When God was creating the world, He did so through His Son. Scripture testifies to us as follows:
1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
We see that Christ was the Channel through which God created everything and that for His Son He created everything. Everything that was created was God’s gift to Christ. To God the Father, as the Source of all things, these verses attribute creation, and these verses say that He created all things, but ‘by’ or ‘through’ His Son, that is, through Christ.
The Spirit of Prophecy tells us that this happened immediately after Satan’s expulsion from Heaven:
“The loyal angels mourned the fate of those who had been their companions in happiness and bliss. Their loss was felt in heaven. The Father consulted Jesus in regard to at once carrying out their purpose to make man to inhabit the earth. He would place man upon probation to test his loyalty, before he could be rendered eternally secure. If he endured the test wherewith God saw fit to prove him, he should eventually be equal with the angels. He was to have the favor of God, and he was to converse with angels, and they with him. He did not see fit to place them beyond the power of disobedience.” {ST January 9, 1879, Art. B, par. 11}
“The Father consulted His Son in regard to at once carrying out their purpose to make man to inhabit the earth. He would place man upon probation to test his loyalty before he could be rendered eternally secure. If he endured the test wherewith God saw fit to prove him, he should eventually be equal with the angels. He was to have the favor of God, and he was to converse with angels, and they with him. He did not see fit to place them beyond the power of disobedience.” {SR 19.2}
Christ Himself testifies of this and describes those days of creation with the Father thus:
1 Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?…
4 Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man…
7 For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
8 All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them.
9 They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge…
22 The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.
23 I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.
24 When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water.
25 Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:
26 While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.
27 When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:
28 When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep:
29 When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth:
30 Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him;
31 Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.
32 Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways.
33 Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.
34 Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.
35 For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD.
36 But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.
Christ as Wisdom speaks and describes here. There is nothing crooked or unclear, as Christ Himself says. All these words are plain to him that understands, as Jesus Himself testifies here. What is completely clear in this testimony of Christ’s, among other things, is that He Himself was there and cooperated with the Father in creating everything. The wise man, under the inspiration of the Spirit, confirms this and says:
4 Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell?
The Father and Son were together during the creation of the world. They cooperated together.
“The Father and the Son engaged in the mighty, wondrous work they had contemplated, of creating the world. The earth came forth from the hand of the Creator exceedingly beautiful…” {1SP 24.1}
It was so that the Father gave the command, and the Son then created everything. Scripture testifies of this to us:
6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
After the Father gave the command to create light, and then everything else, at the end He gave the command to create man in God’s image:
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
The Spirit of Prophecy tells us that this refers both to character and outward appearance:
“Man was to bear God’s image, both in outward resemblance and in character. Christ alone is “the express image” (Hebrews 1,3) of the Father; but man was formed in the likeness of God. His nature was in harmony with the will of God. His mind was capable of comprehending divine things. His affections were pure; his appetites and passions were under the control of reason. He was holy and happy in bearing the image of God and in perfect obedience to His will.” {PP 45.2}
Christ is the only ‘perfect image’ of the Father’s person, and man was created according to God’s image, in character and in outward form. The difference is great because Christ was begotten from the Father’s being, and man was created from the dust of the earth.
