God's Estimate of Man by John Orcutt Corliss

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Nov 18, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 44.

God's Estimate of Man

By John Orcutt Corliss

THE great problem of human value and permanence can not be properly estimated by comparison with earth's unstable environments. After studying the permanency of heavenly bodies—the moon and stars especially—and the unerring accuracy of their appointed service, the psalmist raised the question of puny man's relation to all this handiwork of the great God, whose eternity of being and purpose he could not accommodate to prevailing conditions. While yet acknowledging man's original glory, and consecration to earthly dominion, he saw also that the mission assigned him, as God's earthly counterpart, had signally failed; and the unsolved problem to him was, how God could still be mindful enough of such a gross delinquent, as actually to visit and hold communion with him. Ps. 8: 3-6.

This was, in so early an age, a part of that wondrous mystery "which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God" (Eph. 3: 9), and was therefore kept by Him a profound secret, to be revealed only through the preaching of Jesus Christ as the Son of the living God. Rom. 16: 25, 26. By this God-given standard, the great apostle undertook the unfolding of that glorious mystery which had been given him through heavenly vision. Eph. 3: 3; 2 Cor. 12: 1-4. Thus after quoting the perplexing question asked by the Hebrew king, and citing his admission of man's primary substance and kingly exaltation, he added the significant statement: "We see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor [that is, He took man's original nature and position, for the identical test to which man had been submitted]; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man." Heb. 2: 6-9.

The story unfolded in this chapter is, that since man failed to endure the proof of loyalty, God clothed His own faultless Son in fleshly garb (verses 16-18), and that, too, after ages of sin had so contaminated the world's flesh as to make it a veritable nest of iniquity (Rom. 8: 3), and thus permitted Him to be tempted in all ways that the wickedness of that fleshly age might suggest. Heb. 4: 15. But after enduring every earthly trial unscathed, and thus fighting successfully for the man the battle so ingloriously lost, He went yet further, and essayed to remove the stigma of death attached to the original failure, in order that every victim of the fall might live, if he so wills. Had Christ failed in any particular in His life-work, His death would have gone for naught in man's behalf, because then He too would have justly merited death on His own account, the same as those whose Example and Saviour He had attempted to be.

The fact that the only-begotten Son of the Eternal was freely put in the balance in man's interest, indicates, as far as possible to human reason, the estimation of mankind in the scales of heaven. There must therefore be some eminent reason for placing this infinite price on a mere creature. No other being aside from man is known to maintain so high a standing. We may then well ask, with the psalmist, What is man, that God is so mindful of him as to visit him through the infinite sacrifice of His only-begotten Son?

The story of creation must largely answer this query. Referring to man's beginning, we learn that though he was taken out of the earth, he was molded into the image of his Maker, and then endowed with the life of Omnipotence. If there can be anything in design to foreshadow destiny, it must be plain that man was at least made capable of eternal endurance. To insure this desirable result, it was therefore necessary that the creature should maintain in his conduct the conferred likeness of Him who alone could continue its accompanying life.

It seems very evident, since life was bestowed for the single purpose of maintaining the image of the invisible God amid earth's creation, that when that image should cease to be in evidence, the life by which it was to be supported could no longer be justly continued. Accordingly the man was duly warned that to disobey the voice of his Maker would mar the perfect image in which he was made, and deprive him of the heavenly life that had been so graciously bestowed upon him. These are the words to that effect: "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Gen. 2: 17.

No one can fairly say that God, who granted the original life on limited conditions, had no power nor right to withdraw His gift when the terms of the gift of life were ignored. The life was His absolutely, and He had conferred its benefits on the man with distinct understanding that in the day of disobedience, that life would be entirely forfeited to its legitimate Proprietor. There was, indeed, a specific reason, apart from man's loss of his original glory, why Jehovah could not consistently continue His own vitality in one whose time was wholly given to the service of Heaven's most ardent foe. Man having received dominion over the earthly creation as God's acknowledged representative of heavenly mastership, God's moral soundness would have been sacrificed had He not withdrawn from fallen man His own life support.

But God's infinite love for this noblest section of His creation was such that He could not entirely cast him away. Therefore a temporary expedient of animated existence was provided in a plan by which, through faith, man might have restored to him the true life, together with the high standing that he had so ruthlessly forfeited. After referring to man's failure to retain his original glory life, the apostle exclaims, "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, . . . that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man." Heb. 2: 9.

What riches of grace, what holy love, was this that could take Christ away from the fulness of His Father's side and the leadership of millions of heavenly angels, and reduce Him to such poverty on earth that He had not where to lay His head! But this was done to meet the needs of the lowest of earth's destitute and suffering. Indeed, "every man" who will, may take of the water of life freely, because of what was included in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. But this promise does not mean that unlimited

life is an inherent possession of the natural man. Far from it; for when the dust of which every one is composed, returns to the earth as it was, then the spirit of life returns to God who gave it. Eccl. 12: 7. Indeed, the "wages of sin," which is death, must be paid, after which the "gift of God," which is eternal life, is given "through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 6: 23.

Eternal life is again conferred on believers in Christ when He returns to earth at the close of earth's probation. This the Saviour teaches in the following: "The Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then He shall reward every man according to his works." Matt. 16: 27. But how? the ardent inquirer may ask. The answer is supplied by the great apostle. This is what he says: "The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise: . . . so shall we ever be with the Lord." 1 Thess. 4: 16, 17.

Then it is that the heavens shake, and the earth is removed out of its place, as the Lord makes "a man more precious than fine gold." Isa. 13: 9-13. One never gives over here the attempt to bring forth earth's treasure of coarse gold. But in God's sight man is to be more precious than unadulterated and brilliant gold, which He is to call forth from the hidden recesses of the earth; and He will again transform him into His own glorious image, to live forever in His sight. Glory be to His name. J. O. C.