NATURE OF MAN | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Mar 29, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 13.

NATURE OF MAN.

1. Who only has inherent incorruptibility and therefore continuance of existence? “The King of kings, and Lord of Lords; who only hath immortality.” 1 Tim. 6:16, 17.

2. What is man’s nature physically? “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.” Job 14:1. “Shall mortal man be more just than God?” Job 4:17. See 2 Chron. 14:11, margin.

NOTE.—“Mortal” means subject to decay, death, extinction. “Immortal” means not subject to death or decay, incorruptible.

3. Why is man subject to death? “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Rom. 5:12.

NOTE.—Adam could transmit to his posterity no higher nature than he himself possessed.

4. What was man made in the beginning? “Man became a living soul.” Gen. 2:7.

NOTE.—The Hebrew term (nephesh chayee) simply means a living creature. See Gen. 1:21, 24, 30, margin.

5. What constituted man a living soul, or living creature? “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” Gen. 2:7.

NOTE.—This “breath of life” was not given to man alone; but every living creature shared it; each of course, according to the law of his being. Gen. 7:15, 22. Notice the strength of the marginal Hebrew in the latter verse. “Yea, they [man and beast] have all one breath; so that a man [in this respect] hath no pre-eminence above a beast.” Eccl. 3:19.

6. What test did God place upon man? “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Gen. 2:17.

NOTE.—Man was not therefore immortal; for, if immortal, he could not die. He was not mortal; for to die he must change his course of action. He was a candidate for immortality (the crown of an incorruptible character), possessing eternal life by the gift of God, continued through “the obedience of faith.”

7. When man sinned, what was the assured end? “Because thou hast . . . eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it; . . . in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Gen. 3:17-19.

8. What then occurs at death? “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” Eccl. 12:7.

NOTE.—The Hebrew word rendered spirit (ruwach), is translated “breath” in Gen. 7:15; Ps. 104:29; 146:4; Eccl. 3:19, and many other passages. In other words, the life which God gave was not a separate entity; it did not so come from Him; it did not so return to Him. It came from Him as life to quicken the organism He had made. When that was dissolved, the life returned to the great Fountain. In neither man’s creation nor dissolution is there a hint of immortality possessed by him. On the contrary, the very opposite is shown. “His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.”

9. Who only, then, is immortal? “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” 1 Tim. 1:17.