The Bible Speaks About Us

What does God's Word teach us about human beings?

It starts out really, really good. "The Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." (Gen 2:7) Better yet, "God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." (Gen 1:27) Oh, and "God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good." (Gen 1:31)

It is, in fact, this "image of God" concept that continues today. It is the reason that God instituted the death penalty for murder (Gen 9:6) And it is with this confidence that we believe "You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them." (Psa 139:13-16)

But something went horribly wrong. "Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned." (Rom 5:12) Thus, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Rom 3:23) And "the wages of sin is death." (Rom 6:23) Not good. In fact, worse. This sin condition means that natural Man is dead in trespasses and sins, walking "according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience." (Eph 2:1-2) "The natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised." (1 Cor 2:14) That's a pretty heavy "cannot". Not "might not" or "will not" -- "cannot". In fact, "the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so." (Rom 8:7) Again, "is not able". The Bible tells us that human beings in their natural condition are blinded by the god of this world "so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." (2 Cor 4:4) Instead of being good and wise, we are naturally sinful and suffer from a heart that "is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick.) (Jer 17:9) On our own, "the intent of Man's heart is evil from his youth." (Gen 8:21)

We had a good start, made by God's hand in God's image called "very good". We are still made by God in His image, even if we have managed to tarnish and obscure it. But a tarnished reflection of God is our least problem. We stand in opposition to God, hostile, blind, incapable of understanding the things of the Spirit of God, intent only on evil from birth. We can't even see the kingdom of God (John 3:3).

Now, to me, the amount of stuff I would have to overcome (beginning with coming to spiritual life) to arrive at faith in Christ without miraculous intervention is pretty amazing. Nonetheless, the fact that a few are saved becomes astounding. And the news that Christ died for us and offers to cleanse us from all unrighteousness is beyond comprehension. Good News indeed.