THE PRODUCTION OF THE HUMAN SIN-NATURE
People are basically the same wherever we go and wherever we find them, except for certain characteristics such as: culture, color, language, personality, and physical appearance. These differences are distinguishable, but they are only superficial. Man’s nature is inherently human. Thus, all mankind share a common denominator – the human nature, the nature to sin.
Our study is derived from God’s absolute standards, which are found in God’s Word. If I were asked to describe the Bible, I would state that the Bible is The Reference Book of Divine Knowledge, The Book Of Life, The Book of God’s Standards for Mankind, The Source of Absolute Truth, The Revelation of God’s Nature and Man’s Nature, The Book of Answers, The Book of Faith, The Mind of God, to name a few.
As I began to think about our human traits, I felt compelled to build a foundation, to begin at the beginning. There is only one way we can do this, and that’s through God’s Word. God is the only witness to the beginning of life because He was the only one present at creation. May I share my definition of life? Life is God sharing His existence with His creation.
Let’s briefly go back to where it all began, to the very first man, to a beginning that was not the beginning (Genesis 1:26,27).
Sin had its beginning in eternity past when the first sin of arrogance was committed. It was a willful act of rebellion and betrayal by lucifer, who then became satan – “the fallen one” (Isaiah 14:12-14). Where will it all end? Sin shall come to its end when God destroys satan, sin, and the universe. Then, He will create all things new and we shall have no more memory of sin or this life and there will never be another tear – just total bliss (Revelation 20:10-15; 21:1-7; 22:5). Now, we know the “root of all evil” (satan) and the end of all evil (satan). He will burn forever (Revelation 20:10).
What is it about us (humanity) that causes us to sin, to go against God and self? Did the great Apostle Paul, who wrote most of the new Testament, struggle with sin? Please turn to Romans 7:15-25 and read for yourself.
Let’s just take one more look into the Garden of Eden to help us understand why we are like we are – sinners with a sin-nature.
When Adam chose to disobey the Lord in the Garden, he crossed the line into no-man’s land. He entered the war zone of the eternal conflict where no man had gone before. He was expelled from a Garden where no man has been since. In this strange, forbidding new world, Adam found himself a slave in a slave market of sin – a slave to sin. And so death and sin passed to all men from that time forward (Romans chapter five). Adam died spiritually and began dying physically, acquiring the infamous human nature – the nature to sin (Genesis 3:7; Romans 5:12). In Genesis 2:17 – where the verse states “thou shalt surely die” – the word “die” is in the plural, meaning “two deaths.”
The ruler of the darkness of this new world was and is none other than satan the anti-Christ, and he leads his legions of fallen angels seeking whom he may devour among men (1 Peter 5:8; Ephesians 6:12). Devour, as used here, does not mean to eat. It means “consume with evil.” The eternal conflict can better be termed the “angelic conflict.” The conflict is between God and satan, good and evil. Now it has entered a new phase in a place called time. Here, battles are fought one soul at a time.
God’s counter-attack to satan’s attack on humanity is the cross of His beloved Son (John 3:15-18). You can find forgiveness and be freed from the slavery of sin and the sin nature, and thereby released from habitual sin. All you need do is trust the finished work of Christ on the cross – “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). Then, over a period of time and with intense study, you can begin to exercise control over your own nature, better known as self-control, or saying no to temptation before it escalates to sin.
We Have Some Wonderful Ways About Us
Human Nature is wonderful in so many ways – humorous, caring, loving and sharing. I suppose for every good trait of our nature there is a counterpart, perhaps a ten-fold counterpart. Our study is concerned with the negative activity or, the “counter production” of our nature.
Understanding our human nature will help us to understand ourselves. We can, through God’s Word, learn to master our nature, by the filling of the Holy Spirit, and in so doing God receives the Glory (1 John 1:9).
We cannot know who we really are until we know our strengths and our weaknesses. Learning who we are on the inside will help us deal with the world on the outside. This study will paint many negative pictures that most people choose to ignore or deny. It is important that we maintain a relaxed mental attitude as God, through His Word, exposes the real us. Just remember God loves us in spite of ourselves and while we were yet sinners, Christ to died for us (Romans 5:8).
