What the Bible Says...about God, Man, Satan, the Christian Life, the Church, Future Things, and Salvation

 

Man

Men and women, referred to in this text in the masculine form, are God’s highest creation.

Man was and is created by God in His likeness and image with a free will. He is made up of a spirit, soul, and body and was created to enjoy fellowship with His Creator – to rule over and care for the earth and its creatures. After fellowshiping with God for a season, the first man and woman were enticed by Satan to disobey God’s will and chose to go their own way. By yielding to Satan’s temptation, man became a sinner.

Man’s sin separated him from God immediately and doomed all his offspring to inherit a sinful nature. As a result, all men were and are born with a natural inclination to disobey God and to choose their own way. Since God was and is perfect in every way and could not possibly fellowship with imperfect man, it was necessary for man’s sake that God reveal and work out His plan for man’s restoration – a plan that He designed long before the world began. In God’s great foreknowledge, He knew that man would sin, so He made a plan to demonstrate His exceeding love and grace to save him.

God’s plan of redemption includes not only the salvation of man through the righteousness of His Son, but also the ability for man to conform to the image of His Son. This is God’s desire and clearly stated objective – that He would have many sons and daughters just like Jesus.

Men and women were distinctly created, and that distinction clearly set forth the roles that God designed and desired for them to play. First, man was created “from the dust of the ground”; then woman was created from the rib of the man. She was created to be his helpmate, and the man was to be her caretaker.

The man is to be first as the example of love between the two, and the woman is to respond in kind. While neither one is superior to the other, man is to lead as the covering for the woman. Their roles are equally important. With few exceptions, they were designed for marriage and the procreation of children and are always commanded to teach their children to obey, love, and honor their divine Creator and Redeemer.

When a person dies in Christ, he is immediately taken into the presence of the Lord, awaiting the final resurrection of all God’s people when we will be united together with Him in His glory forever. When someone dies without Christ, he awaits the final judgment day where he will be found guilty for sin and sentenced to torment in a literal, eternal “hell."

Select Scriptures about Man

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. (Psalms 8:3-8)

And 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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. (Genesis 1:26-28)
What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. (Romans 3:9-12)
For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. (Romans 5:6-11)