“WHAT IS MAN?”

Job 7:17-19; Psalm 8:3-6; 22:6 (to “no man”);

1 Tim.2:1-6 (to “for all”)

Man is the very highest point of God’s creation, and God is interested in humanity. Many people may not be interested in God, but God is interested in them; we have proved that. This man, Job, says in the verse before where we began reading: “let me alone …”. In effect, he says to God, ‘Just leave me alone, I do not want anything to do with You; I do not want You to be interested in me’. In verse 19 he says: “How long wilt thou not look away from me, nor let me alone …”. That may be the feeling of someone here – you may be saying, ‘Leave me alone, God. I am quite happy with my life as it is; I am enjoying myself with temporary pleasures’ – whatever they might be – ‘leave me alone’. That is the attitude of many people. It may be the attitude of someone here. But God’s love is so great that He is not going to leave you alone. You cannot get away from Him.

The gospel goes out to persons exactly like this man – persons who want to be left alone by God. What is the answer to persons in their sins, far away from God? It is the gospel. What is the answer to the permissiveness in this world, in society today? It is the gospel. And the gospel is the answer to your needs, dear friend, even if you have no desire to have anything to do with God. He wants to have to do with you; He is set to save you. It says “thou settest thy heart upon him.” Someone might say: ‘Why are you doing that, God?’. God has set His heart on you, dear friend; He wants to save you, as we read in Timothy. What we read there is the answer to people not wanting to have God near them: “the mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all”. That is wonderful. Even when you turn your back on God, He still wants to save you, He has set His heart to have you for Himself. God must secure His purpose, and His purpose is to dwell with men. He secures persons through the gospel. He wants to secure you, if He has not already.

The man speaking in this passage was down in his spirit, as people are when they are lost and despairing. What heartache sin brings into people’s lives. They just want to be left alone. But God has access to every one, to every man and woman and child. He formed man, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and “Man became a living soul”, Gen.2:7. God has access to a person’s spirit; “Man's spirit is the lamp of Jehovah, searching all the inner parts of the belly”, Prov.20:27. God has access to man through his spirit. The apostle says that we are “the offspring of God”, Acts 17:29. That is amazing! It is because God has given us a spirit that we are God’s offspring. He is bound to be interested in His creature man, the highest point of His creation – He wants to have men for Himself, He wants you for Himself.

God is so interested in man that He came into manhood’s form, a wonderful thing: He came into the world as a Babe to draw near to His creature, man. God’s heart is still set on having men for Himself, on having you for Himself. God has one Man before Him. “What is man …?”, David says to God in Psalm 8. “When I see thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and stars, which thou hast established …”. They are so great, they are beyond us. It is in that context that David asks: “What is man …?”. Man is puny. God’s power and divinity are seen in creation, and it is amazing. David would have noticed it, and he says, “What is man …?”. The Lord Jesus Christ is God’s ideal man, and this psalm is leading up to Christ. “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?”. The psalmist is obviously referring to Christ; “Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels”¹. Both references are leading up to Christ; “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and splendour”.

David would have looked up to the heavens, and there was no man there then, but there is now! We will never be more than men and women, but the Lord Jesus is more than a mere man; He is unique. God’s purpose relates to that Man and everything for God is centred in the Lord Jesus. That Person of the Godhead came here and took manhood’s form. What a stoop for Him! Nothing greater than that has ever happened, that a Person of the Godhead voluntarily came into manhood. People appreciated Him. John the apostle says: “we have contemplated his glory” (John 1:14); John never stopped contemplating Him. John the baptist pointed to this Man, he was detained by Him. Have you ever been detained by this Man, have you stood in awe and admiration of Him? That changes you.

Have you reached that point? Is He your Saviour? He is available as Saviour. He is the only Saviour, dear friend, the One that God has crowned with glory and splendour – He is now in that place. That is why the glad tidings can now go out. God has exalted and glorified this Man. Do you know Him for yourself, do you have a link and a relationship with Him? He is so personally great; He is no mere man! The Lord Jesus has been into death and proved His love, but He is risen from among the dead. Who else could raise His own body (John 10:18)? Who else could say “I ascend”, John 20:17? No other person could say that. We read here of the heavens, but He has ascended up above all the heavens (Eph.4:10); how personally great He is. The Lord Jesus is worthy of your affection, your attention, your admiration, your worship.

This One came here as a man to suffer and to die. That is why I read in Psalm 22. We have been speaking of the greatness of this Person. He is no mere man, and yet He says here in the prophetic words of the psalmist, “But I am a worm, and no man”. The Lord Jesus has suffered on the cross. It was the only way for you to be saved, friend, the only way you could be saved from the penalty due to you because of your sins. He suffered at the hands of men, and He suffered from God. Think of the awfulness of that, in these three hours of darkness on the cross; it has been said that it was conscious humiliation². This Man was so personally great. Other men confided in God and God was faithful to them and delivered them. This Man was faithful to God all His life, faithful in every way, and yet this faithful One was abandoned as Man for these three hours.

