What is man?

Psalm 8 asks and answers (in part).

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.

You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet. (Psalm 8:3–6)

Of everything God has created, we are unique. Created in His image to reflect and represent Him, with a mandate to fruitfully multiply and fill the earth. To subdue and exercise dominion over it as “sub-creators.” Through agriculture and the arts. Through scientific discovery and innovation. In loving community and peaceful flourishing

We can see the heights of this God-given capacity and potential everywhere around us. And yet, at the same time we breathtaking depths of depravity. War, violence, oppression, debauchery, pornography, poverty. Self-centeredness, self-righteousness, self-promotion, self-you-name-it.

What is man? The first half of statement #3 in our statement of faith gives the answer.

We believe that God created Adam and Eve in His image, but… they sinned when tempted by Satan. In union with Adam, human beings are sinners by nature and by choice, alienated from God, and under His wrath.

It reads like a descent from the peak of Mt. Everest to the lowest point of Death Valley. From sinless to sinners. From enjoying the unfiltered glory of God and bearing the unblemished image of God to alienation from God as children of wrath. This explains the heights and depths of who we are as humans and why God’s plan from before the foundation of the world was not just to create a people for Himself, but to redeem a people for Himself and renew all things for His glory (see statement #1).

This Sunday, Randy Gruendyke will preach on the first half of our third statement of faith and Kenny Clark will lead our sung worship. Would you pray for us as we prepare this week?

James 1:23–25 spells out the two ways we could engage with this week’s message.

“If anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”

As we look together at God’s perfect word this Sunday, let’s ask the Lord to make us the latter, doers who act and are blessed in the process.

See you Sunday, Grace. Come hungry!