If you want to learn about the nature of man, Paul does a great job explaining it in detail in Romans 1:18-32. Although I will encourage you to read the whole passage, I will just narrow it down a little. We, as men (and women), are being guilty of all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; we are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; we are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to our parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful, to name a few things. The bible tells us we are all this way. I must admit I am guilty of most all these attributes. We, as a whole and individually, are a sinful people.

?There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. All have turned aside; Together they have become useless; There is none who does good, there is not even one.? (Romans 3:10-12)

If you want to learn about the nature of man, Paul does a great job explaining it in detail in Romans 1:18-32. Although I will encourage you to read the whole passage, I will just narrow it down a little. We, as men (and women), are being guilty of all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; we are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; we are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to our parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful, to name a few things. The bible tells us we are all this way. I must admit I am guilty of most all these attributes. We, as a whole and individually, are a sinful people.

God did not intend for us to be this way, but it?s important to note that He did not make a mistake in creating us. He made us so we could sin, on purpose. Now, why on Earth would He do that, you ask?

God did not want robots; He wanted someone He could have a mutual relationship with. In order for you to truly have a choice, there has to be more than one option. God wanted us to be able to choose to obey Him; to love or not to love. God could force us to love Him, but would it really be love if He did that? No, He wanted us to choose to love him, so He gave us an option. We could love, or we could rebel. When Adam and Eve violated the one simple command God had given them, after He warned them of the consequences, mankind as a whole chose to rebel, and God put on His magistrate?s cloak. Sin is, basically, rebelling against God. He has told us how He wants us to do things, and if we choose to ignore Him and follow our own paths, we become sinners.

As we covered before, God is just, holy, and righteous, and He MUST punish sin. He cannot tolerate it in His presence. God commanded that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23.) Those who sin, must die. It is the only punishment for sin.

The bible describes death as a ?wage,? because we earn it when we sin. God told us what not to do, and He told us what would happen if we did, and we still did it. We have all earned death.

There is a popular myth today that you can atone for your sins by doing good works. The bible says nothing of the sort, rather, it says quite the opposite. Every time you sin, you incur a debt to God, that can only be paid by death. You can steal a dollar from a rich man, and then after feeling bad for what you had done give $100,000 dollars to the poor, and you will still deserve death for your sin. Galatians 2:16 explains that works cannot atone for sin

?nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.? (Galatians 2:16)

We?ll talk more about why works cannot save you, and what can. But for now, it?s important to recognize that there is nothing mankind can do to make himself righteous. We have an incredible debt to pay, one which can only be paid by death. And since we have only one life to give, it would seem we are certainly in trouble.

Perhaps this is why people like to distort the gospel. This is not good news. Not by any means. The word ?Gospel? means good news. But this, this is terrible. This says that no matter what any man on Earth tries to do, he will be condemned to death. But at this point in the game, before the introduction of Jesus, this is the case. We are completely helpless to save ourselves.

It is extremely important, when sharing the gospel, to point make this point terribly clear. If somebody believes he can get into heaven by doing good works, what exactly does he need Jesus for? This is why so many of today?s ?Christians,? don?t have a personal relationship with God. They don?t think they need him. They don?t believe Satan is real. They don?t believe there is a hell. They think because they are human beings God loves them too much to punish them for their sins. This is a terrible state to be in, because they are trusting in their own works to save themselves, instead of trusting in Jesus. They are doomed.

You will inevitably run into these people. You must make it clear to them that there is a real hell. The bible speaks a lot about it. My favorite two verses to show the reality of hell are:

Matthew 18:9 ?If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell.?

Luke 12:5 ?But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!?

Both of these verses are quotes from Jesus. Jesus could not lie, and would not mislead you. Jesus wanted you to realize how terrible hell was, when he told you it would be well worth your while to pluck out your own eye if it would prevent you from going to hell. And Jesus wanted to warn you to fear God, because he can ?and will? cast the guilty into hell.

We are all bound for a very real hell, and we deserve it for our sins. The only way to escape is if God himself intervenes?

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Published on: 2006-02-09 (1835 reads)