OUR CORRUPTION AND DEPRAVITY RESULTED FROM OUR FALL FROM GOD

 Adam was disobedient; Satan mislead Eve in tempting her, implying that God was not true.   ‘Has God indeed said, ‘you shall not eat from every tree of the garden,’ implying that God with held some delightful fruit from Eve.      Then she colossally erred in bargaining with the arch-deceiver.      Further she added to the Lord’s warning, ‘You shall not touch it‘- then satan challenged God’s word about dying, which no one could understood in a perfect environment.    Satan added a fraudulent promise of ‘open eyes’ after rejecting God’s word.    And the tempting inducement of ‘being like the Lord‘.     Eve could not match the cunning and guile of the enemy:   heavy stuff in a direct encounter with the adversary himself.    This climaxed when ‘the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she fell - she took its fruit and ate.    ‘The leaven of disobedience entered Adam, when   Eve gave to him, and he ate.    Genesis 3:6, 11, 12    The first man is now fallen.    In their collusion, Adam and Eve dragged each other down.     Hopeless!   Surely, apart from the grace of God.   

 When Satan injected sin into our human hearts, historically, he derailed the human race.     This   culminated in death,   spreading like the Black Plague, because all had rebelled.    Paul expressed it, ‘Therefore , just as sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men.    Because all sinned’ Romans 5: 12.     I cannot teach the Word of God on man’s utterly fallen nature without the bible glorifying the Lord as our Pardon and the Father’s   satisfaction.     Paul continued, ‘If by one man’s offence, many died ( undeniably we stumbled ) much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of one Man Jesus Christ , abounded to many’.    v 15   Then the startling contrast of one man’s disruptive rebellion   and our recovery because the only holy Man conformed to God’s perfect plan.    Scripture records it beautifully, in verse 19,   ‘For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one man’s obedience   many will be made righteous.’   Sadly, many believers do not grasp this corrosive corruption, nor cherish the uplifting grace of our Savior.   

Satan represented himself as a guiding star when he duped the first parents of the human family.      Plausible, he seemed worthy of their undistracted attention.     Paul clearly showed him in his true colors for ‘Satan himself transforms himself   into an angel of light.’     Paul used the word which tells clearly of the life-changing power of His gospel, that is, to transform’.    2 Corinth 11:14

The devil tempted Adam and he fell.    Genesis 3:1-5

Paul explained that Adam was not deceived, but identified himself with his beautiful God-given wife even as a defiant rebel of the Lord.     He continued, ‘But the woman being deceived , fell into transgression’.    1 Timothy 2:14     So Adam,   eyes open and clear mind, challenged the Creator and His moral authority.     Then Paul gave what   surprised and deeply comforted pregnant women in my practice, especially where doubts arose about them or their baby’s well-being.     It reads,  ‘Nevertheless, she will be saved in child-bearing, if they( husband and wife joined in one spirit before the Lord ) continue in faith, love and holiness, with self-control.’

This reassures womanhood in her vulnerable state.      

The fall of mankind produced degenerate children even in the marvelous process of conception.    So that they bore the image of their father and mother rather than the image of the living God.  Every mother confirms this Scripture when she has given birth to child.    She looks for the family likenesses.    However, moral likeness and identical spiritual nature were God’s first desire for His created children.     Now, man was tragically degraded from the image of God to the image of Adam.     Downgrading assumes a base standard.    ‘In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God’.    Showing the large-heartedness of our God.     Then disaster fell on the entire human family.      Genesis 5:3, Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begot a son, after his image, and named him Seth.’   Please observe the disastrous transition from the image and nature of the holy God to the fallen nature of man.    When we fully recognize this, we cry out to the Lord for his new birth to receive the eternal life and character of our Savior and Lord.   

Paul clarified this in 1 Corinthians 15:48,49,   stating ‘The first man was of the earth, made of dust ( that is inorganic chemistry), or the rough stuff: while the second man is the Lord from heaven’.    ( heavenly substance )

Then he speaks of earthly descent and heavenly ascent, ‘As was the man of dust, so also are those made of dust: and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are heavenly.’    So our pedigree may be of earth - or of heaven.     One of China’s underground church leaders is reverently named ‘the heavenly man’, presumably because of his likeness to his Lord.     He was incarcerated for many years, tortured, beaten and mocked until God’s Spirit led all his prison inmates to faith in the living Christ.     Paul added a glorious promise, ‘As we have born the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man.’ True - yet incomprehensible.     

