The Baptist Faith And Message Article III: Man
We spent a lot of time on Article II, of the Baptist Faith and Message. Now that we have looked at the Doctrine of God according to the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, it’s time to set our sights on the Doctrine of Man.
What does the Bible teach about human beings?
We as Southern Baptists believe in both the dignity of man and the fallenness and sinfulness of man. And, you will find that there are two passages of Scripture that help us most understand Article III of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. They are Genesis 1-3 and Romans 5:12-21. So, expect to see the teaching of these two texts come up in this statement over and over again.
Here is the statement from the Baptist Faith and Message.
III. Man
Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God’s creation. In the beginning man was innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice. By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. Through the temptation of Satan man transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original innocence whereby his posterity inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin. Therefore, as soon as they are capable of moral action, they become transgressors and are under condemnation. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.
Genesis 1:26-30; 2:5,7,18-22; 3; 9:6; Psalms 1; 8:3-6; 32:1-5; 51:5; Isaiah 6:5; Jeremiah 17:5; Matthew 16:26; Acts 17:26-31; Romans 1:19-32; 3:10-18,23; 5:6,12,19; 6:6; 7:14-25; 8:14-18,29; 1 Corinthians 1:21-31; 15:19,21-22; Ephesians 2:1-22; Colossians 1:21-22; 3:9-11.
Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God’s creation.
The first thing noted in this statement is that man is a “special creation of God. We see this clearly in Genesis 1:26-27.
“Then 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 livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27 ESV)
To say that man is the “creation of God” is to say that God made him. And this statement says a lot more about us and our lives then most people are willing to say. We are not the Creator. We are a creature. And as a creature, we owe our existence to God.
It is God who made us.
It is God who decided that humans would exist.
It is God who decided what we would look like.
It is God who decided how we would function.
We are a creature.
To God we owe our existence, our allegiance, our gratitude, and everything else. God is our Creator. And we are His creatures.
We are not just any creature though. We are God’s special creation.
This statement seems very strange to read today. The reason is simple, our society does not like this statement. Read the news or opinion articles today and you will see that humans are portrayed as the violent enemies of the Earth and definitely not God’s “special creation”.
This is one of those areas that we need to understand is in direct opposition to worldly thinking. While our society fights for the right of dogs to be treated as humans let us understand that dogs are not humans and that they are not the pinnacle of creation that mankind is.
The reason we are God’s special creation is that He decided to make it so. God decided to create mankind in His image. When God deliberated concerning the creation of human beings this is what was said, “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26a ESV) This is an honor not bestowed upon any animal, plant, or anything else. God created human beings in His image.
What this means has been debated through the centuries. And we covered this in greater detail in the sermon over this text that was given not long ago. But my short answer is that we are reflections of God in the world that are intended to rule in His stead. We reflect God, like the moon reflects the light of the sun. We shine infinitely less than God does, but we do reflect characteristics of God to the world. And we were commissioned with the task of ruling and caring for the world.
This passage of Scripture also helps us to understand that gender is a gift and is part of being created in God’s image. Look at the text from Genesis 1 again.
“Then 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 livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27 ESV)
The last verse is what we need to focus on for the discussion of gender. When God created man in His image, He didn’t just create a man. He created mankind, both male and female. Men and women are different. And that is part of what it means to be human. Gender is a gift given to humanity that in the differences, images for the God.
Everything about these first few sentences is controversial today. And the reason is that our society is attempting to redefine what it means to be human as we speak. Read the news or opinion articles today and you will see that humans are portrayed as the violent enemies of the Earth and not God’s “special creation”. The same thing can be said about being male and female. Our society is in the middle of a revolt against its Creator in a desire to cast off its creatureliness. And there is a great strangeness that exists as we live in the middle of it all.
And so, we have to understand that we are in direct opposition to the world on this very fundamental topic. While our society fights for the right of dogs to be treated as humans let us understand that dogs are not humans and that they are not the pinnacle of creation that mankind is. And while our society attempts to fight for the right to throw off gender, let us understand that God created two genders and they are a gift.
And when God accomplished all we have discussed today, creation was “very good”. God created human beings in His image as male and female as the pinnacle of His creation. Notice the specialness of the creation of human beings before and after their creation.
- Genesis 1:4—God created light and declared it “good”.
- Genesis 1:12—God separated water from the land and created plant life and called it “good”.
- Genesis 1:18—God separated the day from night and lit the Earth and called it “good”.
- Genesis 1:21—God created animals that would dwell in the water and in the air and called it “good”.
- Genesis 1:25—God made land animals and insects and called it “good”.
- Genesis 1:31—God created humans and then it was “very good”.
It was not until mankind was created that creation was “very good”.
Despite the modern view of mankind, human beings are the pinnacle of creation, something no other creature can lay claim to.
In the beginning man was innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice.
Man was created innocent. At creation man and woman were “innocent of sin”. Two things help us to understand this. The first is that God declared creation to be “very good” as we saw in Genesis 1:31. And though the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 doesn’t mention it in the Scripture references below, Solomon states it plainly in Ecclesiastes.
“See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.” (Ecclesiastes 7:29 ESV)
God made man innocent. At creation humans were declared “very good”, or “upright”. And it was through the free choice of the creature that things changed.
