Scripture is full of references to God’s creation of men, but they are usually taken as allegories for the creation of humanity as a whole, not the creation of individuals. When scripture refers to ‘Father’ most take this as a context for the ‘Son’ (Jesus). But the truth is God personally created every individual human being. He is literally your Father as well as Christ’s.
There are many scriptures referring to God’s creation of man. A list of many of these can be found following this article. While many of them clearly refer to mankind as a whole, but some are more specific.
In Genesis 1:26-27 God [Elohim – Hebrew pronounced el-o-heem] said “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;…” (All scriptures from NASB unless otherwise noted). Elohim is a plural noun. In other words, the multiple personalities of God [Father, Son, Holy Spirit] are evident at creation. “Image and likeness” refers to God’s nature not His appearance. God is spirit and has no physical appearance unless He manifests one.
Continuing in Genesis 2:7 “Then the LORD [YHVH – Hebrew pronounced yah-vah] God [Elohim] formed man of dust from the ground,…”. Through out the creation account it is God [Elohim] who is at work, but here the Lord [YHVH] is specifically identified. This is the being who became the Christ or Jesus [1Co 10:4, 9, Jude 1:5]. Jesus created everything [John 1:3, 1Co 8:6, Col 1:16-17, Heb 1:2, 10] except man’s spirit. Here it is YHVH (Jesus) that forms the physical body, but it was the Father who created Adam’s spirit. That is the reason for the distinction made in this verse.
Lets look at a few scriptures indicating a more specific individual creation.
Isaiah 64:8 says
“…You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand.”
Romans 9:21 shows that He makes different vessels from the clay; one for honor and another for dishonor
“Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?” (NKJV).
Zechariah 12:1 specifically speaks of the spirit God creates in us.
“…Thus declares the LORD who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him,”.
And finally, a specific statement to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:5
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”.
What God said to Jeremiah He could say to anyone although most would be identified as something other than a prophet.
God’s three fold nature
God [Elohim] is represented by three distinct personalities. The Father who is our literal father. He treats us as His children because we are, and He loves all of His children equally no matter what. Jesus, on the other hand, is King, High Priest, Lord, and to His Bride – Husband. He is less tolerant than Father and demands a higher level of behavior. He is, none the less, deeply in love with his Bride and extremely generous when He can be. To contrast – when Father asks us to do something He wants us to do it; when Jesus asks us to do something He expects us to do it and if we don’t He will want to know why. Father would be disappointed whereas Jesus would demand an explanation. At the same time Holy Spirit helps us to do what we are asked. He is our constant help if we will just let Him. He is quiet and easily suppressed, but a tremendous resource and also quite funny.
The relationships within God and between God’s personalities are complex and you have to know Him fairly well to begin to understand them. However, just because there are differences in approach and relationships, there is still just one God, and He is united in the ultimate purpose of creation.
In summary:
Father made you.
Jesus wants you.
Holy Spirit helps you.
How human creation works
The creation of a human being is a two step process. The first physical part is well understood. When the sperm and egg are united and there is only a single cell the physical design is complete in your DNA. Although your physical development is subject to environmental conditions and personal choices, your DNA does not change, the blueprint is complete at the very beginning.
At the same moment of conception God creates the spiritual you. He calls this “being”. It is separate from, but compatible with your physical design and is every bit as complex. It is spiritual being that makes us human. It gives us our quest for understanding, our ability to create and imagine, to appreciate beauty, and to contemplate spiritual questions. These are some common human characteristics, but He also gives each of us our own unique set of talents, proclivities, and likes. More than that, He made us to have a specific part in a body. That body might be the church, the bride, or some other body, but all too often that potential is not realized. God created you to be something, but just like your body, its development is subject to outside influences and our own choices. We often come to believe we are something quite different than what God created as our fundamental being.
God does not create us equally [Isa 64:8, Rom 9:18-23]. He does not create everyone to be part of the Bride. He does not even create everyone to be offered salvation in this lifetime. That is His choice, even for those He created for specific (bad) purposes [Pro 16:4, Rom chapter 9]. However, despite this, He will still offer salvation to everyone at some point. He is not unjust and wishes for all men to be saved [1Ti 2:4], but His justice does not conform to our definitions. He has His own [Isa 55:8].
God created you! – for a reason
God creates each and every person with a potential that is too often unrealized due to the influences of evil spirits and our own selfish nature [Rom 7:14-24]. Our being may become very distorted, but the core being never changes anymore than DNA does. No corruption negates His purpose or original creation. God offers us not only salvation (life) but restoration of our original being as well. Holy Spirit is not only eternal life in us, He also knows our created being and can immediately begin restoring it to God’s original design as soon as He begins to dwell in us.
