By Neibert David
The first stage of the human identity can be found in: Genesis 1:26-28 where it notes that God created humankind and blessed them. In Verse 26 God gives us a glimpse into His thinking when He originally decided what humans would look like and what our very essence would be.
He looked at His other created beings: the animals, the fish, the rocks, the birds, and said no I want my crowning glory creation to have My essence, My nature, My image, and My likeness. He didn’t want them to resemble or operate like any of the other beings or inanimate objects that He created. He wanted them to resemble and operate just like Him.
In creating humans in His image and likeness and by giving them His very essence, God provided various attributes to the personhood of human beings. Identity is relational at its core, therefore we get our identities from our relationships – whether it is a group, family, and/or culture.
This article will examine various attributes that God provided to Adam and Eve, and by extension to all humans when He created us. Because at the core of identity is relationship, God was shaping the identities of Adam and Eve when He created and interacted with them.
The first two attributes that God provided for them were love and validation. “Love” in Merriam-Webster dictionary means “strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties, an assurance of affection.” Genesis 2:15-17; Genesis 3:8-9; Genesis 3:21 – show that God had personal affection, care, and interaction with Adam and Eve.
Genesis 3:21 notes: “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” This Scripture clearly shows a loving God providing and caring for the needs of Adam and Eve even after they disobeyed Him. He did not isolate them, but He continued to care for them. God provides love and care to the personhood of human beings!
In the act of providing the garments for Adam and Eve, and even though the process of creating them, God demonstrated honor for and dignity towards them. In Psalm 8:3-9 the Scriptures say God is “mindful of them” (humankind), and He has crowned them with “honor”.
This means in His relationship with them, God has shown respect and honor to Adam, Eve, and all humans. He has introduced the concept of honor and respect to them. God provides our honor and respect!
When God said that all He created was “very good”, He validated us. To validate means “well-grounded or justifiable, being at once relevant and meaningful”. As God validated us, He made us well-grounded and justifiable in His sight; He also made us relevant and meaningful.
Therefore, none of us should feel secondary or inferior to any other human being because God has already provided us with all the validation that we will ever need. Likewise, if God has provided validation for us, then we are to follow His pattern and do the same for others. God provides our validation!
Notice that God planned what He wanted us to look like, and then He created us. We were not an afterthought. In Genesis 1:27 – “God created humankind in His own image, and in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.” God was intentional about creating us.
In creating us, God provided Identity for us. Merriam-Webster dictionary notes one of the meanings of identity is – “sameness in all that constitutes the objective reality of a thing.” Therefore, in being created in the image and likeness of God, we are the sameness of the objective reality of God, although we are not God!
When Jesus, the Son of God, came to the earth, He came as a human being. He was demonstrating and again validating our identity – the sameness of the objective reality of God. We are not God, but if we did not have His sameness, Jesus would have come as the thing that resembled Him the most. Yet, He manifested Himself as a human being. God provides our Identity!
Genesis 1:27 also notes that God created us male and female, therefore it was God’s idea to create companionship for us! In Genesis 2:18 and Genesis 2:20b-24, God separates Adam and Eve from each other, and then He presents Adam with Eve. Adam names her “woman”. He acknowledges that she was taken out of him, and they are one flesh. God provides our companionship!
Also, Genesis 1:27 says that God created them: male and female, therefore from the beginning, God provided equality to each gender. Equality means “of the same measure, quantity, amount, or number as another.” In God’s created order, none of the two genders of human beings are superior or inferior to each other.
Therefore, for women to be mistreated and to be placed in situations where they are treated as less than a man is an error. In the beginning God “created them; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:27) The difference between males and females points to their God-given functions in the family. God provides our equality!
In Genesis 1:28 – God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” God blessed them! Blessing means “to invoke divine care for; to confer prosperity or happiness upon.” In this pronouncement, God provides our blessings!
Also, in this pronouncement, God provided our Purpose! Purpose means “something set up as an object or end to be attained; purpose refers to the original intention of the thing. God told them to be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth and subdue it. God told them exactly what He wanted them to do. God provides our purpose!
In Genesis 1:28 – God also gave them authority when He said to them: “rule over fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Authority is the power to influence or command thoughts, opinions, or behavior. God gave them the power to rule over his other creation. God provides our authority!
In giving them the purpose and authority needed to operate on the earth, God also empowered them. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary says to empower means “to give official authority or legal power to, the state of being given the right to do something; given the power, right, or authority to do something.” God provides our empowerment!
In God providing Adam, Eve, and all human beings with blessings, purpose, and authority, He never gave them a command, charge, or authority to subdue or rule over any other human beings. It was not so in the beginning.
Additionally, after God created one man and one woman, He never went back to the creation board. He was done when He said it was very good in Genesis 1:31. And from this original man and woman, all of the peoples of the earth came to being.
How then can any ethnicity of people think that they are superior or inferior to another? As these verses show God did not make anyone or any gender superiority or inferiority to another. The attributes of our identity come from God!
So far in this article, we see that God provides various attributes of our identity. God provides love, honor, respect, glory, validation, identity, companionship, equality, blessings, purpose, authority, and empowerment. Therefore, God is the source of all humans need to exist well on the earth. Source means – “a generative force, a firsthand document or primary reference work.” Each one of us has been generated by God, we came from God. We are His primary reference work.
In God, we get our sense of self and worth. In other words, God is our source of self and worth! These attributes were provided by God, and they are freely given to us as some of our basic human needs. God provided these attributes for us so that our identity would be formed from our relationship with God! God provides our identity!
