WHAT IS MAN? by W. C. Mathewson

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 21, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 34.

WHAT IS MAN?

By W. C. Mathewson

WHAT is man that Thou art mindful of him?” Is he of great value? All his “righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” Isa. 64:6. If man’s best is as filthy rags, why did the all-wise God pay such an enormous price for his redemption?

God values man not for what he is, but for what he was, and may become. Let us briefly consider what he was. “God hath made ‘man upright.” Eccl. 7:29. “God created man in His own image.” Gen. 1:27. “Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of ‘Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet.” Ps. 8:6.

Originally man, bearing the image of the perfect God, was king of this world. God still recognizes His image in man, even defaced tho it is by sin, and estimates his worth according to its value. The greatest mathematician on earth finds himself unequal to the task of computing the value of this image; but the heavenly Mathematician, who numbers the hairs of our heads, the birds of the air, and the stars of heaven, who weighs the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance, and comprehends the dust of the earth, knows the value of His image in a human soul.

In purchasing man, God did not consider him a servant, a slave, such as he is to sin, but regarded him as a king, such as he may become, a “royal generation.” Thus Jesus Christ, in purchasing men, purchased kings, and consequently paid a royal price; He could not regard kings as worthless, or of small value, because He Himself was a king, the “King of kings.” Were not kings, bearing the image of the Great King, worth such a purchase? Christ so estimated; and when man is redeemed, Christ will not regret the price paid; for “He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be ‘satisfied.’” Isa. 53:11.

W. C. MATHEWSON.

Luce, Mich.