Man Distanced from God by Sin

“This, we say, is man, the fallen principality. In these tragic desolations of intelligence and genius, of passion, pride, and sorrow, behold the import of his eternity. Be no mere spectator, turn the glass we give you round upon yourself, look into the ruin of your own conscious spirit, and see how much it signifies, both that you are a sinner and a man. — Here, within the soul’s gloomy chamber, the loosened passions rage and chafe, impatient of their law; here huddle on the wild and desultory thoughts; here the imagination crowds in shapes of glory and disgust, tokens both and mockeries of its own creative power, no longer in the keeping of reason; here sits remorse scowling and biting her chain; here creep out the fears, a meagre and pale multitude; here drives on the will in his chariot of war; here lie trampled the great aspirations, groaning in immortal thirst; here the blasted affections weeping out their life in silent injury; all that you see without, in the wars, revenges, and the crazed religions of the world, is faithfully represented in the appalling disorders of your own spiit.” — Horace Busanett. “The New Life.”

OW the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which Jehovah God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall

not eat of any tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of Jehovah God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah God amongst the trees of the

arden.

‘ And Jehovah God called unto the man, and said unto him, Where art thou: And he said, I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. And He said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And Jehovah God said unto the woman, What is this thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. And

Jehovah God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy pain and thy conception; in pain thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam He said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 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. And the man called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. And Jehovah God made for Adam and for his wife coats of skins, and clothed them. And Jehovah God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever — therefore Jehovah God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence*he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden the Cherubim, and the flame of a sword which turned every way, to a the way of the tree of life. — Genesis 3.

Therefore, as Sha one man sin en into - eat and dee through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned — Romans 5. 12.

I
Man Distanced from God by Sin

N the mission of Christ, that wisdom of God was manifested, and that power of God operated, through which it became possible for ruined man to be redeemed and reconciled. The

marvel of that wisdom, and the light of that power, can only be fully appreciated, in the measure in which the extent and nature of the calamity which called for Christ is understood. The whole subject is indicated in the titles of the three chapters, forming this preliminary section. The first deals with the initial act of sin, and its result, man distanced from God by sin. The second deals with the relative result of sin, man ignorant of God through sin. While the third has to do with the effect of sin upon man, man unlike God in sin. -

In dealing with the first of these phases of the one fact, it is necessary first to consider man according to the Divine ideal in his unfallen condition; secondly, to consider the fall, as to man’s action; and thirdly, to contemplate the resulting fact, man’s alienation from God.

I. The essential truth concerning the nature of man is contained in a descriptive expression found in the book of Genesis, and in New Testament Scriptures. He is spoken of as being “created in the image and likeness of God.” In order to understand the significance of this expression, it will be well to read the whole of the Scriptures where it occurs.

“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 birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.”!

“This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him.”2

1Gen. I. 26, 27. 2Gen. 5. I.

“Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made He man.”!

“For a man indeed ought not to have his head veiled, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.’2

“In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, Who is the Image of God, should not dawn upon them.”

“Who is the Image of the invisible God, the First-born of all creation.”4

“And have put on the new man, that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of Him that created him.”5

“Who being the effulgence of His glory, and the very Image of His substance, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had made purification of sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.’”6

These are the only passages in which the fact of man’s being created in the image and likeness of God is definitely declared. What is intended by the expression may be elucidated by an examination of the actual words used. The root idea of the Hebrew word translated “image” is that of a shadow. Of the other word there can be no better translation than the one adopted, that namely, of likeness.

Turning to the New Testament, the word translated “image” in the first four Scriptures quoted, is the word eikon, which suggests the idea of an outline resemblance, very literally a profile. The word translated “image” in the passage from Hebrews is the word ’ kharakter, which simply means an exact copy, cr an engraving. Thus it will be seen that both in Old and New Testaments, the expression suggests a definite resemblance, rather than an exact representation, except where, as already indicated in the letter to the Hebrews, the language is descriptive of Christ in such aspect of His Person as is peculiar to Himself, and in which men by original creation have no participation.

