The Fallen Nature of Mankind.
In the beginning, the nature of mankind was that of the image and likeness of God, (Genesis 1:26). He was created to have fellowship with God and commune with Him for eternity. Man had communicable attributes which reflected God’s e.g. love, goodness, and truth. God’s word says that after creating mankind, He saw everything that He had made and it was very good (Genesis 1:31). Man was therefore in a good natural state of being in the sight of God. God then put man on a type of probation. He gave them one commandment.
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Genesis 2:16-17 KJV)
When Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they missed the mark or sinned. Their transgression received the penalty of sin “you shall surely die”. Without the choice to choose between good and evil mankind would be a robot and that is not what love is. God gave man a choice and free will so love could be expressed without a hitch. When man fell in the Garden of Eden, man’s nature became sinful and was from that point on under the dominion of Satan. He became a servant to sin.
“Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” (Romans 6:16 KJV). “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” (Romans 5:12 KJV)
Mankind’s nature is now sinful. The sin nature was passed down by Adam’s seed to each of his off spring and every male after him passes down the sin nature through their seed. We can see the state of mankind’s sinful nature as he expresses his subjective nature objectively. Matthew 12:35 says, “A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.” There is good and evil expressed from the heart of mankind but God’s word also says that the heart is deceitful above all things and is desperately wicked and that all our righteousness is as filthy rags, (Jerimiah 17:9; Isaiah 64:6). How then can good things come from the heart of man? They cannot in his fallen nature. Although his deeds may appear to be good they are self-centered and therefore selfish, tainting any good thing you might think man is capable of.
It is bad enough that mankind’s objective acts of righteousness fall short, but he falls short with the omission of doing what is right in God’s Sight too. “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin” (James 4:17 KJV). He is also guilty of sins of ignorance, “And if any soul sin through ignorance, then he shall bring a she goat of the first year for a sin offering. And the priest shall make an atonement for the soul that sinneth ignorantly, when he sinneth by ignorance before the LORD, to make an atonement for him; and it shall be forgiven him” (Numbers 15:27-28 KJV). It only takes one sin to be guilty of them all, (James 2:10). Finally, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us, (1 John 1:8). We would then be a liar and lying is a sin. In Romans 1:20 -32 Paul lists mankind’s fallen state. There are over thirty different immoral attributes here which could fill a book. There is no way around it, mankind’s fallen nature is sinful and we all need a Saviour.
Today even man’s conscience is out to lunch. They say bad is good and sick is also really good. The Bible refers to the different states of the conscience e.g. there is a weak conscience, (1 Corinthians 8:7), a defiled conscience, (Titus 1:15), an evil conscience, (Hebrews 10:22), a seared Conscience, (1 Timothy 4:2) each one in a worse state than the first. On the other hand, there is a good and pure conscience, (Acts 23:1; Hebrews 13:18; 1 Timothy 1:19). The Conscience is the faculty that is supposed to determine the difference between good and bad and choose the former and avoid the latter. In today’s society where good is bad how can man determine the difference. Man’s fallen nature has fallen another step down and many walk about with their conscience seared. They are walking about guided by their feelings, without even trying to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong. Their plumb line starts at their feet and goes in any direction they chose. “What is truth?” rings out from the pages of the Bible and Pontus Pilate. Mankind’s sinful nature has become increasingly sinful to the point of Sodom and Gomorrah or the times before Noah’s flood when there were less than 10 righteous souls alive. Depravity, is the condition of mankind’s soul.
Today the soul would be considered to have a disease because it’s not in its properly functioning condition. It has been altered by sin and missing the spirit. Man tries everything to fill the void of their missing spirit. They try wine, women (or men), and song; they try work, cars houses and family, all to no avail. The final outcome is, “I can’t get no satisfaction!” (Rolling Stones song). Only when we receive Christ our Saviour is the void filled. The void was a God shaped hole to begin with, it was the void of mankind’s missing spirit since the fall of man back in Genesis. Only when man receives Christ is the spirit regenerated and fused back to the soul is he made whole. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit,” Here God’s word says there is a soul and spirit that can be divided and I believe was divided when Adam fell. Now we need a Saviour to restore our soul’s diseased condition so we can start to walk on the strait and narrow path to recovery and the men and women He created us to be back in Genesis 1:26. The alternative is the road to destruction and eternal separation from God.
In Christ,
Greg