Word of Salvation – Vol. 32 No. 04 – Jan 1987

 

Man’s Sinful State Is Not From God -
For Man Was Created Good

 

Sermon by Rev. M. P. Geluk on Heidelberg Catechism Lord's Day 3a.

Reading: Genesis 1:26-31; Psalm 8.

 

It is plain to everyone that man cannot perfectly obey God.  You and I both know this from our experiences.

And when we look to the requirements of the law of God, then immediately we are faced with the fact that what God wants from people is not what we can give him.

By nature we are inclined to go against God's will for our lives.  The whole history of man bears this out.

Hate, crime, greed, rebellion, disobedience, wickedness, evil, all point to the fact that man is unable to truly love God and his fellow-man.  Why is man sinful and corrupt in his nature?

Everyone, especially in times when he or she has been doing the wrong thing, like losing one's temper, and being unjust to God and to others, must have asked himself – why am I like that?

Why are others like that?

Where did it all begin?

How come that some people can be just bent on destroying themselves and others?

How come other people can just waste their lives by a meaningless existence?

Even if life has not been so bad to you and you have not been caught up in war, or hunger, or strife, even then you must have wondered if there is not more to life than just your daily work and watching television all night.

What we are getting at of course is a true doctrine of man.  How do you see man?  How do you look upon human nature?

For a proper and true doctrine of man we must first establish the origin of sin.

In other words, why is man sinful?

Where did all this wickedness and misery, that we are faced with so much again today, start?

I aim to have three sermons on this whole matter, following more or less the confession of the church as stated in L.D.3 of the Heidelberg Catechism.

            1.  The creation of man in God's image, i.e.  man's sinfulness is not from God.

            2.  The fall of man into sin – Gen.3.

            3.  The need for all men to be born again.

Today we look firstly at the theme that Man's sinfulness is not from God, for God made man good, after His own image.

When we look to the Bible with regard to establishing a true doctrine of man, then we must first turn to Gen.1.

There we read (vs.26, 27) that God created man in His own image, after His own likeness.

The image of God in man was there in both male and female.  We're not so much concerned now as to how God created Adam and Eve, (you can read about that in Gen.2), but we are concerned with what nature God gave to man.

And from the contents of Gen.1 and also Ps.8 it is clear that God made man in such a way that man was above all else that God made.

Ps.8 says that he was made a little less than God, man was inferior only to God but to everything else he was superior.

God crowned him with glory and honour.

Man reflected a great deal of God's own nature.  The likeness and the image of God was in man, in man's nature and character.

Nothing of all this could be said of any of the animals God made, or of anything else for that matter.

Man was in every way a unique and special creature.

But what was true of man in paradise is not of course what we see in man s nature and character today, or for that matter in any other time of man's history.

The reason for this change in man is of course the fall into sin of which Gen.  3 speaks.

The nature of man that we are so familiar with is not the man of Gen.1 & 2 but the fallen man of Gen.3.

But we must never lose sight of the man of Gen.1 & 2.

For a proper understanding of man, and for a proper formulation of the doctrine of man, it is absolutely crucial that we do not only take in the facts of Gen.3 but also the facts of Gen.1 & 2.

We are of course not speaking of two types of man, one from Gen.1 & 2 and the other of Gen.3.

No, it is same man throughout but a terrible change occurred in his nature.

After the fall into sin man did not cease to be a creature of God, no, he remained that but he became a creature whose whole nature and being became distorted and twisted from what he was originally.

But now you will find that an awful lot of people do not take the creation of man (which made him good) and the fall of man into sin (0which made him bad) very seriously.

Most people will look upon man as a creature that is both good and bad at the same time.

People, they say, can be very good people.

They can be helpful, kind, understanding and so on.

But unfortunately, people can also do bad things, be selfish and be harmful to themselves and to others.

In other words, most people would define a person as basically good but unfortunately also inclined to be bad.

There is a general goodness, and a general badness, with exceptions of course in that some are very good and others are very bad.

The way you are, it is said, depends a lot on the environment you're in, the education you've had, and the chances and opportunities of life.

But in this so popular view of man, the original wholesome good nature and the now total bad nature of man, are not at all taken seriously.  The Christian faith, however, takes both natures seriously.  It follows the Bible and says God created man good, after His own likeness, but man since the fall is now wicked and perverse.

It can't be stressed enough that what we are saying here is of the utmost importance to all of us.

We still have Christian people who tend to dismiss all this from their minds as being a bit heavy, or mere theory, and not at all relevant to the daily practical things of life.

