6. Fallen Man Is Now
Unable and Unwilling to Return
to the True God
Another fearful and tragic result of the Fall of Man is that all of us, in our natural, unconverted state, being guilty and corrupt sinners, rebels and enemies of the true and living God, are doing everything in our power, either consciously or unconsciously, to stay away from Him. Adam and Eve fled from the presence of God after their sin; feeling their guilt, and dreading the God Whom they once loved, they covered themselves with fig leaves, and attempted to hide from Him among the trees in the Garden. Adam's fallen race continues to run from the true God, the God Who has revealed Himself in the Holy Scriptures, though we may invent many kinds of false religions in an attempt to cover, with spiritual "fig leaves," our feelings of guilt. In Romans 3:9-20, the Apostle Paul, writing by the verbal inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and quoting extensively from the Psalms and Isaiah 59:7-8 -- sums up God's indictment of fallen man, giving a comprehensive picture of how the all-seeing God views Adam's fallen race. My friend, if you really want to know how God sees us, I urge you to read carefully this entire passage -- we will quote a selected portion of it here:
"As it is written, There is NONE righteous, no, not one: there is NONE that understandeth, there is NONE that seeketh after God. They are ALL gone out of the way, they are TOGETHER become unprofitable; there is NONE that doeth good, no, not one. . . . Now we know that what things soever the Law saith, it saith to them who are under the Law: that EVERY MOUTH may be stopped, and ALL THE WORLD may become GUILTY BEFORE GOD." (Romans 3:10-12,19)
Note especially these words found in verse 11, "There is NONE that understandeth, there is NONE that seeketh after God." In our fallen state by nature, we are born into this world and live our lives in gross spiritual darkness, described also in Ephesians 4:18 as "having the understanding darkened," and the result of this condition is that "there is NONE that seeketh after God." Fallen man is not only running away from the true God in a desperate flight from reality, but because of a darkened understanding, he is also totally unable, of himself, to find and know the true and living God.
The Apostle Paul, writing on another occasion to the Corinthian church, had this to say concerning the fearful condition and rebellious attitude of the natural man (and woman) concerning spiritual truth and the things pertaining to the true God:
"But the NATURAL MAN RECEIVETH NOT the things of the Spirit of God: for they are FOOLISHNESS unto him: NEITHER CAN HE KNOW THEM, because they are SPIRITUALLY discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:14)
In this passage, the natural man is a Biblical term which refers to all of Adam's fallen race who are not under the direct, regenerating power and influence of the Holy Spirit of God. The things of the Spirit of God are the vital truths of the Holy Scriptures regarding the being, character and attributes of the true God, the truth concerning man in his fallen state, blood redemption by the sovereign grace of God through the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the regenerating, transforming power of the Holy Spirit. Fallen man, in his natural state, and uninfluenced by the enlightening, convicting power of the Holy Spirit, will not receive these truths, but will reject them as foolishness, offensive, and absurd (See 1 Corinthians 1:18-24; Acts 26:24; Romans 9:33; Gal. 5:11). No matter how gifted, educated, intelligent or religious a man or woman may be, he or she cannot know, understand, appreciate, or see the reality of these truths, apart from the powerful convicting and enlightening work of the Holy Spirit. "If our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost" (2 Corinthians 4:3). But in contrast, the person who is renewed and taught by the Holy Spirit has spiritual discernment, because under Holy Spirit conviction, he has undergone a radical enlightenment of mind and transformation of heart, according to 2 Corinthians 4:6, "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." To such an individual, Christ is PRECIOUS, because He has made Himself known to us, by His Spirit, through the Word of God, and we have personally tasted that the Lord is gracious! (1 Peter 2:1-7). See also Acts 16:14; 1 Corinthians 2:4-5; 1 Thess. 1:4-5; 2 Corinthians 3:18.
