| CHAPTER 5— RESTORATION Restoration When God created the human race, he made them “in his own image, in the likeness of God made he him.”[242] At the completion of the creation of the world and the animal kingdom, he declared it all “good;” but when he created mankind, he declared it “very good.” The natural impulse of mankind was to love others. It was natural to do the “right” thing. It was contrary to his nature to do evil. Jesus said, “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”[243] We inherit Adam’s fallen nature when we are born[244], and it controls our thoughts, feelings and behavior, unless we make a choice to be led by the Spirit of God. Sometimes people say, “The Devil made me do it!” The Bible says, “A person is tempted when he is drawn away and trapped by his own evil desire.”[245] Even if Satan no longer tempted us, we would still be inclined to sin. We were born with a built-in tendency to evil[246]. In our fallen state, it is actually contrary to our nature to love. At the fall, the natural impulse of the carnal heart became to love self. It’s now natural to do the wrong thing. It is contrary to our nature to do good. “The carnal mind is enmity against God; it is not subject to the law of God [love], neither indeed can be.”[247] The carnal nature that humanity assumed at the fall is the exact opposite of love. It is impatient, unkind, envious, boastful, proud, rude, self-serving. It is now our nature to be easily angered, to keep a record of wrongs. The carnal heart is shallow, superficial and immature. While the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, meekness, gentleness, faith and self-control[248], the fruit that the carnal nature yields is hate, misery, war, impatience, being kind only if it will benefit me, inferiority and superiority complexes, a rough and uncourteous bearing, distrust, domineering, and a total lack of self-control. Left unchecked, the carnal nature ultimately results in psychopathic behavior. Instead of controlling their emotions, their emotions control them, and they are left at the mercy of any animal inclination that might surface, or any thought or feeling that comes to mind. It ends in insanity and demon possession. But at the Garden of Eden, God promised help. Even though we had sold our freedom, God would ensure that our power of choice would always be preserved intact. We would not be left to the mercy of this spiritual cancer, even in this lifetime. “I will put enmity between you and the serpent—between your descendants and her descendants.”[249] Thus the Helper, the Holy Spirit, was promised to ever be present, drawing us the other way. Any time we do good, any right impulse within us, is God’s Spirit of Love and Truth. Deadlier Than AIDS Jesus came to show us the deadly nature of sin, our true condition, and his ability and willingness to heal us. However, before God can help us, we need to come to the realization that we all have the same nature. We are all Lucifers at heart. We are all capable of the most heinous crimes. The potential for violence is within each one of us. We are shocked by the Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Mansons and Dahlmers of the world. Yet without the influence of the Holy Spirit, we would do the same things, because we all have the same fallen nature. We all have a carnal heart—no different than that of Satan. This is why the Bible tells us we are all brothers. Satan fools us into sanctimoniously looking at others and saying, “I would never do that!” Whatever “good” lives we may have led, we are deceiving ourselves if we think we are better than anyone else, whether he be a thief, an adulterer, a drunk in the gutter, a murderer, rapist, or pedophile. We are all infected with the terminal SIN virus, a condition much deadlier than AIDS. The only difference between us is that we’re just at different stages of incubation, with different outward symptoms. But the end result is the same: an unspeakably awful death. The only hope is to be healed and restored. |
 |
 |
| 242 Genesis 1:26, 27 243 John 3:6 NIV 244 Romans 5:12, I Corinthians 15:21 245 James 1:14 246 Psalm 51:5 247 Romans 8:7 248 Galatians 5:22 249 Genesis 3:15 |
 |
| Page 31 |