But let me tell you that every single student here that attends a secular high school or secular college or university, is faced with the doctrine of man all the time.

And very often the view that is taught to them is one that does not take the creation of man and the fall into sin seriously.

The doctrine of man they usually receive is that man is basically good but can do bad things, depending largely on the circumstances as to what he does.

Students get this particularly in the behavioural sciences; psychology especially, and mostly also in the prescribed non-Christian literature.

And today's young generation will be the members and leaders of the church tomorrow.

How crucial, therefore, that they are taught the Christian view of man!

Originally, at the beginning and time of history, God created man good and in His own likeness.

Then, not long after, man's nature became sinful and corrupt, as the result of the fall into sin.

Both these events, the creation and the fall, are fall, are true facts of history; they really took place in time and history.

Both events also have to be accepted in faith, and I suppose that's where the crunch is, for not everyone is prepared to do that.

The Word of God testifies about both events and it is basically a matter of believing and accepting the Bible's truthfulness about this.  No one can of course see what the creation was like, no photo documentary of the Garden of Eden exists neither can we produce a perfect Adam and Eve, so as to scientifically prove that man once was all good.  It remains a matter of faith.

This is even true of the fall into sin.

Oh yes, we can see the sinful acts of man; they take place all the time.

But to say that these sinful acts are the result of the sinful heart, and that they flow from an inner perversity, is again a matter of faith in the teaching of God's Word on this.

And to believe or not to believe these facts from the Bible makes an awful lot of difference with regard to the way you see man and human nature.

Take guilt for example.

The Christian believer realises that his sinful acts render him guilty before God.

God did not make him a sinner, on the contrary, God made man originally good, but man rebelled against God and pushed God away.

But he who does not believe the Bible on this point has no problem.  The unbeliever can't see his guilt.  He has guilt too of course, but is not aware of it because he doesn't take the creation of man and the fall of man seriously.

And until he does, he thinks he has no need of Christ, no need for forgiveness and pardon from God, no need to be afraid of the judgment of God.

In fact, in our culture where there are still some Christian overtones, and where most people are prepared to accept the existence of that same God, such a person will probably think, especially if he is quite decent, that God, (whoever he is), is on his side, and that when he dies he'll probably go to heaven, (wherever that is).

And that would describe the average unbelieving modern-man of today pretty well.

Now you may ask what has all that to do with us in the church?  This!  Our young people are growing up in that kind of world where most people view man as you just heard it.

That means that they are influenced and will even take over this non-Christian view of man.

They will do this automatically, and you can't altogether blame them for it either.

But what is of great importance of course is that they are taught the Christian view of man in your homes, in our Christian schools, in Catechism class and in church.

If we don't succeed there, then humanly speaking we will lose our youth and there will not be a strong, Bible-believing church tomorrow.

And you don't need me to tell you that a lot of this is happening already when we look around us in churches overseas and closer to home.

We must hold on to the creation of man by God after His own image, in His own likeness.

It means that man could have fellowship with God, he could truly know God His Creator, and love Him with his whole heart and live with God in eternal happiness.

In the creation of man, which pleased God tremendously, lies a glory and honour for man.

Man was made in such a way that he could voluntarily answer to God's love.

Man of course remained a creature; he did not become God's equal.  But God made him so that he was enabled to believe in God, trust in Him, have a true sense for justice and beauty, have an ability to speak and convey his thoughts and feelings accurately.

In short, there was holiness and purity and true knowledge.

In all this man reflected God, and there was therefore a real fine fellowship between Creator and creature.

The angels were never like this.

The angels were created as servants only.

And they were not given any dominion over the earth as man was.  It is for this reason that Ps.8 can glory in the creation of man, because he was given to rule and have dominion over all the other things God had made.

Man was to rule over the creation on God's behalf.

Man was given a very privileged and honoured position in the kingdom of God.

And because man had to rule over the creation on behalf of His Maker, he also had given to him by God a responsibility.

In this he also reflected God's image.

God chooses and decides for Himself and so also man in paradise under the direction of God.

This voluntary willingness, this spontaneity and responsibility of man enabled him to serve God and glorify God.

Man was no robot, no lifeless mechanism.

He could respond to God in a wonderful way.

And here we can also see how God could be glorified and praised in His creation.

The main purpose of the creation was the glorification of God by all the things He had made, especially man, male and female.

And man of course was meant to go on in this way.  His task was to continue as the image-bearer of God.

By the way God had made man, God had given him direction, purpose, meaning and man had to persist in this and continue to choose this.  That was the responsibility of Adam and Eve, a responsibility they could fulfil by faith and trust in God.