Now, my friend, the only conclusion that can be drawn from these statements from the Holy Scriptures, is that if any individual is ever inclined to seek after the true and living God -- the God of the Bible -- it must be because God is taking the initiative, and actively seeking that individual first, by powerfully overcoming his natural aversion to spiritual truth. It should not surprise us, then, that the clearest teaching concerning fallen man's total inability in the spiritual realm -- and the necessity of God taking the initiative -- came from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Let's look briefly at some of His teaching on this subject:
In that famous conversation with the Jewish religious ruler, Nicodemus, recorded in John 3:1-21, our Lord repeatedly stressed the absolute necessity of the New Birth, of being born again by the Spirit of God. "Except a man be born again, he CANNOT SEE the kingdom of God" (verse 3). In verse 5, Christ said, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he CANNOT ENTER into the kingdom of God." In this verse, the word "water" is not to be taken literally (as in water baptism), but in a symbolic sense, meaning the cleansing effect of the New Birth, through the Instrument of the Word of God, according to Titus 3:5 and Ephesians 5:26. What stands out so vividly in this conversation between Christ and Nicodemus is the fact that this astute and respected religious leader was absolutely blind himself to the truth, being dumbfounded and amazed at our Lord's teaching, and totally ignorant of the New Birth. Nicodemas is one of the best Biblical examples of how a person may be religious but lost, a leader in the world of religion, but in reality, among those whom the Lord Jesus described in another place as "blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch" (Matt. 15:14). Therefore, Christ said to him, "YOU must be born again." Religious knowledge is not evidence of true salvation.
The Lord Jesus Christ, during the course of teaching His followers as recorded in John chapter 6, again stressed the absolute inability of the natural man to perform acceptable spiritual actions, including the exercise of true faith. In verse 44, He said, "No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day." The Lord repeated this truth in slightly different words in verse 65, "Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto Me, except it were given unto him of My Father." And in verse 63, He said this, "It is the Spirit Who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The Words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life." The clear and unmistakable teaching of this verse is that the flesh (fallen man) can contribute absolutely nothing to spiritual life. It is the work of the Holy Spirit, Who uses the Word of God as the Instrument to give spiritual life to spiritually dead sinners. See also John 5:25, I Peter 1:23, James 1:18, and 1 Thess. 1:5.
In "PART II -- GOD'S REMEDY" of this book, we will see in more detail the wonderful sovereign, transforming grace of God in action, as God the Holy Spirit deals in mercy with lost, Hell-deserving sinners in the New Birth, granting them repentance and faith, and transforming their hearts and renewing their wills both to love and to obey Him (Titus 2:11-14; 3:3-7; Acts 11:18; 2 Timothy 2:25; Ephesians 2:8; Philippians 2:12-13).
7. Fallen Man Is Now Under the Sentence of Death
God warned Adam of the penalty of disobedience to His command, "For IN THE DAY that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely DIE" (Genesis 2:17). Death, in the Biblical sense, never means annihilation, or extinction of being, but separation, and this separation has three aspects, or phases:
(1) There is spiritual death, or the separation of the soul from God. Adam suffered spiritual death immediately when he disobeyed God's command -- he was immediately cut off, or separated, from the fellowship, communion, and favor of the holy God Who created him. This spiritual death, or separation from God, is now the natural condition of all of Adam's race, according to the Holy Scriptures: "dead in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1); "you being dead in your sins" (Colossians 2:13); "through the offense of one [Adam], many are dead" (Romans 5:15). Spiritual death, then, is conscious existence, but a conscious existence that is separated from the personal knowledge, fellowship, communion, and favor of God.
What are the symptoms of spiritual death in fallen man? There are at least two: (1) Insensibility. Just as a dead body is insensible to life around it, so fallen man is insensible and uncaring concerning the majesty, glory, and perfections of his Maker, the One Whom he should be worshipping and in Whom he should be finding his greatest delight. Fallen man is alive to the world around him through the five senses, but, by nature, he is dead spiritually to a personal relationship with God. (2) The absence of breath. Just as a dead body does not breathe, so fallen man spends his time here on earth out of touch with God, having no spiritual breath, or vital communication and true fellowship with the holy God Who made him.
The Bible pictures fallen man as "alienated from the life of God" (Ephes. 4:18), and "without God in the world" (Ephes. 2:12). Man in his natural, fallen state is so blinded by the pride of his own heart that he will not seek after God, according to Psalms 10:4 -- "The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God; God is not in all his thoughts." This is spiritual death.
(2) There is physical death, or the separation of the soul from the body. Although Adam lived many years after the Fall, his sin introduced the seeds of disease, aging, and physical death into his body (Genesis 3:19), and into the entire human race. The Scripture says of Adam, ". . . and he died" (Gen. 5:5). This sentence of physical death rests upon all mankind because "In Adam, ALL die" (I Cor. 15:22); "The wages of sin is death . . ." (Romans 6:23); and, "It is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). Each of us is subject to physical death, at any moment. We are truly but a heartbeat and the drawing of a breath from eternity.