The ability to identify an individuals designed being is a spiritual gift that was not previously available. We are still learning how to use it and at this point it is a little involved. It will probably become easier with experience. Although you can find out what your being was designed to be, you still will have to work very hard to restore that original creation. This path is not easy, it is hard, but within it is the power to change the world. Did God create you to do that?
Some scriptures on mans creation (NASB)
Gen 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Gen 1:27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Gen 2:7 Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
Gen 5:1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. Gen 5:2 He created them male and female, and He blessed them and named them Man in the day when they were created.
Deu 4:32 “Indeed, ask now concerning the former days which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and inquire from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything been done like this great thing, or has anything been heard like it?
Job 4:17 ‘Can mankind be just before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?
Job 10:2 “I will say to God, ‘Do not condemn me; Let me know why You contend with me. Job 10:3 ‘Is it right for You indeed to oppress, To reject the labor of Your hands, And to look favorably on the schemes of the wicked?
Job 10:8 ‘Your hands fashioned and made me altogether, And would You destroy me? Job 10:9 ‘Remember now, that You have made me as clay; And would You turn me into dust again?
Job 31:15 “Did not He who made me in the womb make him, And the same one fashion us in the womb?
Job 33:4 “The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
Job 34:19 Who shows no partiality to princes Nor regards the rich above the poor, For they all are the work of His hands?
Job 35:10 “But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, Who gives songs in the night,
Psa 8:4 What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him? Psa 8:5 Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty! Psa 8:6 You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,
Psa 95:6 Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
Psa 100:3 Know that the LORD Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Psa 104:30 You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; And You renew the face of the ground.
Psa 119:73 y Yodh. Your hands made me and fashioned me; Give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments.
Psa 138:8 The LORD will accomplish what concerns me; Your lovingkindness, O LORD, is everlasting; Do not forsake the works of Your hands.
Psa 139:13 For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. Psa 139:14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. Psa 139:15 My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Psa 139:16 Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.
Pro 16:4 The LORD has made everything for its own purpose, Even the wicked for the day of evil.
Pro 22:2 The rich and the poor have a common bond, The LORD is the maker of them all.
Ecc 11:5 Just as you do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the activity of God who makes all things.
Isa 17:7 In that day man will have regard for his Maker And his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.
Isa 42:5 Thus says God the LORD, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the people on it And spirit to those who walk in it,
Isa 43:7 Everyone who is called by My name, And whom I have created for My glory, Whom I have formed, even whom I have made.”
Isa 44:2 Thus says the LORD who made you And formed you from the womb, who will help you, ‘Do not fear, O Jacob My servant; And you Jeshurun whom I have chosen.
Isa 44:24 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, “I, the LORD, am the maker of all things, Stretching out the heavens by Myself And spreading out the earth all alone,
Isa 45:12 “It is I who made the earth, and created man upon it. I stretched out the heavens with My hands And I ordained all their host.
Isa 57:16 “For I will not contend forever, Nor will I always be angry; For the spirit would grow faint before Me, And the breath of those whom I have made.
Isa 64:8 But now, O LORD, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand.
Jer 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Jer 27:5 “I have made the earth, the men and the beasts which are on the face of the earth by My great power and by My outstretched arm, and I will give it to the one who is pleasing in My sight.
Zec 12:1 The burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel. Thus declares the LORD who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him,
Mal 2:10 “Do we not all have one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously each against his brother so as to profane the covenant of our fathers?
Mar 10:6 “But from the beginning of creation, God MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE.
Heb 2:7 “YOU HAVE MADE HIM FOR A LITTLE WHILE LOWER THAN THE ANGELS; YOU HAVE CROWNED HIM WITH GLORY AND HONOR, AND HAVE APPOINTED HIM OVER THE WORKS OF YOUR HANDS; Heb 2:8 YOU HAVE PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET.” For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him.
Heb 12:9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?
1Pe 4:19 Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.
Other scriptures referenced
1Co 10:4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.
Jud 1:5 But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Joh 1:2He was in the beginning with God. Joh 1:3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
1Co 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.
Col 1:16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. Col 1:17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
Heb 1:2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;
Heb 1:10 And: “YOU, LORD, IN THE BEGINNING LAID THE FOUNDATION OF THE EARTH, AND THE HEAVENS ARE THE WORK OF YOUR HANDS.
Rom 9:18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. Rom 9:19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” Rom 9:20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” Rom 9:21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? Rom 9:22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, Rom 9:23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory,
Pro 16:4 The LORD has made all for Himself, Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom.
1Ti 2:4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Rom 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. Rom 7:15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. Rom 7:16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. Rom 7:17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. Rom 7:19 For the good that I will to do,I do not do; but the evil I will not to do,that I practice. Rom 7:20 Now if I do what I will not to do,it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?