Q. 8. How did God create human beings?

• WSC 10
• WCF 4.2
• Belgic Confession 14
• Heidelberg Catechism 6

Male and female. God declared male and female “very good” (Genesis 1:31) and honored both sexes in the incarnation: the Son of God became a man, born of a woman (Augustine, On Faith and the Creed 3.9). Jesus affirmed that “from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female’” (Mark 10:6). Our bodies are an integral part of our identity and should be celebrated from the earliest age as a good gift from God.

Body and soul. The body is the visible and physical part of human beings; the soul is the invisible and spiritual part of human beings. “The body is not an extraneous ornament or aid, but a part of man’s very nature” (Augustine, City of God 1.13).

Image. The “image of God” does not mean that we look like God, since God is an invisible spirit, “without body or parts” (Q. 5). Rather, the image pertains to knowledge, righteousness, and holiness—a moral and intellectual likeness to God. This image was corrupted by the fall (Q. 12), but it is restored in Christ through sanctification (Q. 53), in which we are “renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Colossians 3:10) and “created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). To be in the image of God is, ultimately, to be like Jesus Christ, who is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). “The image of God is the Son, according to whose image was man made; and for this reason, He appeared in the last times, to render the image like himself” (Irenaeus, Demonstration 22).

Knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. Only a holy and rational creature is capable of perceiving and enjoying the glory and beauty of a holy God. “It ought not be disputed that rational nature was made holy by God, in order to be happy in enjoying Him” (Anselm, Cur Deus Homo 2.1).

Know, love, and enjoy. In a word, we were made “to be happy in God” (Q. 1).