Something must have gone wrong Think about it If God made man in His own image (and we know that He did because the Bible plainly tells us so) what happened to make man the kind of creature he now is?
Take a look at man for a moment You will remember that in our last article we considered the wonderful mind and body of a baby It is no less marvelous when the infant has become a man Our bodies are surpassingly amazing, finger than the most up to date scientific achievement The heart is a built in pump which keeps its rhythm, day and night, week by week, year by year, throughout a lifetime Our eyes are cine cameras of top quality with twin lenses for stereo pictures automatic adjustment for brilliant light, or pictures by moon-glow and everything in color! And so with all the parts of the body, each fitted for a particular task and carrying it out with fascinating ease.
The mind, too, is more complicated than all the world s computers put together Messages from thousands of nerves are received every second and responses sent to every part of the body From outside our bodies the brain takes up the sounds we hear, the sights we see, the things we feel the smells we breathe and the food we taste, and quick as lightning the electronics of the brain use the information for our good Besides all this the mind can receive and file its in formation ready for use later on.
All these breath taking marvels are God s planning, But yes, but what has gone wrong? You see, man is a very strange mixture, he can be kind, loving, sincere and self sacrificing, he can be mean, violent, unclean and unscrupulous We are not talking about savages in re mote islands, we are talking about men and women in our big cities who can read, write and converse intelligently These men and women, people you know, can be either good or bad If we want to be really personal, you and I can be either honest or dishonest, considerate or heartless, clean minded or evil minded Why? If we were made in the image of God, how can we be both kinds of per son? God is not like that He is altogether merciful, and always faithful, holy, true, forgiving, and righteous He is never at any time unmerciful, unfaithful, un true, unforgiving or unrighteous Why then is man such a strange mixture?
When you come to think of it, even our bodies are affected by some kind of trouble, pest or blight, or whatever we like to call it For example, we catch cold, we have measles, bronchitis, smallpox, jaundice and a host of other diseases We grow old, and our senses begin to fail, then we die Why does this sort of thing happen to us? The average man and woman does not want it to happen, and they take great care to protect themselves Mil lions of pills, powders, doses, injections, ointments, plasters, drugs and medicines are used to keep people well or to bring them back to health And yet, sooner or later to all of us without exception, death inevitably comes Why does this happen? It does not happen to God, He cannot die.
All this needs an explanation Man is a mixture of good and bad, and there must be a reason Would you like to know what that reason is? It is not a pleasant thing to know, but it can be helpful in the long run In fact, if we do not know the truth about ourselves, we have no hope of putting things right The first step is to remember that God who knows everything, certainly knows what is wrong with us The second step is to listen to what God has to say And the third step is to have the good sense to take heed.
Let us begin our search for the truth Are you ready? We are all in the same boat we are all the same strange mixture so well feel safer if we go together Listen to one of the greatest men who has ever walked on earth.
What I would, that I do not, but what I hate, that do I’ (Romans 7:15)
The brother of the Lord Jesus Christ wrote very powerfully about the use of the tongue In one section of his writing he says this
But the tongue Therewith bless we God, even the Father, and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing My brethren, these things ought not so to be. (James 3:8-10)
We know how these two writers felt We feel exactly the same Every one of us has experienced the same double nature You will perhaps remember the famous story of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, the one a fiend and madman, the other a respectable citizen In the end of the story we discover that they are the same man Sometimes we behave so differently from our usual selves, either for better or worse that we wonder where all the differences spring from The Bible de scribes people just like this Think of David who wrote the exquisitely beautiful Psalms and was brave enough to slay Goliath yet even he committed crimes of a terribly serious nature Look at Peter standing bravely by the side of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, ready to fight to the death in his Master s defense, and then see him but a few hours later swearing that he had never been with or even seen Jesus of Nazareth These are well known examples of different kinds of behavior of the same person.
Can you explain this strange fact? If not would you like to know the reason? You would? Then let us proceed with our investigation The Bible tells in the simplest terms how the trouble started and why it is continuing today Think then, of the first man Adam and his wife Eve God blessed them and gave them ideal surroundings in which to live, a paradise (park or garden) on earth They were reflections of God they reflected His wisdom as parts of His creation, and also in their minds as long as they worshipped and obeyed Him There came a day when their faithfulness was put to the test It was a severe test, but not one which they could not understand The serpent in the garden informed Eve that there was no danger in disobeying God God had said that the tree in the midst of the garden was prohibited, to eat of it would bring death The serpent said that death would not come, but, instead, a great freedom—Adam and Eve would be gods in their own right.
Eve should have rejected the temptation outright She had the answer ready to hand God had given her everything, she knew His commands and should have kept them But, no, Eve hesitated and then fell She took the fruit of the for bidden tree and persuaded Adam to do the same They discovered all too late that the serpent was wrong All their happiness and innocence had melted like snow in a furnace They were rebels against God because they had preferred their own way to His way Would God keep His word? Would death come upon them? Let us remember one thing God ALWAYS keeps His word God’s word is His bond and we can always rely on its truth What is more, there is no one who can prevent the fulfillment of God’s will when He sets it in motion You might as well try to hold back the sea, or prevent the sun from rising.
The rebels learned the seriousness of their choice They were sinners before God They had thought that God did not mean what He said Thanklessness and selfishness had brought disobedience to God Two results overtook them (sin always has consequences and the first sin had great ones) They learned by experience what had happened, and they knew within themselves that they were sinners Sin had become a part of them, they were stained creatures The image and likeness of God was marred, and henceforth they would be a mixture of good and evil Their children would inherit this nature, and so all mankind horn that time on would be the same.
But something even more serious was yet to come They began to die It was not a quick process, but it came at last Every child of Adam and Eve also inherits the same dying (mortal) nature Every babe born into the world sets out on the journey, whether long or short, from the cradle to the coffin, and no one on earth can stop it.
This then is the explanation of the riddle with which we started This is a fundamental truth, and you should get to know the facts for yourself Make a resolution right away that you will read the following
Genesis Chapters 1,2 and 3
Don t forget to do it Offer a little prayer before you read and God will bless you in your reading By the way, we know that the story that we have presented is rather gloomy and disappointing, but do not despair, because there is something as beautiful as this is ugly, as hopeful as this is hopeless nay, far more so, but that is for another time.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One