Who are we? It seems like a simple question. But humanity doesn’t come to a unified conclusion about our own nature. We exist and we are smart enough to know it, but who we are, how we got here, why we are here, where we are going…well…
One world view claims we come from the lowest life form and we are improving. Another claims that we come from the highest life form and we are degrading. One view says that humanity is essentially good and that we need to reach inside of ourselves to realize our inner potential. Another view says that humanity is desperately bad and we must be rescued from outside of ourselves. One view of humanity justifies cruelty and racism while another protests it. One says we were created by God another says we have divinity within us. One says there is nothing after death, another holds onto hope of eternal life, still another says we will be reincarnated. Knowing who we are is fundamental. But humans have a hard time defining what it means to be human.
Man and woman were made in the image of God with individuality, the power and freedom to think and to do. Though created free beings, each is an indivisible unity of body, mind, and spirit, dependent upon God for life and breath and all else. When our first parents disobeyed God, they denied their dependence upon Him and fell from their high position. The image of God in them was marred and they became subject to death. Their descendants share this fallen nature and its consequences. They are born with weaknesses and tendencies to evil. But God in Christ reconciled the world to Himself and by His Spirit restores in penitent mortals the image of their Maker. Created for the glory of God, they are called to love Him and one another, and to care for their environment.
Fundamental Belief #7: The Nature of Humanity
This is a big and potentially confusing topic. Let’s take a simple approach by considering a single verse of the Bible, Romans 5:19.
“For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”
Humanity has some bad news… we have been made sinners by someone else’s disobedience.
Humanity has some good news… we can be made righteous by someone else’s obedience.
These are extreme realities about who we are. There are some with pessimistic, doomsday perspectives who seem are a bit extreme. There are others with optimistic, “Pollyanna” perspective who seem a bit naive. But rational and balanced people should land somewhere in the middle, right? Well… the Bible has a far worse diagnosis and a far better cure.
The bad news is really bad and the good news is really good. And they go together.
Without the bad news the good news is meaningless. It’s a solution without a problem.
And without the good news the bad news is hopeless. It’s a problem without a solution.
Read Romans 5:12-18 and notice the repetition of these extreme realties.
Now, back to verse 19…let’s start with some good news, then face the bad news, and end on some more good news.
GOOD NEWS
Is humanity naturally good or bad? The Bible’s answer to that question is “both”, depending on how you define “naturally”. We know “both good and evil”. If we define naturally as the nature that we are born with, we are bad. If we define naturally as “originally” (by design), we are good.
You can see this good news in the text in the words, “were made”.
“For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners” (Romans 5:19).
This means that we were something before we were sinners. Our sinful nature came before we were born but not before we were created. Our original design is “very good” (Genesis 1:31). We were not made bad. We are created by God and in His image. That’s good news!
Our origin is a solid foundation for our self-worth! But don’t let this turn into arrogance. We have some bad news to deal with too.
BAD NEWS
Humanity experienced a devastating change when Adam and Eve disobeyed God (Genesis 3). They knew the result of disobedience in advance, they would surely die (v3). They didn’t experience immediate death but they did experience immediate change. Their eyes were opened to things they were never designed to see (v7). They saw that they were naked (v7). They hid from God (v10), an impulse they never had before sin. Enmity was placed between humanity and the spiritual forces of evil (v15). From that point on humanity would face sorrow and pain (v16), thorns and thistles (v18) before returning to the dust (v19).
And it went downhill quickly from there. The parents ate the fruit and their child committed murder. And by the tenth generation it was so bad that “the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).
The bad news is really bad!
- Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
- Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
- Ephesians 2:3 …we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
- Psalm 51:5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Humanity’s problems is not just that we do bad things. It’s worse. We are bad! The common denominator in all of our problems is us. We don’t just have sinful actions we have a sinful nature. We were born with it, “by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners”(Romans 5:19). My actions are bad enough to condemn me, but I was condemned in my nature before any of my actions. This means that behavior modification is not enough. We need heart transformation. It is not enough to discipline self to make better choices. We need to deny self and be born again.
That’s the bad news and it is really bad!
Ellen White summarized the bad news with language like this…
We must remember that our hearts are naturally depraved and we are unable of ourselves to pursue a right course.” (The Review and Herald, January 4, 1881).
“As a result of Adam’s disobedience every human being is a transgressor of the law, sold under sin.” (Signs of the Times, July 23, 1902)
GOOD NEWS
The bad news helps us to see what is so good about the good news.
“Know your disease! Know your cure! Ye were born in sin: Therefore, “ye must be born again,” born of God. By nature ye are wholly corrupted. By grace ye shall be wholly renewed. In Adam ye all died: In the second Adam, in Christ, ye all are made alive.”
John Wesley, Sermon 44, Original Sin
“But we must be assured of the malignity of a disease before we desire it’s cure”.
Ellen White, Manuscript Release #9, 229
The Bible is one big story of this good news. Here is how it is summarized in Romans 5:19, “by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”
We were condemned by another’s disobedience but we are saved by another’s obedience! Our works were not needed to condemn us and they are not able to save us. The good news is a “free gift” (vv15-18).
We are sinners by nature and by action. Still there’s righteousness for us! It is Christ’s righteousness extended to us by His obedience! The good news is really good!