Humans were created with free choice. They had the ability to either obey God or disobey God in the Garden of Eden.
By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. Through the temptation of Satan man transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original innocence whereby his posterity inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin. Therefore, as soon as they are capable of moral action, they become transgressors and are under condemnation.
Man used his free choice to sin against God in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). The doctrinal statement discusses that event simply by stating that “through the temptation of Satan man transgressed the command of God”. This is another event that we discussed in more detail in the Genesis sermon series that we have been going through on Sunday Mornings.
God gave one command,
“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17 ESV)
This one command, to not eat of the fruit of that tree, was the only command that God gave. And that command was broken when Satan tempted Adam and Eve to eat of the fruit of that tree (Genesis 3:1-6).
The most extensive explanation of this event takes place in Romans 5:12-21. This passage is an extended discussion and comparison of Adam and the Second Adam, Jesus Christ.
“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned– for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 5:12-21 ESV)
Through one man, Adam, sin came into the world. It was also through this event that death came into the world. Everyone sinned and so death spread to all of mankind.
But Paul’s discussion goes into more detail than that and this explains the situation that all of mankind is born into. If sin is counted where there is law, which is what Paul said here, why did people die before the Law? That is, why did people die between the time of Adam and Moses?
His answer is that many people died because of the transgression of Adam, not because of their own personal sin. Remember, “sin is not counted where there is no law” (Romans 5:13 ESV). And that is why Paul described death as reigning because of the sin of this one man (Romans 5:17).
Human beings are now born “sinners”. At the first opportunity we will sin because we are a fallen race. Adam’s sin corrupted our nature so that now, as the BFM 2000 says, we are “inclined toward sin. Therefore, as soon as they are capable of moral action, they become transgressors and are under condemnation.”
Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God.
We are not yet to the BFM’s statement on salvation, so the details of man’s salvation are not given here. But here we are emphasizing the fact that man cannot save Himself. There is simply nothing at all that man can do to save Himself. It is only by God’s grace and mercy that a person can be brought back into fellowship with God.
Mankind exists in one of two states. He is either out of fellowship with God and condemned or in fellowship with God and enabled to “fulfill the creative purpose of God.” Man was created for fellowship with God, and it is only through the grace of God in Christ that a person is enabled to be in fellowship with God.
“And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.” (Colossians 1:21-23 ESV)
The Christian is the person who was once alienated from God and has been brought to Him through the salvation found only in Christ. The unbeliever is still alienated from God.
The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.
We have stated that human beings were created with dignity in the beginning. Then we stated that the Fall has left us damaged in many ways, with a nature that is bent toward sin. So the question that lies at the end of that is this: Do human beings still have dignity?
The answer from Scripture is a resounding “Yes!”. The image of God did not go away at the Fall and the dignity of man did not go away at the Fall either. This is evident in the Book of Genesis. Adam and Eve were created in the Image of God. Then children were born in the image of Adam.
“This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.” (Genesis 5:1-3 ESV)
If this were all that were stated then we wouldn’t know what it meant for people to be born in Adam’s image. But many years later clarification would come in Genesis 9.
“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” (Genesis 9:6 ESV)
Years later God declared it a capital punishment to murder another human being. And the reason is that the human being is a special creation of God, one who was created in God’s image.
The reason this is important is that the divine image is passed down from generation to generation even after the Fall. Today, when a child is born the image of God is passed down to another generation. It is the creation of another person made in God’s image. And so, every person born today is endowed with dignity.
The second reason we know that man has dignity is that Christ died to redeem mankind. Though not stated in such a way in Scripture, we do see that there is something special about mankind for this reason.
God did not do this for any other creature. In fact, Christ did not die to redeem fallen angels.
“For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” (Hebrews 2:16-17 ESV)
God the Son took upon Himself the nature of mankind in order to save mankind from sin.
The statement ends with a clear statement that we should treat all people with dignity, respect, and Christian love. The image of God is present in every person you run into. The baby in the womb is owed dignity and respect. And the drug addict on the street is owed dignity and respect. People of every race are owed dignity and respect. People of every ethnicity are owed dignity and respect. This last statement informs how we are to treat other people. We treat them with dignity, respect, and love.
This statement also informs how we are to think through many of the modern hot topics of our day. Earlier I stated that our society is attempting to throw off its creatureliness and God’s right to define who we are. This means that we will be at odds with people over and over again on those topics.
Babies in the womb bear the image of God. And therefore, they should be protected and treated with dignity, respect, and love. And so they should not be killed in the womb and their body should not be used for experiments or medical treatments. That is a human created in the image of God.
Racism that runs in any direction is not part of the Christian life because people of every race and ethnicity are created in the Image of God. All are owed that dignity, respect, and love.
Drug addiction, poverty, and homelessness have made the news a lot lately because these things are running rampant within our society. And sometimes deep addiction can be so bad it fundamentally alters a person, but we understand that the drug addict bears the image of God and is owed dignity. Poverty and homelessness are not always caused by personal decisions, but sometimes they are. Regardless of this, we understand that these people are worthy of respect and Christian love.
This list could go on and on, but I hope the end of this statement makes the intended impact. All people are created in the image of God. All people are fallen and need Jesus and the salvation only He can give, but despite this they are all to be treated with dignity, respect, and Christian love.
R. Dwain Minor