– Essentially a creature of God made in his image and likeness:
Gen 1,26-27 : Then God said: “Let us make man in our image and likeness”.
Gen 2:7 : So the Lord God formed man from the clay of the earth.
Gen 5:1 : When God created man, he made him in the image of God.
Gen 9:6 : Whoever sheds human blood will have his own blood shed […] because God made man in his image.
Job 10,8 : Your hands formed me and made me; changing your mind, you want to destroy me!
Psalm 118 : 73 : Your hands formed and molded me, give me wisdom to learn your commandments.
Wis 2:23 : Now God created man for immortality, and made him in the image of his own nature.
Eclo 17,1 : God created man from the earth, he formed him after his own image.
Jas 3:9 : With it we bless the Lord our Father, and with it we curse men, made in the likeness of God.
– Destiny of man:
Eclo 12,7 : For you will find a double evil in all the good you do to him, for the Most High himself abhors sinners.
Is 43,7 : All those who bear my name, and whom I created for my glory.
Mt 18:14 : This is the will of your heavenly Father, that not one of these little ones should be lost.
Mt 22,37-39 : You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind (Deut 6,5).
1Th 4,3 : This is the will of God, your sanctification; that you avoid impurity.
1Pt 5:10 : The God of all grace, who called you in Christ to his eternal glory.
– According to Greek philosophizing, man is formed of soul and body:
Wis 9:15 : For the corruptible body makes the soul heavy, and the earthly dwelling oppresses the spirit burdened with care.
– As for the body, man is earth and dust:
Gen 2:7 : So the Lord God formed man from the clay of the earth.
Gen 3:19 : Until you return to the land from which you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
Gen 18:27 : Do not take it the wrong way if I still dare to speak to my Lord, although I am dust and ashes.
Job 10 :9 : Remember that you formed me like clay, and now you want to return me to dust?
Job 34,14s : If his breath were to resume […] all flesh would expire in the same instant, and man would return to dust.
– Man is blessed in Jesus Christ:
Gen 12 :3 : I will bless those who bless you, and those who curse you I will curse.
Gen 22:18 : And all the nations of the earth will desire to be blessed like her, because you have obeyed my voice.
Gal 3:8 : He announced this Good News to Abraham: In you all peoples will be blessed (Gn 18:18).
– Regeneration of man:
Mt 18:3: Truly I say to you, if you do not […] become like little children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
John 1:13 : Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Jn 3,3-7 : Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever is not born again cannot see the Kingdom of God.
Jn 4:14 : But the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water, gushing up to eternal life.
Jo 7,39 : He said this, referring to the Spirit that those who believed in him were to receive.
1Cor 4,15 : Indeed, even if you had ten thousand masters in Christ, you do not have many fathers.
Gal 4:19 : My little children, for whom I am again in labor pains until Christ is formed in you.
Eph 4:22 : Renounce your former life, put off the old man corrupted by deceitful lusts.
Col 3,8 : Now, however, put aside all these things: anger, animosity, slander.
Titus 3 :5 : But by virtue of his mercy he saved us.
1Pt 1:23 : For you were born again, not of corruptible seed, but by the Word of God.
1Pt 2,2 : Like newborn babies, crave the spiritual milk that will make you grow in salvation.
Jas 1 : For he begat us by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
– Dignity of the soul:
Gen 1:26 : Then God said: “Let us make man in our image and likeness. May he rule over the fish of the sea.”
Ps 8,5-9 : What is man – I say to myself – that you think of him? What are the children of Adam, that you care for them?
Wis 9,2s : And that, by your wisdom, you formed man to be the lord of all your creatures.
Eclo 17,3-10 : He determined a time and a number of days. He gave him dominion over everything on earth.
Acts 17:28 : Because it is in him that we have life, movement and being.
1Cor 6,15-20 : Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?
2Pd 1,4 : By them, we have come into possession of the greatest and most precious promises.
1Jn 3:2 : Dear friends, we are children of God from now on, but what we will be has not yet been revealed.
