A.06 WHAT'S WRONG WITH MAN?
WHAT'S WRONG WITH MAN?
Certainly there is something radically wrong with man, and that universally. In the political world, the nations are filled with mutual distrust, each suspecting the other of the most evil designs; party leaders, too, abhor and denounce each other as wreckers of the public good. In the commercial sphere, every man considers he must sharpen his wits, or someone will take an unfair advantage of him. In the social circle it is notorious that envy, jealousy, and hypocrisy abound on every side. And if we take the merest glance at the religious realm it is manifest there is much there in doctrine and practice, in both leaders and followers, that is not as it should be.
No doubt there are those who endeavour to persuade themselves that things are not as bad as we have represented them. So obsessed are they with the notion that the world is improving, and that man is all the time struggling upward that they are tempted to close their eyes to ugly facts, or at least to minimise their importance. But the facts are there, spite of theorists and faddists of every kind. The world is a great open sore, let dreamers speak as they may.
It used to be suggested that if men's temporal circumstances were bettered the moral condition of things would improve. The idea was foolish from the first, and carried its refutation upon its face. If education and comfort can do so much for man, then surely the higher classes should always have been the very mirror of virtue. Yet, as everyone knows, these classes have generally been the most corrupt of all God's creatures. Now there has been a tremendous betterment of the circumstances of all ranks and conditions during the past century, but with what result? Are men really more truthful more obedient, and more generally disposed to be holy than formerly? Instead of this being so is it not the fact that the world was never more full of refined devilry than at the present hour?
What is wrong with man? Surely God did not make him as we see him? Scripture says, God made man upright (Ecclesiastes 7:2; Ecclesiastes 7:9). An infinitely holy Creator could not have made him otherwise. It was an absolutely perfect being that came forth from the divine workshop at the beginning. Some thing then has happened which has resulted in the moral ruin of our race. What is it? Let the humiliating story of Genesis 3:1-24 supply the answer. In that chapter we have no mere allegory or fairy tale, but God's soberly indicted account of the entrance of sin into man's world. The tempter has been heeded, the leadership of Satan has been accepted, and this accounts for all the evil of which the universe is full. The following Word of God is clear and emphatic, and withal sweeping in its charge: "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Romans 5:12). Man is thus a fallen being, in open rebellion against his Maker, with the death-sentence lying upon him in consequence.
This is what is wrong with man, and it is clearly a state of things beyond all creature aid. Philanthropists and legislators may alleviate some of the details of man's condition, but the root is beyond them. The need is two fold. First, an absolutely new kind of life and nature. The Saviour said to one of the best of men, "Ye must be born again" (John 3:7). This is imperative for all who would dwell with God, flesh being irremediable. Then, in view of sins committed, there must be an atoning sacrifice. The one perfect offering of the Lord Jesus upon the cross of Calvary has met this deep need for all who believe in His name. "Christ hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18). Christ is the only resource both for God and the sinner. He who examines the problem of the world's condition, while ignoring the fall, is on the wrong scent altogether; and he who would benefit his fellows, while leaving out of his scheme the new birth and the precious atoning blood, is pursuing a chimera hopelessly.