Man Unlike God in Sin

OF it be true that man having lost his vision of God, creates gods for himself, by projecting into immensity his own distorted being, it follows therefore that there must be reaction on the

character of man himself.
In describing the idols of the nations, the Psalmist makes use of — remarkable and suggestive words::
“Their idols are silver and gold,
The work of men’s hands.
They have mouths, but they speak not;
Eyes have they, but they see not;
They have ears, but they hear not;
Noses have they, but they smell not;
They have hands, but they handle not;
Feet have they, but they walk not;
Neither speak they through their throat.
They that make them shall be like unto them;
Yea, every one that trusteth in them.”*

This is the declaration of a great principle, that a man is always like his God. Having created a god upon the pattern of himself, man becomes governed by that idea, and so the process of deterioration goes forward.

The whole fact may be indicated by bringing together a group of Scriptures.

First, the statement of Genesis, “So He drove out the man.”2

Next the statement from the prophecy of Hosea, “They ... have made them molten images of their silver, even idols according to their own understanding.”3

Third, a declaration of the Psalmist, “they that make them shall be like unto them; Yea, every one that trusteth in them.”!

Fourth, Paul’s description of the condition of the people, who have become idolaters, “having no hope and without God in the world.”4 Man alienated from God through sin, answered the

1Psa. 115. 4-8. 2Gen. 3. 24. SHosea 13.2. 4Eph. 2. 12.

craving of his nature for God by creating one. He became degraded by his own false conception, and the final fact is, that being without God, he is also without hope.

The present study will be devoted to a consideration, first, of the fact that separation from God issues in unlikeness; secondly, of the unlikeness resulting from separation; concluding with a summing up of the position as indicating the call for Christ.

I. In the fact of his alienation from God, man has lost his own spiritual life. As material death is the separation of the spirit from the body, so spiritual death is the separation of the spirit from God. The Scripture thought concerning the death of the spirit is nowhere that of cessation of the spirit’s existence. Death means cessation of existence only with regard to that which is perishable. The body is but the temporary and probationary dwelling-place of man’s spirit. Death for that means the end of its existence. The death of the spirit consists in its existence, but in separation from that Spirit of God, in fellowship with Whom it is alone equal to the fulfilment of all its essential functions. Separated from God, the spirit of man retains its consciousness of great possibilities, without being able to realise and fulfil them. Eyes which do not see, ears which do not hear, the only consciousness of God is that of an intellectual conviction of His existence, not that of a personal acquaintance with Him.

This statement comes as more than a declaration of a doctrine. It is the expression of an experience. Apart from the miracle of regeneration no man has a true vision of God. Sometimes in boastfulness, and in the attitude of ridicule, men will declare that they do not believe in the existence of God, because they have never seen God. God is present in the orderliness of Nature, in the magnificent and minute beauty of the infinitely great and the infinitely small. Man cannot see Him. To those whose hearts are pure and whose eyes are open, He is to be seen in the face of a little child, and in all the movements of the times. But man, alienated from the Divine life, though dwelling in the place of vision sees nothing. The light shines, but the darkened eye perceives it not. The voice speaks, but the heavy ear hears it not. God is near to every man, but the dead spirit is unconscious of His nearness.

In that wonderful address of Paul to the men of Athens, he said, “Ye men of Athens, in all things I perceive that ye are very religious. For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. What therefore ye worship in ignorance, this I set forth unto you. The God that made the world and all things therein, He, being Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is He served by men’s hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He Himself giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and He made of one every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed seasons, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek God, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us: for in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain even of your own poets have said, For we are also His offspring.”!

The great statement that He “is not far away from each one of us: for in Him we live, and move, and have our being” has reference not merely to the company of the saints, but to all men. Human life is sustained within the fact of the Divine and all its energy. All human force exerted is of God. The very strength in which man rebels against Him, and hinders the coming of His Kingdom, and walks along the way of his pilgrimage, is Divine strength, though prostituted to base uses by the perversion of the will of God. Thus man, walking in the midst of a great light, stumbles and falls in darkness, because he is blind. Man alienated from God is in the place of vision, but sees it not; passes along his pathway surrounded by the infinite music of the voice of God, and yet has no hearing thereof. He is spiritually dead. In the light, but sightless; spoken to, but deaf.