Passing over these Scriptures again, let the progression of thought be noted carefully. In the account of creation, it is affirmed that man was in some respect a shadow or manifestation of God. Here

1Gen.9.6. of Cor. 11.7. 32 Cor. 4.4. ‘Col. 1.15. °Col.3. 10. ®Heb. 1. 3.

are two ideas, arresting thought, and not to be forgotten in the subsequent discussion. First, man is but a faint representation, a shadow merely; and secondly, the very dignity of his being lies in the fact that he is even so much as that. Perhaps the simplest exposition of the thought would be gained by a contemplation of the shadow of a man cast upon some white background, by the shining of a great light. What the shadow would be to the man, the man would be to God.’ Like and unlike, suggesting an idea, but by no means explaining the mystery, impossible apart from the substance, and yet infinitely less in essence than the substance. Man no more perfectly expresses all the facts concerning God, than does the shadow those concerning man. Nevertheless the shadow is the image of the man, and indicates truth concerning him.

This expression never occurs in the Old Testament after the account of creation, save when in the ninth chapter of the book of Genesis, man is safeguarded from murder, the reason given being that no man has a right to destroy that which was made in the Divine image. By the act of sin, the image and likeness of God in man was not destroyed but defaced, and in all the history, contained in Old Testament Scripture, is seen a degraded ideal.

Turning to the New Testament, after the completion of the work of Christ, the expression is restored in the writings of the apostle. In the Scriptures first quoted, he is evidently referring to man as to the original Divine intention concerning him, and he speaks of him as the “image and glory of God.” In the second reference he uses the expression of Christ, as the One Who has realised that primal Divine intention, and in Colossians he declares that the original Divine ideal may be restored through the work of Christ. In Hebrews, where it has been shown, the word is a far stronger one, it is used of Christ, Who is infinitely more than a shadow of God, seeing that He is “the effulgence of His glory, and the very image of His substance.”!

Having thus examined the Scriptures, and the use of the phrase therein, it may be enquired, in what sense was man created in the image of God? The answer to the enquiry may be found by suggesting another question. What is man essentially, for it is in his essential nature that he is in the image of God? Man essentially

2 1Heb. 1. 3.

is spirit, his present body being his probational dwelling place, that through which he receives impressions and that through which he expresses the fact of his own being. In his letter to the Romans the apostle says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.”1 The marginal reading of the Revised Version changes the word “service’”’ into “worship,” and therein lies a revelation of the true relation of the spirit of man to his body. Through the medium of the body, the truth concerning the spirit expresses itself. Where the body is presented, it is presented by the spirit, and through this devotion of. the body, the spirit expresses its worship. The essential fact in man therefore is his spirit, and it is in spiritual essence that man is made in the image of God. There are secondary senses in which even in bodily form, man is a shadow of Deity. As the body of man is the expression of his spirit, and the spirit is the image of God, so through the tabernacle of man’s spirit there are made certain suggestions concerning God Himself.

The present study, however, is confined to the essential fact. Within the spiritual fact of man’s being there are three constituents. These have been variously described. Perhaps at once the simplest and most lucid analysis is that of Kant. He speaks of intelligence, emotion, and will. It is in the possession of these things that man is in the image of God. God is a Spirit, having intelligence, having emotion, having will. Man is in the shadow of God. He also is a spirit, having intelligence, having emotion, having will. In all these things he is but a shadow, that is to say, there are limitations upon these facts in human nature, which in the Divine are illimitable and consequently not to be perfectly understood of men. It has been objected to the doctrine of the personality of God that the thought of personality implies limitation. This, however, is to argue from a false hypothesis. Perfect personality is unlimited, so that personality is only perfect in God, and is imperfect in man. In God intelligence is unlimited, emotion is unlimited, will is unlimited. In man all these facts are found, but in each case within limitations. He does not know all things, his intelligence being limited, his emotional nature also can only act within comparatively

1Rom. 12. I, narrow limitations, and the exercise of his will is limited by the demand for a cause, which is never perfectly found within himself.

Man as originally created, was not only in the image of God. He was also made to live in union with God, so that all his limitation might find its complement in the unlimited life of the Eternal. It is a great mistake to think of man as made, and then put into some position, where he might rise or fall, according to the capacity of his own personality. It is rather to be remembered that he was created in the image of God, and then put in the probationary position through which he was to pass unharmed to some larger form of existence, if his life were lived in union with the God Who had created him. If however he chose a separate existence, and cut himself off from union, in that act, he would encompass his own ruin, he would fall.

This intended life of union with God may be described in twe ways, as personal fellowship, which is holiness of character; and as co-operative activity, which is righteousness of conduct. For a full understanding of what this meant, it is useless to tarry in the garden of Eden. There, in the account of creation, a faint suggestion is given of the Divine intention. It is necessary, however, to come to the last Adam, the Man Jesus, for a full appreciation of this Divine intention. In Him unbroken fellowship with the Father manifested itself in holiness of character, and unceasing co-operation with God expressed itself in absolute righteousness of conduct.