How Jesus felt that, felt it inwardly, that He was abandoned by His God. He trusted in His God in going into death, but this is the depth to which He went : “I am a worm, and no man”. How He felt it. God came in to help other men, but in this setting the Lord Jesus was there alone on the cross, as made sin. How awful were these three hours of darkness. How He felt that, dear friend, and He went that way for you. He said: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (v.1). The Lord Jesus knew the answer; He knew why He was there. Do you? Do you know why He was there, forsaken? Can you answer that question? He was forsaken, He suffered and exhausted the judgment of God against sin, so that you might never be forsaken.

Then the Lord Jesus died on the cross. That was part of the judgment. His precious blood was shed. That is wonderful news for the sinner, a sinner who had said to God, ‘Just leave me alone, I want to be left to myself; do not trouble me’. But God’s disposition is such that the scripture says, “He who, yea, has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all”, Rom.8:32. That was done in love. Even though you may want nothing to do with Him, God has provided a Saviour for you in His beloved Son, and the work has been completed. God is satisfied with that work, and has exalted and glorified the One who has done it. There is a Man in heaven now. He is there for you, dear friend. How low the Lord Jesus went. “I am a worm, and no man”; we can never measure it. The only One who could take it on was the One who was there. We shall be eternally thankful for the way Jesus has gone for us. He went to the cross as a Man with feelings, and He deeply felt what it was to be abandoned.

I read the last scripture because it shows God’s interest in His creature, man. We are enjoined to pray for all men. Think of the situation in parts of the world at the present time, suffering humanity and the hatred that exists, but we can pray for men. God wants that; He wants people to draw near to Him to pray for men. The scripture says: “for this is good and acceptable before our Saviour God, who desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth”. People have wrong thoughts about God: they may say, ‘Leave me alone; I know You are a judge’. No, dear friend, today is the day of grace. God’s judgment will come, but even then God will not lightly consign men to hell. No; God desires that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. That includes you. He so wants persons to be saved that He has provided this glorious Saviour that they might come to the knowledge of the truth about Himself. A lie about God was spread by the devil at the beginning, and the poison has remained in persons’ hearts towards God since then. But God wants people to come to know Him, to know His character. He desires that all men should be saved and come into the knowledge of God Himself, made known in His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

It says: “For God is one, and the mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus”. It does not say ‘the Mediator of God and believers’, but “the mediator of God and men” – every person. And this Mediator is commended as having given Himself a ransom for every one. That is how large God’s heart is; it includes you. The way of salvation is simple. The work has been done, the whole question of sin and sins has been settled once and for all. The Lord Jesus has borne the judgment. This is the Person you have to do with, this Mediator, the Man Christ Jesus who gave Himself a ransom for all. The price has been paid, dear friend. You come into it through simple faith – “repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ”, Acts 20:21.

In that passage, the apostle Paul is going over his ministry, he is not necessarily pointing out the sequence of a Christian’s experience. What he is saying is that repentance towards God is a continuing thing, as is faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. They are initial, of course, but we have to continue in faith and repentance. You have God before you, you realise that the God with whom you have to do is a holy and righteous God. He has provided for you, that whatever failures might come in, there is an answer in the work of Christ. He wants you to be kept in communion with Him, to enjoy relationships with Himself and with the Lord Jesus. That is a very blessed thing. So repentance towards God and faith in this Man, Christ Jesus, are to be continuing matters.

It is a wonderful thing that there is a Man in heaven who is to be the object of our affections. God has not spared His only Son, and He has also given us of His Spirit. How wonderful that is. The first administrative action of the Lord Jesus when He went on high was to give the Spirit. He gave the Spirit to those who believe the gospel, who have faith in Christ. God delights to give the Spirit. He is a giving God. It is normal for believers to receive the Holy Spirit. If you are not sure that you have the Spirit, ask God; He delights to give the Spirit. He is a giving God, the Father is a Giver. How wonderful divine Persons are. O, come to know Them; come to the knowledge of the truth, the truth about God Himself. How fully God has been made known in the present dispensation, as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And the truth about what God has down here in persons is wonderful as well. God’s house is here: the assembly is here. Christianity is a full thing; believers have others to enjoy it with, and we need the blessed Holy Spirit for that.

Faith brings us into sonship; “ye are all God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal.3:26), so we have liberty with God the Father. That is very blessed. The Spirit brings believers into the assembly. The beginning is faith – those who have faith believe in His Son. “Ye are all God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus” – in that blessed Man where He is. We are brought into that close, intimate relationship. It goes on in that section to say: “But because ye are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father”, Gal.4:6. These things are blessed. These relationships are to be enjoyed. – life is the enjoyment of these relationships. This is what the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit are working out, that we might have a relationship with God as Father.

As these things are enjoyed by believers, there is a hue about them. To have communion with the Lord Jesus and to know God as Father – these things are so blessed that they affect persons in every aspect of their lives. That is Christianity, dear friend. May our hearts be more firmly attached to this blessed Man who went so low, and who has now been given by God the highest place of all; and who has through grace brought us into touch with these heights of blessing.

May the Lord bless the word.

Preaching of the gospel, Linlithgow

6 March 2022

 

 

G Bruce Grant