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Human nature
"NOW THE SERPENT WAS MORE SUBTIL THAN ANY BEAST OF THE FIELD WHICH THE LORD GOD HAD MADE." Gen 3:1
One of the truths we accept in the Church of God, is that after repentance and baptism, we are imbued by God with a very minute amount of His divine nature through the indwelling of His Holy Spirit. And, as part of our life-long conversion process, we gradually replace our human nature with that of God, so more and more, we reflect the fruits of His Spirit in our daily life. But, as I have just noted, the another side of that coin of godly righteousness is called "human nature," and that is what we are going to look at in this article.
Mr. Herbert Armstrong once said, "The human mind can produce wonders. We have sent successive teams of men to walk on the moon and have returned them safely to the earth, yet these marvelous human minds cannot solve our problems here on earth - cannot bring the world peace! Why? All the violence, war, crime, corruption, dishonesty, and immorality, is blamed on human nature." But that statement raises many questions: What is human nature? Where did it come from? Did God create it in man? Are we born with it, or do we acquire it? Of course, God reveals the answers to these questions in His Word, but there is not one simple verse that gives all the answers. As always, we find the answer revealed "here a little, and there a little."
Ephesians 3:9 states that it was God "who created all things by Jesus Christ." There is always a great purpose to anything God creates. And we know that He doesn't create anything in vain, confusion or disarray because "God is not the author of confusion." So how then, did the Helel/Lucifer [the original name is # 1966 Helel-the name Lucifer was added years later by a Catholic priest doing a new translation of the Bible], who became Satan, get to be the way he is, if God is the one who created him? Where did Satan's evil nature come from? Well, he wasn't created that way: "You [Satan] are the anointed cherub that covers; and I [God] have set you so: you were upon the holy mountain of God; you have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created..." (Ezek. 28:14-15). Two things we want to notice: Satan was created by God and that creation was perfect! had great knowledge, understanding and wisdom. He was one of the greatest beings that God created. The thought continues, "Until iniquity [or lawlessness] was found in you" (vs.15). So this great being, the greatest being God could possibly create, who was taught at the very throne of God, sinned and rebelled against God. How could that have happened? God certainly didn't create an evil devil; He created a perfect, beautiful super-cherub called Helel-meaning shining star.
The prophet Isaiah asked the same question. Isa. 14:12: "How are you fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning! How are you cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations!" (Isa.14:12). How? God reveals the answer in the next two verses: "For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High!" (Isa. 14:13-14). Helel [Lucifer] allowed his beauty and power and position to fill him with vanity. Evidently it wasn't enough that God had placed him on the throne of this earth to administer the government of God. He envied what God had - rulership of the entire universe. Helel [Lucifer] reasoned that he could ascend up into the heavens and throw God off His throne!
Ezekiel hits the nail on the head: "Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty, you have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness..." (Ezek. 28:17). So, Helel [Lucifer] acquired this evil, sinful nature through false reasoning, which led to rebellion. He falsely reasoned that he was just as good, if not better, than the God who created him! Lucifer allowed the beauty, wisdom and knowledge God had given him to fill him with vanity. He then began to work on deceiving those angels he was ruling over and eventually led one third of the angels into rebellion against God and His laws.
If Satan acquired his evil, sinful nature by false reasoning and vanity, how does man acquire his evil human nature? Was he created with an evil nature, or did it become corrupted too? Gen. 1:26 tells us that on the sixth day of the creation week, God created man. But, it also says we were created in the very likeness of God, potentially to be created in the image or character of God through conversion. That alone reveals we weren't created with an evil nature, because God does not have an evil nature!
But then the Genesis account relates that, "God blessed them..." (Gen. 1:28). God blessed Adam and Eve. He certainly didn't bless them by placing an evil, satanic nature in them! "God saw everything [including man] that He had made, and behold, it was very good..." (vs.31).
