The Doctrine of Man

Introduction

Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God’s creation. In the beginning man was innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice. By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. Through the temptation of Satan man transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original innocence whereby his posterity inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin. Therefore, as soon as they are capable of moral action, they become transgressors and are under condemnation. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.

The Baptist Faith and Message, Article III

Human beings are God’s crowning act of creation.

The Bible says something about humanity that it does not say about the rest of creation.

Genesis 1:26 ESV

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.”

This sets the Christian worldview in direct opposition with the philosophies of the world about humanity.

The world agrees with the Greek philosopher Protagorus who said, “Humans are the measure of all things.”

This is the philosophy on humanity that is adopted by our postmodern world.

As those who believe the Bible, we do not believe we are the measure of all things.

Our frame of reference does not begin with us, but with God.

The world says humans, along with other creatures, are the product an evolutionary process of random chance and mutation.

The only difference between us and other creatures is brain size and opposable thumbs.

We are animals.

There is no room for man being made in the image of God.

But the Bible, as we will see tonight, stands against this reasoning and says that humans are not accidents.

They are the purposeful, image-bearing creation of a holy God.

Outline

To understand this further tonight, as we look at the confession, we will have four points:

1. Humans are made in God’s image.

2. Humans are made male and female.

3. Humans are fallen and depraved.

4. Humans are made for fellowship with God.

Made in the Image of God

1. Humans are made in God’s image.

We start tonight by looking more closely at this idea that human beings are made in the image of God.

As you read the Genesis account of creation, it is clear that man is indeed “the special creation of God.”

“The crowning work of His creation.”

God made everything. No doubt.

But with man, He reached down to form him from the dust and breathe life into Him.

Genesis 2:7 ESV

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.

And humans are not just the crowning work of creation because of HOW God made us, but also because of WHO God made us to be.

We are image-bearers.

The question is—What exactly does that mean?

Image-Bearers

What it does not mean:

We do not physically look like God

God is spirit and he is not like a man

But with that stated, I do think it means we resemble him in that we reflect His nature and His actions.

Too often people take the idea of “image-bearing” out of context of Genesis 1-2 and then after they detach it from the creation narrative they come up with all sorts of wild speculative ideas.

But I think our understanding of how humanity are image-bearers is very much tied to God, whose image we bear, and what He is displaying in the creation account.

What we see in Genesis 1 and 2, as God creates, is that He is infinitely powerful.

He is transcendently authoritative.

He is eternally wise.

He is perfectly good.

We also see that He has dominion.

He brings forth life.

He is a Creator.

So then, when God says, “Let us make man in our image,” He is saying, “Let us—the Persons of the Trinity—make humans in such a way, that they reflect the power, authority, wisdom, goodness and dominion of God.”

Even before the Fall, Adam was not just like God in these ways.

But Adam “imaged” God in that he reflected these divine attributes in just the way God designed.

Now, after the Fall, men and women reflect these things faintly.

Why would God make man in this way?

The answer is that He did it in order to display His glory.

To make Himself known.

As image-bearers, the creation reveals the wonder and majesty of the Creator.

How Does It Play Out?

The next question is—how does this play out?

Well we see some the answer right away in God’s commands in Genesis 1:28

Adam is an image-bearer in multiplication.

Genesis 1:28 ESV

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.”

They reflect God’s fruitfulness in creation by multiplying themselves, bringing forth other image-bearers.

They don’t just fill the earth but they subdue it and have dominion over it, just as God subdues the formless, void of an earth in Genesis 1 and rules over that which He creates.

Adam is an image-bearer in work.

Genesis 2:2 ESV

And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.

Creation is a WORK of God.

A handful of verses later, Adam the Image-Bearer is reflecting God’s work as he works himself:

Genesis 2:15 ESV

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

Adam is an image-bearer in authority.

Genesis 2:19 ESV

Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.

Adam is an image-bearer in morality.

God is holy and God perfectly know what is good and what is bad.

What is of heaven and what is of hell.

Adam, as an image-bearer, was created as a moral creature who can know and worship God, but who also had the capacity to deny and reject God.

This morality is also seen in the self-consciousness of man.

Humans are the only morally self-conscious people.

If a dog goes to the bathroom on the floor, he doesn’t sit and look at it and wonder why he did something that he knows was against the rules.

But if a child who knows better goes to the bathroom on the floor, they would likely think to themselves, “Why did I just do that?” or their parents would prompt them to ask why they did it.

Fish swim and birds fly, but neither stop to think about why and how God made them that way.

They don’t write books about their experience or record podcasts talking about swimming and flying.

Human are moral, spiritual creatures who stop and consider introspective questions like, “Why am I here? Where did I come from? What is my purpose? Am I good or bad?”

