Part 2 of 25 - The Inherent Way of Man is a Suffering

This Article is part of a multi-part Study Series called A New Way Of Living.

God’s grace today is offered to a lost, suffering, and dying world. Paul here explains the source of mankind’s pitiful suffering condition, under the burden of “Sin” with its deadening effect.

“Wherefore, as by one man (Adam) sin (the Sin nature) entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Rom. 5:12).

Since the entrance of the Sin infection into Adam as the federal head of humanity, “Sin” is the driving “nature” of every human born into the world (Eph 2:3). What many call “human nature,” is actually the fallen Sin nature. Just as DNA is passed along physically, from Father to child, Sin as a nature has passed to every generation since Adam (Rom 3:10-11, 23). The Psalmist writes; “Behold, I was brought forth in [a state of] iniquity (sin); my mother was sinful who conceived me [and I too am sinful].”  Psalms 51:5 (AMP)

Even the most casual honest observer must admit that all men are self-loving and self-serving. It is only by the effort expended to avoid being “found out” that a man may appear okay, or what the world calls “nice.” If a man’s seeking is not for material things of this world then it is for position, acclaim, self-gratification, to be seen, and/or to be regarded among men. By these traits it is obvious that mankind bears the very imprint of the pride of Lucifer himself. Lucifer is the one who usurped mankind as if he were fallen man’s father (John 8:44). Lucifer’s Sin nature has in fact been deposited into the flesh bodies of all mankind (Rom 7:17-23). Paul precisely locates Sin with man, writing of “…sin in the fleshRomans 8:3b. Paul says evil is present with me” Rom 7:21. Evil is of the Evil One – the Devil himself.

Since the Sin infection took hold within the flesh bodies of mankind via Adam, the way of man on earth has been anything but easy. It was Job who seemed to have his finger on the pulse of the matter when he wrote, “But trouble is man's fate from birth…”“Job 5:7a (BBE)  

If we were to sum up the life of men on earth, weighing his joys versus his sufferings, we would have to say that overall, his sufferings outweigh our joys as they mix with daily lives of quiet desperation. Yes, we have occasions of such joys as finding human love, marriage, new born children, observing the wonders of creation, etc, but we have so many more stresses, anxieties and sufferings in this earthly life.

Let’s now look further at the root cause of man’s human condition.

We must understand that only the eternal God Himself is a pure lover, expressed as a selfless giver, as a lover of others. Man was originally made in God’s image; God intending that man would ultimately become an expression of God’s life on earth.

Though man was originally created with a bent toward, being God-like in image, he soon became a twisted form of God’s image. Man was a lover after the fall of Adam, but he had become a twisted form of lover – he became a lover of self, a self-getter – God’s diametric opposite. This distortion of God’s image in man makes it difficult for man to navigate life in the way of peace and rest for his fallen troubled soul.

After Adam’s rebellion against God, mankind was given to live in this world while being separate from God; by the sweat of his brow, with pain in childbirth, and worst of all, under the dominion of a nature called “Sin.” Sin had become man’s driving inner nature. (See Rom 7:17-23).

Adam, having chosen to be independent of God, was driven out of the Garden of Eden, and kept from “The Tree of Life,” by God (Gen 3:24). Man now had to live by his own wits, and self-reliance, apart from God’s former provision for him. Since that time, this fallen world is filled with fallen, self-seeking, self-loving, self-serving humans who were all conceived in Sin. All are self-getters - none are genuinely righteous as self-givers. Romans 3:10 There is none righteous, no, not one…

Life for fallen mankind is filled with many situations and circumstances that bring them to have to endure failures, struggles for self preservation, disappointments, sorrows, intrusions, usurpations, work, stress, uneasiness, physical pain, relational pain, and the loss of loved ones. Daily life presses upon man such that he has no real rest or genuine peace in his self-soul. Independent man is lonely, without hope, and without God in the world. Paul wrote this of the lost Gentile believers at Ephesus . “in time pastye were without Christ …, having no hope, and without God in the world:” Eph. 2:12

It is interesting though, when calamity strikes, men are quick to blame God, or to ask why God allows such occurrences in their lives. But shall we blame God for what mankind has brought upon his own self?

The answer is no; man is a product of his own folly and his own choices.

Some claim that if they had been back in the Garden of Eden with Adam everything would have been different. Actually, in all probability they would have pushed Adam aside to reach the forbidden fruit in the hope of independent self-godhood as the Serpent said would happen. “Ye shall become as gods” (Gen 3:5). Eve and Adam then hoped to achieve independence that would come by eating from “The Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil.”

God forewarned Adam of this folly, no doubt foreseeing the entire human race that was to come in Adam’s loins. So when Adam stretched forth his hand to partake of the forbidden fruit, each of us was “in Adam,” reaching for it as well. We are Adam’s posterity, thus we share in his guilt and possess the Sin infection that Adam has passed to all of us in our flesh bodies (Rom 8:3).

At that time God could have condemned the whole human race to the Lake of Fire and have been perfectly justified in so doing, but He has not yet passed judgment upon mankind. That day still waits, while God holds open “the way” of salvation for the lost and deceived of mankind.

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.