On the seventh day, the Sabbath, God rested from all that He had created. He probably began to teach Adam about His way of life and His laws. At that time, Adam's attitude was one of obedience and submission, not rebellion. There is nothing in this account in Genesis 2 about rebellion, deceit, carnality, or hostility against God's laws. That comes in chapter 3, with the introduction of Satan! These early verses in Genesis reveal that Adam and Eve were not created with an evil nature. They were not created in a state of sinfulness or "original sin," as one major denomination teaches. But on the other hand, it does not indicate a nature filled with the Spirit of God, or a converted mind. Adam and Eve were still incomplete - spiritually speaking. They did not possess the Spirit of God in their minds. However, God placed in the midst of the Garden of Eden, the tree of life. It was through this probably symbolic tree that God offered Adam and Eve immortal life. The other tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, caused death.
So man was created perfect physically, yet incomplete. It is heavily implied that God personally instructed Adam and Eve in His laws and commands before Satan was allowed to tempt them. Only after Adam and Eve were trained in God's way did God allow Satan to tempt them. We know the story: Satan got to Adam through his wife Eve. Satan's goal was to get Adam and Eve to believe that all God had taught them was a lie. "And the serpent said unto the woman, you shall not surely die" (Gen. 3:4). Of course, previously, God said they would "surely die" if they took of the wrong tree (Gen. 2:17). But according to Satan, God was lying! Eventually, Eve believed Satan was right and that God was the liar. Adam followed along with his wife in choosing rebellion against God. They decided to ignore God's teachings and took to themselves the right to choose between good and evil by eating from the forbidden tree. They did this, in spite of the fact that God had already determined and explained to them what was best for them and they could have had that - life through obedience to God, if they had chosen the tree of life.
Notice what happened: "And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons" (Gen. 3:7). When it says their "eyes were opened," it means there was a mind change. At that point, the spirit of rebellion entered their minds and hearts. Again, this rebellious, evil nature was not there prior to the temptation by Satan. Satan acquired his sinful, evil nature through false reasoning and vanity, but Adam and Eve received their evil nature directly from Satan!
The Bible, in Gen. 2:7, teaches that man was created out of the dust of the ground and he became a "living soul." Man does not have a soul, man is a soul. But something most people don't understand, is, man also has a spirit! Job 32:8, states "But there is a spirit in man...." We refer to it as the "human" spirit. But how does that human spirit work? How does it function in our life? Well, it imparts the power of intellect - of thinking, and of mind power, to the human brain; and it makes possible a personal relationship between the human mind and God's mind. Animals don't have that. That is the main difference between mankind and animals. Animals have brain, but no intellect. They have no ability to develop holy, godly character. God created us with a human spirit. But that spirit needed another spirit to be complete - the Spirit of God. The apostle Paul makes this abundantly clear. In his first letter to the Church at Corinth, Paul is speaking of our ability to understand the mysteries of God, "But as it is written: `Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered in the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yes, even the deep things of God" (1 Cor. 2:9-10).
God reveals spiritual knowledge through His Spirit. That is what God was offering Adam and Eve through the tree of life - His Spirit. Notice the difference between God's Spirit and the human spirit: "For what man knows the things of a man, except the spirit of man which is in him? Even so, the things of God knows no man, but the Spirit of God" (1 Cor. 2:11). Right here, we see the tremendous importance of having the Spirit of God in our mind! You might ask, why couldn't God just create billions of sinless creatures that couldn't sin? Well, God has already done that in the form of dumb animals. They have no choices to make as Adam and Eve did - nor as you and I do. Animals are sinless creatures that do only as their instincts lead them. They decide whether it's time to eat, or sleep, or mate, or maybe flee from a predator, but not much more. The human spirit in us is what makes mankind so different. We have the ability to think and reason - to make choices. God designed it that way. Sinless animals can be created instantly. Godly character, however, can't. It takes time. That's why conversion and overcoming is a life-long process.
You know, God was under no illusion; He had to know the likelihood of mankind being deceived by Satan was very high. Man, after all, was created lower than the angels and many of the angels sinned. The pinnacle of the angelic creation, Lucifer, sinned - even after being trained at the very throne of God. So it was very likely that man would sin. I don't think it caught God by surprise. Satan did not ruin God's plan. God expected it. That is why it says in the book of Revelation that the Lamb was "slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13:8). It was already determined that one member of the God Family, the Logos, would be made flesh and would die to pay the penalty for the sins of this world. Of all humans, only the life of the One born Jesus the Messiah, could pay that penalty, because He, as it's Creator, was alone worthy to pay the price for the sins of all mankind. Yet God had another "ace in the hole," so to speak - the giving of His Holy Spirit, by which mankind could actually partake of His mind! With the Spirit of God, combined with his mind, man could overcome Satan. Without God's Spirit, as Paul explained in 1Cor. 2:11, we would remain incomplete and unable to understand the things of God.
