Man is a wondrous creation of the Most High God. God, in His wisdom brought about the existence of man. He formed his body from the dust of the earth, and with a breath into the nostrils of the first man, Adam, mankind began. In Genesis 1:26, God is recorded as saying among the persons of the Godhead, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness..." Verse 27 of that same context goes on to tell us, "So God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female, He created them."

It is an amazing thought that we are made in the image of God. By this expression, we do not mean that God has arms and legs or any other physical attributes which man possesses. Man was not made in the physical image of God, for "God is Spirit". Rather, as God is spirit, He also made us spiritual beings. He made man such that he would live eternally. Man is comprised of three elements: body, spirit and soul. Every man has each of these three elements from the time of conception to the time of death. Such is the way in which God designed us.

God formed man from dust, and, as the Scriptures declare, "...dust you are, and to dust you shall return." (Genesis 3:19). After death, our physical bodies again return to their original state, the dust of the earth.

The Scriptures tell us that God breathed into man the breath of life, and "man became a living soul" (Genesis 2:7). This word ‘soul' is from the Hebrew "nephesh". It is not in reference to the "immortal soul" which we commonly refer to, but rather it simply means life, the life/breath which God put into man. This same word is used when talking of the life which is in animals.

Often, in the English, both the terms soul and spirit are used in reference to man's spiritual being. The appropriate term to be used according to Scripture is spirit. We began this article noticing that man was made in the image of God. That being true, He is a spiritual being. Likewise, God has made man to have a spiritual part which will continue eternally. One might consider our spirit to be our inward person, the being whom we are. God is interested in our spirit. He desires that we would dwell with Him throughout eternity. Thus, we should be concerned with our spirit. We will in our spirit reap the just reward for what we have done while in the flesh. Paul writes, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad" (2 Corinthians 5:10).

Consider the intellectual nature of man. All other creatures made by God are inferior to man in this regard. Man has been given the capacity to think, to ponder, to analyze, to reason, to rationally choose. With this intellect, we have the ability to choose whether we will serve God or not. We have the ability to consider His ways. God will not force any to serve Him, but desires that we, using our God-given faculties, will choose to do those things which are good in His sight.