The result of this with regard to man’s conception of God is, as has been shown, that he creates the false deities upon the basis of a magnificent but false humanity. Its result in the case of his spiritual nature is inevitably that of deterioration. Having no pattern, and therefore no true understanding of his own being as to its possibility and goal, he appropriates the very energies that were supplied for his progress in such way as to ensure his degradation. Man who does not know God, does not know himself, and is therefore not able to realise the true ideal of life. The final word

Acts 17. 22-28, in the system of Greek thought, was expressed in the oft-quoted sentence, “Man, know thyself.” That which is remarkable about the injunction is that these men had discovered the supreme necessity. What they failed to discover was the way in which men should be able to obey their injunction, and know themselves. No man can know himself who does not know God. Just as man, having lost the vision of God, creates a false deity upon the basis of his own distorted intelligence, so thereafter, he attempts to bring himselr into conformity with the false deity, and thus perpetuates the ruin, and ensures the final degradation. In the Divine economy man is a perfect union: of spirit and body, which union issues in a mind or consciousness truly balanced, having comprehension of spiritual things, and therefore true understanding of things material. Through sin and the death of the spirit, there has entered into human life discord between spirit and flesh, and the mind is unbalanced in appreciation of values, and clouded in its outlook upon all facts. Discord tends to discord. The instrument created for fellowship with God, in order to the representation of God, itself being out of order, because out of communion with God, is now only capable of expressing distorted truth concerning God, which is the most terrible form of heresy.

Il. In dwelling more particularly upon the unlikeness resulting, the two facts in human nature already referred to must be remembered. Essentially man is spirit. Apparently man is body. That is to say, the unseen but essential fact in human life is that of the spirit. The body is at once a medium through which the spirit receives its impressions, and its knowledge concerning material things, and expresses to others spiritual truths. In both of these man has become unlike God. As unfallen man is like God, the essential likeness being in the fact of the spirit, but the revelation of that fact being through the medium of the body; so fallen man, distanced from God, and ignorant of God, is unlike God in the essential fact of his spiritual nature, and therefore fails to give any expression of God through the medium of his physical being.

As to the first, spirit. Falling back upon the analysis of human personality already considered, that namely of intelligence, emotion, and will; man is, in the whole fact, unlike God. Think first of the

intellectual side of a man’s nature. All are possessed of this, and yet apart from restoration to God, the intellect in its working, and in its achievements, is utterly unlike the working and the achievements of the wisdom of God. For illustration, instead of thinking of an ignorant man, whose intellectual capacity is dwarfed, let the mind contemplate the finest product of education and culture that can possibly be produced, and even: then, at its best it is utterly unlike God. This statement does not undervalue the culture of the intellect. It simply asserts that an intellect cultured to all refinement, is nevertheless the degradation of intellect, unless the spirit of man is in harmony and actual intercourse with the Spirit of God. The operation of the human intellect apart from the life of fellowship with God is an operation wholly within the realm of material things. Intellect divorced from Deity, deals only with dust. Take all scientific investigation, and it is but the investigation and tabulation of material things. Indeed, science is ever urgent in her declaration that she has nothing to do with subjects that lie beyond this limit of investigation and tabulation of the facts of material life. With splendid daring, and with a most remarkable accuracy, the intellect of man has forced its way back through all the movements of material order, until at last it has come to the protoplasmic germ. Here science stands still, and honestly declares it has no more to say. That is perfectly true, and it is admirably honest that men should confess its limitation. And yet there is infinitely more to say. No man by searching can find out God, but the intellect of man in harmony with God, is instructed by the higher intelligence of God Himself, as to the supreme fact which lies behind the dead wall, that prevents further investigation, of intellect unilluminated by spiritual communion. Had there been no break with God, no death, no darkening of the intelligence, man would never have stood still at the point indicated. Men, in communion with the spiritual, have declared what lies behind the limit of investigation possible to intellect acting apart from God.

The opening sentence of Genesis, at which man’s proud intellect smiles, because it contains a statement too profound for his comprehension, is a revelation of the enlargement of intellect in communion with God. Behind the mighty movements and orderly sequences, which clouded intelligence has been able to observe, intellect inspired discovers the fact which illuminates the mystery, and satisfies the reason, as none other can. “In the beginning God created,”1

Or to take the statement of Job. “He ... hangeth the earth upon nothing,”2 is again to hear a most profound statement, resulting from spiritual insight. The scientist will declare that to be unthinkable, and in his declaration he confesses the truth of the argument. There are things unthinkable to human intellect until it is illumined. And yet the scientist objects because he does not rightly understand. He leads back, and back, and back, until he comes to the simplest form of things material, of which it is possible for his mind to conceive. The spiritually enlightened man then says to him, “In the beginning God created.” “He hangeth the earth upon nothing.” To this the scientist objects that he cannot find foothold on nothing, and by that statement shows his utter ignorance of the declaration of these inspired intellects. In the first declaration the scientist lays his emphasis upon the apparent vacuum or nothingness, which precedes the things which had their beginning. The spiritually-instructed intelligence lays its emphasis upon God Who filled the void, and through the working of Whose energy the new became.

