The Nature of Man

Life contingent on Obedience with a Nature inclined to disobey (sin)

God gave life to man freely, but made life contingent on obedience to His com­mand that man should not eat of the Tree of Life, or the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God’s first test for man — the centerpiece of his creation — was for Adam and Eve to willingly obey Him. Unfortunately for Eve, obeying God required restraint and discipline. Even with more than enough food provided in the garden she was tempted by the beautiful fruit on the forbidden tree and was overcome. John Thomas expounds on this situation in Elpis Israel:

“The reasoning of the Serpent operated upon the woman by exciting the lust of her flesh, the lust of her eyes, and the pride of life. This appears from the testimony. An appetite, or longing for it, that she might eat it, was created within her. The fruit also was very beautiful. It hung upon the tree in a very attractive and inviting manner. ‘She saw that it was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes’. But there was a greater induce­ment still than even this. The flesh and the eyes would soon be satisfied. Her pride of life had been aroused by the suggestion that by eating it their eyes would be opened and that she would be ‘made wise’ as the glorious Elohim she had so often seen in the garden. To become ‘as the gods’; to know good and evil as they knew it — was a consideration too cogent to be resisted. She not only saw that it was good for food and pleasant to the eyes, but that it was a tree to be desired as making one wise ‘as the gods; therefore she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat’. Thus, as far as she was concerned, the transgression was complete.”

Just as Eve disobeyed God by eating the fruit, we are susceptible to the same cycle of sin she experienced. She saw the fruit, she inquired of the fruit, she partook of the fruit and, thus, sin was conceived along with separation from God. Eve was now aware that she was naked, she was ashamed and, therefore, looked for clothing to cover herself.

The Results of Disobedience.

The more we participate in this cycle and allow sin to infiltrate our lives, the more we separate ourselves from God. This is the consequence that God has set in place. As Adam and Eve were rejected and removed from the Garden because of their sin, we, similarly, become removed from our relationship with God. This separation process takes place in three different ways: Mental, Moral and Physical corrup­tion. Mental corruption occurs as our natural desires (lust of eyes, lust of flesh, and pride of life) are aroused and fulfilled. The more these desires are satisfied the stronger they become and the shame that was experienced with the first sin begins to fade. As this cycle continues we become like the wild animal described in Jeremiah 2:24 “A wild donkey used to the wilderness that sniffs the wind in her desire.” Moral corruption will displace the Godly lifestyle we’ve established by the renewing of our minds through the Scriptures. Our lives become stained by fulfill­ing the desires and temptations that enter our hearts. The ultimate effect of sin is physical corruption. This is experienced by the limitations of mortality, decay of our body, and ultimately death. James 1:15 reads, “…when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” The process of sin can be stated in a simple formula: Living Soul\being + Sin = Death.

Death — Returning to Dust

Death is the end result of sin, the effects of which we will all experience. Because we have sinned, we will perish and return to the dust again. God gave this sen­tence to Adam after he disobeyed the command and ate of the tree. By partaking of the fruit, man acquired the ability to know good and evil, so God needed to establish that to disobey is evil(sin) and the result of this sin is death. God con­demns Adam in Genesis 3:19, “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread. Till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” This sentence is passed down to all men and women that are the seed of Adam because all men sin as we see in Romans 5:12, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” Death is the cessation of life, an end to our existence on earth. Death occurs when the breath of life that God used to create us goes back to him and we return to the dust. Psalm 104:29 reads, “Thou takest away their breath, they die and return to the dust.” Abraham knew this to be true as he declared his condition before God when negotiating for the city of Sodom in Genesis 18:27, “I who am but dust and ashes.” We can again extract a formula from Scripture: Living Soul\being – Breath of Life = Dust.

There is Hope

We all face the consequences of Adam’s sin and the nature we have inherited, but God has promised a way of escape, just as He did for the Israelites in the wilder­ness. In Numbers 21 God sent fiery serpents among the Israelites because they complained against Him, and many of them died. But when they recognized their sin and repented, God heard their cry. He commanded Moses to make a serpent out of brass and put it on a pole in front of Israel. He promised that whoever was bitten by a serpent could look up at the bronze serpent on the pole and recognize that sin (represented by the snake) needed to be put to death in their life. Once they understood this they would be saved from the bite of the serpent. Like Israel, we have been sentenced to death because of sin, but if we recognize our sin and put it to death, God will provide salvation for us, as John 3:14,15 says, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. That whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

What we must do

We must make the choice between good and evil in order to prevent the cycle of sin from repeating itself in our lives. Recognizing and putting sin to death must be a constant battle, but God has promised that he will be with us and assist us, if we follow his commands. We must ask God to help keep us from temptation, so that we might not fall into the trap as Eve did when she ‘saw’ the fruit. Even when we are tempted we must not give in to the desires of our flesh. God sent this message to Israel in Jeremiah 4:3,4, “Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the LORD and take away the foreskins of your hearts.” The analogy of circumcision is helpful in understanding how we must rid our lives of sin. The cutting off of the flesh (sinful desire) will be painful, but it is the only way to eradicate sin. We can be assisted in this battle with our nature by reading God’s word every day and letting it affect all aspects of our lives. Moses instructs in Deut 11:18-20, “…lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign to your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall write them on your doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

The Reward

If we can understand our nature and use the tools God has given us to combat it, the reward is wonderful. In submitting to God’s word and laying it up in our hearts we can actually reverse the corruptive effects of sin. Mental regeneration is provided by an active belief in the gospel of Christ, as we no longer become slaves to our natural desires. Moral regeneration is brought on by baptism and the forgiveness of sins provided through the sacrifice of Christ and obedience of God’s commandments. Finally, we will, by God’s grace, experience a physical regeneration and be given immortality if found worthy at the judgment seat of Christ. If we can overcome the desires of the flesh and the temptations of sin, we will be given a new heart and a new spirit by the grace of God and will no longer be prone to sin. Perhaps, then, the final formula we can commit to memory is: Resistance to sin + God’s grace = Eternal life!