Our Tuesday morning study was over the sinfulness of man. Fun stuff for 6am 😅
We discussed how we fail to see how valuable Jesus Christ is, and how good the news of forgiveness and salvation is, partly because we fail to see how sinful we actually are.
Years ago I read a powerful little book titled ‘What Is the Gospel?’ Here’s a quote on the sinfulness of man from that book:
“The Bible’s picture of human nature…is not so pretty. According to Scripture, the sphere of human nature is not pristine at all, and the mud is not just smeared on the outside. On the contrary, we are shot through with sin. The cracks, mud, filth, and corruption go all the way to the center. We are, as Paul said, “by nature children of wrath” (Eph 2:3). We are included in Adam’s guilt and corruption (Romans 5). Jesus taught this too: “out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” (Matthew 15:19). The sinful words you speak and sinful actions you do are not just isolated incidents. They rise out of the evil of your own heart.
Every part of our human existence is corrupted by sin and under its power. Our understanding, our personality, our feelings and emotions, and even our will are enslaved us in. So Paul says in Romans 8:7, “the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God‘s law, indeed, it cannot.“ What a shocking and frightening statement! So thorough is sin’s rule over us — our minds, understanding, and will—that we see God‘s glory and goodness, and we inevitably turn away from it in disgust.
It’s not enough to say that Jesus came to save us from sin, if what we mean by that is that he came to save us from our isolated mistakes. It’s only when we realize that our very nature is sinful—that we are indeed “dead in our trespasses and sins” as Paul says (Ephesians 2:1, 5)—that we see just how good the news is that there is a way to be saved.”