Human
Nature – What is it? January 10, 2023
We
hear so much today about human nature. Human nature produces war, violence, crime,
immorality in our society today. Let’s
take some time to really look at it and try to understand what we mean by Human
Nature.
Human
Nature means: the general characteristics, feelings, and behavioral traits
of humankind, regarded as shared by all humans:
We
know all these scriptures we are going to cover, but maybe not in this way.
Jeremiah
tells us this about human nature:
Jeremiah
17:9
"The heart is more deceitful than anything. It is incurable—who can know it?
Jeremiah
just said the evil in our society can be blamed on the deceitful, wicked heart,
human nature in people.
This
raises some questions, where did it come from, did Jesus create it in man. No one can really explains it. So, let start at the beginning.
We
know Satan and the demons are evil, so where did Satan evil nature come from. We know Satan sin.
Paul
tells us the Lord Jesus creates all things.
Ephesians
3:9
and to make all see what is the fellowship of the
mystery, which from the beginning
of the ages has been hidden in
God who created all things through Jesus Christ;
Paul
said a Mystery
Prophet
Ezekiel tells us:
Ezekiel
28:14-15
"You {Lucifer} were the anointed cherub; having been set in place on
the holy mountain of God, you walked in the midst of fiery stones. (15) You were blameless in
your behavior from the day you were created until
wickedness was discovered in you.
Jesus
created a perfect, beautiful archangel, Lucifer perfect, taught by Jesus and found
no sin in Lucifer. How did Lucifer sin,
rebelled, and become the evil one, against God.
Lucifer had free moral agency, he could decide if he will follow God or
not and His character was not set at this time.
But why and what happened
to Lucifer.
Ezekiel
28:16-17
Through your widespread trade you were filled with
violence, and you sinned.
So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, guardian cherub, from among the fiery
stones. (17) Your heart became proud on
account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because
of your splendor. So, I threw you
to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings. {Isaiah 14:12}
Lucifer
did not decide to follow God, his character was set and could not repent. Lucifer then worked to deceive the angels he
ruled over on this earth and led 1/3 in a rebellion against God and his
laws. So, Lucifer became Satan, he
acquired his evil, sinful nature when he sin.
Any
questions about this.
So,
how did people have this evil human nature.
We are told on the sixth day of creation, God created man, in the very
likeness, image or character of Himself.
Genesis
1:26-27
Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our
image, to be like us. Let them be masters over the fish in the ocean, the
birds that fly, the livestock, everything that crawls on the earth, and over
the earth itself!" (27) So, God created mankind in his own image; in
his own image God created them; he
created them male and female.
We
know that God does not have an evil nature, then we know people were not
created with an evil nature. Does this make
sense.
Genesis
1:28
God blessed these humans by saying to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill
the earth, and subdue it! Be masters over the fish in the ocean, the birds that
fly, and every living thing that crawls on the earth!"
We
know when God blessed them, He certainly did not bless them by placing an evil,
satanic nature in them.
Genesis
1:31
Now God saw all that he had made, and indeed, it was very good! The twilight
and the dawn were the sixth day.
So,
we find what God has made, is always very good and absolutely no rebellion in
them. God gives the free moral agency,
free choice in what they do and taught His Way of Life.
God
planted a garden in Eden, with 2 trees in the garden, the Tree of life and the
tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis
2:8-9
The LORD God planted a garden in Eden,
toward the east, where he placed the man whom he had formed. (9)
The LORD God caused every tree that is both beautiful and suitable for
food to spring up out of the ground. The tree of
life was also in the middle of the garden, along with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Adam
and Eve were not created in a state of sinfulness, but not yet complete,
incomplete spiritually. They only had
the spirit in man – mind power to think
and reason like God.
Zechariah 12:1 A declaration: a message from the LORD to Israel. The
LORD, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and
who frames the spirit of man within himself, declares,
Job
32:8
But it is the spirit in a person,
the breath of the Almighty, that gives them
understanding.
