What is man?
What is man?
To answer this question with anything like completeness it would be necessary to discourse upon it in much detail. Reference would have to be made to various sciences--psychology, physiology, anthropology, sociology; and even then the answer would be inadequate, for all the scientists together are unable to take the full measure of man. It is possible, however, to ponder the question with reference to one or two of the more salient points that it suggests, in such a way as to arrive briefly at an answer that may suffice for a moral purpose. Naturally, the question at the outset throws us back on history and the records of the past. What has man been? what was his beginning? It is almost lost in the dimness of remote antiquity. All we can say is, that, like every other living thing, his course has been upward and onward from a lower form, that in strength, in beauty, in intellect, in moral power, he has progressed by a slow development. On any supposition there must have been a period when he first acquired personality, when, to his sensuous and instinctive impulses, there were superadded reason and will, and those higher emotions and faculties which we commonly speak of as pertaining to the soul. There must have been a time when man first knew what right and wrong were, and what sin was; and there must have been a time when man first committed sin and experienced the sense of shame. So that whether chaps,
2. or 3. of Genesis are historical or not, they are spiritually true. Theyfurnish an exact description of what man was, and what he did, in that early stage of his being, when he acquired the power of choosing between good and evil. They narrate that change in the evolution of the race which corresponds to the change in the evolution of the man when he arrives at years of discretion, and can be treated as a moral being, having a sense of moral responsibility. And it does not require the slightest remission of candour, or fancy of interpretation, to read the Biblical description of man’s origin in correspondence with the suggestions of science: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust … and man became a living soul.” Here we have a statement of the lowest possible origin of man, from “ the dust of the ground,” with the addition that there was infused into him afterwards by the Almighty that quality of his nature which made him like the Almighty, and capable of what the best men have attained. It existed only in the germ at first, this principle of the higher life; but it was a germ having a power of development which was almost inexhaustible--a germ that has gone on working marvellously ever since; so that, from the teaching of experience only, we do not know what limits to set to the possible development of man. There was once a wise king, as Jeremy Taylor tells us, who was raised to the throne from the position of a ploughman, and kept his country shoes always by him to remind him from whence he had sprung. It would be well if we would in like manner often think of what we were, and what, in many respects, we still are, with the traces of our lower birth still about us. We should be less disposed to think that all things exist for man, and that “ man is the measure of all things.” We should assume an attitude of more reverent and waiting humility towards Him from whom we and all things are sprung. Again, the recollection of our low beginning would tend to produce a salutary effect on our moral conduct. What more common pretext for their mode of life is offered by the sensual and intemperate than that they are following the dictates of their nature? Yes; but which nature? The lover? that which they share with the brute, and have perhaps inherited from the brute? Does ever humanity fall so low as when it makes such an appeal? Remember, then, from whence you have sprung, or at any rate what you have been, and you will not be forward to plead for liberty to do what “your nature” dictates. For man only became man, and deserved to be styled man, when he learnt bow to control his appetites. But further, for those even who are cognizant of the higher nature in man and who are striving to live according to that, nature, it is useful to remember the other side of their being. The higher nature has been evolved out of the lower. We are the products of evolution from various ancestors; we have inherited our several dispositions, whether good or bad; we are, to a large extent, the creatures of our circumstances; our higher life is governed by precisely the same laws which control the lives of plants and animals; we are subject in our higher nature to similar conditions of degeneration and mortification. We cannot, then, be what we like to be without regard to the environment in which we are placed. Though we boast of our free-will, we act on the greatest number of occasions simply on the impulse of the strongest motive. And therefore it is absolutely needful for our spiritual well-being that we place our-elves in a favourable environment, that we put ourselves in the way of being actuated by good motives, that we cultivate habits of prayer and watchfulness. Thus we are admonished by the laws of the animal life, which we share with the brutes. And, moreover, the higher nature of man is not only subject to the laws which govern the animal life, but it is inextricably interwoven with the animal nature in himself. His goodness from day to day depends on what use he makes of his lower nature. Bodily ill-health will weaken his self-control, and curtal(his spiritual powers: bodily indulgence will enervate his will, and expose him to special temptations. So that a great part of the activity of the higher nature depends on a proper treatment of the lower. Hence the necessity for exercising self-discipline, in order to keep the lower passions under proper control. It needs no asceticism, no going out rote the wilderness to feed on locusts and wild honey to accomplish this. It needs not that the lower feelings should be crushed, but rather that they should be made sublime by becoming the ready instruments of the higher self. And then the man becomes a harmonious, a dignified, a noble being, armed and fully equipped to do God’s bidding at all times. Then he can indeed lift up his head above the animal creation, and feel that he is a being of a different mould from them. Then he can find in himself the working of a spirit of life to whose continuance the destruction of the body is no impediment. Then he can even dare to claim kindred with God Himself Romans 8:13-14). (W. L. Paige Cox, M. A.)