In order to an appreciation of the meaning of fellowship with God there must be remembered the analysis of personality already referred to, intelligence, emotion, and will. In unfallen man the limited intelligence was nevertheless enlightened, and was able to understand the things of God. Limited emotion was nevertheless enkindled towards the things thus known, and man loved God and all He loved. The limited will was yet energised by the superior and Infinite Will of God, and so chose ever the things that were in harmony with that Will. Thus in unfallen man there was to be found enlightened intelligence, enkindled emotion, energised will, wholly within the realm of the Divine Sovereignty.

Then beyond that personal fellowship, there was co-operative activity, which is righteousness of conduct. And again the analysis of personality may be taken as the basis of consideration. All activity is the outward expression of an inward intelligence. The enlightened intelligence of unfallen man, appreciating the things of God, the deeds of the life of such a being were in perfect harmony with the purposes of God. The emotional nature of such a being, appreciating and loving the things of God, became the spring from which streams of action emerged, which were all moving in the Divine direction. In such a being the will exercised its highest function in choosing the things of God, and the activities of the life were therefore always those of partnership with the enterprises of God. The old word spoken to the father of the race was “have dominion.” In the midst of a wondrous creation God set man. The creation in which man found himself had not yet realised all the possibilities of its own being. It waited the touch of man in co-operation with God for that realisation. God put man into a garden to dress it and to keep it. The preparation of man’s work was of God, the creation of the worker was of God, there was perfect fitness between the work to be done, and the workman prepared, and while man lived in fellowship with God, and co-operated with God, all creation recognised his leadership, yielded to his dominion, and moved along the line of a new progress towards a yet more wondrous beauty and perfection.

These truths are yet evidenced by the power of man even in a fallen condition. All the cultivation of flowers, all the inventions of science, are in the last analysis, but man’s co-operation with God, issuing in new forms of beauty, and fresh forces of utility. A very simple illustration in floral culture is the chrysanthemum. But a very few years ago it was looked upon as an old-fashioned garden flower, very sweet, but very simple. To-day it is one of the most gorgeous and marvellous of decorative blossoms, so beautiful in the length and delicacy of its petals, so poetic in its restless waviness of beauty, and so splendid in its possibility of colour, that it has well been described as “‘a rose gone wild with joy.”! The possibility of this beauty always lay within the modest garden flower, and the development thereof has been wholly due to man’s discovery of certain laws of Nature, which laws are ever the thoughts of God.

So also in the realm of scientific discovery. Let a map of the world be taken, and let the hand be placed upon the centres where

*Dr. Joseph Parker.

such discoveries have been made, and it will invariably be found that the hand is resting on a land where the light of the Christian revelation has most brightly shined. These things but go to prove that it is in co-operation with God that man is capable of highest activity, because in co-operation with God he realises the perfection of character. Unfallen man, then, was a being like God, in the essentials of his nature, in that he was a spirit having intelligence, emotion, and will. Unfallen man realised the highest possibility of his being in a life of personal fellowship and co-operative activity with God.!

There yet remains one other fact to remember, concerning the unfallen condition of man. He was placed in circumstances of probation. That is to say, the citadel of his nature was his will. It was for him to choose whether he would abide in that relation to God, which would ensure his fullest realisation of possibility, or whether he would by severance from God encompass his own ruin. It was a terrible and awful alternative. Yet unless it were offered to man, the highest fact of his being would be atrophied, for will power, having tio choice, ceases to be of value. Thus in the garden of his activity God marked the limit of his possibility by two sacramental symbols. Both were trees. The one was the tree of life, of which he was commanded to eat. The other was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which was forbidden. Between these lay an endless variety of which he might or might not eat, as pleased himself. Of the tree of life he must eat, and thus he was reminded, in a positive symbol, of his dependence for the sustenance of his being upon God. Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he was forbidden to eat, and thus he was reminded of the limitation of his freedom within the government of God. Finite will is to be tested, and it will stand or fall as it submits to, or rebels against the Infinite Will of the Infinite God. Thus unfallen man was a being created in the image of God, living in union with God, co-operating in activity with God, having the points of the limitation of his being marked by simple and definite commands laid upon him, gracious promises luring him to that which was highest on the one hand, and a solemn sentence warning him from that which was lowest on the other. He was a sovereign under a Sovereignty, independent, but dependent. He had the right of will, but this could only be perfectly exercised in perpetual submission to the higher will of his God. The whole fact is summarised concerning essential human nature in the exquisite couplet,

“Our wills are ours, we know not how;
Our wills are ours to make them Thine.””?