You may feel inadequate, but do not develop a complex about your unworthiness, we are all unworthy. Acknowledge any long-standing sin to God and never forget if you have accepted Christ as your Savior; your sins and shortcomings are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ (Romans 5:9; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; Hebrews 9:22; 1 Peter 1:19; Revelation 7:14; 12:11; reference also Isaiah 48:15-17; 49:1-13; 52:13-15; 53:1-12; 54:17; 55:1-11).
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His plan” (Romans 8:28). God is the initiator towards man. Man is the responder just as the woman is designed to respond to her husband. God calls us to believe and receive His Holy Spirit, and God has a plan for each of us. Re-read Romans 8:28.
The traits or trends of humanity are better expressed as the “production of the sin nature.” Sin is in the flesh or physical part of our existence, and the flesh is very strong. It is condemned by God (Romans 8:3; 1 Corinthians 15:50; Galatians 5:17). We are Corrupt (Ephesians 4:22). We are in bondage to the flesh (Romans 5:21). We are sown in corruption (1 Corinthians 15:42,50; 1 Timothy 6:5; 2 Timothy 3:8, 2 Peter 1:4; 2:12). The soul, housed temporarily in the body, will perish with the flesh unless each person trusts in the finished salvation work of Christ on the cross (John 3:36).
Man’s nature without the new birth of salvation (John 3:7) is called the “natural man” in 1 Corinthians 2:14, and does not receive the things of God. In other words there is no communication, no understanding. There is alienation from God through the ignorance that is “in” them, because of the blindness of their hearts (Ephesians 4:18). Read on in Ephesians Chapter four, verses 19-32. Here is where we begin to get a closer look at ourselves through the eyes of God. In verse 19, the unbeliever is past feeling, meaning he has no thoughts or need for God in his life. He wants to live his own life his way. Young people today are this way, they want to believe in God their own way and their own way is “God, don’t interfere with my life, I’ll let you know when I need you.” They live in lust (lasciviousness). Virtually all of pop-music culture contains lyrics about lust or the acts thereof. The life blood of today’s pop-music is sex, lust, uncleanness, worldliness, perversion, crime, glorification of self, lawlessness, and greed.
Now, look at verse 22 in our context, “that you put off concerning the former manner of life” (stop doing what you have always done; stop thinking the way you’ve always thought, with greed and lust in your heart) the old man, (the old you) which is CORRUPT according to the dictates of what? Your “deceitful lusts.” Here is man defined by God in a nutshell. “Greedy, lustful and deceitful.” But wait, there’s more. In verse 25 we are liars “lying.” In verse 26 “angered, wrathful, hostile.” In verse 27 we “listen to the devil” not God; In verse 28 we “steal,” in verse 29 “corruption proceeds from our mouth.”
Remember this: before it comes from our mouth we must think it, so corruption comes from our thinking – our nature is corrupted, our very soul is corrupted. In verse 31 we see “bitterness” and “wrath” and “anger” and “clamor,” which means loud complainers; “evil speaking,” which again means evil thinking. There’s more still – verse 3 of chapter five in Ephesians says we are “fornicators” and “unclean” (in our thinking); “covetous,” always wanting more and what the other guy has only better; verse 4 – we are “filthy” (in our thoughts); we “talk foolish,” our thinking is idle, useless thoughts of no value; we make obscene “jestures;” we are “idolaters” in verse five; we speak “vain words” (have vain thoughts) and “these things bring God’s wrath.” We are all “sons of disobedience” in verse six. We are “darkness” in verse eight. We do “shameful things in secret” in verse twelve. “Dead” (in sin) in verse fourteen; “fools” in verse fifteen; and our days are “evil” in sixteen; “unwise” in seventeen; “drunks” in eighteen. We are “dead in trespasses and sin” in Ephesians 2:1, and we walk following Satan “the prince of the power of the air” which was our manner of “life in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of our flesh and mind and were by our nature children under wrath (judgement)” (Reference Ephesians 2:1-4).