All of this is evidence that we are image-bearers in morality.

In Genesis 2, the existence of the tree of knowledge and good evil itself, is indeed proof that Adam was a being who understood something of right/wrong, good/bad, obedience/disobedience.

Adam is an image-bearer in relationship.

We see this in his relationship with God where God is communicating with Adam and providing for him.

We also see this in the relationship that God designs for Adam to have with Eve, where they cleave to one another and become one flesh.

This means that as we worship God and have a relationship with God, we are functioning as image-bearers.

It also means that as we relate to one another in friendships and relationships—especially in the marital relationship—we are functioning as image-bearers.

Adam is an image-bearer in spirituality.

Adam has a soul.

This is not explicit in Genesis 1 and 2, but it is implied in the breathing of life into Adam’s nostrils.

In fact, the Hebrew word for breath in Genesis 2:7 can also translate to the English word spirit.

What is implied is that more than just physical life is being given to Adam in his unique role as an image-bearer.

This means humans are embodied creatures.

The body is a house for the soul.

And this means we have a spiritual capacity.

We have the ability to love God and others...

We have the ability to be merciful...

We have the ability to be righteously wrath-filled...

This is because of how God has made us in His image.

How It Impacts Us

Some may wonder why Christians are so outspoken about things like:

The sanctity of human life

The sanctity of marriage as being between one man and one woman

The importance of relationships with God and the Church

The importance of working

The importance of having children, if one is able

The importance of authority being honored and respected

The reason is that these things are so tied to very foundation of how we understand humanity according to the Scriptures.

These are theological matters for us.

And when they are discarded, we should feel our souls chafe.

We know that in the loss of these things, we are losing what is means to be human.

And not just human—but a human made to reflect the glorious attributes of the Creating and Ruling God of the Universe

Made Male and Female

2. Humans are made male and female.

Post-Modern Viewpoint

Amazingly, in our climate, this may be the most controversial thing that the Faith and Message has to say to us tonight.

The confession says:

“He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God’s creation.”

The great lie of our postmodern culture is that this is all made up.

Humans are nothing more than animals who evolved in a superior fashion by random chance and mutation.

And as humans developed in society, gender was created as a construct.

It was a framework dreamt up by the human animals and foisted upon the human society.

And now the idea that contemporary gender theory has normalized in our culture is that gender and sex are two separate things.

Your sex is something determined by chromosomes when you are born.

But your gender is separate from sex and it is an identity that you get claim.

If the individual inside you feels that your sex doesn’t match up with your gender—ie you feel like a man in a woman’s body—you can identify as a man and even get surgeries to try and make yourself into some sort of man.

And if anyone does not affirm this, they are considered to be oppressive.

This is how we have ended up in a place where there are countless genders you can claim.

But biblically, there is absolutely no room for this false view of gender and sexuality.

There is nothing in the Bible that would indicate that there is a difference between gender and sex.

God made humanity male and female.

This is their gender. This is their sex.

It is one and the same.

This is not a construct of society.

This is an ordination of God.

Biblical Viewpoint on Male and Female

Genesis 1:27 ESV

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

In the same way that our image-bearing reflects the glory of our Creator, the distinctions of male and female do the same.

Biblical masculinity is something that should be celebrated. It reflects God’s glory.

Men should be workers.

Men should be courageous.

Men should be protectors.

Men should be able to be depended upon as they depend upon God.

Men are morally accountable.

Men are leaders.

Men are relational—with God, with their wives, with their children, with their church.

Men are good stewards.

Men are sacrificial in their love for their wives.

Biblical femininity is also something that should be celebrated. For woman is the glory of man.

Women are helpers and partners.

Women are nurturers and life-givers.

Women are strong and dignified.

Women are wise and influential.

Women are of noble character.

Women are hospitable and generous.

Women are beautiful.

Women are submissive to godly husbands.

Women fear the Lord.

Women are administrators.

This is not to limit godly men and women to these features.

We could clearly say so much more.

And clearly some of these things can be true of both men and women.

But you can see that the virtues of masculinity and femininity that we see in the Bible are good and worthy of celebration—not denigration or deletion.

Even some of the marked differences are things to be celebrated because we understand they are within God’s design.

We can read Ephesians 5 and see that in the home, God has ordained the man to lead as Christ leads His church.

We also see that woman is to submit to the husband’s leadership as the church submits to Christ.

The man sacrifices for the wife.

The wife honors the husband.

And through the peace of the Gospel, this should not lead to domineering or frustration.

Instead, this should reflect the beauty of how God has made men and women equal—both image-bearers—and yet given them different roles to play.

