In the Bible there is a mysterious thought concerning the relationship between God and man. To understand the meaning of human existence and of God we need a revelation of this relationship.

God desires to become the same as man and to make man the same as He is. This means that God's intention is to mingle Himself with man.

God dispenses Himself into man for the purpose to make Himself like man and make man like God.

Man is a great word in the Bible. God's intention is with man and focuses His divine mind on man. God became a man in Jesus Christ by incarnation.

God's heart is set on man and He works to gain man. A mysterious picture in Ezekiel conveys this truth. You will have to read the first couple chapters of the book of Ezekiel. I only quote a portion here.

"And from the midst of it there came the likeness of four living creatures. and this was their appearance: They had the likeness of a man. (Ezekiel 1:5)

"And above tje expanse that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, like the appearance of a sapphire stone; and upon the likeness of the throne was One in appearance like a man, above it." (Ezek. 1:26)

The fact that the four living creatures bear the appearance of a man and that God on the throne also bears the appearance of a man indicates that God's central thought and His arrangement are related to man.

The whole Bible consummately reveals that man is the means for God to manifest Himself. The invisible Uncreated and Divine Person's means to manifest Himself is man. This looks like Jesus Christ. And in the end of history this looks like a corporate, aggregate, and collective Bride of Christ - New Jerusalem.

Originally posted by sonship
In the Bible there is a mysterious thought concerning the relationship between God and man. To understand the meaning of human existence and of God we need a revelation of this relationship.
God desires to become the same as man and to make man the same as He is. This means that God's intention is to mingle Himself with man.
God dispenses Himself into man for the purpose to make Himself like man and make man like God.

Man was created in God's image in order to be God's expression. All the other lives created in Genesis God says were after their own kind. Man alone is created after God's kind. The Trinity held a council and said "Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness ..." (Genesis 1:26)

God is the center of all being and the center of the universe too, but He needs an expression, and this expression is through man. Without man, God has no expression.

Does God have millions of angels? Yes, God has untold numbers of these spiritual messengers called angels. But the millions of angels cannot be the expression of God. God needs a corporate man to be mingled with His life, saturated with His nature, permeated with His Holy Spirit, and brought into union with Him to express Himself.

The big problem all peoples wonder about is seeing God. Everyone wants to see God. Ultimately, the answer to the yearning to see God is for God to be dispensed into the man made in His image. This is like the human hand filling a glove made in the image of a hand. That is metaphysically. Man is made to be a vessel to contain God so that God may be seen and manifested in man.

The Head of this destiny and reality is the Son of God - the Lord Jesus Christ.

Without man, God has no expression. He will not use His millions of angels to express Him. God needs a corporate man to express Him. So we should never despise that we are human beings.

And we should never despair that humans are not significant. Humans are the focus of God's thought in this universe.

The vision of Ezekiel is difficult to understand. We should read it anyway and take it in prayerfully. Much plain words in the Bible back up the symbolism of the mysterious vision.

"And from the midst of it there came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: They had the likeness of a man." (Ezek. 1:5)

"And above the expanse that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, like the appearance of a sapphire stone; and upon the likeness of the trone was One in appearance like a man, above it." (v.26)

The vision in Ezekiel 1 reveals three crucial matters concerning the four living creatures' bearing the appearance of a man. You must read the whole chapter.

1.) God's glory is manifested upon the four living creatures. The manifestation of God's glory depends upon them having the appearance of a man. Where the four living creatures are the glory of God is also. The glory of God is not separate from them, and apart from them God's glory cannot be manifested.

2.) These four living creatures also give God a way to move. God's move depends upon the four living creatures. When they move, God moves. God's move and moving is with the four living creatures. His move is with them. Though their move God moves.

3.) The four living creatures who bear the appearance of a man, are the means of God's administration. In the vision of Ezekiel 1 God is seated upon the throne. God's throne means God's administration and God's government. God's administration dominates everything on earth and everything recorded in this book. This throne with God upon it depends on the four living creatures having the appearance of a man.

If we put the three together - God's glory, God's move, and God's administration, we will see that man is the means of God's glorious expression, man is the means of God's move, and that man is the means of God's administration.

But this is man filled, saturated, permeated, and filled with the living One - a man mingled with God. This is not a fallen and sinful man that can fulfill this eternal purpose. Rather it is a humanity incorporated with the life and nature of God.

A local church must be a community of that expresses Christ. But she must be and expression of God growing in humans. The permeating of God in the community of the called out ones is for the manifestation of a man on the throne. Christ today is still a man. Christ today is also a life giving Spirit to impart Himself into man.

"The last Adam became a life giving Spirit" (1 Cor. 15:45) This impartation of Christ as life giving Spirit into the saved people is for His eternal purpose to be mingled with man. And this mingling is for God's glory, God's move on the earth, and God's administration plus man's enjoyment.