There is more, but are you now seeing the terrible picture of humanity from God’s perspective? This is our study, let’s continue and remember man knows he is all these things and more as we shall see, and man does not want to be reminded of his depravity. He doesn’t want to think about it. He would rather deny it, thinking if he puts it in the closet out of sight, people will think he is great. Man does not want to be exposed to the real self. He is in denial. This is why we compare ourselves to each other, then we don’t have to compare ourselves to God’s Word or God. “If I’m guilty of all these things, so is everyone else,” type of mentality “As long as I’m better than the next guy, I’m okay.” But, our Lord Jesus Christ clearly stated that man will not come to Him that they might have life. That men give not honor to God because they have not the love of God in them. Christ goes on to state that “how can man believe, who receive honor from one another and seek not the honor that comes from God“ (John 5:39-44).
We are sewn in corruption (1 Corinthians 15:42-50), meaning we are in bondage to corruption (Romans 8:21). We are totally helpless to redeem ourselves because of our very nature. Therefore, many will perish in corruption because they will not come to God (John 5:40; 10:10).
We are sewn in dishonor, sown in a natural body, sewn in corruption and corruption cannot inherit incorruption (1 Corinthians 15:39-50). There must be a spiritual change in man. If we are dead in trespasses and sin then we must be made alive by God’s Spirit (John 3:3-8; 4:24; 6:63; 7:38,39; Romans 6:11,13,23; 8:10,11; Ephesians 2:1; 1 Peter 3:18). God is a Spirit and we must have a spirit to know him (John 4:24).
Men love darkness because when light (Christ) came into the world, man refused (rejected) Him, and by that rejection, which is the same rejection that Adam did in the Garden, man is condemned (John 3:19&20). But all those who hear the words of Christ and believeth on Him hath everlasting life and will not be judged (John 5:24). Only those who have “not believed” will be judged for “not believing.” To be justified before God we must trust the “finished” work of Christ on the cross, and in so doing we have peace with God (Romans 5:1-21).
We go from sin to sin (Romans 6:19). But sin shall not have dominion (total rule) over us (Romans 6:14). The spirit is willing not to sin but the flesh is prone to sin. Therefore, we are and will always be fighting against our nature to sin. A war between the flesh and the spirit (Romans 7:15-25). Paul the great Apostle describes his own struggle in these verses. Then, in Romans 13:14, Paul tells us to put on Christ (constantly/daily) study His “mind” (1 Corinthians 2:16; also Romans 15:4).
“The preaching of the cross is the power of God unto us who are saved” (1 Corinthians 1:18,19). Our faith as believers stands not in the wisdom of man, but “in the power of God” (Romans 1:16; 1 Corinthians 2:5; 1 Thessalonians 1:5). “But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and neither can he know them (why?) because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). We as believers must learn to walk in the Spirit because we must daily fight against our flesh, the world, and the devil (Galatians 5:16,17). Why study daily? Because we’re bombarded by the world and the things of the world all day, every day. Are we not? How can we counteract this daily spiritual assault by attending church one per week? The answer is, without daily study, we cannot.
Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and other false representatives of Christ are described and clearly defined in Scripture, along with politicians – just read Romans 16:17,18.
Another trap of our human nature is peer pressure (2 Corinthians 10:12b,13).
The production of the flesh comes from our human nature. God’s Word says that we become fraudulent when we seek revenge against each other (1 Thessalonians 4:6). Man despises people and God (1 Thessalonians 4:8). We are blasphemers and injurious toward God, as was the Apostle Paul (1 Timothy 1:13; reference also verses 14-17). Man in these last days, and all through the centuries of time, has always reverted to idolatry, seducing spirits, and doctrines of demons, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses or any religion contrary to Christ (1 Timothy 4:1,2). But evil men shall become worse and worse, and in the last days perilous times shall come, for these traits or trends shall wax worse (2 Timothy 3:1-7; 4:3,4).
This study is inexhaustible. The entire Bible is the revelation of sin and God’s plan to overcome sin. In this world of aggression, we shall always war against evil and sin, against our nature to sin, and satan and the world.
We are here as ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20), to witness to the truth. When we are saved, if we are still here, still alive, God has a plan for our lives. As soon as His work is accomplished in us we will be called home. We are here for Christ just as he came here and went to the cross for us. We can only do His work and know His plan through Bible doctrine. Therefore, the most important thing in life is the constant inhale of God’s Word, the filling of the Holy Spirit, and the application of God’s plan in our lives.
May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds until Christ returns or the trumpet sounds.
– C. S. Craig
January through June 2001