Who and what is man?
Man is a living being created by
God. The first man, Adam, was fashioned from
dust on the sixth day of creation; “Then the Lord God formed a man from the
dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the
man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7)
Later, Eve, the first woman was made from one of Adam’s ribs as a
help-meet to Adam, “….Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken
out of the man, and he brought her to the man.” (Genesis 2:22) All people are descendants of this first
couple, each a creation of God (Psalm 139:13-16) with a physical body, and an
eternal soul. All of our bodies will die
physically, but our souls will always live, either in heaven or hell forever
depending on what we choose to do with God’s offer of salvation while we live
on earth.(1 Corinthians 15:51-54, Psalm 6:5, 16:10, John 14:1-3)
Unlike animals, man was created
with freedom to choose right or wrong (Genesis 2:15-17), and made in the image
of God having dominion over the animals (Genesis 1:26). Because Adam and Eve sinned by disobeying
God’s command not to eat from the tree of knowledge which was forbidden by God
(Genesis 3:1-7) there would be eternal consequences for them (Genesis 3:16-19),
and spiritual death for all humanity
from then on (Romans 5:12). Because of
our ancestry, and our own personal sin by nature and choice, we are all guilty
of wrong. “For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
We are not innately good as some would suggest, we are evil, selfish and
sin bent; “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who
can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Left to
ourselves we are hopeless, and life has no purpose beyond pleasing
ourselves. We are separated from God,
deserving of His judgement, unable to cleanse our own sin.
“But God, being rich in mercy,
because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our
transgressions, 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…” (Ephesians 2:4-6)
God made a way for us to be rescued from the penalties of sin, to have a
restored relationship with Him, be forgiven, having eternal life and the hope
of living in righteousness through His power in us a believers. This transformation takes place when an
individual agrees with God about their sin, believes that Christ is the Son of
God who died for their sin, and accepts His free gift of salvation by faith
(Romans 6:23, 5:8, 10:9-10). In Christ we can have hope, and a life with
purpose, and meaning.
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