Who We Were
In the hebrew bible, (Genesis 1:1) says "In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth..." Elohim is plural, hence “Let Us” and “in Our image.” God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. God, or Elohim is trichotomous, meaning three distinct persons. (1 John 5:7) - "For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one." We are not trichotomous, but we are composed of three parts. The bible tells us in (1 Thessalonians 5:23) as the Apostle Paul writes to the church of Thessalonica, "...that your whole spirit, and soul, and body, may be preserved blameless in the coming of our Lord." We are spirits, comprised of having (communion, intuition and conscience). We have a soul, which is the (mind, emotions and will), and we are housed in a body - which is the flesh composed of our senses, (sight, sound, smell, taste & touch).
Mankind was created in the image of God, and in His likeness. John Piper wrote: "Humankind was created to be a graphic image of the Creator — a formal, visible, and understandable representation of who God is and what He’s really like."
In my own personal studies of scripture and what I believe to be revelation from the Triune God, I concur with John Piper. Mankind was created to reflect the very character and attributes of God, which is the very glory of God. We were created to reflect His goodness, His righteousness, His holiness.
Before we go further, let me preface here by saying scripture is somewhat silent on detailed insight on the subject of Who We Were before the fall, just like scripture is silent regarding genealogy other than the line to the Messiah, and silent about Jesus childhood. I believe the main reason for this is, it's not important to the main focus of scripture which is Creation, the Fall, God's plan of Reconciliation and Redemption, Judgement and last, Restoration. We can however draw some conclusions of Who We Were based on clear scriptural evidence about who God is and Who We Become in Christ Jesus to help us see Who We Were.
When God created man and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, I believe He breathed His own spirit into man. Everything God is in character, we were in spirit and in truth. To be clear, we were not created omniscient, omnipotent nor omnipresent, but we were reflecting many of His wonderful attributes. In (2 Corinthians 3:18), we are told as Christians, "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." We are getting back to the fullness of His glory, as the book of (Hebrews 2:10) says, "For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory" (John 17:22) - " And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:..." and "To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27)
I'm getting ahead of myself, but only to lay the foundation through scripture that shows where we're going, to infer where we were. In the last section - Who We Become, we'll provide more evidence of - getting back to the glory we once had with God, which I believe is part of our inheritance stored up in heaven.
What does "the glory of God mean?" In Exodus 33:18, Moses ask the LORD, “Please, show me Your glory.” v19 Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you..." His goodness? Yes, His goodness. Right after the Jewish Exodus from Egypt and when God sent His chosen people into the wilderness to learn of Him and worship Him, He appeared by day as a pillar of cloud and by night a pillar of fire. I have often heard teachers of the word refer to the pillars as the Shekinah Glory of God, meaning the presence of God on earth. Not only did the LORD God provide His very presence to the Israelites in the wilderness, but He graciously provided warmth for cold nights with a pillar of fire; and for hot days, a cloud to reduce heat; and as a Shepherd lead's His flock of sheep, God lead His chosen people to the promise land. Is that not good?
Defining God's glory is exhaustive and the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance agrees. It's defined as literal; figurative; objective or subjective. In the Hebrew section of Strong's Concordance, the word glory is called 'Kabod' and it defines the word as His majesty and splendor; reputation and wealth; honor, respect and position, along with His sovereignty and power. In the Greek section of the Concordance, glory is called 'Doxa', and it is defined as the manifested perfection of His character, especially His righteousness; and of the nature and acts of God in self-manifestation; what He essentially is and does; His everlasting power and divinity along with His attributes and ways, and that's just the beginning.
Let's be clear, we are not gods, nor were we created to possess all that God Almighty is, however, even in our fallen state, it's not a far stretch to look for people who still possess some of the good qualities we had prior to the fall, like people we consider to be honorable, respected, and one who has integrity. Where do you suppose those attributes came from? Anything good about us even in our fallen state comes from above; (James 1:17) - "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning."
We assume "his invisible attributes," in this scripture refers to nature and it does. The galaxies, the stars, sun, moon, and clouds. How about the chemicals in the air or the food we eat? How many seeds are contained in one cucumber? Under the right conditions, one seed from one cucumber will produce multiple cucumbers, just from one of the many seeds in one cucumber. Does that not display the goodness of God in abundance? The rain reveals His goodness. How about how the earth is tilted perfectly to prevent us from being burned up by the sun or freezing by extreme cold?
May I also suggest His invisible attributes are clearly seen in mankind as well, and not just in the intricacies of the human body; like the pupil, thumb and index finger; healing properties; veins, arteries, and the pumping of blood; but having our entire inner being one of perfect love, holiness and righteousness. We displayed kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. If we agree that God breathed His spirit into man, then it only makes sense that Adam, and all mankind, who were in the bosom of Adam, possessed all of who God is in His nature, character and attributes. Why would we be anything less than perfect created by a perfect God?
We're told in scripture how to maintain our inner peace through prayer; then followup by meditating on, (Philippians 4:8-9) - "..., whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things." This scripture tells us to meditate on the Triune God and His word. He is truth and what is true, He is morally excellent, and we are to meditate on those things which are noble. Meditating on what is just as He is just, pure as He is, lovely and of good report. What's my point? Before the fall, everything we did was of love and lovely, of good report, we we're truthful, noble, kind, gentle, virtuous and faithful, longsuffering, self-controlled and possessed the ability to love purely and unconditionally with unsevered peace and joy with God and of God. We reflected all of the very essence of God's goodness, perfectly. How could we not, we were without sin?
Before the fall, there was complete and perfect order from the divine sovereignty of the Godhead; to angels and their rankings; then mankind; and last, animal life and the earth, which was subject to man. Genesis 1:28 - "subdue it and have dominion..." This was order and it was good, and very good. We knew our place and our Creators place. We were God conscious, God absorbed, and God-centered. Everything we did was good. We were acceptable in the sight of our Creator God and we were in every way made perfect. Genesis 1:31 - "Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good."
Before we move forward to Who We Became, one might question, "but there were only two people, Adam and Eve, so why do you include all of mankind?"
Even though there was only Adam and Eve, and then the fall, scripture says Abraham paid a tenth of his spoils to the King of Salem, Melchizdeck, and a grandson of Abraham, Levi also paid a tenth to this priest, even though he was not yet born but was in the bosom of Abraham - Hebrews 7:9-10. So, we too were in the bosom of Adam, which is why we inherited his new sin nature.
Everything right about God, was in Adam and his wife, Eve. Gen 2:25 "And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed."
The next section of this site gets bad, ugly and dark but there is light and life coming so, stay encouraged. God's plan and response is priceless. We are getting back to Eden because we have a mighty God who loves us, and the One who is victorious in all His ways.