📖 Doctrinal Preaching — Unit 5: Preaching the Doctrine of Man

Day 1 — What Preaching the Doctrine of Man Must Do

Having preached God, we now preach the creature made to know Him. The doctrine of man holds a paradox the preacher must keep whole: man is at once crowned with glory and fallen into ruin — made in God’s image, yet a sinner. The aim is not to flatter the hearer (“you are wonderful”) nor to crush him (“you are worthless”), but to tell him the truth that prepares him for grace: you are greater than you think and worse than you fear, and only Christ answers both.

Day 2 — The Doctrinal Backbone (lean; see Systematic Theology Units 5–6)

Man is made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26–27) — the ground of all human dignity, the reason every person matters. Man fell into sin. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23); the image is defaced but not erased. Depravity means sin reaches every part of us — not that we are as bad as we could be, but that no part is untouched, so we cannot save ourselves. Yet man retains worth and potential, for he is still God’s image-bearer and the object of God’s redeeming love (John 3:16). The whole doctrine answers the hearer’s deepest question about himself: what am I, and what is wrong with me?

Day 3 — The Homiletical Move

Subject: man. Interrogative: “What is the truth about man?” Keyword: truths (a plural noun). Four points, each on its own text, and arranged to move from height to depth to hope:

Point (keyword: truths)	Anchor text
1. Man is made in God’s image (his glory)	Genesis 1:26–27
2. Man has fallen into sin (his ruin)	Romans 3:23
3. Man cannot save himself (his need)	Ephesians 2:1, 8–9
4. Man is loved and redeemable (his hope)	John 3:16

The order is the sermon’s power: glory, ruin, need, hope. The hearer is lifted, humbled, emptied, and then pointed to Christ — an arc that bends naturally toward the invitation.

Before developing a point as a sermon, let each truth be understood for what it is. They move in an arc — glory, ruin, need, hope — and the hearer must feel each turn.

1. Man is made in God’s image — his glory (Genesis 1:26–27). Alone among the creatures, man was made in the image of God: able to know Him, to reason, to choose, to love, to create, to be held to account. And because we bear that image, every one of us has worth — worth that no circumstance can cancel. The homeless man has it. The stranger has it. The immigrant has it. We do not lose our worth when life goes against us, for it was never grounded in our success or our standing; it is grounded in the image stamped upon us. In that sense all people are God’s children, made by Him and loved by Him, and it remains His desire to bring every one of them home. There is, to be sure, a different sonship for the believer — the adoption that comes by faith in Christ — but God’s love reaches all, and the worth of every soul stands secure. So tell the hearer who counts himself nothing the truth older than his shame: you bear the image of the living God.

2. Man has fallen into sin — his ruin (Romans 3:23). But the image is defaced. From the first man we inherited a sinful nature, and “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The ruin is not partial; it reaches mind, will, and affection alike — what we call total depravity: not that a man is as wicked as he could be, but that no part of him is left untouched. So deep does it run that even his noblest efforts are stained — his very best, offered to a holy God, is the filthy rag. He is worse than he fears.

3. Man cannot save himself — his need (Ephesians 2:1, 8–9). “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” Mark the word: not sick, but dead. A sick man may take medicine and mend; a dead man can do nothing for himself at all. This is why salvation must be “by grace... through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works.” Here the sermon empties the hearer of his last secret hope in himself — the résumé, the good intentions, the comparison with worse men — so that, having nothing, he will at last look outside himself for a Savior. He is more helpless than he admits, and the admission is the door.

4. Man is loved and redeemable — his hope (John 3:16). And here the whole arc turns. The God who stamped the image and watched it fall did not walk away from the ruin — “God so loved the world.” But this is the point left for you to develop in Day 4, so we say no more of it here than this, and hand you the joy of preaching how the defaced image is made new in Christ.

Day 4 — Developing the Points (E-A-I), then Your Turn

Point 1 (the image of God, Genesis 1:26–27) developed in full:

I do, we do, you do. Point 2 (man has fallen, Rom. 3:23) we work together: Explanation — “all have sinned” puts every hearer in the same verdict, no exceptions. Application — the comparison game (“at least I’m better than him”) collapses; the standard is God’s glory, and all fall short. Illustration — (you supply it: a picture of falling short of a mark, not merely being bad. Reach for your own.) Then Point 4 (man is loved and redeemable, John 3:16) is yours: How does the image defaced become the image restored in Christ? How do you preach worth without flattery and hope without cheapness? Write your three paragraphs and the sermon is built.

Day 5 — Craft Notes and Summary

Two cautions. Hold both halves of the paradox. Preach only man’s glory and you flatter him into never seeking a Savior; preach only his ruin and you crush him into despair. The gospel needs both: great enough to be worth saving, lost enough to need it. Always end at hope. The doctrine of man is not good news by itself — it is the bad news that makes the good news good. So the arc must reach Christ, who is both the true image (Col. 1:15) and the Savior of the fallen.

Unit 5 has run the method on the doctrine of man: a lean backbone (image, fall, depravity, worth), the subject and keyword truths, four points each on a text, one point developed in full, one worked together, and one left to the preacher, and an arc from glory through ruin to hope. Unit 6 turns to the life and work of Christ.

Submit Exam & Check Pass Reset Unit