(3) There is the second death (Revelation 20:6,14). Death does not end our existence; rather, it is but the door into eternity -- an eternity filled with the joy of God's presence if, in this life, we have come to know Him through the Lord Jesus Christ; or, if we have not, an eternity of misery in the SECOND DEATH, being "punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power" (2 Thess. 1:8-9). Death seals our eternal destiny -- there will be no other opportunities to be reconciled to God beyond death. Though lost men and women may have been deluded all the days of their lives, only seconds after death the delusion will be gone, and they will awake to the awful, dreadful reality of their doom, their true condition and relationship with God, but it will be too late. My dear friend, if you are unsaved as you read these pages, you have no promise for tomorrow. According to the Word of God, "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2), and, "Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon" (Isa. 55:6-7). Flee to the Lord Jesus for pardon and mercy.
8. Fallen Man Will Stand Before God on a Future Judgment Day
It is a prominent theme running throughout the Holy Scriptures that, at an appointed time in the future, every person who has ever lived will be summoned into the presence of the God of the universe, the Judge of all mankind, to give an account of his life, before the Judgment Bar of God. According to Hebrews 9:27, "It is appointed unto man once to die, BUT AFTER THIS THE JUDGMENT.'' King Solomon, the Divinely-inspired writer of the book of Ecclesiastes, concluded the book with these words, "For GOD SHALL BRING EVERY WORK INTO JUDGMENT, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil" (Eccles. 12:14). And in the Psalms, referring to the coming Judgment Day, David wrote these prophetic words, "For He (the LORD) cometh to judge the earth; HE SHALL JUDGE THE WORLD WITH RIGHTEOUSNESS, and the people with His truth" (Psalms 96:13).
Many centuries ago, the patriarch Abraham asked the question, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Genesis 18:25). From the Word of God, the answer to that question is found in the absolute purity, holiness and justice of God. According to Psalms 89:14, "Justice and judgment are the habitations of Thy throne." And in Psalms 145:17, we find God's character revealed: "The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works." The same truth about God is taught in Psalms 19:9, "...the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." In the light of these glorious perfections of God's character, as revealed in His Word, we may be absolutely certain that a FUTURE JUDGMENT DAY is coming, a Day in which God will "render unto every man according to his deeds" (Rom. 2:6), a Day in which the justice of God will be fully demonstrated and vindicated before all created beings.
In the blazing Light of Truth streaming forth from the pages of the New Testament, we learn that God the Father has committed into the hands of His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the absolute authority to judge all mankind on that great Judgment Day. Listen to His own words, recorded in John 5:22, 27: "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son . . . and hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man." The Apostle Paul, when he preached to the men of Athens on Mars Hill in Greece, concluded his famous message with these powerful words: "But now [God] commandeth all men everywhere to REPENT, because He hath appointed a day in which HE WILL JUDGE THE WORLD IN RIGHTEOUSNESS, by that Man whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead" (Acts 17:30-31). It is only fitting and proper that He Who is "God manifest in the flesh" (I Timothy 3:16), still bearing the scars of Calvary upon Him, shall judge the creature whose nature He took upon Himself in the Incarnation and the Virgin Birth.
According to the Scriptures, the LORD JESUS CHRIST will judge both born-again believers and lost sinners -- but in SEPARATE JUDGMENTS. We find a reference to the judgment of believers in 2 Corinthians 5:10: "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." Similar references to the JUDGMENT OF BELIEVERS ONLY are found in Romans 14:8-12; I Corinthians 3:12-15, 4:5; Hebrews 13:17, and 2 Timothy 4:7-8. Though the true child of God, the genuine disciple of Christ, will not be condemned with the rest of the world for his sins (I Cor. 11:32), we learn from these passages that this judgment will be a time when conduct toward fellow-believers will be scrutinized, labor in the name of the Lord will be tested, motives closely examined, and rewards given for faithfulness. It will be a judgment before the crucified, risen, and exalted Lord Jesus Christ, whose omniscient gaze is like His Word, "...piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account" (Hebrews 4:12-13).
