• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Worldwide Mission Fellowship

Reaching the lost, equipping the Saints

  • About Us
    • Declaration of Faith
    • Vision
    • Pastor Dennis Greenidge
    • Pastor Rosemary Taylor
    • Weekly Services
    • Archives
    • News
    • Safeguarding
    • Privacy Policy
    • Cookie Policy (UK)
  • Ministries
    • ESTHER OUTREACH
    • Sincere Praise
    • Discipleship
    • Men’s Ministry
    • Women of Destiny
    • Evangelism
    • Missions
    • Praise & Worship
    • Prayer
  • Media
    • App Media
    • WWMF Vimeo
    • YouTube Channel
    • Audio
    • Media Tracts
    • Video
  • Events
  • Blog
  • Contact Us
You are here: Home / Blog / Answers / Mankind / What Is Man Like?

September 22, 2009 By Dennis Greenidge Leave a Comment

What Is Man Like?

Man was created in God’s image and has a spirit, which the Bible often speaks of as the heart (see Romans 10:10). He has a soul, which is essentially his sense of self, the center of which would be the mind. And he has a body, which holds it all together. Human beings are made up of body, soul, and spirit. God intended that the spirit of man be continuously in touch with the Spirit of God. The spirit, in turn, is supposed to radiate through the mind and the body to the outside world.

The problem we are facing today is that most people are directed instead by external stimuli that come to us through the bodily senses. So the body begins to be the controlling factor through gluttony, sex, pride, or whatever. Because the body controls the soul, the soul is able to conceive of schemes to make the body happy. And the end result is that the spirit of man is submerged by selfishness.

The spirit of the first man was like a mirror, reflecting the glory of God. He had the imago dei, “the image of God,” clearly within him. Because God was personally revealed to him, God’s way was uppermost. But when man sinned, his inner mirror was clouded or darkened. He could no longer see God clearly. As a result, instead of being directed by God’s Spirit, people are manipulated by their bodies or their minds toward evil. In Genesis we read, “The imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21).

When man was created, he had the capacity to serve God, and doing that came naturally because he was in the presence of God. As long as man’s spirit functions as it should, serving God is natural, so man tends toward good. But once he is removed from God, self-preservation becomes more important; and man will kill, lie, cheat, and hurt others in order to preserve his self-esteem, his self-image, and his life. Humans have a tremendous capacity for good or evil because they are made in the image of God. Man can do more good, but also more damage, than any animal because man has a godlike capacity.

Theologians have a saying that Adam in the Garden of Eden was posse non peccare (able not to sin), and if he had continued in that, he would have come to the point where he was non posse peccare (not able to sin). He would have become so established in righteousness that he would not have been able to sin. From then on he would have been transformed to ever higher righteousness. But instead, he fell, and as a result became evil. That is why Jesus said that every man or woman had to be born from above, or “born again,” in order to see God’s kingdom (see John 3:3).

Man’s spirit has to be restored by being cleansed from sin by Jesus Christ, then created anew by operation of God’s Spirit. With his own spirit under the control of God’s Spirit, the remainder of man’s being–soul and body–would be controlled from within instead of from without.

Share this:

  • Email
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest

Filed Under: Mankind

← Where Did Man Come From? Were Adam and Eve Real, or is the Story of the Garden of Eden Just a Fairy Tale? →
Avatar photo

About Dennis Greenidge

The Senior Pastor of the Worldwide Mission Fellowship in London, England; a fast growing multicultural, multiracial church with members from over 20 nations which demonstrates a passionate commitment to the principles of God’s word.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Footer

Our Most Recent Media Item

Copyright © · Worldwide Mission Fellowship - Privacy Policy - Created by HM Media ·


Manage Cookie Consent
We use cookies to optimise our website and our service.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
Preferences
{title} {title} {title}