THE GLORY OF MAN

“Because all flesh is as grass, and all the GLORY of MAN as the flower of grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away” – 1 Peter 1:24

Yesterday, we mediated on God’s Seed of Glory planted in Man. This is not the same as the GLORY of MAN: “Because all flesh is as grass, and all the GLORY of MAN as the flower of grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away” (1Pet.1:24). It is of vital that we understand this distinction. God’s Seed of Glory is divine and eternal; whereas the glory of man is natural and transient. One is spiritual reality; the other is like a shadow. 1 Peter 1:24 likens the “glory of man” to the “flower of grass.” Isaiah had earlier contrasted the transient glory of man with the eternal permanence of God’s Word: “All fresh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field….The grass withers, the flowers fades, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isa.40:6a; 8). The best of “the glory of man” or "loveliness" is nothing better than the flower of grass.

Grass depicts Man in the fallen, natural state: “all flesh is as grass”. The word “flesh” means much more than the material of the human body. It refers to the fallen nature and unregenerate state of Man, as a consequence of Adam’s sin. At creation, Adam was dressed in a garment of glory, but the entrance of Sin disrobed him. What remained was a mere external form, which could not cover human nakedness. Little wonder, the first parents “sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings” (Gen. 3: 7). Thank God, in His redemptive love and mercy, He replaced their withering fig leaves with “coats of skins” (Gen. 3: 21). Though God taught Man how to cover his physical nakedness, fallen man remains bare, naked, and hollow in his spiritual essence. Man has “fallen short of the glory of God” to a level comparable to that of grass (Rom. 3: 23).

Grass is transient and temporary in nature: “…in the morning they are like GRASS which grows up: in the morning it flourishes and grows up; in the evening it is cut down and withers” (Psa. 90:5-6). What a pathetic picture – flourishing in the morning, withered in the evening! Man, like grass, grows up in the youthful morning of life, buoyant, beautiful and luxuriant. By evening, having been, battered and scorched by the harsh climate of life, man withers, fades and falls away. The “flesh”– physical stamina, strength and stature, outward beauty, intelligence, imagination, and willpower – withers. The adorable teenage beauty queen, few decades after, becomes an old, broken and bent figure, battered by the vicissitudes of natural existence. The youthful, dynamic, upwardly mobile young man soon degenerates into a helpless old man.

Grass merely exists; it is devoid of real living. Existence means to have a beginning and an end, but virtually no eternally-relevant purpose being fulfilled. Grass springs up in the morning with a measure of ‘biological life’, but being unconnected to the Source of eternal life, it soon decays and dies: “For all our days have passed away in Your wrath: we finish our years like a sigh. The days of our lives are seventy years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away...So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom (Psa.90:9-10,12). The moment the limited measure of natural life is spent in struggles and the ‘rat-race’, death follows and the body returns to dust (Gen. 2: 7).

Grass is so weak it bends under the pressure of winds and storms. The natural man is unstable, bowing to all kinds of forces, and prone to being tossed to and fro by trends, fads, and fashions. Extremely fluid, his beliefs shift to suit occasions and faces. Great Generals have fallen at the feet of strange women and mighty moralists have bowed to overtures of filthy lucre. The hope for natural man hinges on his response to the “Voice crying in the wilderness,” saying “prepare the way of the Lord”!