MAN’S NATURE
When Man was created, he was planned a perfect human being with endless human life. He was neither Immortal nor Mortal. The word mortal means “death-doomed” or “Satan-ruled.” Immortality means freedom from the dominion of mortality, incorruptible, deathless. When God created Adam he was a perfect human being; death had no dominion over him. He had physical life that had the power of recuperation to the extent that he never wore out; nor was he subject to disease or death. I suppose that the Physiological Law that man’s physical nature renews itself once in seven years was the secret of man’s perennial freshness physically. Jesus had the same kind of a physical body. He was not subject to death. Death had no authority over Him until He became our sin-substitute and our sin-nature was laid upon Him; then He became Mortal and subject to Death. Man belongs to God’s class. He is an eternal personality.
Before he committed sin, he had Dominion over all angels and demons. No being but God Almighty, Himself, was greater. It might be well for us to notice at this point another remark¬able feature in God’s plan.
TIME LIMIT
God gave to man a Time-Limit Dominion; by accommodation we might call it a Lease of Dominion. This Lease of Dominion is called in Daniel and in Mark, “the age of the Gentiles,” that is; the age of the nations, or the age of the Dominion of Man.
“And behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with Thee, Thou Son of God? art Thou come hither to torment us before the time?” .
Matt. 8:29
“And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles he Fulfilled.” .
Luke 21:24
The word “Gentiles” means the “Human Race,” fallen man.
“For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant, of this mystery, lest ye be wise in your own conceits, that a hardening in part hath befallen Israel until the Fullness of the Gentiles be come in.”
Romans 11:25
“Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe for the earth and for the sea: because the devil is gone down unto you, having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short time.”
Rev 12:12
In these Scriptures we see that the demons knew they had a Time-limit. That Time-limit is called the Time of the Gentiles. This evidently means the Age of Man’s original Dominion which was turned over to Satan. We know that Satan is ruling today through fallen man, but, thank God, that Lease is nearly ended and will expire at the Coming of the Lord Jesus.
MAN’S RESPONSIBILITY
God gave to man the ability to reproduce himself, to beget children. It happened in this wise, God, instead of creating the whole human race by a single word, created one man and one woman, and said to them, “I permit you to give birth to My children, to Tear, educate, and care for them, teaching them to love Me and respond to My heart yearnings.” So, man’s real business was to give birth to God’s children. This gives a responsibility to man that can only be measured by Eternity. Man gives birth to eternal personalities, children who will live as long as God lives. Man is then the Custodian of God’s joy.
