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the fullness of God is seen in Christ and His redeemed people, and is explained, not by
the necessities of Metaphysics, but by the presence of Love. The exposition of this
aspect of the subject, however, must wait until we come to the creation of man and
endeavour to discover the purpose that lay behind it.
The age-long controversy concerning the Unity and Trinity of the Godhead is largely a
matter of the conflict between the conception of the Absolute and the conception of the
Relative. If God be Infinite and Absolute, He must be unique. God, therefore, is One,
and the Trinity is a revelation of this Divine Unity to man. In all these things, to confuse
the relative names and attributes whereby God has made Himself visible to us "as in a
glass darkly", with the Eternal reality itself, is to add the confusion of misunderstanding
to the legitimate enigma which our limited human ability makes inevitable.
Let us thank God that He has stooped so low, and, while we wait with hope for that
day of revelation when we shall see "face to face", let us rejoice that in the mirror of the
Word we may see now to the full capacity of our present powers of vision.
#17.
"Adam", and the "Likeness" of God (Gen. 1: 26, 27).
pp. 201 - 205
If we turn to Gen. 1: and read the account of the creation we find that the first creative
act in connection with this present system is introduced by the majestic words: "Let there
be light, and there was light." As we go on with the account, we find that each
successive day's work is ushered in by some similar formula: "Let there be a
firmament", "Let the earth bring forth", "Let the waters bring forth". The opening of
the sixth and last day of the series is no exception to the general rule:
"And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature, after his kind, cattle and
creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the
beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth
upon the earth after his kind: And God saw that it was good" (Gen. 1: 24, 25).
This, however, does not bring the creation to a close. At verse 26, we enter an entirely
different atmosphere, and encounter words regarding the Godhead which are utterly
different from all that has gone before. We now read that God said, "Let Us make man"
and this man is spoken of as made "in the image" and "after the likeness" of God.
The word "create" is used on only three occasions throughout this narrative:
(1) It is used of the creation, in the beginning, of the heaven and the earth. This is
followed by a reference to the great deep, which, on the third day, forms the "seas".