Man From the Hand of His Divine Creator
By A. O. Tait
As the Lord viewed His finished work in the morning of the creation, the record says, "God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good." Gen. 1:31. The late Professor Harper used to say to his classes in Hebrew that the words rendered "very good" in this text have an intenser meaning than this English rendering would signify. He rendered the text "good exceedingly," but said that this still fell short of giving the strong meaning of the original words. The statement that everything that He had made was "very good" applies to all of God's creation, inanimate as well as animate. But speaking of the creation of man himself, the record says, "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." Gen. 1:26, 27. Thus, while all of God's creation is pronounced by divine Perfection to be "very good," still man is exalted above everything else, and is made in the image of the Creator Himself. What must have been the sublime beauty of perfection presented in man when he stood in his innocency and power of both mind and body in creation's happy springtime! When the foundations of God's creation were thus laid in such infinite perfection is it any wonder that we hear Jehovah saying, in speaking of that time in His challenge to Job, "The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy!" Man was "very good." So good was he that he was in the image of his God. Then he was perfect in every way. He was perfect in health and physical strength and bearing, as well as perfect in mind and heart. His character was stamped with the perfection of righteousness. The perfectly natural thing for him was to do right. He was in the image of the God of righteousness, and there was imparted to him along with the divine image the impulses of right-doing. Man Clothes Himself with Wrong-Doing.
But man did not choose to remain in this happy state. He listened, and then yielded, to the voice of the tempter. And when he committed sin, he passed under the dominion of sin, and in this way by his own voluntary act he changed his entire nature. He was clothed in the beginning by his God with the attributes and nature of right-doing. But now he clothes himself by his own voluntary act with the nature and attributes of wrong and of wrong-doing. And since he had become possessed with the evil nature, with all its tendencies to do wrong, he could not transmit to his posterity any other nature than the one he had taken upon himself. Hence the character and history of the entire human race is turned from its divinely bequeathed course. Utter ruin for the whole human family would have been the only result that could have followed had it not been for the redemption that was given in Jesus Christ. "Behold, this only have I found: that God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions." Eccl. 7:29. These words from the writings of the wise man, Solomon, state in a sentence the facts already shown in the foregoing paragraphs. Man was made righteous and perfect in the beginning, but he did not choose to remain in that good way, but yielded his perfect nature for the imperfections of sin. And by this surrender to sin, not only was mankind itself thrown under the ruin of decay, but all the created world was made to suffer with him. But from this apparently hopeless condition the Lord provides a rescue. The Son of God Himself is given freely to save man, and the plan for a new creation is made. But in this new creation only those who choose to be created anew will enjoy its benefits. Those who do not make the choice will not have the advantages and blessings of the renewed life forced upon them. The Promised New Creation.
"Wherefore if any man is in Christ, there is a new creation: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new." 2 Cor. 5:17. Such is the marginal reading of the American Standard Revised Version of the foregoing text, and it expresses quite clearly the Gospel plan for the regeneration of mankind. Conversion takes the man as we find him, lost in sin thru the transgression of Adam, and creates him anew. It makes him a new creation. And man is not all that is benefited in this "new creation." All that was lost thru Adam's fall will be restored to those who accept Christ and His righteousness. One of the scriptures that tell of this new creation reads as follows: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His peoples, and God Himself shall be with them and be their God: and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more: the first things are passed away. And He that sitteth on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He saith, Write: for these words are faithful and true." Rev. 21:1-5. The beautiful earth, as it was given to man in all its perfection in the beginning, is to be redeemed; it is to be recreated, and given back to the redeemed of mankind. This is the direct purpose of God, as shown by His abundant promises. And when the time for this new creation is reached, every bit of sin, together with every unrepentant, unregenerate sinner will be destroyed forever. That unforsaken and unforgiven sin is finally to meet the fate of destruction, is hinted at in other articles in this issue, and will be more abundantly shown in other articles next week. And when sin and sinner are thus destroyed, this new earth, o'erspread with all the indescribable splendors of the glorious Eden, will be given to those who have accepted the ways of righteousness, and will be their everlasting home. The promise is that we are to be ushered into the joys of this new creation and this eternal existence at the second coming of Christ. Then can we be reasonably blamed for rejoicing because the evidence is so clear that His coming is right at hand? Let the good news be heralded that there is to be a new creation, in which there will be even a greater glory and a greater joy than in the Eden of old. And let it also be heralded to the ends of the earth that the time is right at hand for the realization of the soul-enrapturing prospect.