We
find this spirit in man gives people understanding.
Genesis
2:7 So
the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground, breathed life into
his lungs, and the man became a
living being.
We
know Man needs the Holy Spirit to be complete and he was freely offered to Adam
with the Tree of Life they could eat from.
1
Corinthians 2:10
these are the things God has revealed to us by
his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things
of God.
God
reveals spiritual knowledge through the Holy Spirit, Notice the diļ¬erence
between God’s Spirit and the human spirit:
1
Corinthians 2:11
For who knows a person's thoughts except their own spirit
within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
People
has the ability to think and reason; to make choices. God designed it that way.
God
had to know that the likelihood was very high for mankind to be deceived by
Satan after Satan was trained by God Himself and Satan sinned.
Revelation
13:8 All inhabitants of
the earth will worship the beast; all whose names have not
been written in the Lamb's book of life, the Lamb
who was slain from the creation of the world.
After
man’s sin, the Tree of Life or the Holy Spirit was cut off from man, The man with just the human spirit alone to decide for himself what is right and wrong.
And
that is where Satan enters the picture. For it is through this same human spirit that
Satan deceived Eve and Adam went
along in the Garden of Eden
How
did Adam and Eve acquire Human Nature.
Remember, they were created perfect,
yet incomplete spiritually, only having the spirit in man.
God
told Adam, not Eve, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, caused
death.
Genesis
2:16-17
And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in
the garden; (17) but you must
not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for
when you eat from it you will certainly die."
Satan’s goal was to get Adam and Eve to believe that all God had taught
them was a lie
Genesis
3:4-5
"You will not certainly die," the serpent said to the woman. (5)
"For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like
God, knowing good and evil."
But
according to Satan, God was lying.
Eve believed Satan was right and that God was a liar. Adam followed
along in choosing rebellion.
Genesis
3:6 So
when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the
eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
Genesis
3:7 As
a result, they both understood what they had done,
and they became aware that they were naked.
So they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
Because
of their free choice to make, the spirit of
rebellion had entered into their
minds or heart. There was a Mind Change right then.
But
Adam and Eve received their evil nature DIRECTLY
FROM SATAN.
We
know Satan deceives and sways mankind through communication, transmitted
invisibly through the air.
Ephesians
2:2 in
which you used to live when you followed the ways
of this world {Satan} and of the
ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit {Satan spirit of rebellion} who is now at work in
those who are disobedient.
Is
this the way Satan got to Eve; through her human
spirit.
They
both acquired this evil, sinful human nature directly from Satan himself
What
we call Human Nature is actually Satan Nature,
attitude. Children are not born with
this evil nature. They do not have Satan
nature, but as they start to grow, they become like their parents.
Mankind
takes on Satan nature, by broadcasting it, surcharging the air with it all over
the world today.
Revelation
12:9
The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He
was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
The
whole world is deceived. The very fact
that the world are deceived means they do not know it. Do we believe this
2
Corinthians 4:4
The god of this age has blinded
the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that
displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
The
world didn’t inherit an evil nature. It was caused by Satan. He gets to the
world people through the human spirit
or spirit in man.
Romans
8:7
The mind governed by the flesh is hostile
to God; it does not submit to God's
law, nor can it do so.
Romans 8:8-9 Indeed,
those who are under the control of human nature
cannot please God.
(9) You, however, are not under
the control of the human nature but under the
control of the Spirit, since God's Spirit lives in you. And if
anyone does not have the Spirit of the Messiah, he
does not belong to him.
{strong words, think about}
Satan’s nature in non-believers and that we are not
born with it, we can clearly understand why man is wicked and hostile toward
God: because SATAN hates God. {nature good and bad}
When
a person repents, baptize and receives the Holy Spirit, The Holy Spirit
combines with the spirit in man and we become a new creation. They are now called Saints.
2
Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in the Messiah, he is a
new creation. Old things have disappeared, and; look. all things
have become new!
