MAN: GOD’S BELOVED MASTERPIECE
By W. G. Guy
Psalms 139:14 – I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:
marvellous are thy works …..
A masterpiece is defined as what is made with mastery and skill; the greatest work that one produces. Man is God’s greatest masterpiece, the work of His hands. Man was so wonderfully and masterly made that God put of Himself into man when He fashioned him after His own self; after His own image and likeness.
Genesis 1:26-27 – 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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Genesis 5:1 – This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him
Scripture declares that God is the designer that made man.
Psalms 139:13-16 – For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:
marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect;
and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
Since man is God’s greatest work, and since God loves His greatest creation; Satan, the devil, was jealous of man and sought to destroy him by deceiving his wife when the devil appealed to her own desires.
John 10:10 – The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy:…
Genesis 3:1 & 6 – Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat,
But God’s love for His masterpiece was so strong the He established a means of redemption, restoration and reconciliation, to bring man back from destruction. God established this plan because, in His foreknowledge, He knew the subtlety of Satan and what he would do to man; so God made provision for man’s redemption, even before the establishment of the world, (the Greek for world is cosmos - the social order of the world), which means human society.
Ephesians 1:3-4 – Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
1 Peter 1:19-20 – but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
God’s desire and purpose for man is to be part of God’s family, His own children, made in His image and likeness: those whom He can love and who would love Him in return. Thus Jesus referred to God as being our Heavenly Father.
Matthew 6:9 – After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
God’s love and plan of redemption of man was completed through Jesus Christ being the offering for sin for all mankind; to restore what was lost.
John 3:16-17 – For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
When God formed man (Adam), he was perfect; a true son of God with all of God’s character and nature: fully made in God’s image and likeness. As mentioned before, Satan hated what God did in forming man, and sought to destroy man’s relationship with God. He failed to recognize that God already had planned for the devil’s evil work; a second man, who came from God - Jesus. Both Adam and Jesus were the only men that came directly from God; both were in God’s image and likeness. Both had God’s character and nature; both had the God kind of love; both accomplished the same thing. Both offered themselves to bring restoration to that which was lost. Both fulfilled God’s plan, and both demonstrated God’s love for His masterpiece.
Please recognize that it was Mrs. Adam that sinned having been drawn away of her own lust.
1 Timothy 2:13-14 – For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
Note: Adam was not deceived, but his wife was. She committed an act of lust, which resulted in sin, and brings about death – spiritual death, which is separation from God.
James 1:13-15 – Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
Note also that since it was a woman, Eve, that was the first to see spiritual death; but due to God’s great love, it was also a woman, at the tomb, that was the first to see spiritual life.
Adam committed an act of love, just as God had placed His kind of love in Adam. All of man’s character and nature changed after Adam took upon himself the act that Eve initiated: he now became a sin nature. Consider what God would have thought about Adam if he did not take the forbidden fruit, but returned to God saying, “Lord this woman you gave me blew it and sinned. I saw her die spiritually right in front of me. I refused to do what she did, so how about giving me another woman to be my wife”.
What would God have though about Adam’s love for his wife if he did this? That would not be the God kind of love that God placed in Adam. Thus what Adam did for his wife is what Jesus did for the all of mankind. Adam took responsibility for her actions knowing that God already had a plan for redemption in place; because that plan was established before the foundation of the world and Adam knew about it.
Ephesians 5:25-29 – Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
Thus Adam was a type, or shadow, of Jesus Christ. Both fulfilled God’s plan and demonstrated His love.
Romans 5:14 – Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
(Note: “the similitude of Adam’s transgression” means what Adam did was not like the sins we do; his was sacrificial for his wife. Adam was a type of Christ, a figure or image of Him,Jesus, that was to come.)
Note also that the institutionalized church blames Adam for all of mankind’s sin, calling him a traitor to God. But we need to recognize that she was also called Adam. It was Adam that named her Eve, not God. God named her Adam also!
Genesis 5:1-2 – This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.
This brings about a question for men who are husbands today: how much do you love your wife? Are you willing to place your life on the line to rescue or defend her? Are you willing to pay for her mistakes: like over drawing on the checking account, or overcharging on the credit card? Do you have the God kind of love for your wife like Adam had for Eve?
God made provision for sin and for total redemption from the fallen state of all mankind due to sin. That is because God loves His masterpiece, and He made a way for His greatest creation to be fully restored to Him! But there is only one way now:
John 14:6 – Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
We need to understand that God’s plan to redeem mankind from his fallen state required another man, a perfect man that again had the image and likeness of God, to become the means of total redemption by offering his own sinless life as a sacrifice for our sins. Jesus Christ is the second man that came directly from God; another of God’s true masterpiece that was provided for all of mankind’s restoration and redemption.
As stated before, God put of Himself into man when He created him. This same thing applies to Jesus Christ, the second man that came from God.
Colossians 2:9 – For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
This is what Jesus came to restore back into mankind, the image of God.
Selah – think on that!