What is man?
The question of all antiquity, and perhaps the question around which for years to come the greatest theological and scientific strife will take place, is this: What is man? The answer that the Christian Church will give will not of course accord in all points with the answer of the scientist who denies the revelation which comes from God. Yet, strange to say, though by different paths, and for every different purposes, we come in one sense to the same conclusion as the scientist: that there are possibilities in man which, if only they be evolved, will raise him to an infinite height, and bestow upon him a power that is possessed by no other creature in the universe. We hold that man is intended by God to be elevated step by step by the power of the gospel, until he becomes a partaker of the very glory of God. The scientist holds--if he denies revelation, I mean--that man is gradually, by a process of evolution, and by the development of the species, to be so elevated that at last all that is called God shall be found in him, and that man thus becomes a God to himself and to creation. But there is little question that the answer will be that “the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof”; that man is but the deputy or vicegerent of his God; and that if man can be elevated to the position to which Almighty God intended him to attain, he shall be one with God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ; he shall be elevated, step by step, by the gospel power, until he shall attain to the highest glory of God: “The glory that Thou gavest Me I have given them, that they may be one, even as We are one: I in them and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one.” I know no motive power that can touch man’s nature when it be elevated above the self-consciousness of self-seeking, so much as the inquiry what God meant man to be, what God made man for originally, what He considers him to be now, and what are the possibilities God has put before man in and through the glorious Saviour Jesus Christ our Lord. My purpose, therefore, is to inquire whether, if God’s revelation be the power by which mankind can be elevated to its highest possible destiny, we are prepared to carry out that purpose, and to glorify God as our Saviour in all things, by giving up ourselves to His service, to live the devoted live that the Church should live and to rise above the selfishness of mere personal salvation; remembering that there is a still more glorious aim than merely to be saved, and to enter personally into the glory of God, and it is this--that in her corporate, capacity, the Church should see that the individual life and personality is in one sense to be lost, and that when the individual soul forgets even its own personal salvation and its aspirations to everlasting happiness, then, and then only, does it really attain to the highest possible dignity of man; and that when the Church as a whole becomes, as she should be, greatly thoughtful on behalf of the individuals or units that one by one make up the perfection of the body of Christ which is His Church, then only will she fulfil her high destiny upon earth. Now let us proceed to the inquiry, taking our answer from God’s own Word. What is man? Can anything more magnificent be conceived than the dignity wherewith God originally endowed him? Whole step by step God evolved the glories and beauties of creation, one and one only purpose was in the Master-Maker, and that was to prepare the wonderful sphere in which man as the top stone of all should be happy and blessed, and should glorify his Maker. And when that wonderful series of preparations was completed, we find that even the Almighty Maker, the great Creator, has to pause as it were, in order that He may give greater dignity and greater glory to the creation of the creature which is to be possessor of all!--and instead of that mere fiat, “Let there be” and “there was,” we hear the Triune God saying, “Let Us make man in Our own image and after Our own likeness.” And then “God made man,” as the apostle Paul says, “the image and glory of God”! Surely from that moment we should expect the sphere of man to be great. But suddenly all the glory is swept away, and the creature for whom God had worked so long ceases to enjoy his original position; for by one act of folly he has severed himself from God, and, sin entering into the world, and death by sin, all the greatness of man would seem to be lost for ever. Nor from that time forward, as far as physical manifestation goes, has there ever been a recovery of the creature’s lost dignity; and if now (however much modern science rejects the doctrine of the fall) the inquiry rings through the vault of heaven “ What is man? “ the answer would appear to be that man has become a thing of naught. Yea, “ye, fly every man at his best state is altogether vanity.” Man is even “like a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” Yet, though this his fallen condition urges one to think with pain of the creature, let me invite you to pause before you condemn humanity after that modern fashion which is at the opposite extreme to that which speaks of man rising upwards and becoming God. Let me ask you to look at the fallen creature and see how, even after the fall, there are magnificent proofs in him of the original power of God, and that he is by no means to be condemned as a hopeless cripple. We gaze upon the ruins of a city and, from these ruins we gather is former magnificence