Man as Created by George W. Rine

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Feb 21, 1911

Man as Created

By George W. Rine

IN respect to both his bodily organization and mental endowment, man is the crowning work of creation. Shakespeare characterized him as "the paragon of animals." In not a few particulars does man surpass all other forms of animate life. "God made man upright," is the testimony of the wisest of men. This is true of both body and character. As he came from the hand of his Maker, man was morally innocent, pure, upright. Of all animal forms, man only was given an erect posture; that is, created physically upright (upstraight). This vertical posture gives him a commanding form, a beauty of figure, and a nobleness of aspect, which stamp him as the master of all the lower forms of animal creation. Throughout the domain of animate nature, nothing approaches him in external symmetry or in grace and beauty of feature. Think of the multiplex expression of the human eye, the charm of the human smile, the moral and intellectual expressiveness of his countenance — where else can these be found?

The hand belongs exclusively to man. As a distinguishing mark of the human frame, the hand is perhaps the most obvious and striking. It is so beautifully formed, has so nice a sensibility, responds so infallibly to every mandate of the will, and its actions are so potent, free, and yet so deft, that it seems instinct with inherent intelligence. Its very perfection often makes us insensible to its versatile uses.

The Dignity of Man

It will be observed that in approaching to the creation of man, the sacred narrative assumes a loftier tone and a more dignified style. The creative fiat now takes a marked change. Hitherto it had been said, "Let there be light," "Let the waters be gathered," "Let the earth bring forth," etc.; but now it is not said, Let there be man. Addressing the eternal Son, God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness." Man is then described as made and molded by the immediate hand of God, and animated by His breath. "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." And it is added, "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him." This divine likeness and image applies to the whole man — body, soul, spirit. In his entirety man was fashioned in the similitude of his Maker — God.

Naturally, then, in his powers of thought, of reason, of invention, and in his capacity for education and training, man was created incomparably higher than the highest of the brutes, and only "a little lower than the angels." But the image of God is to be found primarily in man's moral powers and spiritual capacities. It is evinced in his capacity of resembling God in moral attributes; of being holy as He is holy; of loving Him with somewhat of the love wherewith He first loved us. This is plainly indicated in the words of the apostle, where he speaks of putting off "the old man with his deeds," and putting on "the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him." It is therefore in the capacity for, or in the possession of, true "knowledge," "righteousness," and "holiness," that the image of God essentially consists.

A Free Moral Agent—Life Conditional

Tho our first parents were created upright — innocent, holy — they were not created incapable of wrong-doing. God made Adam potentially but not actually perfect; potentially but not actually immortal. A free moral character apart from a free moral agent, is unthinkable. The power of volition, of choice, assuredly implies freedom of action — liberty to do right or to do wrong. "A moral automaton" is a misnomer; for morality or goodness is possible only in a being possessing the power to choose.

God, being all-wise, could not make the mistake of creating a race of intelligences unconditionally immortal; for in so doing He would run the risk of immortalizing sinners. It is in the clearest possible terms that the Scriptures declare man to have been created only conditionally immortal. The process by which God brought man into being is set forth in the following succinct fashion: "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." As a result of God's breathing into him the breath of life, man became simply a living soul, not an immortal soul. He was constituted a living soul, but not a ceaselessly living soul.

That this is true is shown to be absolutely certain by the fact that God, immediately after creating woman as the complement of man, placed man on probation by promising him perpetual life on condition of obedience. The terms of this probation are here adduced: "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 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. 2:16, 17. There is no ambiguity here. The threat of death is unqualified. Disobe

dience would unfailingly issue in death. But we must not fail to observe, too, that the terms of the probation carry with them the obvious implication that should Adam — the representative of the race — continue to obey his Maker until his loyalty and devotion should be fully tested and made eternally certain, he would be entrusted with endless life, or immortality. Just as certainly as God declared that man should die if he disobeyed, He also declared, by implication, that if he obeyed he should not die; that is, should live — live eternally if he obeyed eternally.

Death Not Life

But we all know the sad sequel. Adam did not prove equal to the crucial test. He ate of the forbidden fruit — disobeyed. He sinned, and "the wages of sin is death." "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die;" or, as the Hebrew actually expresses it, "dying thou shalt die." (See margin.) It is hardly possible to believe that Adam could have understood the language to mean anything but just what the words obviously imply. No one would ever have thought of injecting another meaning into this language, had it not been for the purpose of sustaining a dogma which the Bible does not teach. But when God Himself proceeds to interpret the meaning of these words, as He does immediately after the fall — "for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" — this certainly should be the end of all dispute with those who have genuine regard for the truth of God's Word.

