Next we read what was never said of any creature of the lower creation:—" Let us make man in our image; after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them " (Gen. 1:26, 27).
We have been dwelling in the misty valley' of man's thoughts; we have been invited to look on the anthropoid ape as one of our recent grandfathers; but here we breathe the pure air of the mountain top of God's revelation. Man made in the image and likeness of God is very different from the ape-like man. Man is here placed at the head of creation, with dominion over the whole scene. There is a dignity, a God-likeness about the whole narrative of creation. As in God's image man represents God in this lower creation; as in His likeness he has those moral and spiritual qualities of which the beast is wholly devoid. True, sin has come in, and effaced this likeness to a large extent. Man has degenerated through sin.
Nothing is said of male or female in Gen. 1 in connection with the lower creation, though of course, we know that it was so, but it is said definitely of man, " Male and female created He them " (Verse 27).
The next Chapter gives us details as to the creation of man. " And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul " (Verse 7).
It is not said of the beast that God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. This is special to man, and whilst it is said of the beasts that they are soul and body—a living soul, and a physical body—yet this special and unique action of God in relation to man's creation set him off as apart from the beast. As another has said, God gave man a soul of larger content. The soul of the beast perishes with his body and there is no resurrection for either. Scripture teaches that man's body will be raised, whilst his soul is immortal. The actual word "immortal" is never used of the soul, but the fact that "this mortal shall put on immortality" is only said referring to the body points to the fact that the soul is immortal, since it does not need to put on immortality. For if the soul, which is more important than the body, were not immortal, we should have in resurrection an immortal body without a soul, which is absurd. This immortality of the soul is taken for granted, as an unquestioned fact in Scripture, and woven into its very warp and woof.
Next we have the special and unique creation of woman. The beasts were not thrown into deep sleep, and ribs were not taken from their sides, and female beasts were not fashioned therefrom to be presented to their partners.
This was said of the progenitor of the human race alone, God thus showing the moral and spiritual affinity between man and woman. Nay, more, marriage was thus instituted for man. In the lower creation there is no marriage. The animals mate: man marries. We understand now why it is said, " Male and female created He them."