The Spirit of Prophecy confirms that the Father and Son created together, and that at this moment the Father again spoke to His Son:
“God, in counsel with his Son, formed the plan of creating man in their own image. He was placed upon probation. Man was to be tested and proved, and if he should bear the test of God, and remain loyal and true after the first trial, he was not to be beset with continual temptations; but was to be exalted equal with the angels, and henceforth immortal.” {RH February 24, 1874, par. 3}
“After the earth was created, and the beasts upon it, the Father and Son carried out their purpose, which was designed before the fall of Satan, to make man in their own image. They had wrought together in the creation of the earth and every living thing upon it. And now God says to his Son**, “Let us make man in our image…” {1SP 24.2}
“And God said, Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness.” Whom did He address?—The Lord Jesus Christ, who declares Himself to have been with the Father from the beginning.” {Ms43-1906.6}
In the creation of man was manifest the agency of a personal God. When God had made man in His image, the human form was perfect in all its arrangements, but it was without life. Then a personal, self-existing God breathed into that form the breath of life, and man became a living, breathing, intelligent being. All parts of the human organism were put in action. The heart, the arteries, the veins, the tongue, the hands, the feet, the senses, the perceptions of the mind—all began their work, and all were placed under law. Man became a living soul. Through Jesus Christ a personal God created man and endowed him with intelligence and power. {3TT 262.3}
The Lord of heaven instituted the Sabbath, as Jehovah had, through His appointed agency—One equal with Himself—made the world and all things that are therein in six days and rested on the seventh day. {Ms128-1906.19}
God created man like Himself, but not that man should exalt himself to the level of God:
Above all lower orders of being, God designed that man, the crowning work of His creation, should express His thought and reveal His glory. But man is not to exalt himself as God. {CCh 75.2}
In Likeness of God and Christ
What is important to note here is that the Father and Son created in Their image. And They did so by creating male and female, the two of them, and not just one, or three. The Spirit of Prophecy says:
“We take not the fallacies of man but the Word of God that man was created after the image of God and Christ, for the Word declares “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty of heaven.” {Ms236-1902.4}
The physical creation testifies of God and of Christ as Creator of all things. {Lt98-1909.4}
How beautiful the earth was when it came from the Creator’s hand. God presented before the universe a world in which even His all-seeing eye could find no spot or stain, no defect or crookedness… God looked upon the work of His hands wrought out by Christ and pronounced it “very good.” [Genesis 1:31.] He looked upon a perfect world, in which there was no trace of sin, no imperfection. {Lt23-1903.4}
Scripture describes in more detail how this happened:
21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
This is a double image: an image of the Father and Son, and an image of Christ and the church (Ephesians 5). What is often missed here is that this is an image of the Father and Son. The Son proceeded from the Father’s Being, and is equal to the Father in authority, nature, power, glory, majesty and everything else, but at the same time is subject to the Father as His Son, voluntarily and from love as a Son. It is the same with the woman in relation to the husband. Although they are equal in everything, the woman is at the same time subject to the husband from love and respect, and she proceeded from the man and the man is her head just as the Father is the head of Christ. Adam was before Eve, just as the Father was before Christ. Eve proceeded from Adam, just as Christ from the Father. And Scripture testifies of this to us:
3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.
And continues below explaining:
7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
8 For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man.
9 Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.
In another place it says:
12 But I suffer not a woman… to usurp authority over the man…
13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
This is not only during the period of sin until the kingdom of glory comes, but was so during creation still in Eden, before the fall into sin, and will be so forever. In this description in the Spirit of Prophecy we can still see the manner in which Adam and Eve are an image of the Father and Son:
“God Himself gave Adam a companion. He provided “an help meet for him”—a helper corresponding to him—one who was fitted to be his companion, and who could be one with him in love and sympathy. Eve was created from a rib taken from the side of Adam, signifying that she was not to control him as the head, nor to be trampled under his feet as an inferior, but to stand by his side as an equal, to be loved and protected by him. A part of man, bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh, she was his second self, showing the close union and the affectionate attachment that should exist in this relation. “For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it.” (Ephesians 5:29). “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one.” {PP 46.2}
So it is with the Father and Son, even in the new Earth. Scripture testifies of this to us:
24 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
27 For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith, all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.
28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.
This signifies precisely this relationship that exists between the Father and Son. And so the relationship of the Father and Son was portrayed in the creation of man. As the Son of the Father, Christ is subject to the Father in filial love and respect.
As we said, the creation of Adam and Eve portrays the close relationship between the Father and Son, and also the close relationship between Christ and the church (His children). The image is double. The Spirit of Prophecy confirms this for us:
“However much a shepherd may love his sheep, he loves his sons and daughters more. Jesus is not only our shepherd; He is our “everlasting Father.” And He says, “I know Mine own, and Mine own know Me, even as the Father knoweth Me, and I know the Father.” John 10, 15, R. V. What a statement is this!—the only-begotten Son, He who is in the bosom of the Father, He whom God has declared to be “the Man that is My fellow” (Zechariah 13:7),—the communion between Him and the eternal God is taken to represent the communion between Christ and His children on the earth!” {DA 483.2}
Therefore, the image of husband and wife portrays the relationship between Christ and the church, and again Christ takes His relationship with the Father to portray that communion between Him and the church. Through this we see that we correctly understand that Adam and Eve are a portrayal of the relationship between the Father and Son. And again we see the same thing in Scripture:
23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
33 Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
From this text we see again the same thing, husband and wife are an image of Christ and the church. Such a relationship God ordained from the beginning, when man and woman were created.