But further, do we not have an exhibition of God's mercy, as well as of His justice, in dooming the sinner to death? God will not allow him to perpetuate a life of sin and misery. Hence the "Tree of Life," to which he had access hitherto, is now denied him; and for this very reason, as God explicitly tells us: "And now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, and LIVE FOREVER," — he is driven from the garden, and cherubim are stationed to guard the Tree of Life against the sinner's approach. The tree is not destroyed. A new way of access is to be provided through an atoning Saviour, who will restore to the penitent sinner the life he forfeited by sin; and in Paradise restored, to which Christ will ultimately bring His ransomed people, they again will "have right to the Tree of Life."

In the lucid phrasing of a well-known writer, we have this pertinent thought:

God placed man under law, as an indispensable condition of his very existence. He was a subject of the divine government, and there can be no government without law. God might have created man without the power to transgress His law; He might have withheld the hand of Adam from touching the forbidden fruit; but in that case man would have been, not a free moral agent, but a mere automaton. Without freedom of choice, his obedience would not have been voluntary, but forced. There could have been no development of character. Such a course would have been contrary to God's plan in dealing with the inhabitants of other worlds. It would have been unworthy of man as an intelligent being.

Not Actually Immortal

That man was created, not actually, but only potentially, immortal, is clearly and forcefully attested by not a few statements of Holy Writ. In verse 7 of Romans 2, believers are said to "seek for glory and honor and immortality," "by patient continuance in well-doing." If man possessed original, inherent immortality, is it conceivable that the divine Spirit would represent the Christian as seeking for it? Certainly not. How utterly fatuous would it be for one to "seek" for what one already possesses! Not once throughout the range of the sacred Scriptures is immortality predicated of man, nor is the adjective "immortal" once used to qualify "man." But in Job 4:17 man is definitely referred to as "mortal." In like manner the apostle Paul speaks of universal man, distributively, as "this MORTAL." He proceeds to affirm, however, that at a given time, "at the last trump," when "the dead shall be raised incorruptible," "this mortal must PUT ON IMMORTALITY." Could even inspired language affirm more clearly and convincingly man's present mortality and the possibility of his future immortality through Christ?

Once more: in 1 Tim. 6:16 is recorded the clearest possible declaration that God "ONLY hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto." In truth, it is the distinctive mission of the Gospel to open a way by which man can ultimately attain immortality through Christ, who is "the resurrection and the life." For the divine Spirit expressly affirms that Christ has "brought life and IMMORTALITY TO LIGHT THROUGH THE GOSPEL." 2 Tim. 1:10.

We have now seen that divine revelation repeatedly characterizes man as mortal, but never as immortal. But, because man was made "in the image of God" (Gen. 1:26, 27), and since God is immortal, many honest thinkers infer that man must necessarily have been created immortal. Is the inference logically warrantable that because man was made in the image of God, he was necessarily endowed with all the attributes of God? Assuredly not. No one denies that God is omnipotent, that He is omniscient, that He is infallible, and so on. Now, if we infer that man is immortal because he was made in the image of God, we must, to be consistent, infer that he is omniscient, almighty, and that he existed from all eternity.

Surely no one could think of making conclusions so utterly untenable, if not blasphemously presumptuous.

More and more, men are coming to see that the hypothesis of human immortality has absolutely no standing-ground in the sacred Scriptures. Have we not shown, in fact, that it is in absolute conflict with the plain, positive testimony of Holy Writ? We have seen that the Spirit of God expressly characterizes man as mortal, and with equal definiteness declares that God only has immortality. If, as is commonly taught, immortality inheres in man, these testimonies of the divine Spirit could not be true. Many earnest, sincere people do not seem to be aware that Satan, whom Jesus branded as the father of lies, was the first to enunciate the dogma that man can not die and is therefore immortal. (See Gen. 3:4.) Every pagan religion the world has ever known has taught the satanic tradition of human deathlessness as its fundamental tenet. And are not all Christians agreed that every pagan religion has been fathered and fostered by Satan, the author of all error? Whom shall we believe, dear reader, pagan philosophers or inspired prophets — Satan or God?

Why not accept the inspired testimony of the "beloved disciple" John, "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life"?