So also with the second. Man’s intelligence unillumined, lays its emphasis upon the “nothing.” Intellect inspired by communion with the spiritual lays its emphasis upon the “He.” It is this God, this “He” that human intellect in its degradation is wearying itself to find, and He never can be found by the unaided working of a degraded intelligence, whose operations are wholly limited within the facts material. The intellect of man, created by God for largest purposes, has become imprisoned within the material realm. God is a Spirit, and the secret at back of all material phenomena is that God has spiritual personality. The mighty wisdom of the eternal God is spiritual. The intellect of man has become materialised, and thus as to intelligence he is unlike God.

It is equally true that man ‘is unlike God in his emotional nature. The action of man’s affection at its highest, apart from fellowship with God is selfish. Traced back to the final fact, human love is self-centred in its choice of an object, and in its expression of itself towards that object. Said Jesus to His disciples, “If ye love them

iGenwiet. Job 26. 7.

that love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?”! In that question there is revealed the very inwardness of depraved human emotion. Man loves such as love him. That fact alone is sufficient to demonstrate man’s unlikeness to God. He loves in the very necessity of His Being, and in such way as for ever to make impossible the thought of selfishness as a motive. The deepest emotion of man acts finally along the line that will tend to the gratification of desires that are purely selfish. Invariably and inevitably when the capacity for love operates from this centre of self, love itself becomes selfish, self-centred, self-inspired, self-considering, and thus destroys itself. God’s love is spiritual and sacrificing, and is set upon objects utterly unworthy of love, upon such as have given no reason for love, in that they have hated Him. The love of God is self-emptying, self-sacrificing.. Not for the self-enrichment does He bestow gifts, but for the enrichment of those upon whom He bestows them. The highest culture of the emotional nature of man, apart from the moving love of God, is debased, in that it is self-centred; and thus in the fact of his emotional nature also, man is unlike God.

Moreover, in the realm of the will as to its governing principle, and activity, man has become utterly unlike God. The motive power behind the action of human will, apart from its relation to the Divine will, is that of desire for mastery. The motive power behind the will of God, dominating its action, is always that of a love which is set upon the well-being of others, and which urges God Himself towards such ministry as shall encompass that well-being. A strong-willed man, as the phrase goes, is one who means to have his own way. Whether he is a saint or a sinner, that is equally true. He is masterful, and is determined that the wills of others shall yield to his. This, apart from the operation of the grace of God, tends to tyranny. The highest exercises of human will, those which have lifted certain men above the plane of their fellows, have made them conspicuous in human history, and have created the reason why vast multitudes of their fellows have done them homage, have been those of determination to drive a highway through opposing difficulties, in order that men and movements may submit to the dominating desire of such men. How utterly MAN UNLIKE GOD IN SIN 4i

and absolutely unlike the action of the will of God. That will is simple and beneficent, and its very strength lies in the fact that it is set determinately upon the well-being of others. The will of God for man is that he should be the best, and have the best; and that determination creates the mighty force thereof. And yet how little this is really understood. Here again man libels God, by thinking of His will in its determinings and doings, as an enlargement of the will of man. How constantly men think and speak of the will of God as being the determination of an Autocrat, Who insists upon the keeping of His laws. That is perfectly true, but the reason behind the insistence is the reason which creates the will, that namely, of His infinite and unwearying love. The force behind man’s will is the passion for mastery. The force behind God’s will is the passion of an Infinite Love which impels to service.

In the story of the fall there is the account of the genesis of that which is evil in the will of man. When the enemy said, “Ye shall be as God,”! he suggested a false conception of God. Then for the first time there was held before man the possibility of being master, and therein lay a scandal upon God. In effect the enemy said, God

has His way and masters you. Take the mastery out of His hands, and be masters yourselves. When Jesus came He said, “the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.”2 In that great statement is a revelation of the truth concerning God. God’s mastery is the channel of His service. By insistence on authority He serves all highest interests in human life. Of this man has lost all consciousness. He has but one conception of greatness, that of authority over others, one understanding of the operation of the human will, that of determination to be obeyed. When the soldier returns from battle, men still sing: “See the conquering hero comes,

Sound the trumpet, beat the drums;

Sports prepare, the laurel bring,

Songs of triumph to him sing.

See the godlike youth advance,

Breathe the flutes and lead the dance;

Myrtle wreaths and roses twine
To deck the hero’s brow divine.”

*Gen. 3. 5. *Matt. 20. 28.