After Adam and Eve sinned, the tree of life, or the Holy Spirit, was cut off from man as a whole. It would not be offered again, other than an isolated individual, until it was given on that first New Testament Pentecost. That left man with just his human spirit alone to decide for himself what is right and wrong, and that is where Satan enters the picture. It is through this same human spirit that Satan deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve received their evil human nature from Satan. But how did that happen? "Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience" (Eph. 2:2) This of course is referring to Satan the devil. He is the "prince of the power of the air." That is how Satan got to Eve - through her human spirit! He caused Eve to doubt God. It was all very subtle. Satan didn't approach Eve and say, "I am Satan the evil devil, and I command you to choose my way." No, Satan very subtly and deceptively got to Eve through her human spirit. (And this will probably sound familiar, even to most of us) He put doubts in her mind about God's teachings. He put a sense of injustice and resentment within her. He deceived her into believing God had been unfair and selfish with her. He subtly injected vanity into her mind. He misled her into thinking it was OK to disobey God and to take of the forbidden fruit.
But what about Adam? There is a clear distinction between what happened to Adam compared with Eve. Satan deceived Eve into thinking he was right. Paul wrote, "For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression" (1 Tim. 2:13-14). Eve was deceived, but Adam disobeyed God and sinned deliberately. His deliberate disobedience of God's commands cut him off from God, and opened his mind to the deceptions of Satan. And so it reads in Genesis 3:7 that "the eyes of them BOTH were opened." They both acquired this evil, sinful, human nature directly from Satan himself!
So how has the rest of mankind acquired this evil human nature, or does man even have it? Most in the world today assume this evil nature is something every human being is born with - "original sin," as some religions teach. This theory underestimates the great power of our adversary, Satan the devil. Notice what Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ" (2 Cor. 11:3).
In verse two, Paul declared that he desired to present them as a "chaste virgin to Christ." (Something we look forward to on the Day of Pentecost.) Paul feared that the Corinthians would revert back to their former ways before they came into the knowledge of the truth. Prior to that time, they had been deceived just as Eve and every other human mind was! In other words, they too, were recipients of Satan's broadcasting. Eve did not have a mind that was evil before Satan came along and confronted her with his deceptions. And Eve's children were not born with this evil nature. Nor were the people of the Corinthian church, nor are we! But Paul knew that Satan was still around after some 4,000 years; ready and willing to pervert Corinthian minds directly, with his nature - just as he had done to Eve! You see, what we call "human nature," is actually Satan's nature! It is Satan's attitude and he wants to infect all humanity with it. And he does so by broadcasting it, surcharging the air with it - actually working in the minds of unsuspecting mankind. That is how he "deceives the whole world," as it says in Rev. 12:9. Eve acquired her false reasoning and carnal attitude through Satan. Adam, though he wasn't deceived, likewise acquired his evil nature through false reasoning under the influence of his wife and Satan. And today, we live in a world where everyone has acquired this evil human nature - not from heredity - not from the environment - but directly from Satan the devil.
Churches today don't want to believe Rev. 12:9. Yet the scriptures teach that the whole world is deceived by the devil. And, as most of us have heard for many years, the very fact that they are deceived means they don't know they are deceived! It is only through our calling by the Father, that our mind has been opened. Notice what Paul tells the Church at Corinth: "In whom the god of this world (speaking of Satan) has blinded the minds of them which believe not" (2 Cor. 4:4). Satan, as the god of this world has blinded this world - just as it states in Rev. 12:9! The world didn't inherit an evil nature. It was caused by Satan. He is the "prince of the power of the air" as it says in Eph. 2:2.
