OUR HUMAN NATURE ISN’T HUMAN
                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                          By W. G. Guy

                What a shocking thing to say!  Philosophers like to say that man is basically good, but that is contrary to what God says about mankind.

Romans 3:10 – as it is written, There is none righteous,(or good) no, not one: 

          The nature of man, as he is today, is not what it was when God originally formed man.  So if man’s nature is not human, then what is it?  Actually it is devilish; it is from Satan, the serpent that was in the Garden as listed in Genesis. 

Genesis 3:1a – Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

          We need to recognize that when God made man, He made him in His own image and likeness.  That means that God put his own character and nature in this divinely created human being: there was no sin or corruption in him at all. 

Genesis 1:26-27 –  And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:

Genesis 2:7 –  And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

          This all changed when the serpent, (Satan in disguise), came on the scene and used his own corrupt nature to beguile the woman.  So how did God’s divine nature in humans change?

Genesis 3:1b-5 –  And he (the devil/serpent) said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?  And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:  but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.  And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:  (Notice Satan’s first recorded lie was a message about “eternal security” -  Ye shall not surely die .)

          Mankind lost the divine God character and nature when she, and later he, submitted themselves to Satan’s ploy; she instantly died spiritually, losing the Godly life that she acquired from Adam.  Then, by submitting to Satan’s ploy, they received Satan’s corrupt sin nature which has then passed on down through all of mankind since then.  Thus our fallen and corrupted nature, as we have today, is not human, but is satanic – SINFUL; now knowing evil and practicing it. 

Genesis 3:5 –  for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

         Jesus identified that satanic sin nature that was even in the religious leadership of His day who rejected Him as the Christ (Messiah).

John 8:44 – Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

John 10:10 – The thief (Satan) cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

          Notice that Jesus said that sinful man has the lusts of the devil.  And what are those lusts?  Murder, lies, theft, destruction and more evil as listed in the works of the sinful (devilish) flesh. 

Galatians 5:19-21 – Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,  idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,  envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 

            All of this behavior is the character and nature of the devil that Jesus came to remove and eliminate.  Jesus came to restore God’s image and life. 

1 John 3:8 – He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. 

          What is important to recognize is that Satan tempted Eve with becoming like a god by eating the forbidden fruit:  “in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods,”  She failed to realize that she was already like God when she was made from Adam – made in God’s likeness, and having His divine character and nature.

          Jesus Christ, the second man that came directly from God, came to redeem and restore God’s character and divine nature back to man; but only to those who believe in, and received Him, as Savoir and Lord. 

John 1:12 – But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 

          God’s Word contains precious promises of His character and nature to be restored to each believer.

2 Peter 1:4 – whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through (devilish) lust.

          God’s divine nature is listed as the Fruit of the Spirit which believers receive as they make Jesus as Savior and Lord:

Galatians 5:22-24 –  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,  meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.  And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

          This Fruit can only be produced in us as the life of Christ, the vine, is allowed to live and flow through us which produces that divine fruit; the character and natured of God being fully restored to His children as man was originally made.

John 15:1-5 – I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.  Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.  Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch (the individual)  cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

          Man cannot produce this divine fruit on his own, it is only by having the Spirit of Christ within that this divine fruit, the character and nature of God, is formed in His followers.  Therefore, human nature of the unredeemed, is not human, but is of the devil (satanic).  Jesus Christ came to redeem and restore what was lost in the garden.  Jesus is just what He said:

John 14:6 – Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.  (Being restored to God the Father.)

            Jesus came to restore what was lost.

 John 19:10 –  For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

          So what was lost?  God’s divine character and nature, His righteousness and holiness; His image and likeness; His Godliness!  Now restored in Jesus Christ; but only for those who believe in Him and accept Him as Savior and Lord!  Thus God’s nature is restored and the nature of the devil is removed.

​2 Corinthians 5:17 – Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.