– In Paul’s teaching, there is a dualism, a distinction in man: what does not have the grace and what has the grace of Christ, that is, the natural or animal man and the spiritual man:
1Cor 2,14-15 : But the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him.
1Cor 15,44-45 : Sown animal body, raised spiritual body. If there is an animal body, there is also a spiritual one.
– The psyche , a Greek term that means life and also soul, is the life of the natural man:
Acts 20:10 : Paul went down […] and said: “Do not be troubled, for his soul is in him”.
Romans 16:4 : For my life they laid down their heads. And I thank them for that.
Phil 2:30 : Because it was for the sake of Christ that he was close to death, and risked his own life.
1Th 2,8 : We wanted not only to communicate to you the Gospel of God, but even our own life.
– The natural man does not understand the things of the spirit:
1Cor 2,14 : But the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him.
– The spiritual man judges all things:
1Cor 2,15 : The spiritual man, on the other hand, judges all things and is not judged by anyone.
– Similar oppositions are: the earthly man and the heavenly man:
1Cor 15,44-50 : Sown animal body, raised spiritual body. If there is an animal body, there is also a spiritual one.
Phil 3:21 : Who will transform our wretched body, making it like his glorious body.
– The outer man and the inner man:
Romans 7:22 : I delight in the law of God in the depths of my being.
2Cor 4,16 : Even though our outer man is falling apart on the outside, our inside is being renewed day by day.
– The old man and the new man:
Rom 6,6-7 : We know that our old man was crucified with him, so that he might be reduced to impotence.
Eph 4,22-24 : Renounce your former life, put off the old man corrupted by deceitful lusts.
Col 3,9-10 : Do not deceive one another. You put off the old man with his vices.
– Paul highlights the internal contradiction in which man lies by sin:
Rom 7:14-25 : We know, in fact, that the Law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.
Gal 5,16-18 : I say therefore: let yourselves be led by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the appetites of the flesh.
– Man is image and likeness, glory of God:
Gen 1,26-27 : Then God said: “Let us make man in our image and likeness”.
1Cor 11,7 : As for man, he must not cover his head, because he is the image and splendor of God.
– But it must become the image of Christ:
Rom 8:29 : Those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.
– And in it be converted:
Rm 5,17 : With great difficulty, people would accept dying for a righteous person, for a good man.
2Cor 3,18 : But we all have our faces uncovered, we reflect the glory of the Lord as in a mirror.
Gal 3:28 : There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Col 3:10 : And you have put on the new, which is constantly being restored in the image of Him who created it.
– You are a child of God in Jesus Christ:
Gal 3:26 : For you are all children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
Gal 4,4-5 : God sent his Son, who was born of a woman and born subject to a Law.
Eph 1 :5 : In his love he predestined us to be adopted as his children by Jesus Christ.
1Jn 3:1 : Consider with what love the Father loved us, that we should be called children of God.
– As the Spirit confirms and attests:
Rom 8:14-15 : For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
Gal 4,6-7 : The proof that you are children is that God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts.
– And the Word of God became flesh, became man:
Jn 1:14 : And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory.
– And man can see God, touch him, contemplate him:
John 1:14 : And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory, the glory that the only Son receives from his Father.
Jn 17:5.24 : Now therefore, Father, glorify me with yourself by giving me the glory I had with you.
1Jo 1,1-2 : What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes.
– You can meet the Father:
Jn 14:7 : If you had known me, you would also have known my Father; from now on you know him, because you have seen him.
Jo 17,3.26 : Now, eternal life consists in knowing you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
1Jn 2:14 : Children, I write to you because you know the Father.
1Jn 5:20 : We know that the Son of God came and gave us understanding so that we might know the true One.
– Can be in communion with the Father and with the Son:
Jn 15:15 : I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing.
Jn 17,21-22 : So that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you.
1Jn 1 :3 : Now our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
1Jn 5:20 : We know that the Son of God came and gave us understanding so that we might know the true One.
– The terms body, flesh, spirit, soul, heart indicate the human being, always depending on the aspect you want to emphasize:
– See BODY, FLESH, HOLY SPIRIT, HEART, ADAM, SON OF MAN.