When we are converted to Christ, in contrast, we are made in the image of the living God,  that is, born anew.      In His praiseworthy creation, a butterfly becomes a grub, a process known as metamorphosis, while in His new creation ( being born again )   we assume the arresting likeness of the beautiful One.    We should preach the new birth convicted of the miracle.     For example,   Bob Anderson enjoyed the passing world - I met him, when preparing for a night of revelry.     Then he met the risen Lord , and immediately reflected the likeness to Christ.     Our country town gave him six weeks to revert to his godless life.      God’s Spirit had remodeled Bob, who was new through and through.     When war broke out, as a new believer, Bob won air force fellows to Christ.      Studying at a bible college post-war, Bob faithfully served His Lord in India in a morally-destitute area.     He was made of heavenly stuff.     

Man is born in sin.    Let us remember that God is speaking and His solemn message is humbling.    He is not exaggerating nor compromising.     How can natural birth produce an honorable person?    Third of the stars fell (the angels of heaven , siding with the devil) robbing the Lord of their devotion and support: while man’s fallen nature is loathsome and despicable.    Let not our fallen being ridicule the unchallengeable wisdom of our pure God.   

Job wrote, ‘What is man that he could be pure? And he who is born of a woman that he could be righteous?  If God puts no trust in His saints, and the heavens are not pure in His sight ( this alludes to the third of the angels who rebelled against the Living God ), how much less man, who is abominable and filthy, who drink iniquity like water.’   Job 15:14   God’s warning   is repeated in a later chapter.    Job 25:4

This extraordinary, detailed deviation of normal behavior could only be written by the Spirit of God.    While a literary masterpiece, it is a spiritual repository.        

‘There is no one who understands, Our grasp of God is impaired;
There is no one who seeks after God: our appreciation of God is dissolved;
They have all gone out of the way, choosing alternative routes.
They have together become unreasonable; for reason is dethroned;
There is no one who does good, no, not one:    good practice has ceased;
Their throat is an open tomb; speech is degraded to the grave;
With their tongue that have practised deceit:   truth is relegated.   
The poison of asps is under their lips.’ Message says; ‘they are tinged with poison.’ venomous speech is toxic.   
Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, such speech degrades and damns; (typical of today).
Their feet are swift to shed blood, while concealed intent to murder prevails.
Destruction and misery are in their ways; grievous devastation characterizes life;
And the way of peace they have not known, there is no fear of God before their eyes.’    A picture of corruption and depravity.  Romans 3: 11-18     Perversion or debasement lead to Humiliation.

David cried before the living God and Nathan His prophet, ‘Behold I was shapen (brought forth) in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me.’   Psalm 51:5   God revealed this sickening truth only when Nathan had confronted the royal sinner with his grievous, sickening, multiple sin, for he broke the entire law of God ( the Decalogue ) and not only the commandments against adultery and murder.        
 

God’s Word described our acquiring a depraved nature, having developed in our mother’s womb: that we would behave disloyally to our God.     ‘Surely from long ago your ear was not opened, for I knew you would deal very treacherously, and were called a transgressor from your mother’s womb.    Isaiah 48:8

Such background demands that God step in and send us a Deliverer.   

John 3:6 describes a child of wrath,   born in the maelstrom of anger and fury.   

Our Lord in His challenging word to Nicodemus claimed, ‘That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.’   Imperfect, depraved human nature reproduces similar, frail creatures.    How this contrasts with the spiritual reproducing eternal life.     An executive and CEO, also a spiritual leader and director in Christian work, fashioned David, a tradesman from a Victorian country town.    Committed to Christ , he grew in devoutness, assuming international leadership in Wycliffe bible translation.    Spiritual life reproduced godliness that blessed many thousands of missionaries.      Does your life reflect besmirched flesh or holy spirituality?  

God is love.     Therefore we are now children of the Reformer God.   

Jeremiah 18 tells of the Potter and the clay.     The Hebrew for potter speaks of His creative forming, accomplishing conception, or forming the people of Israel.     A great Creation truth.    ‘Look as this clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.    Then God warns , ‘The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it.     If that nation against whom I have spoken, turn from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it.’    Verse 8 speaks clearly of an evil heart, even though the Lord designed the original vessel.   
‘The depraved heart distorts thinking processes; violently, ruthlessly takes life; Perpetuating promiscuity robs purity and chastity; the misshapen, debauched world of pornography twists sexual expression and insults God, Who bestowed the gift; robbing possessions; lies dominate speech and transactions; God’s holy name is taken in vain.      ‘For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, ( includes the entire, degenerate world of pornography ) thefts, false witness, blasphemies, these are the things that defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man’.    Matthew 15:19 God’s high hopes for His supreme creation were thwarted, while vile and distorted hearts obstructed His holy purpose.

