Chuck Larsen

When God created us, male and female, He created us in His own image. Genesis 1:26 makes this clear: “Then God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” He took dirt and formed our bodies. Now, God’s image isn’t to be found in our bodies. Instead, it’s to be found in our spirits. Both the Hebrew and Greek words for spirit are also translated as wind or breath. In Genesis 2:7, we read, “…the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”

One way to determine if a body still has life is to check to see if the person is breathing. If you and I can fog a mirror, we’re still alive. If we were deprived of air, we wouldn’t last very long. Breathing, breath, is a gift from God and a constant reminder of our dependence on Him. Try holding your breath, and you will soon find that air-hunger becomes painful after only a minute or even less. We will die in just a few minutes unless our “breath” supply is restored. But there is more to real life than this physical existence. God never intended for mankind to die. Death became part of our experience when Adam sinned. God warned Adam that if they chose to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, death would become part of their experience. They would no longer enjoy the real “life” God had intended. Death would be the shadow that would color all the days of their physical existence. So it is today!

As I’ve wrestled with this passage in Genesis, John 20:21-22 came to mind. It reads, “Jesus said to them again, ‘As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” Whereas the breath of life, physical breathing, is something everyone needs to survive, Jesus gives us something that is more than just physical life. He breathes out “holy breath.” In John 10:10, Jesus said he came not just to give us life but to give us life to the fullest extent possible. Jesus was not promising just a better human life. He was offering to give us the very life of God, the eternal, indestructible, incorruptible, divine life. This is the life that is in God Himself. In John 5: 26, we read, “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.” It is the kind of life that’s not limited in quality or quantity! It’s the way back into the graces of the God who made us. Jesus offers access to everyone. In John 14:6, He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Genesis tells us that the whole creation was “tohu vabohu.” That’s the Hebrew phrase for “Formless and Void.” But then God spoke and brought order out of Chaos. First, He created the categories by separating one from another. He made divisions between the waters above, the waters below, the sky, the dry ground, the seas, and the land. Even though now there were distinctions between space, time, and matter, the distinctions needed content. They were empty. They were void of anything meaningful. So, God filled each with content. He put planets and stars in space along with the sun and moon. He put birds in the sky, fish in the sea, and plants and animals on the dry ground. He did this so that each life form in each arena would reproduce itself with the intent of filling the whole earth. In Genesis 1:11, God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so.

This creative process of God, His Word, brought meaning to space, skies, seas, and dry ground. Moreover, God entrusted man with the task of managing it all and understanding the purpose of life. The voids were all filled. Man had dominion over it all. However, man’s meaning was not found in the fullness of the earth! Man’s meaning was found in the fullness of His communion with the God who created it all. He shared the joys of life with the God who made Him. Male and Female, God created them to have an intimate relationship with Him. When man broke that communion through sin, the meaning, purpose, and significance of life were lost. Chaos reigned again in creation and man was lost and alone. But He was left with a promise that one day the seed of the woman would come forth and bring meaning back to life.

Then God sent Jesus! He fills the voids once again and gives meaning and purpose to our lives by receiving judgment for our rebellion on the cross. He restores our intimate connection with God, and things matter once again. The voids in our lives can once again be filled by God’s Word. Consider these verses. John 2:1-12 – Jesus fills our empty lives with joy… Luke 5:1-11 Jesus fills our empty nets…John 4:7-42 – Jesus fills our life with living water… John 6:1-14 – Jesus fills our hungry souls…John 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”

Like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, we learn something at the end (after Jesus’ resurrection) that sheds light on the meaning of all the details of the story, going way back to the beginning. Being solid Trinitarians, we believe that the Holy Spirit is God but is not the Father. The Son is God but is not the Holy Spirit. The Father is God but is not the Son nor the Holy Spirit. But all three are God. When Jesus appeared on earth, he made it clear that He was not the Father but was the Eternal Son of God, or God, the Son. What the Father did as God, Jesus also did as God. Looking at the very beginning of Genesis and the creation account, we know that the first words recorded coming from God were “Let there be light.” Immediately, there was light! (Genesis 1:3).

The light that illuminated creation was not the light of the sun, stars, or planets, which were not created until the fourth day. It was a divine illumination, a light that God sent directly into the world. In the context of Old Testament theology, darkness symbolizes confusion, uncertainty, evil, decay, and death. Jesus, in the New Testament, repeatedly identifies Himself with the Father as God. He specifically aligns Himself with the first words spoken by God, ‘Let there be Light,’ when He declares (John 8:12), ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.’

Church history records the life of Gregory the Illuminator (240 A.D – 332 A.D). He is credited with leading the Arminian King to Christ, which created the first National Church, even before Constantine’s conversion. He’s called the “Illuminator” because the light of Christ lit up the entire Kingdom. But Jesus is the great illuminator. Jesus is the radiant one! At the transfiguration, His light outshone the sun. Jesus, as God the Son, is the source of all illumination and enlightenment. When we encounter Him, all the confusion, uncertainty, evil, decay, and death are washed out in His brilliance. That’s why we won’t need any sun in the eternal state. Jesus will be there and the source of all we need to see clearly. Andrew Maclaren sees “Christ as the great illuminator, ready to shine on all drowsy, dark souls as soon as they stir and rouse themselves from drugged and fatal sleep.”