We still have some important descriptions of the creation of man and of how man lived while he was in Eden and what privileges he enjoyed:
“The Lord created man out of the dust of the earth. He made Adam a partaker of His life, His nature. There was breathed into him the breath of the Almighty, and he became a living soul. Adam was perfect in form—strong, comely, pure, bearing the image of his Maker. God gave him a companion, a wife, to share with him the beauties of nature. In order for this holy pair to continue to be happy, God gave them something to do. The fact that they were holy did not debar them from working. God is never idle. To every one of the angelic host is given an appointed task. Adam and Eve were given the garden of Eden to care for. They were “to dress it and to keep it.” They were happy in their work. Mind, heart, and will acted in perfect harmony. In their labor they found no weariness, no toil. Their hours were filled with useful work and communion with each other. Their occupation was pleasant. God and Christ visited them and talked with them. They were given perfect freedom. Only one restriction was placed on them. “Of every tree in the garden thou mayest freely eat,” God said; “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” {Ms102-1903.38}
“In man’s holy innocence, the sacred temple was the human heart in which burned the sacred fire of holy love; and the incense of praise flowed forth from his lips and ascended to heaven, there to unite with the songs of the holy angels. The Father and Son communicated with Adam and Eve.” {Ms 150, 1898, par. 18}
“Adam and Eve came forth from the hand of their Creator in the perfection of every physical, mental, and spiritual endowment. God planted for them a garden, and surrounded them with everything lovely and attractive to the eye, and that which their physical necessities required. This holy pair looked out upon a world of unsurpassed loveliness and glory. A benevolent Creator had given them evidences of his goodness and love in providing them with fruits, vegetables, and grains, and had caused to grow out of the ground trees of every variety for usefulness and beauty.” {RH February 24, 1874, par. 4}
“Adam and Eve could trace the skill and glory of God in every spire of grass, and in every shrub and flower. The natural loveliness which surrounded them, like a mirror reflected the wisdom, excellence, and love of their Heavenly Father. And their songs of affection and praise rose sweetly and reverentially to Heaven, harmonizing with the songs of the exalted angels, and with the happy birds who were caroling forth their music without a care. There was no disease, decay, nor death anywhere. Life, life was in everything the eye rested upon. The atmosphere was impregnated with life. Life was in every leaf, in every flower, and in every tree.” {RH February 24, 1874, par. 7}
“In labor, man was to find happiness as well as in meditation. Adam could reflect that he was created in the image of God, to be like him in righteousness and holiness. His mind was capable of continual cultivation, expansion, refinement and noble elevation; for God was his teacher, and angels were his companions.” {RH February 24, 1874, par. 8}
Law Known From the Beginning
Adam and Eve were then acquainted with God’s Law:
“The law of God existed before man was created. The angels were governed by it. Satan fell because he transgressed the principles of God’s government. After Adam and Eve were created, God made known to them His law. It was not then written, but was rehearsed to them by Jehovah…” {CIHS 30.1}
“Adam and Eve at their creation had knowledge of the original law of God. It was imprinted upon their hearts, and they were acquainted with the claims of law upon them.” {RH April 29, 1875, par. 4}
“Before this earth was called into being, God’s law existed. Angels are governed by its principles, and in order for earth to be in harmony with heaven, humanity also must obey the divine statutes. To Adam and Eve in Eden Christ made known the precepts of the law “when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” (Job 38:7) The mission of Christ on earth was not to destroy the law, but by His grace to bring us back to obedience to its precepts.” {HB 181.2}
“The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.” God’s law is a transcript of His character and was given to man in the garden of Eden as the rule of obedience. In succeeding ages this law was lost sight of.” {Ms83-1903.9}
We have some other beautiful descriptions of life in Eden:
“Adam and Eve were charmed with the beauties of their Eden home. They were delighted with the little songsters around them, wearing their bright yet graceful plumage, and warbling forth their happy, cheerful music. The holy pair united with them and raised their voices in harmonious songs of love, praise and adoration, to the Father and his dear Son, for the tokens of love which surrounded them. They recognized the order and harmony of creation, which spoke of wisdom and knowledge that were infinite. Some new beauty and additional glory of their Eden home they were continually discovering, which filled their hearts with deeper love, and brought from their lips expressions of gratitude and reverence to their Creator.” {1SP 26.3}
These truths are clear and only a man without knowledge can obscure them because the description of creation and the revelation about it is clear to everyone who seeks truth:
2 Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?…
4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?
6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
But soon everything changed, unfortunately. Temptation was on its way. Adam and Eve did not live long in Eden after they were created. We will study all of this in the next continuation.