What is man?

Man is born of God. Man is the image of God in spirit, in soul, and in body. This is not all.

Man is an incomplete, dependent person. One of the greatest misunderstandings of our time is that the ideal man is independent, that his purpose in life is to express his individuality. This is the greatest of all errors, the closest to Satan's heart, and it leads not to liberty but to the darkest of prisons—the prison of self-love. The prison of self-love can destroy the soul and spirit until they are warped and unfruitful beyond redemption.

When man was created, God insured that no individual would be complete in himself but would be dependent on God and on others of his kind. God did this by making man male and female.

This also is the "face as a man," of Revelation 4:7. The concept of male and female is associated closely with the image of God.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Genesis 1:27)

To our knowledge, no angel is male or female. Each of the angels is a complete entity. Did you ever hear of a lonely angel?

Man is different in that a man is either male or female. He cannot be complete by himself. Man's incompleteness is the basis for his greatest sorrow and weakness and also his greatest joy and strength.

Before the creation of the world the Lord Jesus was the Logos. He was not "man." When the Lord Jesus chose to become man He elected to be incomplete.

Man has been created in a helpless condition. No man can attain his inheritance by himself just as Adam could not be fruitful apart from Eve. It is not good for a man to be alone. God made each human being either a male or a female, insuring his dependency on others.

The Lord Jesus is Man as well as God. Is He incomplete? Is He dependent on others? In His role as Son of God He is dependent on the Father in whom He dwells and who dwells in Him. In His role as Son of man He has chosen to add a wife to Himself as an enlargement of His Personality.

Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. (John 5:19)

"The Son can do nothing of himself."

Christ is One with the Father. The Father is not without the Son neither the Son without the Father.

Is the Lord Jesus Christ dependent on us (we speak reverently)? Yes, He is. Christ is the Vine and we are the branches. Fruit is found on the branches of a vine.

Christ by Himself is a marvelous Universe of universes. However, when God declared, "It is not good that the man should be alone," He was speaking especially of His Son.

To be continued.