The Nature And Condition Of Man
© 10.28.10 By D. Eric Williams
It wasn't always this way. When God created Man, He made them - male and female - to be image bearers of the Creator. He made us with "reasonable and immortal souls", sinless and with an innate knowledge of righteousness. He also made us capable of deciding for ourselves whom we would serve. Unfortunately, the first man, Adam (along with his wife Eve), chose to serve self rather than God. The upshot of it was, in his attempt to take control of his own destiny, he ended up placing himself under the authority of yet another player in the game: Satan. And so, from that day forward, Mankind has been in rebellion toward God, striving to serve self yet actually serving Satan, another created being and the enemy of God.
It is important to understand that Adam was acting as a federal head - a covenant representative - for the whole of the human race. In other words his actions had consequence for all Mankind, not just for himself. As a result of Adam's original rebellion against God, every human being is born with a natural tendency toward sin. Every human being naturally rebels against God and demands the right to decide for himself what is right and wrong. He demands the right to worship a "god" of his own making or to simply deny there is a God at all. Human beings hate the thought of living in obedience to God, and if unrestrained will rush into all sorts of sin and lawlessness. The fact is, if it were not for God's gracious hand of restraint upon Mankind, the world would fall into a chaos of wickedness. We need look no further than the nightly news to recognize this potential in Mankind.
Because of this "sin nature" mankind is prevented from having a relationship with God. Indeed, because of His rebellion against God, Man is faced with the prospect of God's righteous wrath and judgement. The bottom line is, God's law cannot be violated without consequence. And the consequence is eternal separation from God and consignment to the torment of hell forever. This truth is repugnant to the human mind; as a result, millions of words have been written, millions of words have been spoken, untold time has been spent trying to find a way around it. But the hard cold fact is, the sin of Mankind has separated him from God and unless something is done about it, every man, woman and child on earth faces an eternity in the unfathomable torture of hell.
Next week: "What must we do to be saved!?!"
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