Man

 

Basic Christian Doctrines 21

 

1.   Man Bears the Image of God.

Man is Man, and God is God, and the twain never meet except in Christ the God-Man. Nevertheless, Man is like God in some respects. God made us in His image (Gen. 1:26-27). We can know God and have a loving relationship with Him. The image was marred but not destroyed by the Fall. Because Man still bears the image of God, we may not murder or curse our fellow Man, for that would be an attack of God's image (Gen. 9:6, James 3:9). One day, the image will be restored to its pristine beauty in Christ (Rom. 8:29).

 

2.   Man is Not an Animal.

Man did not evolve from the animals, but was created higher than animals and lower than angels. Man has some things in common with both, but is neither. Like the animals, Man has a physical body, has instinct, is affected by sin, etc. Like the angels and unlike the animals, Man has a mind, a soul, a heart that can love, a conscience that tells him right and wrong, and a will that is subject to sin. Man has dominion over the animals and is not to treat his fellow Man as an animal. And no animal will ever be part of the Bride of Christ (nor will any angel).

 

3.   Man is Accountable to God.

God created us in a relationship of responsibility. We are accountable to God and will have to answer to Him one day (Rom. 14:12). We are culpable and guilty. We have the duty to fear and obey God (Eccl. 12:14). God holds us all liable for what we are, all we think, whatever we say, everything we do. Man is subject to the Law of God, and is more accountable according to how much more light he has been given. All are accountable; some are more accountable and more guilty. We will all one day face God in court.

 

4.   Man Has a Conscience.

God has put a certain mysterious quality within all of us that reminds us that we will have to account to God. It is called a conscience. Romans 2 is the clearest passage on the subject. It is the echo of the voice of God, as it were.  It is not audible, nor a perfect guideline. Some men's conscience is hardened and very indistinct (I Tim. 4:2). Conscience both accuses and excuses, but mainly accuses. It “smites” us (I Sam. 24:5, 1 John 3:20). It is like an alarm clock telling us we are guilty.

 

5.   Man is Religious.

God created Man to worship Him, and therefore gave Man the capability to worship. Man is necessarily religious. He is a worshipping being. The trouble is, he worships the wrong thing. Instead of the true God, Man worships idols. John Calvin said that each Man's heart is an idol factory. This is why there are so many false religions and only one true one. All men worship something or somebody. Man is “homo religioso” - Religious Man. The need to worship is as much a part of Him as his own shadow. To be precise, it is part of the image of God. The image of God is meant to lead us to worship God, for we were created to resemble God so that we might know Him, love Him and worship Him. But because of sin, we love sin itself and will not worship the true God. Even the atheist has a religion, known as Humanism, the worship of Man. It is self-worship. It takes other less obvious forms. Even pagan religions are forms of this, for in them fallen man creates his own false god in the image of Man. What a distortion of the image of God! The image was meant to be a mirror to point us to worship our Creator, but we distort it so that our false god becomes a reflection of our own selves. Man is religious, but it is a false religion.

 

6.   Man is a Dichotomy.

Does Man have 2 or 3 basic components? Arguing from passages like I Thess. 5:23, some feel Man has 3 parts (body, soul, spirit), each of which is quite different from the other. This tends to lead to mysticism, for it puts the mind in the soul and urges us to bypass it and use the spirit. Most orthodox Christians believe that Man is a dichotomy, not a trichotomy. Man has a physical side (a body) and a spiritual side. The spiritual side has various aspects, which are not “parts” as such but various aspects of what Paul calls “the inner man” (Eph. 3:16) as opposed to our physical "outer man" (2 Cor. 44:16). 1 Thess. 5:23 no more teaches that Man is 3 than Mark 12:30 teaches that Man is 4. Soul and spirit are somewhat synonymous (cf. Luke 1:46-47). Sometimes the soul refers to Man vis-à-vis Man, and spirit to Man vis-à-vis God. 

 

7.   Man Has a Body.

Like the animals, Man has a physical body. It has senses (sight, hearing, feeling, smell, taste). It moves, grows, feels pain and pleasure, reproduces itself, etc. It was perfect in Eden, but is now mortal due to sin, and will be made immortal at our resurrection (I Cor. 15). It is either male or female. One important part of the body is the blood, for in it is the very essence of physical life. Death comes when our spirit leaves our body (James 2:26). Men can kill the body, only God can kill both body and soul in eternal Hell (Matt. 10:28). Our bodies belong to God (Rom. 12:1, 1 Cor. 6).

 

8.   Man Has a Mind.

 

Man has a mind. The Greek word is NOUS. With our minds, we are able to think and reason. We can analyze, cogitate, compare. We use it to learn, gather information, store  in our memory. Man's mind, however, is not a blank tablet. God has put within our minds the knowledge that God exists (Rom. 1-2). We all know that God exists. This is where the mind overlaps with our conscience. It is questionable that we have a so-called sub-conscious or unconscious side of our minds, at least as Freud said. Still, our minds are sometimes more awake than at other times, and is asleep at night. Our minds have a sense of time past and future, so we can remember and plan. We also use our minds to communicate thoughts with others, especially through the wonderful means called language, which is a sort of symbolic verbalization of thoughts. Animals do not do this. Our minds are affected by sin. We are to use our minds for God.

 

9.   Man Has Emotions.

 

Man has the capacity to feel. This produces emotions. Sometimes this is merely an inner reaction to the stimuli of the body. Some emotions are primarily inner, others outer. Generally, our emotions are of two sorts: pleasure and pain. Pleasurable emotions include joy, peace, thrill, fun, satisfaction, exhilaration, delight. Painful emotions include grief, worry, fear, anguish, confusion, loneliness. These have been greatly affected by sin, and so Christians are not to trust their feelings. God acts upon the emotions through the conscience to produce conviction of sin, and also works in them through redemption to produce true spiritual emotions. In Heaven, there is only pleasure; in Hell, only pain.

 

10. Man Has a Will.

Deep within us is our heart. In some contexts, it is where we think. In others, where we feel. In still others, where we decide. We sometimes call the deciding aspect the “will”. God calls on us to choose properly (Josh. 24:15, Deut. 30:19).  Our deepest affections cause us to choose or reject. The order is this: our nature, our mind, our choice.