“The one joined to the Lord is one spirit [with Him].”
(1 Cor 6:17, ALT)
Remember that we are currently discussing the “mystery of Godliness” (1 Tim 3:16), and that we are at this point dealing with the first facet thereof – Christ becoming man. In leading up to this teaching we examined how He is fully and completely God, how He existed in a pre-incarnated state from before the world was created, and how he was present during the Old Testament in a variety of manifestations. It is now time to start focusing on his appearance on earth as man.
We should never forget that God is Spirit (John 4:24), and thus Jesus is Spirit too (2 Cor 3:17). His coming to earth thus had the implication of having to be clothed with flesh (John 1:14; Phil 2:7-8). God was presented in the flesh (1 Tim 3:16), and His name was Jesus! He was the answer to man’s longing of making God visible (John 14:8).
In this Person of flesh and blood the complete being of God was embodied (Col 2:9). However, when it came to appearances he was not extraordinarily beautiful or attractive as one would expect; in fact it was quite the opposite. Isa 53:2b (CEV) maps it out: “He wasn’t some handsome king. Nothing about the way he looked made him attractive to us.”
But why was it important for God to be embodied in flesh? To answer this we must return to the creation of the first man (Please note that the next two teachings form part of this argument and must thus be read together.)
In Gen 1:26 we read that God as Three-in-One decided to create beings which they would name adâm (=man), thus the generic name of this being. In the beginning this being was throughout referred to by that name, as in Gen 2:18, which states: “It is not good that man should be alone”, which is followed by God creating a “helper” from the “man”. God then closed up the place from which He had taken the helper with “flesh” (Gen 2:21), and for the first time refers to her as woman. Human beings are throughout still referred to by the generic “man”.
We know that man was created from the dust of the earth. Gen 2:7 states it as follows – “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” Without the “breath of life” man was little but dust. Note that man became a living soul, but only on account of the “breath of life”. The fact that man became a living soul only brought him on par with the other living beings, like the animals of the fields or the birds “in which there is life” (Gen 1:30). That breath of life (=“neshâmâh” in Hebrew) is NOT the same as the Breath of God/Spirit of God (=”rûach”). But the first man clearly also received the Spirit of God, unlike the created animals, as he was capable of communicating with God (1 Cor 2:10-11). Thus the first man was a spirit man (by means of the Rûach of God), and became a living soul (1 Cor 15:45) through the breath of life and became manifested in flesh. Clearly then, “The one joined to the Lord is one spirit [with Him].” (1 Cor 6:17, ALT).
- Sela: Explain this teaching to someone.
- Read: 1 Chr 21; Jer 47; 1 Pet 2
- Memorise: 1 Pet 2:5
- For a deeper understanding: Read chapters 1-7 in Gene Edwards’ book The divine romance.
