The
Condition of Man
“What
is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?”
Psalms 8:4 (NKJV)
If
you look up the word man in the dictionary, you might find a long list
of definitions and/or uses of the word. According to mirriam-webster.com, who
also has various definitions, two uses for the word are:
“an individual human” and “the human race: Humankind”
For the sake of this writing, I will be using the word,
almost exclusively, in the latter sense, humankind. If you search humankind
or man on a search engine, you will find some interesting thoughts and
writings; I almost got led down a rabbit hole. I guess there are as many
opinions on this subject as there are people who have ever lived, all varying to
one degree or another, but I digress.
When discussing humankind, one can look at the subject
through the perspectives of religion, philosophy, anthropology, psychology,
history or others. I will be looking at this from a Judeo-Christian worldview,
primarily in the sense of man or humankind as he/she relates to God. Let me
begin by posing the following questions:
Is man good?
Is man evil?
Is he both?
Is he neither?
Depending on who you ask, regardless of religious/non-religious
views, you will get an opinion, even if that opinion is “I don’t know”
or “can anyone really say?” I
suppose, for many, their opinion would be based on history or personal
experience. If you asked a Jewish survivor of a concentration camp during World
War II, they might say man is evil. To a child growing up in an abusive home,
they might likely feel the same. But to a child growing up in a loving home,
they would most likely think man is good. A soldier who has experienced combat
might say some are good, some are evil, and some are both. A Buddhist would
probably say both good and evil (the concept of yin and yang).
In a police a lineup they bring a group of people,
who fit the description of the perpetrator, into a room and line them up
against a wall and then have witnesses pick which one they saw commit the
crime. Imagine now a lineup where the first person is a Catholic priest, the
second a protestant minister, the third a school teacher, the forth a
scientist, the fifth a postal worker, the sixth a homeless person, the seventh a man in a Nazi uniform, and the
eighth a politician. You have to pick which ones are good and which are bad.
Most likely, your personal bias will dictate which ones you think are bad or
good.
Now imagine a lineup of a murderer, a rapist, a
thief, a sex trafficker, a bank robber, a counterfeiter, a kidnapper, and a guy
caught speeding.
Which are good?
Which are bad?
Which are worse?
The fact is, all are guilty or bad because they
have broken the law.
What is the Christian perspective?
Now imagine God sitting on His judgement seat.
People are led in to determine whether they are guilty or innocent. Who should
God allow into heaven and who should He cast into hell?
I will leave you to ponder this and
form your opinion later…
Even between those who profess to be Christians
there is some disagreement on who is good and who is not. I think it best to
look at what Scripture has to say.
Isaiah, in the book that bears his name, writes, “But
we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness like filthy rags;
we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away”
(Isa. 64:6).
The Bible commonly refers to sin. Sin is any act
that violates God or His law.
The Apostle Paul, writing in the book of Romans, states,
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).
Further in the book of Romans, Paul describes a
warring of two natures, the Spirit of God that indwells him and his sinful
nature. He discusses how with his mind he knows what is right and seeks to do it
but his sinful nature, what he calls his flesh, has a strong hold of him and
causes him to sin (Rom. 7:13-25) and then states, “O wretched man that I am!
Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (v. 24-a) He follows that
with, “I thank God-through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (v. 25). Lastly, he
concludes with, “So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but
with the flesh the law of sin” (25-b).
Here we have a man who exhibited true faith and lived
a holy (set apart) life, arguably better than most, admitting that the best he
can do is live a life of conflict. Paul
is saying that man is evil by nature but good in as much as he strives to live
a holy life. We must understand that the only good that we are or have is the presence
of the Holy Spirit that lives within us. I strongly encourage everyone to read Romans,
chapters 3 and 7, as Paul lays out his argument in regard to man’s struggle and
that only through faith in Jesus Christ can man be reconciled to God.
But now the
righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed to the Law
and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ,
to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God, being justified[i]
freely by His grace through redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God sent
forth as a propitiation[ii]
by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His
forbearance God passed over the sins that were previously committed, to
demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and
the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
Romans 3:21-26
Back to the question, who should God allow into
heaven and who should He cast into hell?
In sum, the condition of man is he is not good, he
is evil. But when he submits to Jesus Christ, he is made good or righteous
because of Jesus’ goodness and righteousness. Will you trust Him today?
When I consider Your heavens, the work of
Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?
For You have made him a little lower than the angels,
And You have crowned him with glory and honor.
Psalms 8:3-5
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
John 3:16
Bible passages
taken from the New King James Version.
[i] Justified;
to be found innocent or not guilty of breaking the law.
[ii]
Propitiation: God’s wrath has been turned away from guilty man and the penalty
for our sin paid by Christ Jesus on the cross.