But sadly man turned against God and misused his responsibility and thus lost his spontaneity, and his freedom under God.  He wanted to be independent and separate from God.

The fall into sin occurred.  Gen.3 speaks about it and next time we will look at the far-reaching implications it had for mankind.

But let us now in conclusion look at some of the practical issues that flow out of the creation of man in God's own image.

The way man was, and the way he should have stayed, continues to have implications for man even now that he has fallen from all that.

And we must of course remember also that God with His great plan of salvation in Christ restored the redeemed person to that glorious state from which he fell.

So what are some of the things that have meaning and relevance for our view of man today?

One is that we must continue to hold on to the historical dimensions of the creation of man and also The Fall.

We must resist all attempts to reduce the creation of man and his subsequent fall into sin to mere stories or fables that did not really take place in history.

If we no longer believe that Gen.1-3 is true and actual history, then we will of course lose the whole biblical basis for our Christian view of man.

Secondly, we can see that once man fell from his state of perfection, he needed God's help to redeem him.

This means that man after the fall has lost the ability to serve God and obey Him.

He had that ability in Paradise but not after it.

It is therefore incorrect to speak of fallen sinful man as having still a free will which he can use to decide to serve God or not.

Man has truly fallen and only through Christ can God restore him back to God.  Therefore we must continue to resist views which limit the sovereign will of God by the will of His creatures.

Thirdly, the biblical doctrine of the creation of man clashes head-on with the theory of evolution.

The two explanations for the origin of man have nothing in common whatsoever.

One cannot hold on to the philosophy of evolution and at the same time hold on to some form of Christian thinking with regard to the creation of man.  There is, therefore, much to be said for Christian Schools and a Christian Teacher's College.

Fourthly, all evil and wickedness in man is to be explained in the light of the fall into sin.

In no way can it be said of God that He created man evil or less than good.

The evil in man is in everyone and it is to be traced back to that conscious and deliberate act when man turned against God.

Man, therefore, is to be held fully responsible for his actions, something that the law courts of the nation must not overlook.

Fifthly, the present pre-occupation in films and music with cosmic forces, is pagan and unbiblical because it seeks to take away the responsibility that man has before God as regards his actions.

Cosmic forces, supernatural powers, it is claimed are supposed to affect the emotional, physical and intellectual parts of our lives.  The whole thing is childish, superstitious, not unlike the horoscopes.

Christians should not take any notice of these things, for they reduce man to an accident, and makes him not responsible for his behaviour.

When it is claimed that there are certain trends which are unalterable because they are supposed to be related to cosmic forces in the universe, then with all that it denies the existence of a personal God who created man in His own likeness.

Finally, we need to sound a strong warning that with the wave of Eastern religions and Eastern mysticism that have come over the western nations, including Australia; there is missing all together the view of man as we have it in Genesis of the Bible.

We must not think that because the name of God is often mentioned in these Eastern faiths, that it is the same God of the Scriptures.

The god of Eastern mysticism is thought of as a cosmic and a divine force, or the universal spirit.

It says that all is God or God is all, merging all things into the divine.

The way to peace and inner calm is to discover one's self in this divine nature which is in everything, in the air, the trees and in man.  It teaches that there is god in man and that human nature is essentially good and worthy.

All yogis, for example believe in themselves as a god or as part of the deity.

By meditation and the practising of yoga, man can empty himself fully into the divine and thus return to this original, perfect state, and so achieve happiness and well-being.

From a biblical point of view we have to say that this way of speaking about God denies God's personality, as well as that of man.  God is no longer separate from His creation (pantheism).  It denies the reality of sin and the fall into sin.  There is, moreover, no room for Christ.

But if we have learnt anything from the creation of man, then it is surely that Genesis shows God to be a person with His own characteristics.  One who is everywhere present but not in everything.

There remains a definite distinction between God and His creation.  God created man good, after His own image.

Man then fell away from this state and became a sinful creature.  The only way for sinful man to be right with God and to be restored to the true original purpose of man serving God, is not by losing oneself in some impersonal, vague cosmic force or universal spirit, neither by a meditation turned in on oneself, neither by mystical yoga experiences, but by realising one's guilt before a holy, perfect God, by acknowledging and repenting of one's sins, and by believing and trusting in Jesus Christ as the only mediator between God and man.

The way to God can only be taken if we accept the good creation of man and the subsequent fall into sin.

Without these biblical doctrines, all other biblical doctrines don't make any sense whatsoever.

AMEN.