How God Sees the Natural Man

Last week we got a short, but clear view of how God sees the natural man. Here are two more short expressions from the Bible.

Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)

The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)

Did you see yourself with any of the characteristics quoted last week? If not, the above will fill in any gaps. In any case, this is the nature of man, the natural man.

If we had the burden of proof to establish that man was intrinsically good, we would need to know more than we know now. If we had all knowledge of human history and all newspapers and all family records throughout all generations, it would be with a hope that we would stumble across something that differs with the Bible quotations. Yes, we would come across good people. They would be the ones who had entered the small gate and were on the narrow way. However, they were not intrinsically good. They had been bad and became spiritual men and were no longer natural men. It is not possible for a natural man to become a spiritual man without God. Natural man wants to earn his way. Next week—God’s conditions on how to become a spiritual man.

Read Romans, chapters 4 through 8.

You can contact me by calling (208) 883-0997 or by sending an email to ccm@moscow.com. Our web address is http://ccmbooks.org/.

(From Good News/Bad News)

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