The Unfallen Flesh

Who could we use or what could we use to tell what the unfallen flesh would be like? 

Read Genesis 1:31.  How did God describe creation? 

Man was described as distinctively different from the rest of creation however.  Read 1:26-17.  How was man different? 

Several passages help us to understand this better:

Colossians 3:10 Put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

Ephesians 4:23-24 Put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

So how would you describe the image of God from these verses? 

Pieper: The image of God consisted much more than in his possession of intellect and will, in his personality; it consisted in the right disposition of his intellect and will, in his knowledge of God and the will to do only God=s will.  And his sensuous desires, in his eating, etc. - if we wish to distinguish this from thhe intellect and will - were free from all ungodly (inclinations).  This is clear from Genesis 1:31 and -

Genesis 2:19‑20 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.

Genesis 2:25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.  (God asked - who TOLD YOU - naked - didn=t even think about it / not concentrated on SELF.)

Luther: If we would speak of great and excellent philosopher, let us speak of our first parents when they were yet free from sin. . .  Adam and Eve understood the senses, nature, powers, of all animals.@    (517)

How does this conflict with theories of evolution, etc.? 

Jeske:   Have you ever pondered what an extraordinary blessing ‑ even luxury ‑ human language is? It was God=s invention, from the very first day of creation. He didn=t wait for Adam and Eve to invent language, the way you maybe were taught in some of the textbooks you=ve read, or maybe some of the anthropology texts you slogged through if you were a social studies major. You were maybe taught how human beings grunted for many hundreds of thousands of years, and then began to make little scratchings on cave walls, and Thag and his wife would slowly learn to grunt meaningful messages to one another, and then one of them, finally, one day said, Arock.@

Adam, from day one, was a poet. The very first utterance to come out of his mouth when he saw this staggeringly beautiful naked woman in front of him was not Aduhhhh;@ it was, ABone of my bones, flesh of my flesh, I will call her woman, for she was taken out of man.@ He just said, AWow!@ He uttered a beautiful poem of praise to God and love to this helpmate that was given him to be his companion and wife. He was fluent on his birth day.

Genesis 2:15‑17 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man, AYou are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.@

What was man made to be able to do? 

What does the command that God gave man set him apart from the animals? 

Luther made a distinction between Achildlike innocence@ and Amanly innocence,@ saying that Adam was in childlike innocence and the angels being in manlike innocense.  What do you think he means by this?