The Nature (3)

God’s creation of man resulted in a being with certain desires, attractions, and tendencies.  Adam (and the human race to follow) was given a “nature” during the process of his creation.  In the beginning that nature was spiritual... his desires, attractions, and tendencies were toward spiritual things.  That was the result of the composer/creator’s design and while a remnant of the spiritual nature still exists in man… something terrible happened to cause it to diminish in its role.  The composition that was man changed.

In the beginning it seemed the most anticipated part of the day for mankind was when they walked with the voice of the Lord in the cool of the evening… this was mankind’s spiritual yearning… their nature.  This may have been a daily occurrence, but one day that changed… one day Adam and Eve changed.  It was the day one of them heard another voice speak to her in the Garden.

“Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.  And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” (Genesis 3:1)

The serpent beguiled Eve into eating of the forbidden fruit that day and she gave “also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”  They ignored the warning of the Lord to “not eat of it:  for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”  By disobedience both sin and its consequence, the sentence of death, entered into humanity that fateful day.

Disobedience was the open door that gave sin access to the spiritual nature of Adam and Eve.  Not only did sin have the right of entry into their nature, it had the ability to attach itself to the composition of God’s highest creation… Man.  Man, who was created in the image of God, was no longer under the leadership of pure spiritual yearnings… he began to be led in his choices by his own faulty thinking.  Foremost in his thoughts, no doubt, was the recently acquired death sentence that they expected to shortly be executed… their minds were now focused on their guilt and how to survive the promised consequence of it… death. 

Another nature now was an integral part of their being… the sin nature, which activated a new perspective of thinking… how to survive.  Survival concerns prompted them to hide themselves from God by covering their bodies and finally hiding among the trees… thus the carnal mind (consumed with how to survive) became the highest order of man’s being.  God’s composition is now corrupt. 

The original make up of mankind was that of a being who had a spiritual component that always desired God’s presence and God’s ways.  When sin and guilt entered man’s nature, the spiritual guidance was replace by man’s own thinking… in a sense the spirit of man died… or at least was greatly diminished.  Sin entered and survival became his highest priority… this process of thought is the essence of the carnal mind.

“But the natural man receiveth not the things of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”  (I Corinthians 2:14)

“… the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”  (Romans 8:7)

The beautiful composition of God was corrupted.  God knew there was only one way to remedy the problem… he had to take the parts and separate them, set aside the sin, and put it all back together without the sin.  That separation process is called death.  Death is really a process of separating the components of the human creature.  The process has been described in the testimonies of those who experienced near death events.

The soul and spirit separate from the body (out of body experience) then the soul and spirit separate as the spirit returns to God.  Finally, the body itself decomposes into its original elements.  The last of the decomposition process is typically the bones separating from each other and the marrow inside the bone deteriorating.  Notice the words from Hebrews chapter four:

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

A sword is an instrument of death and is used to divide… the division brings about death.  The word of God is a sword.  Sinful man is under the judgment of that sword and will need salvation if there is any hope for a continued existence.  Thank God there is and that is what this series is all about!