We can't see Satan. That's what makes him so deceptive. But we can see his fruits in the lives of mankind. He gets to us through the human spirit. We often quote the fruits of God's Spirit of Love, but what about Satan's fruits? These fruits begin to affect us when we are small babies. They eventually become "normal," or in other words, they become habitual. "The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealously, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this (or according to Satan's ways) will not inherit the kingdom of God" (Gal. 5:19-21 NIV). When these fruits become a habitual part of our life, they begin to feel very natural. That is why so many assume we were all just born with an evil, self-centered nature - because it seems so natural and normal. Just look at the world around you.
Obviously, this human nature doesn't exhibit the same degree of evil in all minds. One person can become more evil than another. That's why we have Adolf Hitler's and serial killers. But the overall attitude of vanity and self-centeredness is something we all must overcome and that can only be done by the power of God living in us through His Holy Spirit.
As we have seen, Adam and Eve were not created in a state of rebellion and sin. They were created incomplete. They needed the Spirit of God. Jeremiah tells us, "The [human] heart [mind] is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jer. 17:9). Yet Genesis declared Adam and Eve to be "good" and obedient prior to the temptation by Satan! So when there are verses in the Bible that describe the evil, sinful nature of carnal-minded man, they are speaking of a man (or woman) that has been deceived by Satan - like Eve, and has Satan's nature. The unconverted human being without God's knowledge, who has been swayed and deceived by Satan's nature, is one who is "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." "Because the carnal mind [a mind devoid of God's Spirit] is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Rom. 8:7). When we understand that it is actually Satan's nature in us and that we are not born with it, we can clearly understand why man is wicked and hostile toward God; because Satan is the ultimate in wickedness, and his hostility toward God is never -ending!
But, what is the opposite? "But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God
dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His!" (Rom.8:9). Verse 13-14
clarifies it even more: "For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to
death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of
God." I think it is pretty obvious from the verses we've been reading, that if you have the fruits of the flesh,
or live by the spirit of Satan, you will die; and if you live by the Spirit of God, you will live.
And if we do overcome and live by God's Spirit, what awaits us? "For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God" (Rom. 8:19). The creation, as it is properly translated here, is referring to all the stars, planets, moons and suns in the universe. That creation is waiting for us. "…For the creation was subjected to futility [or uselessness], not of its own will but by the will of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption [the birth] as sons, the redemption of our bodies" (Rom. 8:20-23). These verses point out that it is the creation around us that now sits in futility, just waiting for the birth of the first-fruits because we will have a part in beautifying the creation that has been in decay since the rebellion of Lucifer!
Satan is the most cunning, wily, deceptive being of all, yet the scriptures tell us mankind was made upright. Man has acquired his evil nature because of Satan's deception. An interesting statement is recorded in the book of Ecclesiastes: "This alone have I found: God made human beings straightforward [or upright], but they have [as a result of Satan's influence] devised many schemes" (Eccl. 7:29 NRSV).
But what about converted Christians? Do they have this evil human nature inherent within them? Well, we certainly do prior to baptism. What is it that we repent of when we undergo baptism? Don't we come to God in repentance for living the way of this sinful world - the way of Satan? At baptism, we covenant with God to turn away from our former life of sin and live the way God reveals to us. After forgiving our sins, He then gives us a small measure of His Holy Spirit as a down payment on his promise of salvation and to help us live a life of overcoming. Notice, it is a life of overcoming, because unfortunately, conversion does not disconnect us from Satan's wavelength. We must still strive daily to overcome the ways of this world, which is still under the sway of Satan. When Jesus spoke of overcoming, He referred to overcoming these ways of Satan.
God has called us to be the first-fruits of salvation - to become members of the God Family. He is calling out a select few at this point, giving us the opportunity to qualify to be the Bride of Christ, and to assist Him in teaching this deceived world in the millennium age. In preparing for that, we must overcome just as our Savior, Jesus the Christ did. We are to follow in His steps, as 1 Pet. 2:21 states.
In each of the letters to the Churches in Rev. 2 & 3, Christ declares: "to him that overcomes," He will bestow the promises. We can't overcome by some power of ourselves. That should be evident from the history of mankind. It has to be Jesus Christ living in us. "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:20). Paul told the Ephesians that, "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works."
Let's recognize where human nature truly comes from. Ask God for His Holy Spirit to work effectively in your life. Because it is His Spirit that will give you more of His mind - which is the only power by which we can overcome human nature!
Pete Fleming
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