Is that conquering hero godlike? That is the moment in which man is far more like the devil than like God. Men do not sing:

“See the conquering hero comes”

of such as in some obscure place quietly wait and serve, and yet they are the truly godlike. All this, however, men of darkened intelligence, and prostituted emotion will not believe. There can be no acceptance of such teaching as this, save by those who are restored to relationship with God, and see things from the standpoint of the spiritual.

Thus in the spiritual fact of his nature, man by the fall has become unlike God, in that his intelligence operates wholly within the material realm, whereas the Divine wisdom is spiritual, and therefore explanatory of all material facts; his emotion acts from wrong principle of self-love, whereas the Divine love ever operates upon the principle of love for others; and his will asserts itself upon the basis of the passion for mastery, whereas the Divine will insists upon obedience, through determination to serve the highest interests of others.

What bearing has this then upon the physical fact in human nature? This question may be briefly answered by declaring that the body has become the prison of the spirit. It deadens the spirit’s consciousness, silences its voice, and practically treats it as non-existent. Man provides for physical food, and neglects the sustenance of the spirit. He builds and furnishes a house for his body, while he pays no attention to the ultimate homelessness of his spirit. He takes great care as to the air in which his physical life exists, but provides no atmosphere for the invigoration of his spirit. Wherever this is so, the body itself becomes vulgarised. Man’s physical nature can never realise its highest possibilities of beauty, by divorcing it from that which is spiritual.

The sense of spiritual beauty lost, man seeks only the attractiveness of the flesh, and thereby ministers to its own decay and vulgarisation. Illustrations from the methods of fashionable women might be quoted, were it not a subject too nauseous. The highest perfection of beauty can only be realised where there is a recognition of the supremacy of the spiritual, and the body consequently becomes, not the prison house of the spirit, but its temple. It

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follows therefore that the image of God lost in the spiritual, cannot be expressed in the physical.

II. In this threefold consideration it has been seen that man is out of harmony with God as to motive, method, and manifestation of life. Character being at variance, conduct is antagonistic. Fallen man is a lie. Man was made the shadow of God, for the manifestation of God. Having departed from the true line of light, being separated from the forces of life, instead of shadowing God forth, he has cast the shadow of his depraved personality back upon God, and therefore instead of revealing, hides.

All this serves to demonstrate the fact that there is now no further use for man in the economy of God, no reason for his continuity. There can be no reflection upon the infinite wisdom and justice of God, if so terrible a failure were cast out hopelessly from His presence. The very reason for the existence of humanity is rendered impossible of realisation. Broken lenses can but reveal broken lights. The ruined camera can but distort images, and man who was created an instrument for the forthshadowing of God, is now incapable of doing his work, in that it is impossible for a ruined instrument to reveal, its very ruin consisting in its unfitness for the work of revelation.

There can be no reconstruction within the realm of destruction. If ever this ruined instrument is to be reconstructed, it must be by a process from without. Now let the question solemnly be asked at this point. Is there any reason why man should be redeemed, why the wreckage should be restored, why the instrument should be renewed: If it be declared that the reason is that God still needs an instrument of illumination, it may be fairly averred that He can create a new instrument, abandoning the one that has been a failure. The plain fact which must be faced is this, that there is no reason in the realm of righteousness, or of justice merely, why there should be any redemption provided for lost man.

And yet there is a reason, so powerful, so conclusive, and inclusive, that it may be reverently, and yet unhesitatingly affirmed that God is bound to find a way of redemption, and answer the call of a ruined race. That reason lies within the nature of God. It is that He is Love. Because He is Love, He must; and the “must” has in it nothing of the declaration of human claim, but it is the affirmation of faith, based upon profound conviction. The reason of redemption lies in the heart of God.

This is not a statement calculated to create satisfaction in the mind of man with himself. It is hardly a popular doctrine. It cuts from underneath the feet all ground for human boasting. God is not bound to do anything for man. Man has forfeited his whole claim upon God by sin. There is absolutely no reason why the distorted and ruined image should be redeemed or reconstructed. And yet there is a reason, and that so powerful, that there can be no escape from it.

“He saw me ruined in the fall,
Yet loved me notwithstanding all.”

If God had been other than Love, man must have remained endlessly in the realm of ruin. But the very ruin of man included within it man’s spoiling, and man’s sorrow, creating a great cry which appealed to the Infinite Love of the Infinite Heart. The call of man in his ruin Love heard, and Love answered, in the gift of Christ, Who is Himself, to traverse the path of pain and suffering, to the final and absolute limit, that out of all this, man might be lifted into the realm where it will be possible to fulfil the initial purpose of his creation, and thus satisfy the purpose of God, which is the purpose of Love. 1Medley.