and greatness; and it is by the style of these ruins that we judge of the city. So let me ask you to look at man for a moment, and as you see in this fallen creature powers that never were found in any other, you shall be compelled to give him your admiration, and honour him for the possibilities that lie buried beneath the surface, and which may elevate him into something almost Divine if only he can be delivered from the dominion of sin. Look, for instance, at the power or revenge as inherited in the vilest and worst of men. We find no other creature in the world who, for the mere sake of obtain-ink vengeance on its own behalf, will determine to sacrifice its own life. Look at the power of covetousness--that ambition and yearning after money and place, which the apostle describes as idolatry; and observe the wondrous powers there are in the creature who, for the mere sake of advancing himself, will slave and toil in order that he may be elevated above his fellows. Look again on that awful power of remorse, which comes over those who have fallen and sunk into despair. Can anything prove more clearly than the workings of remorse the very magnificence of the creature who is capable of such conditions and emotions? It would seem, if we watch a man in the activities of remorse, as if we were able to stand on a height within himself and so contemplate the utter misery of his own ruined, fallen slate. Surely there is no other creature in the world such as this. Therefore, as we look at man in his fall, again we are compelled to say, What is man? and to answer back, Man is not merely the wreck of his former self-though that we believe most solemnly--but a wonderful creature, a marvellous being, fitted, if only liberated from his fallen condition, to stand once more in the presence of God. At length, after four thousand years, during which God had from time to time been essaying to reveal Himself unto men, the oracle would seem to have become altogether dumb, when an angel appears to a virgin in Nazareth, and tells that a “holy thing shall be born of her which shall be called the Son of God”; and there bursts from the inspired lips of Zacharias the cry that “God hath visited and redeemed His people,” and that “the Dayspring from on high hath visited us”; and the Lord Jesus, as the true “Word made flesh,” appears among men. And now, what see we as the result of Jehovah deigning to appear in the flesh? First, the manifestation of what mall should be and could be if only the purpose of God was fulfilled; secondly, the manifestation of what God still determined to accomplish in man, because in Christ Jesus He would purchase humanity to Himself; and, thirdly, the manifestation of what may be done by those brought into personal contact and union with Him, being made one with the Son of God, by the faith which He requires us to exercise. We also see that in place of limitation, which had appeared to be working for so many centuries, expansion commenced, and has been wondrously proceeding from the day that the Lord Jesus returned to His Father in heaven. For when about to pass back to the glory of God, arid to be hidden from men’s eyes for a little while, we hear from His lips the blessed truth that “ Ye shall receive power” and “ Ye shall be witnesses unto Me,” and in ten days from that time a third great series of manifestations commences. No longer ,in men see the form of the Son of God, but the power of the Holy Ghost in the sons of God. Jehovah-Elohim had appeared unto man; Jehovah Jesus had appeared for man; and now, in the Church of God, and in the fulness of His power, the Jehovah Spirit would appear in man. From that day forward the work of expansion commences, and for eighteen hundred years the great power of the Lord, the Holy Ghost, has been exhibit d in this world working out the complete man (Ephesians 4:13; Ephesians 5:25, &e.). The Second Man, who is the Lord from heaven, will not be complete until His Bride be brought unto Him, His glorious Church, wit; out spot or wrinkle or any such thing; and so each sinner that is joined to Jesus Christ by His Spirit is made a member of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones, and we live in Him, we live by Him, and we may now live for Him, in order that hereafter we may live with Him in the manifested glory that awaits God’s Son. And now when we see “the Man Christ Jesus” made perfect through suffering, and then lifted up to the throne of God that by His Spirit He may draw men into absolute unity with Himself, say, oh say, “What is man?” What is man, as we see him in the person of God’s Son? What is man, as we see him in the purpose of God, which is to be carried out in soul after soul of those that are redeemed and united vitally unto the Lord Jesus Christ? And “ what is man” when we consider the triumphs of this gospel? What but this truth, as the truth is in Jesus, has made man such as he has occasionally been seen? What but this could have made a Paul, a Peter, or a John? What but this could have given us an Augustine, a Wycliffe, a Huss, a Savonarola, a Luther? What but this in these latter days could give us those blessed missionaries who have stood before the world as witnesses for the power of Christ? What but this, the purpose of God, to glorify man, the purpose of God that man should have dominion in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, and that all may bee-me workers together with Him, if only they he vitally united to the Man? (H. W.Webb Peploe, M. A.)
