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Question 5 | How is man different from the rest of creation?

Answer | God created man distinct from the rest of creation, as the glory of all that He has made. He set all people above the animals, yet lower than the angels for a time.

Scripture | Psalm 8:5-6 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet.

Explanation| You may be wondering, “Haven’t we already looked at this truth—that man is different from the rest of creation?” Well, yes, we have. However, there’s actually more that can and needs to be said about this important truth. But, in addition to looking at more of what the Bible has to say about this truth, our question and answer above (along with the next one) will especially help us consider why it matters in the first place. So, with that, let’s consider further how man is different from the rest of creation.

God created man distinct from the rest of creation. By now, I’ve mentioned over and over that God “made all things” (Isaiah 44:24). And, all that He made was “very good” (Genesis 1:31). His good plan included not making everything the same.1 He intentionally made a variety of things that He intended to all work together according to His word.2 As it relates to humans, God created humans distinct from the rest of creation. We are a part of His creation. And, we may even share similarities with parts of His creation. Yet, He also made us, as humans, different from everything else that He has made. While we have a responsibility to relate well to the rest of His creation, we aren’t actually related at all to anything else in His creation. Meaning, we don’t come from anything else in creation nor will we become anything else in creation. Humans have always been humans and will always be humans. Let me state this even clearer, using two creatures that I’ve referenced before. Humans haven’t come from dogs, and we won’t ever become angels. Nowhere in the Bible do we see anything other than this—God made man to be man from the beginning and to stay as man forever. Any similarities that we may sharewith non-human created things has more to do with the fact that we all have the same creator, rather than the possibility that we all have the same lineage.3 And, along with the next paragraph, this is really important—our distinction as humans is from God. God made us to be distinct.4 We haven’t done anything to earn our human distinctness. Similarly, we can’t do anything to lose our human distinctness. But, why did God make us distinct?

God made man to be the glory of His creation. Our human distinctness is, in many ways, about glory. We looked at glory in a recent question and answer. There, I mentioned especially that God made us to glorifyHim. Here, however, I want to look at a different use of the same word—that we are the glory of God’s creation. According to our verse above, God has crowned humans with “glory and honor.” What does this mean? Let’s think about this in two ways. First, something’s glory is often a particular part of that thing that displays its unique splendor as a thing. For example, if I were to ask you what is the glory of a male lion, what would you say? If you said his mane or his roar (or both), you’d be right. In this way, glory isn’t referring to what a male lion can do, but how his unique splendor as a lion is displayed. We have glory, too. Or, maybe even more precisely, we are glory. God has “crowned” us with glory, specifically in relation to the rest of His creation. To put it another way, He has made us creation’s glory in a way that nothing else is—not the heavens, the moon, and the stars, not the heavenly beings, or the earthly creatures (see the rest of Psalm 8). Humans, in this way, were made by God to be the display of the unique splendor of His creation as His creation. Second, if a thing has glory, it does so not because of itself, but because of something (or someone) else. To use our example from above, if a male lion has glory—represented by his mane and roar—how did he get it in the first place? If he has glory, why does he even have it at all? I know this may be a bit confusing to think about. But, a male lion has what he has because God gave it to him.5 God created the lion to be a lion, ultimately, in order to display God’s splendor. In this way, similarly, all of God’s creation is intended by Him to display His glory.6 So, if God made humans to be the glory of His creation and God made all of His creation to display His glory, then He intended for humans to be the best way for His splendor to be displayed. All of this only further supports what we’ve already seen—that we, not dogs nor angels, were made in God’s image. 

God set all people above the animals, yet lower than the angels. What our distinction as humansmeans is that God has set us—and all people—in a certain rank in relation to the rest of His creation. Rank can indicate who has power, prominence, or privilege in relation to other things. To put it simply, rank helps us understand who has authority and who is under that authority. Our verse above tells us that God put “all things” under humans. What does this mean? First, it means that humans have “dominion”over the animals. Since we looked at dominion (and subduing) in our previous question and answer, let me highlight a different but related truth—that we are more valuable than animals.7 Like God, we, too, should care for animals.8 But, they are neither more valuable nor as valuable as humans to God. Human life is, by God’s design, above animals. Second, it means that humans are for a time “lower” than the angels (or heavenly beings). The angels (as we’ll see in a later question and answer) are other beings created by God that aren’t human. Our verse above certainly indicates that angels are higher in rank than humans. But, while the Bible tells us that angels do have significant power (see, for example, Revelation 5:2), their rank over humans is temporary. The book of Hebrews, in quoting Psalm 8, helps us understand what “a little lower” means—“you have made him for a little while lower than the angels” (Hebrews 2:7). Meaning, God intended to put “everything in subjection under his feet,” but for right now, “we do not yet see everything in subjection to him” (Hebrews 2:8). In other words, there is coming a time when humans will function in creation as they were designed to be—higher than the angels. We’ll look at some of these truths further, in future questions and answers. But, for now…

This is what the Bible teaches about humans.

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1 1 Corinthians 15: 39 For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40 There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.

2 Psalm 104: 24 O LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. 25 Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great.

3 Isaiah 64: 8 But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.

4 Genesis 1: 26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." … 2: 7 Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

5 Job 38: 39 "Can you hunt the prey for the lion, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions, 40 when they crouch in their dens or lie in wait in their thicket?” (In this passage, God is helping Job understand that the lion does what it does because He made it that way.)

6 Psalm 19: 1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. (See also, Isaiah 44:23-28)

7 Matthew 6: 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (See also, Matthew 10:31; Matthew 12:12)

8 Proverbs 12: 10 Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.