What we see in the home, we can also see in the church, where God has called men to lead.

This is why Paul limits the role of pastor/elder to called and qualified men.

1 Timothy 3:1–3 ESV

The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.

One chapter earlier, in 1 Timothy 2, Paul ties this pastoral authority to the very order of creation we have been reading about in Genesis 1-2.

Again—these things are not cultural constructs, but God’s ordained design.

And yet, this does not mean that men who are not called and qualified or women have no role to play in the church. Everyone has discipleship ministry to fulfill:

Titus 2:2–5 ESV

Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

Why We Take Our Stand

We have some strange bedfellows in the fight to hold the line against false ideas about gender and sexuality.

We have JK Rowling

You can’t be a woman if you don’t experience the things women experience each month

You can’t be a woman if you can’t birth a child

You can’t be a feminist and let men acting like women invade women’s spaces

We have social conservatives who want nothing to do with church but say:

I don’t want boys in girls bathrooms at my daughter’s public school

I don’t want boys competing against my daughter in softball, while she is trying to excel and get a scholarship

These folks are downstream from the biblical view of gender.

They want the morality, but they don’t care about the Bible.

We down just settle for the outcomes—we stand on the principles.

We go upstream and say, “We are against transgenderism because we believe God created male and female.”

“We are opposed to trans ideology because we believe biblical theology.”

And not just that, “We stand against these things BECAUSE we love people enough to tell them that they are not trapped in the wrong body. They are made in the image of God and the hope they are looking for is found in Jesus Christ—not hormones and surgery.”

After all, gender dysphoria is a real thing.

There are people who truly believe they were “assigned the wrong gender.”

These are people with true confusion and true struggles in mental health.

They need the hope of the Gospel.

We have it.

So as those who celebrate masculinity and femininity we hold two things in tension:

We will tell the culture it is wrong and we won’t go along with the ruse

We will love the individuals in the culture and plead with them to receive the love of God, who formed them in the womb with purpose and not with mistakes.

Fallen and Depraved

3. Humans are fallen and depraved.

The Fall

The Bible teaches us that humanity, apart from a work of God’s grace, is dead in sin.

Ephesians 2:1–3 ESV

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

It was not always this way.

As the Faith and Message says:

“In the beginning, man was innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice. By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. Through the temptation of Satan man transgressed the command of God and fell from his original innocence...”

This is what took place in Genesis 3.

Genesis 3:6–7 ESV

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Now this is all fairly straight forward.

And I have no issues with what the Faith and Message says.

However, after that, this is one of the places that I believe the Baptist Faith and Message could do much better.

I think it is ambiguous and oddly worded.

And I don’t think it totally matches the full force of the Bible’s teaching.

Falling With Adam and In Adam

Let me explain what I believe the Bible plainly teaches and then I’ll show you where I think the Faith and Message struggles a bit.

When Adam sinned, he sinned as our representative before God.

Imagine if Russia shot a missile at us.

And then imagine if we shot one back.

What if after this happened, a Russian got on YouTube and says, “Why did Donald Trump shoot a missile at me? I didn’t attack the United States!”

You would say, “Well—sure. But Putin is your leader. He is your representative. He is your “federal head. If he shoots something at us—you ALL shot something at us.”

This is how it worked in the Fall.

Adam was the representative of humanity before God.

He shot a moral missile at God in the fall in the Garden.

And when He did that, it is as if we all shot that missile because Adam is our “federal head.”

And this had devastating results for humanity, which Paul explains in Romans 5.

Romans 5:12 ESV

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

Adam’s sin put all of us at war with God.

We fell WITH Adam and IN Adam.

And not just that, but Adam’s fallen nature was handed down throughout the generation of humanity to everyone born of a man and a woman.

Paul drives this home in Romans 5.

He says:

“Man died through one man’s trespass...”

“Judgment following one trespass brought condemnation...”

“Because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man...”

“One trespass led to condemnation for all men...”

“By one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners...”

It couldn’t be more clear.

The reason we are dead in sin and by nature children of wrath is because of what happened in the Garden.

In Adam, we are sinners who are spiritually dead and condemned before God.

We are totally depraved.

But what does ‘total depravity’ mean? Total depravity means simply this: that sin affects every aspect of our human existence: our minds, our wills and our bodies are affected by sin. Every dimension of our personality suffers at some point from the weight of sin that has infected the human race.

R. C. Sproul

The Faith and Message Falling Short

Where I think the Faith and Message falls short is in this statement:

...whereby his posterity inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin. Therefore, as soon as they are capable of moral action, they become transgressors and are under condemnation.

Baptist Faith and Message, Article III

It is not that this statement is on the road of error.

Instead, the issue is that it doesn’t far enough down the road of truth.