What is man?
We need not only a true philosophy of God but a true philosophy of man, in order to right,, thinking of the gospel. The idolater thinks man inferior to birds and beasts and creeping things, before which he prostrates himself. The materialist reckons him to be the chance product of natural forces which have evolved him, and before which he is therefore likely to pass away. The pseudoscience of the time makes him of one blood with ape and gorilla, and assigns him a common origin with the beasts. See what gigantic systems of error have developed from mistaken conceptions of the true nature and dignity of man!
I. MAN AS GOD MADE HIM
1. the Divine likeness (Genesis 1:27). Our mental and moral nature is made on the same plan as God’s: the Divine in miniature. Truth, love, and purity, like the principles of mathematics, are the same in us as in Him. If it were nut so, we could not know or understand Him. But since it is so, it has been possible for Him to take on Himself our nature, and that we should be one day transformed to the perfect image of His beauty.
2. Royal supremacy (Genesis 1:28). Man was intended to be God’s vicegerent and representative. King in a palace stored with all to plea-e him, monarch and sovereign of all the lower orders of creation. The sun to labour for him as a very Hercules; the moon to light his nights, or lead the waters round the earth in tides, cleansing his coasts; elements of nature to be his slaves and messengers; flowers to scent his path; fruits to please his taste; birds to sing for him; fish to feed him; beasts to toil for him and carry him. Not a cringing slave, but a king, crowned with the glory of rule, and with the honour of universal supremacy. Only a little lower than angels, because they are not, like him, entangled with flesh and blood. This is man as God made him to be.
II. MAN AS SIN HAS MADE HIM (Hebrews 2:8).
His crown is rolled in the dust, his honour tarnished. His sovereignty is strongly disputed by the lower orders of creation. If trees nourish him, it is after strenuous care, anal they often disappoint. If the earth supplies him with food, it is in tardy response to exhausting toil. If the beasts serve him, it is because they have been laboriously tamed and trained, whilst vast numbers roam the forest glades, setting him at defiance. If he catch the fish of the sea, or the bird of the air, he must wait long in cunning concealment. Some traces of the old lordship are still apparent in the terror which the sound of the human voice and the glance of the eye side inspire into the lower orders, in the feats of lion-tamer or snake-charmer. But for the most part anarchy and rebellion have laid waste his fair realm. So degraded has man become that he has bowed before the objects that he was to command, and has prostrated his royal form in shrines dedicated to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.
III. MAN AS CHRIST CAN MAKE HIM (Hebrews 2:9).--“What help is that? “ cries an objector;” “of course He is crowned with glory and honour, since He is the Son of God.” But, notice, the glory and honour mentioned here are altogether different from the glory of Hebrews 1:3. That was the incommunicable glory of His Deity. This is is the acquired glory of His humanity.
1. “We behold Him.”--Behold Him, Christian. The wreaths of empire are on His brow. The keys of death and Hades swing at His girdle. The mysterious living creatures, representatives of creation, attest that He is worthy. All things in heaven, and earth, and under the earth, and in the seas worship Him; so do the bands of angels, beneath whom He stooped for a little season, on our behalf.
2. And as He is, we too shall be. He is there as the type and representative of redeemed men. We are linked with Him in indissoluble union. Through Him we shall get back our lost empire. We to, shall be crowned with glory and honour. The day is not far distant when we shall sit at His side; joint heirs in His empire; comrades in His glory, as we have been comrades in His sorrows; beneath our feet all things visible and invisible, thrones and principalities and powers; whilst above us shall be the unclouded empyrean of our Father’s love, for ever and for ever. Oh, destiny of surpassing bliss! Oh, rapture of saintly hearts! Oh, miracle of Divine Omnipotence! (F. B.Meyer, B. J.)
