As Man is, God once was.

As God is, Man may be.

There is lots of scriptural support for the second half of Lorenzo Snow’s couplet. There is little support for the first half, the way President Snow meant it.

There are alternate meanings, though.  The couplet is quasi-scriptural. Scripture usually has more than one layer of meaning.

Jesus Christ is God. Read the couplet this way:

As Man is, Christ once was.

As Christ is, Man may be.

Then the first line is about the Incarnation. That has even more scriptural support than exaltation does.

Here’s another reading.

Man is . . . what? Man is limited. Limitation is what mortality is about. Man is bound. Man is often helpless.   There are wrongs he cannot right. There is undeserved suffering he can’t stop.

God the Father is also limited in one important sense. He can’t force us to freely choose the good. He can’t stop us from sinning. He is as helpless as a father. As coblogger MC pointed out, this limitation and helplessness came to a point at the crucifixion. Because He couldn’t stop us from sinning, he could do nothing to avoid his Son suffering for our sins. He was stuck. He had to watch his only boy hurt and cry and die. His boy cried, ‘daddy,’ but he couldn’t respond.   His father’s anguish was such that even the apostles have speculated that He couldn’t bear to watch anymore and hid from it. God was as Man is.