional church, and he was a Baptist, and he said, “Baptists don’t need God. If Baptists had been following Moses, they would have come to the Red Sea, and every Baptist there would have grabbed a bucket, and we would have bailed the Red Sea dry, and we would have walked over by having emptied the water out of the sea.”

And I have to agree with him that we really can work hard with our soul for God when God has nothing to do with it. Recently, a Chinese person returned to China from a visit to America, and the other Chinese in his church wanted to hear all about it. And they asked, What was your biggest impression? And he said, well, my biggest impression of Christians in America is, it is amazing how much American Christians can get done without God.

And again, I have to agree, our cooperation should always be with this purpose. So let’s stop with that and find out all we can about man, and so we’re in verse 7, and I want you to look at it.

And the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. And right after that, God made a house for him. I read it again. And the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.

And man became a living soul. Have you read my account of the creation of man in a book entitled The Beginning? You didn’t read that far, then I would ask you to do that, and would you also read the same account, different, in The Divine Romance. That will be your assignment for today. Here’s my story.