BFM2000: Man

The Doctrine of Man

What is a human?

What sets human beings apart from other created beings?

Are we just creatures that evolved to a higher level of mental capacities than other creatures? Or is there something else as to what a human being is? That is the question, that we will be answering tonight, and thankfully the Bible has a lot to say about this topic.

The BFM2000 “Man”

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 Equality of Mankind

We are the crown jewel of God’s creation

Genesis 1:26–31 (ESV)

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.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

This passage is given over 2x the word space that any other day in creation is given.

Chuck Kelley

Image of Ge refers to our spiritual capacity and ability to fellowship with God. God made us as spiritual beings, so we have an innate desire for fellowship with Him. We possess a soul, described in the Bible as our spiritual capacity and inner knowledge. The soul is eternal, surviving death. At the same time, we are also embodied creatures. he body is a gift from God and is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us. We are to take care of our bodies out of respect for God, but Christians must not worship the body. Our bodily needs, desires, pleasures, and pains remind us of our constant dependence on God and of God's glory and power that He wants to reveal in us.

As a result, human begins, no matter their sex, gender, ethnicity, religious, creed, confession, posses an inherent dignity that comes from the Image of God that they bear.

Therefore, we are called to love all people; regardless of one’s sexual orientation, race, ethnic group, cultural heritage, family background…etc.

What happens when we fail to remember that God created equal?

Racism, Prejudice,

Sexism

Homophobia

These characterists are opposed to God’s created order. You cannot claim to believe that all human beings are created in the Image of God, with God given dignity, and live with any of these characteristics.

This does not mean that we have to affirm someone’s choices…we can disagree…even have severe disagreements (say with someone’s view of sexuality and gender) and still love the person as someone who has a been created with dignity in the Image of God.

The Diversity of Mankind

God created human beings diversely.

He created us with two different genders…male and female.

He created about 650 ethnicity groups…

All of which are different.

Males and Females have equality in value…but they are diverse in their God given roles...

Genesis 2:18–25 (ESV)

18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 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. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

The man is given responsibility to have dominion and dynasty…he is to tend to the garden...

The woman is created to be the “help-mate” of the man.

Eve is created out of the rib---meaning that she is neither above or below the man…he is from the side of the man…and therefore equal in dignity and value.

Notice that God sees a difference between male/female…this is the diversity of the created order.

So even though human beings are equal, we must maintain that we do indeed have different responsibilities.

The Fallenness of Man

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.

There are Strengths and Weaknesses to this statement:

Strengths:

Affirms how man was originally created.

Affirms that man sinned as a result of his volition

Affirms that Satan was the one who tempted man to transgress (miss the mark)

Affirms that man fell from his original state of innocence.

Affirms that Adam’s posterity inherit a sin nature.

Affirms the corruption of all of creation.

Weaknesses:

Doesn't go far enough on the fall and corruption of human nature after the fall.

The main issue is the wording, “Inclined toward sin...”

We are not inclined toward sin…we are totally corrupted by sin.

Although God created man upright and perfect, and gave him a righteous law, which had been unto life had he kept it, and threatened death upon the breach thereof, yet he did not long abide in this honor;  Satan using the subtlety of the serpent to subdue Eve, then by her seducing Adam, who, without any compulsion, did willfully transgress the law of their creation, and the command given to them, in eating the forbidden fruit, which God was pleased, according to His wise and holy counsel to permit, having purposed to order it to His own glory.

Our first parents, by this sin, fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and we in them whereby death came upon all: all becoming dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body.

They being the root, and by God's appointment, standing in the room and stead of all mankind, the guilt of the sin was imputed, and corrupted nature conveyed, to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation, being now conceived in sin, and by nature children of wrath, the servants of sin, the subjects of death, and all other miseries, spiritual, temporal, and eternal, unless the Lord Jesus set them free.

From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed all actual transgressions.

The corruption of nature, during this life, does remain in those that are regenerated; and although it be through Christ pardoned and mortified, yet both itself, and the first motions thereof, are truly and properly sin.

Romans 5:12–19 (ESV)

12 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— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. 15 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. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. 18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

Human beings—are born condemned in sin...

Christ is the only one who can free us from Sin’s condemnation.

This means that even babies, are born condemned in sin. Because they are born with a nature that is rebellious toward God. (Now, this does not mean that babies are condemned to hell. I think the scripture teaches otherwise, but it does mean that they should…they are not innocent…they are saved by the grace of God, just like everyone else.) I primarily get this from Romans 1:18-24 “18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,”