 Separation from the intimate fellowship of the Lord is the most disastrous penalty God can inflict.    Our Lord gives no richer enjoyment than close companionship with Him.     The fall has blinded our heart, having callously covered our sensitive nature.    In tropical Java, a skin often covered the eye blurring sight, (enjoyable to peel off that covering )or extract a cataract within the eye robbing the patient of clear sight.      These are obstructions of   spiritual sight.     Surgery only brought relief, where they cried ‘Terang’! light has come,   How much more when the Savior atones for our sin and frees us from every obstruction.    God surrenders His fallen people to unbridled lust; shamelessness, wantonness and filth.     God takes His redemptive hands off and gives them over to moral slavery.

May God open eyes and hearts of those who have not looked to the Lord.

Ephesians 4:18 instructs us of our ‘futility of mind.    Having our understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of our hearts.    Who are past feeling, having given ourselves over to licentiousness to work all uncleanness with greediness.     God’s diagnosis is tough yet real.    ‘An inoperable brain tumor’ may be a tough, but realistic diagnosis.     Macular degeneration robs mature years of sight.     May the Spirit give clear vision of the risen Lord.

‘Corrupt and perverse in his ways’ is RA Torrey‘s description of the fall of man: to whom I am indebted for the outline of this study.     Cholera has claimed 2200 lives in African Zimbabwe, while 38,000 are afflicted with this disease.      Many thousands also are fighting malnutrition, thus lacking nourishing food to resist the infection; while the foul, clogged creeks and wells contaminate the water, thus spreading the infection.   

‘So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.’   How like   today when the majority have spoiled the honor God duly deserves.    Genesis 6:12   Scripture repeated the term ‘corrupt’, which in the Hebrew means ‘to destroy, mar, waste, spoil, batter, ruin or decay.’ God vindicated Himself when He acted with just, severe retribution to terminate this unjustified moral and spiritual, delinquent wrong-doing of His own creation.     We cannot challenge God’s far-reaching judgment on the human race.    We are accountable.     No depraved man has the right to dispute the holy judgment of our great God.      

The entire human family had reached an extremity of injustice and indifference to the Lord of creation.    God’s justice demanded that He supervene in the affairs of His universe.     Our eternal God must have been broken-hearted observing and experiencing the unseen spiritual glossing over of the Lord who had lavished His grace and favor on them.     Even though the Creator had pronounced man and woman to be ‘very good’, now He ruled to destroy them.     Furthermore, He would deluge His beautiful earth, such as was never before nor since.     Our fossil discoveries confirm the flood: a sudden deluge providing unchallengeable confirmation of God’s Word.   

God said to Noah, ‘The end ( or the extremity ) of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence ( wrong, injustice, cruelty ) through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.’ v13   What did it cost our God?

Psalm 10:5   speaks of abortion, one of the vital elements in the new administration of the USA

‘In the secret places he murders the innocent.     His eyes are secretly fixed on the helpless.     He lies in wait secretly as a lion in his den.’   I stagger to find such reference to one of the curses of our generation.     50 million lives have been terminated in the States in this fifty years.   

Paul’s magnificent eighth chapter of Romans contrasts the death of a person and the pulsating new life in the risen Christ.     Paul had been converted by his glorified Lord after persecuting even to death; that is martyrdom for the followers of the Lord and eternal death to Saul the persecutor.    He taught that once we were spiritual prisoners, enslaved and terrified of life, rather we received the Holy Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry ‘Abba Father.’

He debates, ‘We are debtors - not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh; for if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.’    Then the glorious contrast, ‘for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.’ v14 ‘For you did not receive the spirit of bondage to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry, Abba Father.’     This is totally diverse from   ‘The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.’ v17

God affirmed that our real person, that is, our essential being is sly, insidious, cheating.    And it is incurable.    Our God does not minimize our shameful, fallen state.    

‘The heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it.     I the Lord search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to every man according to His ways, and according to the fruit of His doings.’    Jeremiah 17:9,10.   While verse 13 records, ‘They have forsaken the Lord.’    Then follows the cry,   ‘Heal me, O Lord and I shall be healed.    Save me, and I shall be saved.’

Corrupt intelligence means we are depraved in mind.     Intellect is associated with the fall and is prominent in Scripture.    Many eminent scientists have broken into God’s concealed secrets,   because their minds have been renewed in the Lord.    Creation scientists joyfully recognize the Lord in His marvelous design; while atheistic scientists view the same evidence with blatant disregard for the Designer and Sustainer, reviling those of strong trust in their Lord.     

Colossians 1:19-23 provides an excellent summary for this entire article.

‘For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell.   By Him to reconcile all things to himself - by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.    And you who were once alienated and enemies in your minds and by wicked works, yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and irreproachable in His sight- if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.’

Titus 1:15
‘To the pure all things are pure.    But to the defiled nothing is (absolutely) pure.’  ??????