II. In considering the Bible account of the fall of man, it is necessary first to note carefully the process of his temptation. In the story of Genesis is clearly revealed the great distinction between testing and tempting. Man’s position in the economy of God was one in which he was in the place of testing. That testing became - definite enticement towards evil through the agency of evil already existing, and expressing itself through its prince, the devil. The method of the enemy was full of all subtlety. He first asked a question which was calculated to create the sense of restricted liberty, and so cast an aspersion on the goodness of God. To paraphrase the question, he said, In this garden is there some tree forbidden to you: Are you at any point of your will limited and restricted? The answer of the woman admitted the limitation which certainly existed. Then the very essence of evil is seen in the interpretation of that limitation. Whereas the limitation in the purpose of God was wholly beneficent, and intended to hold man within the only sphere in which he could make progress towards the largest and fullest possibility of his being; the enemy suggested that it was imposed by a desire on the part of God to keep man from progress and enlargement of capacity. Thus it is seen that at the back of the method of the devil is an aspersion cast upon the character of God. Man was made to question the goodness of law. Appealing to the intelligence of man, the enemy created an aspersion, which was calculated to change the attitude of his emotion and so capture the final citadel, that namely, of his will. He declared that man’s intellectual nature was prevented from development by this limitation. By this declaration he created in the mind of man a question as to the goodness of the God Who had made the law, and thus imperilled the relation of the will to God, as he called it into a place of activity outside, and contrary to, the will of God.

Then came the actual fall, and its essential characteristic was that

1Tennyson, of independent action. The wisdom and the love of God having been called into question, man instead of taking counsel with Him concerning the suggestion of evil, acted independently, and in that act of self-separation from God, he fell from the sphere in which it was possible to realise all the infinite meaning of his being, into that of utter and irremedial ruin. All the rivers that have made sad the life of man, had their source in this turning of the will of man from its proper channel, that of community of action with the will of God, into the channel-less rush of undetermined and ungoverned activity. By taking of the fruit of the forbidden tree, man desecrated the sacramental symbol, because he had departed from that sphere of life of which the non-partaking tree was the confine. By the assertion of his own will he dethroned God and enthroned himself. Man as to spiritual essence sinned when listening to the tempter, he doubted the love, and decided to act as against the will of God. That inward and spiritual fall of man found its expression in the overt act of taking that which God had forbidden.

Ill. The issue of the act is revealed in the words “so He drove out the man.”! Man by his own decision and deed has separated himself from God. God by the necessity of the being created, judicially separates man from Himself. Having violated the covenant, man is put outside its benefits. The life of dependence upon God was the life of union and co-operation with God. Man having chosen the position of independence, is now cut off from union and co-operation. To say this, is to declare that by his own act, man has become separated from the fellowship with God which constitutes his holiness of character; and from that co-operation with God which is the condition of righteousness of conduct. He has passed into a region where the essential powers of his being can find no fitting field of operation. He retains the essential facts of his being, but they cannot be perfected, because they have lost their true sphere. Henceforward his intelligence must be bounded by its own limitation, as it is severed from the Infinite Knowledge. So also his emotion must become dwarfed as to capacity, because it has lost its perfect object in the loss of God. His will, a magnificent ruin, will perpetually attempt to secure mastership, and yet will never succeed, because it has lost its own true spring of action, and

*Gen. 3. 24.

its own Master. Man distanced from God has not lost the powers of his original creation; he has lost the true sphere of their exercise. His intelligence is darkened, his emotion is deadened, his will is degraded. Darkened intelligence henceforth will see only the things that are near. The spaciousness of the spiritual condition has ceased, and man will look at material things in a semi-blindness, which is at once tragic and pathetic. Deadened emotion, a heaven-born capacity, will attempt to satisfy itself wholly within the realm of the earth, and love being set wholly upon the things material, will for ever be wounded in their loss. Degraded will, ever attempting to be authoritative, masterful, will always be thwarted, beaten, overcome. Out of this dire and desolate ruin, God hears the call for a Deliverer.