Notice that it says that because we inherited Adam’s sin, we inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin.

Meaning—because of Adam we are sinners and we live in a sinful world.

This is not a wrong statement.

But it should go further when speaking about the state of humanity.

It not just that we are inclined toward sin, but that we are dead in sin and total enemies of God.

I think that the Southern Baptist Seminary’s statement of faith—The 1858 Abstract of Principles— said it with more clarity:

God originally created Man in His own image, and free from sin; but, through the temptation of Satan, he transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original holiness and righteousness; whereby his posterity inherit a nature corrupt and wholly opposed to God and His law, are under condemnation, and as soon as they are capable of moral action, become actual transgressors.

1858 Abstract of Principles

Notice how similar the two statements are.

The big difference on this issue is not just that humanity in inclined toward sin.

They have a nature that is corrupt and WHOLLY opposed to God and His law.

That is not the only difference though.

Notice the order of how the 1858 Abstract of Principles states things:

“...inherit a nature corrupt and wholly opposed to God and His law, are under condemnation, and as soon as they are capable of moral action, become actual transgressors.”

The Faith and Message tinkers with this and says:

“...they become transgressors and are under condemnation.”

Once again, the Faith and Message falls a bit short here.

In changing the order of things, the Baptist Faith and Message almost makes it seem like you are not condemned until you sin.

But in reality, Ephesians 2 teaches us that because of Adam’s sin being credited to us as those represented by him, we are corrupt and condemned from birth.

Ephesians 2:3 ESV

among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

by nature...children of wrath...

By nature—condemned.

Our nature then shows itself when we begin transgressing God’s law as soon as it is capable of moral action.

The Faith and Message words it in such a way where it almost seems like you are a child of wrath until you sin, as opposed to the idea that you sin because you are a child of wrath.

All of that said, none of this should cause of turn our nose up at the Baptist Faith and Message or worry that our Confession of Faith is in error.

What is stated is not error, but it is also not as clear as it could be and as we would like it to be.

But ultimately, it is still getting across the doctrine that apart from a work of God’s grace, human beings are destined for a just judgment because of their sin, which they are dead in, unless there is a work of God.

And this brings us to our final point tonight.

Made for Fellowship with God

4. Humans are made for fellowship with God.

The middle of Article 3 is bad news. The end of Article 3 is very good news.

The greatest news.

“Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God.” 

We see from the beginning that the great privilege and pleasure of Adam’s soul is that he is made by God and he knows God.

This is what he is made for.

He is created to know and love God.

He is formed and fashion to obey God and enjoy Him forever.

We have seen how sin got in the way of this.

One of the more heartbreaking scenes in the Bible is when God walks in the cool of the Garden looking for Adam.

Genesis 3:8 ESV

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

I think what is implied there is that this is something God had previously done with Adam. But now Adam is hiding in shame.

He has fallen from that which he was made for.

And yet God has made a way for this fellowship to be restored.

It is by His grace.

We have looked at Ephesians 2 a lot tonight.

Examining it again, let’s see what it says after v. 3

Ephesians 2:4–9 ESV

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

God has sent Christ to die for man.

He received the punishment we deserve.

He paid for our sins.

Before, we had Adam’s sin credited to us.

Now we have Jesus, the Second Adam’s righteousness credited to us.

Romans 5:15 ESV

But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.

To impute means “to ascribe.”

We had Adam’s sin imputed to us before.

Now we have Christ’s righteousness imputed to us forever.

That is, if you have repented of your sin and trust in Him.

For those that do—they are able to enjoy that which God made them for in the first place—a relationship with Him.

They become the workmanship of God.

Ephesians 2:10 ESV

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

The Offer to All and Its Implications

We will talk more about this offer the next time we are together.

But for now, let us rejoice in what the Faith and Message declares:

“The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for men...”

I was a little critical earlier.

Let me give praise to our Confession now.

I think this is so brilliant.

We know humanity is sacred because of two great works of God:

Him creating us in His image

Him sending His Son to die for us so that we would be re-created in the image of Christ

And this is an offer to all, which is a doctrine with major implications.

If you believe this—that human life is sacred because God made us all in His image and Christ died for all types of people—then you can’t run around this world being partial over ethnicity.

If you look at certain ethnicities and you think they are less than, but you believe in these two great works of God, your doctrine accuses you of hypocrisy.

If you look down upon anyone as less than over skin color, your actual beliefs are not lining up with what you say you believe.

Let us crucify any partiality in us.

Let us count all human life as sacred.

Let our lives match up with our creed and confession.

Love everyone. Preach Christ to everyone.

God’s breathing of life into man and the Son of God’s dead for man demand it.