Referring to the judgment of God, the Apostle Peter wrote these words, "For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God, and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" (1 Peter 4:17-18). The Word of God, however, leaves NO DOUBT as to the certainty of the GREAT JUDGMENT DAY OF LOST SINNERS, when every person who has ever lived, and departed this life without experiencing the New Birth -- and without the pardon and forgiveness of their sins through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and His substitutionary blood-shedding on the cross of Calvary -- shall be brought to final examination and judgment. It is referred to as the GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT, graphically described by the Apostle John in his vision of the future, recorded in Revelation 20:11-15:
"And I saw a Great White Throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and the books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hell delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each according to his works. Then Death and Hell were cast into the Lake of Fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire."
It is the resplendent majesty of Almighty God, the One sitting on the Throne, which apparently is suspended in space, that causes, at His Word, the earth and the heaven to flee away. When the LORD JESUS CHRIST, the Creator of all things (John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:15-17), shall appear on this GREAT WHITE THRONE, the Apostle Peter's prophecy will also be fulfilled, "But the Day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat -- both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up" (2 Peter 3:10).
According to this prophetic vision of the Apostle John, this is now the final judgment of all the ungodly of all ages, from the beginning of human history, whose souls have been temporarily incarcerated in Hell, or Hades, the intermediate state, and are now summoned forth, given resurrection bodies suitable for eternal punishment (John 5:28-29), and judged according to their works.
The absolute justice of God will be revealed in this proceeding, each person being judged individually, as Jeremiah 17:10 is fulfilled, "I the LORD search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings." This judgment is not to determine whether an individual is saved, but rather to determine the degree of punishment, which will be meted out according to the degree of wickedness, and the amount of light sinned against. Those who have had the light of the Gospel, and yet rejected the grace and mercy of God offered through "repentance toward God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21), shall incur a greater degree of punishment than those who never heard the Gospel. Since God's knowledge is infinite (Psalms 147:5), He knows everything, and therefore He knows perfectly the exact details of every word, thought and deed that has ever transpired in the life of each individual standing before Him in this judgment. The memory of each individual being judged will also be perfect, as every detail of his or her life here on earth shall be surveyed and brought to his or her attention. According to Romans 2:1-16, God's judgment will be fair and impartial (vs. 11); according to truth -- that is, His Law, either written or in the conscience (vs. 2, 12-15); according to deeds (vs. 6); according to the degree of light enjoyed (vs. 11-15); and the secrets of men will be exposed and judged -- those things which have escaped the knowledge of others will nevertheless be brought to light (vs. 16).
The FINAL OUTCOME of this judgment is given in vs. 14-15 of Revelation 20. The sentence is pronounced and executed -- the second death, which is eternal banishment from the presence of God in the Lake of Fire, also described in 2 Thess. 1:8-9 as being "punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of His power." The ultimate destiny of those who are judged by the Lord Jesus Christ from this Great White Throne is also described by the Lord Jesus Himself in Matthew 25:46, "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." It is evident from these words that the punishment is not annihilation or extinction of being -- the punishment for the lost in the Lake of Fire lasts as long as the life does for the saved in Heaven.
When the Apostle Paul stood, unjustly accused, as a prisoner in chains before the Roman Governor Felix, he reasoned with him "of righteousness, temperance, and the judgment to come," and the Scripture says, "Felix trembled" (Acts 24:25). Though Felix trembled at the preaching of the Apostle Paul, there is no evidence that he ever repented and trusted in the Lord Jesus. But, my friend, well might you and I tremble at the prospects of standing before a holy and just God in a judgment such as we have seen described from the pages of the Holy Scriptures. There was a time when, underr Holy Spirit conviction, I trembled under the fear of the wrath of God in righteous judgment upon me as a lost, guilty, Hell-deserving sinner, and the Lord graciously granted me repentance (2 Timothy 2:25-26), and the faith to lay hold of and trust in GOD'S REMEDY, the crucified, buried, risen and exalted Lord Jesus, as my only hope for time and eternity (Ephesians 2:8-9). I hope that you too, will now -- before it is too late, and in heart-felt repentance toward God -- flee to the Crucified, Risen Lord Jesus Christ, Who, being enthroned in Heaven as sovereign Lord over all creation (Romans 14:9), invites YOU to come to Him, and by doing so, "flee from the wrath to come" (Matthew 11:28-30; 3:7). My friend, at this point, please take the time to look up the following verses in your Bible -- John 6:37; Hebrews 7:25, and Isaiah 45:22. God is speaking to YOU from these verses in His Holy Word!