03 – Humans

Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it." So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth." Then God said, "Behold, I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit contains seed. They will be yours for food. And to every beast of the earth and every bird of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth- everything that has the breath of life in it- I have given every green plant for food." And it was so.

Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.

The LORD God also said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make for him a suitable helper."

And the man said: "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for out of man she was taken." For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed.

By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground- because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return."

This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in His own likeness. Male and female He created them, and He blessed them. And in the day they were created, He called them "man."

So the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days shall be 120 years."

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was altogether evil all the time. And the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and full of violence. And God looked upon the earth and saw that it was corrupt; for all living creatures on the earth had corrupted their ways.

When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, He said in His heart, "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for your souls upon the altar; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.

The LORD brings death and gives life; He brings down to Sheol and raises up.

But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or height, for I have rejected him; the LORD does not see as man does. For man sees the outward appearance, but the LORD sees the heart."

saying: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD."

If God puts no trust in His servants, and He charges His angels with error, how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who can be crushed like a moth!

For we were born yesterday and know nothing; our days on earth are but a shadow.

Your hands shaped me and altogether formed me. Would You now turn and destroy me? Please remember that You molded me like clay. Would You now return me to dust? Did You not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese? You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. You have granted me life and loving devotion, and Your care has preserved my spirit.

The life of every living thing is in His hand, as well as the breath of all mankind.

"Man, who is born of woman, is short of days and full of trouble. Like a flower, he comes forth, then withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.

Since his days are determined and the number of his months is with You, and since You have set limits that he cannot exceed,

how much less man, who is vile and corrupt, who drinks injustice like water?

For when only a few years are past I will go the way of no return.

how much less man, who is but a maggot, and the son of man, who is but a worm!"

as long as my breath is still within me and the breath of God remains in my nostrils, my lips will not speak wickedness, and my tongue will not utter deceit.

The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

what is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You care for him?

You made him a little lower than the angels; You crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler of the works of Your hands; You have placed everything under his feet: all sheep and oxen, and even the beasts of the field, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.

The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt; their acts are vile. There is no one who does good. The LORD looks down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if any understand, if any seek God. All have turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.

The earth is the LORD's, and the fullness thereof, the world and all who dwell therein. For He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.

The LORD looks down from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. From His dwelling place He gazes on all who inhabit the earth. He shapes the hearts of each; He considers all their works.

"Show me, O LORD, my end and the measure of my days. Let me know how fleeting my life is. You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah

You discipline and correct a man for his iniquity, consuming like a moth what he holds dear; surely each man is but a vapor. Selah

Surely I was brought forth in iniquity; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt; their ways are vile. There is no one who does good. God looks down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if any understand, if any seek God. All have turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.

He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.

Remember the briefness of my lifespan! For what futility You have created all men! What man can live and never see death? Can he deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah

The length of our days is seventy years- or eighty if we are strong- yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

So teach us to number our days, that we may present a heart of wisdom.

My days are like lengthening shadows, and I wither away like grass. But You, O LORD, sit enthroned forever; Your renown endures to all generations.

For He knows our frame; He is mindful that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass- he blooms like a flower of the field; when the wind passes over, it vanishes, and its place remembers it no more.

When You hide Your face, they are terrified; when You take away their breath, they die and return to dust.

The highest heavens belong to the LORD, but the earth He has given to mankind. It is not the dead who praise the LORD, nor any who descend into silence.

O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit and when I rise; You understand my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down; You are aware of all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, You know all about it, O LORD.

For You formed my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and I know this very well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all my days were written in Your book and ordained for me before one of them came to be. How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God, how vast is their sum! If I were to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand; and when I awake, I am still with You.

Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.

Put not your trust in princes, in mortal man, who cannot save. When his spirit departs, he returns to the ground; on that very day his plans perish.

The perverse in heart are an abomination to the LORD, but the blameless in their walk are His delight.

The king's heart is a waterway in the hand of the LORD; He directs it where He pleases. All a man's ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs the heart.

The rich and the poor have this in common: The LORD is Maker of them all.

As a man came from his mother's womb, so he will depart again, naked as he arrived. He takes nothing for his labor to carry in his hands.

A good name is better than fine perfume, and one's day of death is better than his day of birth.