The life giving Spirit makes man "living". That is living not just by the natural created life but living in the divine life of God. The living creatures indicate man living in and by God within them - man united with God and God united with man.

The New Testament church must be an expression not only of God but of a man - a man under the process of God dispensing Himself into them.

Ezekiel 1:26 shows that Jesus Christ today is a man on the throne. On the throne of all the universe is a man - Jesus.

Matthew's Gospel concludes with all authority in heaven and earth given into the hands of Jesus Christ. He is the head of this new humanity which is mingling of God and man. We may follow Him by being dispensed INTO by Christ as "life giving Spirit" and being saturated with His life and nature. We can become living and built up in life and love as communities - local churches. We can bring back the Lord Jesus to this earth through cooperating with His dispensing salvation.

The religious teaching of Christianity encourages us either to be like an angel or to be like God. However, the divine revelation unveils that God's desire is to have a man. That is a living man living in Christ as a realm and sphere, even as normal humanity living the highest moral standard on the earth through His empowering grace.

Read aloud the first chapter of Ezekiel. Though many things be mysterious in it, just read it and take it all in.

Originally posted by sonship
The Trinity held a council and said "Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness ..." (Genesis 1:26)

Originally posted by Paul Dirac II
You should be aware that the idea that "our" = Trinity is not universally held.

http://www.theskepticalreview.com/tsrmag/1poly94.html

Originally posted by Paul Dirac II
You should be aware that the idea that "our" = Trinity is not universally held.

http://www.theskepticalreview.com/tsrmag/1poly94.html

"Let me say that all the prophets were Trinitarians. The Jews, likewise, were Trinitarians until the end of the first century of the Christian Era or the beginning of the second. They received the doctrine of the Trinity from Moses and the prophets."

Read Dr. Cooper's claim.
http://www.ariel.org/dlc/dlc-wg-12.htm

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
nor scripturally substantiated, in fact, its nothing more than an attempt to impose a dogma on scripture not explicitly stated in the text nor in this instance even implied. Its thoroughly scurrilous behaviour to be honest.

It seems when you come to the end of the Bible God connects heaven to earth. What is really meant is that God connects God to man. What is really in the Bible is that God in heaven wants to gain man on earth for His expression. He gains man by working Himself into man.

What you see in the mysterious vision in Ezekiel is a strange coordination. There is a wheel within a wheel. This speaks of God moving. There is a wheel within a wheel in a fantastic coordinated way. This speaks of God in man moving.

If this seems too difficult just remember that in Jesus Christ there is the most striking historical example of the divine / human moving. This One was the real prototype of the wheel within the wheel for God's move on earth.

"And as I watched the living creatures, I saw a wheel upon the earth beside the living creatures, for each of their four faces.

The appearance of the wheels and their workmanship were like the sight of beryl. And the four of them had one likeness; that is, their appearance and their workmanship were as it were a wheel within a wheel." (Ezek 1:15,16)

What God is working in the universe is this divine technology of mingling Himself with man. This is so that God moves man and man moves God in a coordinated way.

If you read carefully the life of Jesus Christ you will see how He and His Father moved in a seamless and wonderful coordination. He is the meaning of man. He is the object of the Christian's salvation and worship but also the working of God into them as well.

" ... Christ in you the hope of glory." (Col. 1:27)

In Ezekiel's vision the rim of the wheels were full of eyes.

"As for their rims, they were high and they were awesome; and the rims of the four of the were full of eyes all around.

And whenever the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and whenever the living cretures were lifted up above the earth, the wheels lifted up also.

Wherever the Spirit was to go, they went - wherever the Spirit was to go. And the wheels were lifted up alongside them, for the Spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels." (vs. 18-20)

This vision is about the eternal purpose of God to mingle with man, move in man, coordinate with man and be expressed in man. Only in this coordination is there the ultimate sight of human beings concerning the meaning of the universe and of man's existence.

Only in this coordinated moving of the wheel rolling the wheel is there the vision of the meaning of our creation. In the blended moving of man in God and God in man in mutuality is there the insight, the perception of God's plan in creation.

Where the coordination of God and man goes the great wheel of God's will goes. And if this coordination is lifted up from the earth, the wheel of God's moving is also lifted up from the earth. The Spirit of the four living creatures who have the appearance of a man is in the wheels.

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
nor scripturally substantiated, in fact, its nothing more than an attempt to impose a dogma on scripture not explicitly stated in the text nor in this instance even implied. Its thoroughly scurrilous behaviour to be honest.

Originally posted by sonship
In the Bible there is a mysterious thought concerning the relationship between God and man. To understand the meaning of human existence and of God we need a revelation of this relationship.

God desires to become the same as man and to make man the same as He is. This means that God's intention is to mingle Himself with man.

God dispenses Himself into man for the purpose to make Himself like man and make man like God.

Originally posted by rwingett
Genesis 3:21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the groun ...[text shortened]... Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.