God’s special care of man
1. God’s special care of man, and His singular love towards him.
2. The same manifested in a most glorious manner, in the humiliation and exaltation of Christ.
3. The admiration, or rather amazement at such a stupendous manifestation of such stupendous love. All the works of God are in themselves excellent and wonderful, but the work of redemption by Christ is matter of greatest wonder and astonishment even to the angels. (G. Lawson.)
What is man?
He doth not speak of man in his first creation--he retained that estate but a while--therefore he would rather have deplored than admired it. He doth not speak of man as be is after his fall, for in that respect he is most miserable, not glorious; therefore he must needs speak of man as he is ingrafted into Christ, by whom he is advanced to wonderful and unspeakable glory. What is man? Not only considered in his first creation, but even in his renovation, what is the best man that ever was, that God should have any respect to him? By creation indeed he is the workmanship of God, the image of God Almighty; yet for all that., in respect of his original, he was taken out of the ground. He is but a piece of earth; since the Fall he is a mass of sin; though he be regenerate, and by faith ingrafted into Christ, yet still he hath sin in him and must die. Therefore what is this man, that Thou shouldest pour down so many blessings on him? that the sun, moon, and stars, should give him light? that the birds of the air, fishes of the sea, the casts of the field should be his meat? that be should walk as a king on earth? especially that Thou shouldest send Thy only Son to die for him, make him a member of His body, and provide an everlasting kingdom for him in the life to come? What is vile, wretched, sinful, corrupted man, that Thou shouldest be so far mindful of him? protect him with the shield of Thy favours from all dangers? That Thou shouldest vouchsafe him Thy Word and sacraments? That Thou shouldest give him Thy Holy Spirit to help him to pray, and to comfort him in all miseries? We should not be like the peacock spreading forth our golden feathers, and say within ourselves, What goodly men be we! We ought to think basely of ourselves--what are we that God should regard us? “What am I and my father’s house,” said that regal prophet, “that Thou hast brought me hitherto?” What are we miserable wretches, that God Almighty should do anything for us? we are less than the least of all His mercies. Yet we are wont to vaunt of ourselves, do ye not know who I am? Dost thou not consider to whom thou speakest? yes, very well. I speak to dust and ashes. Let no high conceit of ourselves enter into our minds, let us think basely of ourselves, What am I, O Lord, that Thou shouldest give me the least thing in the world? A drop of drink, a crust of bread, a hole to hide my head in, especially that Thou shouldest give me Thine only Son, and together with Him all things that be good? What is any man in the world? Art thou a rich man? God can puff away thy riches and make thee poor. Art thou a wise man? God can take away thy senses and make thee a fool. Art thou a beautiful man? God can send the pox and many diseases to take away thy beauty Art thou a strong man? God can send sickness and make thee weak. Art thou a gentleman, a knight, a lord? yet thy breath is in God’s hand. This night He can take away thy soul from thee, and what art thou then? Therefore let us all have an humble opinion of ourselves, let us cast down ourselves at God’s feet, and say, What are we, O Lord, that Thou art mindful of us, that Thou so graciously visitest us, especially with Thy everlasting mercies in Christ Jesus. (W. Jones, D. D.)
The littleness of man
The intense beauty of the Arctic firmament can hardly be imagined. It looked close above our heads, with its stars magnified in glory and the very planets twinkling so much as to baffle the observations of our astronomer. I am afraid to speak of some of these night-scenes. I have trodden the deck and its floes when the life of earth seemed suspended, its movements, its sounds, its colouring, its companionships; and as I looked on the radiant hemisphere circling above, as if rendering worship to the unseen Centre of light, I have ejaculated in humility of spirit, “Lord, what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? “ And then I have thought of the kindly world we bad left, with its revolving sunshine and shadow and the other stars that gladden it in their changes, and the hearts that warmed to us there, till I lost myself in memories of those who are not, and they bore me back to the stars again. (Dr. Kane’s Arctic Explorations.)