The WESTMINSTER LARGER Catechism

Q 17. How did God create man?

A. After God had made all other creatures, He created man male and female;1 formed the body of the man of the dust of the ground,2 and the woman of the rib of the man,3 endued them with living, reasonable, and immortal souls;4 made them after His own image,5 in knowledge,6 righteousness, and holiness;7 having the law of God written in their hearts,8 and power to fulfil it,9 and dominion over the creatures;10 yet subject to fall.11

Proofs

1Gen 1:27;. 2Gen 2:7; 3Gen 2:22; 4Gen 2:7; cf. Job 35:11; Eccl 12:7; Mt 10:28; Lk 23:43; 5Gen 1:27;
6Col 3:10; 7Eph 4:24; 8Rom 2:14–15; 9Eccl 7:29; 10Gen 1:28; 11Gen 3:6; Eccl 7:29.

While angels were the first of God’s rational creatures to be created, man was the last. He is, as it were, the crowning glory of God’s creation. Yes, angels are ontologically more glorious and powerful, but man stands at the apex of God’s creation, and the elect of mankind (versus the reprobate), is teleologically the centre of God’s creation. That is to say, all creation, including the angels, appear in Scripture to revolve around God’s redemption and glorification of God’s "vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory" (Rom 9:23).

This fact is confirmed by the biblical data that speaks of the relationship between man and angels. The Psalmist declares: "thou hast made [man] a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour" (Ps 8:5). The writer of Hebrews quotes this verse (Heb 2:7), but also says that angels are "all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation" (Heb 1:14).

How did God create man? Our catechism summarises the Biblical teaching under numerous points, which we may look under 5 heads:

1. First, God created man male and female. This is obvious not only by observation but by the declaration of Scripture (Gen 1:27). When modern man tries to eradicate the distinction between the genders through any means, they are directly going against God’s specific purpose of creating man, unlike angels, male and female.

2. Secondly, He formed the body of the man of the dust of the ground (Gen 2:7a). God could have made man as he made all the other creatures, but He chose to make us in such a special way, perhaps firstly, to remind us of our humble estate: We are but creatures of dust. But secondly, the special attention that God manifested in our creation shows us His special benevolence towards us.

3. Thirdly, He made the body of the woman of the rib of the man (Gen 2:22). Many have speculated on why God chose to use the rib of Adam and not another part of him, but that is beside the point. The reason why woman is created from man is to show that there is a ontological equality and yet a functional order between man and woman (1 Cor 11:8-9).

4. Fourthly, He endued them with living, reasonable, and immortal soul (cf. Gen 2:7b). That the soul of man is ‘reasonable’ refers to the rationality of man (not that the soul is "good enough" as some mistake the term to mean). And the soul is living and immortal in that it will never be annihilated—not that God cannot annihilate it, but that the Scripture shows us that He has determined that every soul brought into existence, will be maintained in existence to his praise and glory for all eternity.

5. Fifthly, and very importantly, God made them after His own image and likeness (Gen 1:26, 27). Note that these two terms are synonymous (contra Romanism). The image of God comprise two aspects, namely (1) the natural endowments such as rationality, affections, and moral discrimination (i.e. sense of right and wrong). These things are marred by the fall so that for example, we make errors in thinking, suffer depression and make wrong judgments. But (2) the image of God also consist in spiritual qualities, namely knowledge, righteousness, and holiness (Col 3:10; Eph 4:24).

These were qualities present in Adam and Eve, but seriously damaged since the fall, and need to be restored by Christ. Of these three qualities, only original righteousness is completely lost.There is no inclination at all in the natural man to want to do good in the sight of the living and true God. On the other hand our original knowledge, though darken by sin is still perceptible in the natural man. Man, for example, has the works of the law of God written in his hearts (Rom 2:14-15) so that by nature, he knows that there is a God and murder is wrong. Likewise, though man no longer has true holiness, he alone of all the rational visible creatures of God has a religious sense.

6. Sixthly, man originally had the power to fulfil the law of God written in his heart (he having original righteousness). And so he also had perfect dominion over the creatures (Gen 1:28)

  1. But seventhly, man was created with a possibility of falling from the original condition. We will look at the fall in another lesson, but as we can see in the fifth point, the Fall has drastic impact on mankind.