Surely there is no righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

As no man has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has authority over his day of death. As no one can be discharged in wartime, so wickedness will not release those who practice it.

This is an evil in everything that is done under the sun: There is one fate for everyone. Furthermore, the hearts of men are full of evil and madness while they are alive, and afterward they join the dead.

As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the bones are formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.

A voice says, "Cry out!" And I asked, "What should I cry out?" "All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall when the breath of the LORD blows on them; indeed, the people are grass.

This is what God the LORD says- He who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and life to those who walk in it:

Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer who formed you from the womb: "I am the LORD, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who by Myself spread out the earth,

"I, even I, am He who comforts you. Why should you be afraid of mortal man, of a son of man who withers like grass?

We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.

Each of us has become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind. No one calls on Your name or strives to take hold of You. For You have hidden Your face from us and delivered us into the hand of our iniquity. But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

And you have done more evil than your fathers. See how each of you follows the stubbornness of his evil heart instead of obeying Me.

This is what the LORD says: "Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes the flesh his strength and turns his heart from the LORD.

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I, the LORD, search the heart; I examine the mind to reward a man according to his way, by what his deeds deserve.

Behold, every soul belongs to Me; both father and son are Mine. The soul who sins is the one who will die.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

This is what the Lord GOD says to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh grow upon you and cover you with skin. I will put breath within you so that you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.'"

When He saw the crowds, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

The good man brings good things out of his good store of treasure, and the evil man brings evil things out of his evil store of treasure.

But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander.

But Jesus said, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

"Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak."

For from within the hearts of men come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness. All these evils come from within, and these are what defile a man."

However, from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.' 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."

"Why do you call Me good?" Jesus replied. "No one is good except God alone.

The good man brings good things out of the good treasure of his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil treasure of his heart. For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.

And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God- children born not of blood, nor of the desire or will of man, but born of God.

But Jesus did not entrust Himself to them, for He knew them all. He did not need any testimony about man, for He knew what was in a man.

Jesus replied, "Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." "How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Can he enter his mother's womb a second time to be born?" Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit. Do not be amazed that I said, 'You must be born again.'

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil.

Then He told them, "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. That is why I told you that you would die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins."

Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their lands. God intended that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. 'For in Him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, ' We are His offspring.'

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another.

Certainly not! Let God be true and every man a liar. As it is written: "So that You may be proved right when You speak and victorious when You judge."

As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned.

Or aren't you aware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection. We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. For anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God. So you too must count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires. Do not present the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and present the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness.

I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to escalating wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.

For when we lived according to the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, bearing fruit for death.

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin. He thus condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh; but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the flesh, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

So it is not the children of the flesh who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring.

Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.

The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Do you not know that you yourselves are God's temple, and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.

For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.

Not all flesh is the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another, and fish another.

So will it be with the resurrection of the dead: What is sown is perishable; it is raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being;" the last Adam a life-giving spirit. The spiritual, however, was not first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so also are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so also shall we bear the likeness of the heavenly man. Now I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, yet our inner self is being renewed day by day.

Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is dismantled, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. For in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. So while we are in this tent, we groan under our burdens, because we do not wish to be unclothed but clothed, so that our mortality may be swallowed up by life.

Therefore, beloved, since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that defiles body and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want.

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

The one who sows to please his flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; but the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

All of us also lived among them at one time, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh and indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath.

They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts.

For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh-

For as I have often told you before, and now say again even with tears: Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to subject all things to Himself, will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body.

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ.

Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free, but Christ is all and is in all.

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your entire spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For we brought nothing into the world, so we cannot carry anything out of it.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.

For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, without love of good, traitorous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. Turn away from such as these!

To the pure, all things are pure; but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. Indeed, both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but by their actions they deny Him. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good deed.

But somewhere it is testified in these words: "What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You care for him? You made him a little lower than the angels; You crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works Your of hands, and placed everything under his feet." When God subjected all things to him, He left nothing outside of his control. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him.

Now since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment,

But each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is lured away and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.

As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make a profit." You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

For, "All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall,

Beloved, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul.

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world- the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life- is not from the Father but from the world. The world is passing away, along with its desires; but whoever does the will of God remains forever.

Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.

save others by snatching them from the fire; and to still others show mercy tempered with fear, hating even the clothing stained by the flesh.

Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him- even those who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be! Amen.