Man Created As a Vessel

By Arthur J Licursi

Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: 

Romans 9:21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour,… Romans 9:23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, Romans 9:24 Even us,…

2 Cor. 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, …

Man was created uniquely, in the image and likeness of God; man is the “image (engraving, and exact copy) of God.” Christ Himself is also in the express image of God (Heb 1:3). Thus we can see that man then was created in the image of Christ. Paul tells us, in Romans 5:14, Adam, the first man, was a type, a figure, of Christ. But there is a major difference in man as the image and Christ as the express image of God, which we shall see.

We must ask then, “What is the meaning of image?” If we take a photograph of a person, that picture is the figure, or type, of the person. As a photograph is the image of that person. So man was made to be the image of God, which is Christ. The image resembles the real thing, but it is not the real thing, it is as a shadow type image of the real thing. In the case of a person, the photo differs in that the photo does not possess the life of that person.

We may use the illustration of a glove as an even more applicable example of image. The glove was made in the image and according to the form of the hand. Both the hand and the glove have five fingers. Only the hand itself has life and movement of its own. The glove was made in the image of the hand that one day the hand might enter into the glove and express its movement through the glove. The hand fills up the glove, and the glove expresses the hand. Why was man made in the image of Christ? Because God's intention was that someday Christ Himself, as the Spirit, would enter into man (Rom 8:8-10, 1John 4:13) and be expressed through man, through His body members on earth – “the church, which is His body” (Eph 1:22b, 23a).

Romans 9:21 and 23 tell us clearly that man was made as a vessel, that is, as a container. Man is not a knife, a hammer, or any instrument. Man is a vessel, a container. It further says that man was made a vessel unto honor to contain God, to contain God's glory. This vessel of ours is like the glove: one day the hand gets into it; … the content gets into the container. We are simply a vessel to contain and bear the literal life another, the life of Christ (Col 3:4a, Gal 2:20).

Christ Becoming the Content of Our Soul.

“Likeness” is translated from a Greek word linked to another root Greek word, “homoioo,” which means “to assimilate,” as a sponge absorbs water. Man was made with the soul faculties of mind, emotion and will, that he might assimilate or take up Christ’s life and nature from that man’s Christ-indwelled spirit. That assimilation is actually for transformation of our soul. The soul thereby becomes the expression of Christ as that man yields to assimilate Christ’s life and nature – Christ’s mind flows through the man’s mind, Christ’s emotion flows through that man’s emotion, and that Christ’s will becomes the will of that man. Consider the lamp and the light bulb, when the switch is open to receive the electricity it assimilates the electricity and light is then expressed, coming out of the lamp in the color of the lens. We each may be different in our personality (as variously colored light bulbs), but it is the same life (as electricity) of Christ that flows through each of us to come out of us or be expressed as we are.

We have an intellect, emotion, and will, which were made according to, or in the image of, Christ. Christ, no doubt, has the best intellect, the best will, and the best emotion. Our intellect, will, and emotion are not very real (they have only been misused by the fallen nature we have by Adam.) These faculties of our soul have the potential to express Christ’s life, as we assimilate His Spirit of life into our soul to renew our soul (2Cor 4:16b). Consider again the illustration of the hand and the glove. The human hand has a thumb and four fingers, and the glove also has a thumb and four fingers. We cannot deny that the thumb of a glove is a thumb, but compared with the real thumb we find a great difference – the real, living, thumb (as Christ) has life in itself (John 5:26). Compare our intellect with the intellect of Christ. Our intellect resembles the empty thumb of a glove. Christ's intellect resembles the real, living, thumb of a human hand. One day, however, the real thumb will get into the thumb of the glove and the two thumbs will become one (1Cor 6:17). The glove is only one in appearance and capacity; but the thumb is the reality, and living content.

Do you have love? Yes, we all have love, but our natural love is like an empty glove. Wives should not expect love from your husbands in such a way that it satisfies and completes them. Even if your husband loves you, that love is somewhat empty. But, praise the Lord that it is empty love. It is empty so that the love of Christ may come to you to fully satisfy your craving. Whatever we have, whatever we are, and whatever we can do in ourselves is just an empty form, best used as a container to hold and express all that Christ is, all that Christ has, and all that Christ can do. Christ alone is our full satisfaction.

Another View of People:

When we see other men or women whom we suspect may not be yet regenerated, we might properly say, “There is a potential container of Christ’s life, made to receive and express the life of Christ.” No man is complete or able to reach His potential unless and until He receives the very life of Christ. Col. 2:10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: Only Christ Himself is the living content to be received by all men. 1 John 5:11-12 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Men never become Christ, but by our souls, we do become expressers of Christ’s indwelling life and nature, as the content of our created being.

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