What is man? In this provocative study, Ray C. Stedman explores the greatest mystery ever written—the story of man himself. This book is an attempt to understand ourselves, both as men and women “in Adam” and also as the new men and women we have become “in Christ.” However, to do this we must begin with the first Adam because what he was, we are.
“It always strikes me as strange that anyone can deny the reality of the story of the Fall of man,” author Stedman says, “especially when the very man who denies it is himself repeating it, perhaps dozens of times a day. Temptation follows the same pattern with us that it did with Eve in the garden of Eden.
Understanding Man, then, is aimed at first understanding the unchanging process of temptation in our lives, and then unfolding the unchanging process of God’s grace which seeks us out and restores us.
As Dr. Stedman delves into the first chapters of Genesis, he points out that here is stated more clearly than perhaps anywhere else how unwilling God is that any should perish. Far from merely pronouncing judgment on Adam and Eve, he gives them an assurance of life beyond death of their bodies, and a clear promise of a Redeemer.
“I hope your heart will be lifted with fresh encouragement as mine has been,” Stedman says, “when you discover the loving purpose behind God’s expulsion of the first man and woman from the garden. On that purpose hangs the whole truth of the gospel.”