Maybe
these verses might have a little more meaning
John
3:5
Jesus answered, "Truly, I tell you with certainty, unless a person
is born of water and Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
Baptism
and laying on of hands to receive the Power of
the Holy Spirit
John 3:6 That which is born of
the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Born
of the flesh, have human nature in them,
born
of the Spirit, have Holy Spirit living in them.
John 3:7-8 Do not
marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born
again.' (8) The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear
the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is
everyone who is born of the Spirit."
Adam
limited his power and ability to do good to the level of his human spirit.
There
is good as well as evil in human nature
Because of the tree, good and bad. Good
is a spiritual attribute, not a physical or material action.
Had
Adam taken of the tree of life, the Holy Spirit of God would have entered him
and joined with his spirit, uniting him with God as a son of God.
Human
nature wants to be good, but there are many who are good, very good people,
with the human spirit. But they do not
have the Holy Spirit yet.
The
Church of God started out with people who wanted to be part of God’s Work, in
changing hearts, changing human nature, preparing for Jesus’s coming to change
and save the world. But Satan is still
at work.
John 6:66 From this
time many of his disciples turned back
and no longer followed him.
{interesting Scripture number, related to words?}
We know, even at the end
time, many will fall away. This is sad.
1 Timothy 4:1 The
Spirit clearly says that in later times some will
abandon the faith and follow
deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.
{This is happening today, the
hate, elites have towards Christians. }
2 Thessalonians 2:3 Don't
let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man
doomed to destruction. {2nd
time}
2 Thessalonians 2:3
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin
be revealed, the son of perdition;
In
2021, of the entire US population of 332 million, about 63% claim they are
Christians {210 million}. Protestant –
42%; Roman Catholics – 21%; others – 4%.
·
As
a year 2020, of 7.7 billion people, 2.4 say they are part of Christianity, with
1.3 billion Catholics.
·
Silent
Generation {1928-45} Christian 84%. Non-Christian faith 4%, unaffiliated 10%,
·
Baby
Boomers {1946-64} Christian 76%. Non-Christian faith 6%, unaffiliated 17%,
·
Generation
X {1965-80} Christian 67%. Non-Christian faith 6%, unaffiliated 25%,
·
Millennials
{1981-96} Christian 49%. Non-Christian faith 9%, unaffiliated 40%,
·
Generation
Z {1996-2012} White Christians - 38, 46 none, 32 Black Christians, 47 are none.
·
Generation
A {2013-today}
Means
the US decline of Christianity continues at Rapid Pace {Pew Research} 2023 numbers are even worse.
We
know in the future, Satan will be removed from being in charge of the earth,
what will be left without Satan nature and influence. Future children of the Father receiving the
Holy Spirit living peacefully among others, future Saints.
Ephesians 4:30 Do
not grieve the Holy Spirit, by
whom you were marked with a seal for
the day of redemption.
If we would
remember that the One who lives in us is God’s own Spirit, we would be much
more selective about what we think, read, watch, say, and do. Note that Paul
acknowledges that evil thoughts and actions are temptations even for those who
are sealed by the Holy Spirit.
Can we still today with
the Holy Spirit in us be affected by Satan nature and his spirit?
Ephesians 4:31-32 Let
all bitterness, wrath, anger,
quarreling, and slander be put away from you, along with all hatred. (32)
And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another just as
God has forgiven you in the Messiah.
The old life comes from a hostile heart of bitterness, seeks its
own way, speaks evil and wishes evil on others. How do we put away all
bitterness? By letting God fill our hearts with His perfect love.
The new life is tenderhearted, shows itself in acts of kindness,
and is ready to forgive wrongs suffered from others.
Always remember these words from the Apostle Paul, the Gospel, summary
1 Corinthians 15:1-4 Now,
brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the
gospel I preached to you, which
you received and on which you have taken your stand. (2) By this gospel you are saved, if you hold
firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in
vain. (3) For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, (4)
that he was buried, that he
was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
Amen
