BY DR. JOHN SULLIVAN
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR-TREASURER
FLORIDA BAPTIST CONVENTION

DOCTRINE OF MAN

Doctrine of Man reveals his worthless and worthwhile nature

The doctrine of man, many believe, may be the most crucial doctrine of this age. Before a sense of evangelism and a measure of self discipline can evolve, the Christian believer must formulate a doctrine of man.

Man is a paradoxical being. He has value, worth and religious capacity, yet is a fallen sinner capable of the most monstrous acts.

In the garden man is weak, small and sinful; and yet he is the crown of creation. He is a sinner but he is still in the garden!

At the cross man is in his most desperate condition. He clinches his fist, waves it in God’s face in rebellion; crucifies God’s son; and seeks to destroy His work. But the very fact that it is God’s son dying shows man’s value. The worthles—yet worthwhile—nature of man in God’s sight can not be escaped.

The doctrine of man must be seen looking backward as fallen man redeemed. There is no other doctrine of man. One can speculate about what man might have been had he not sinned, but he did sin. To stay biblical, doctrine must be based only on what is known.

Definition

Man is a distinctly personal being. He is not merely a social, material or biological animal created in the image of God. He has an intellect and a will. He has been created for fellowship and responsibility with God, self and others.

Man as a Personal Being

A personal being has at least three qualities:

A relationship with God. A person is a person because God holds him in a sustained relationship. Whether he is saved or lost he is still sustained by God. This is what makes him a person. (Psalm 139:7, Romans 8)

A conscious relationship with himself. Only as a man realized his relation with God can he realize his relation to himself. Only as he realizes this is God’s world, God’s time and God’s work can he realize he is a created man. God lays responsibility upon man but only as man responds does he become a responsible person. (Deut. 24:16, Jeremiah 31:29, Ezek. 18) Man must realize he is an individual before the gospel can ever impact his life.

A personal relationship to others. Looking into a crowd, we see individuals. They are persons. We call them by name. We agree and disagree. But we do not ignore them. They, too, are persons.

Man is a Created Being

The doctrine of man’s creation comes only from divine revelation. This means that man is not merely a thought; he has body and reality.

Man has no room for pride in man when he remembers he is a creature. Formed from dust, we are not angels. (Gen. 3:9) We are dust and to dust we return. Though man is the crown of creation he is still created. (James 1:9-11; Psalm 49:12)

Though man is a creature, he is destined for something other than death. (I Cor. 15:21) Death came with sin. Man was not originally made to die. He sinned and brought death. He was destined to live. This can be experienced through the threshold of redemption as man desires reconciliation with God.

Man is Created in God’s Image

Read Gen. 1:26. The image of God in Old Testament refers more to man’s capacity as a personal being than it does his physical likeness of God. Let us make man as a personal being, one who can act and feel.

The New Testament’s image of God relates to man’s spiritual likeness to God which was lost by sin. That spiritual likeness can only be recreated or restored by Christ in redemption.

Consider: Romans 8:29—Christ is the ideal likeness of man. Man must move toward that likeness which is being restored by Christ through redemption; 2 Cor. 3:8—We are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; Col. 3:9-10—We are renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator; and 1 John 3:2—We are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we shall be like him.

Man is Body-Soul (Spirit)

If we hold that man is body-soul that means we cannot hold to strict idealism, nor can we hold to materialism. Greek idealism has taught us to think of the body as the “ball and chain” of the soul, the weight and fetters of the mind.

Materialism makes us think of the body as the sum and substance of man. The Old Testament and Christian concept views the body as the living, acting portion of the soul.

As far as materialism is concerned, we believe the body is not the material lord and king of a person. The thing that drags us down is not our physical body but when we adhere to the desires and sinful urges of our physical body.

Man is a unit of being. Consider: Romans 12:1-2, God wants the whole man on the altar. He wants total personality, total self; I Thess. 5:23, “Sanctify you wholly” may your spirit, soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; 1 Cor. 6:17 He who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with the Lord.

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