The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent Zachary W. during the 2007-2008 League.
The Nature of Man
Man was originally created in the perfect image of God and so enjoyed perfect fellowship with God. Genesis 1:27 states "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." This perfect image was marred and this perfect fellowship lost when Adam, the first man, brought sin into the world. Adam sinned against his Creator, and we, the descendants of Adam, participate in all the effects of the curse that was brought about by the fall.
So, what were the circumstances under which this destructive curse was ushered into our world? God tells us in Genesis 2-3. In verses 16 &17 of chapter 2, God tells Adam "Of every tree in the garden thou may eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: For in the day that thou eats thereof thou shall surely die." God gave Adam dominion over every living thing, and allowed him to eat from any tree with one exception: The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Even though God warned Adam not to eat from this one tree, Genesis 3:6 records how Adam disregarded this commandment and ate the forbidden fruit of this tree after it was given to him by his wife, Eve. This one act of blatant disobedience brought the curse of sin into the world.
Adam and Eve's act didn't just affect them. Their disobedience caused all their descendants to inherit a sinful nature, a predisposition to disobey God. Scripture tells us this in Romans 5:12, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin: so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned." Stripping this rather lengthy statement of dependent clauses, we find a simple statement: By one man...sin entered the world. The sin of Adam became the sin of the human race.
Sin wasn't the only consequence of the fall. Not only was the earth itself cursed, but death also entered the world as a byproduct of sin. The Bible tell us this in Romans 6:23a "For the wages of sin is death..."When sin is committed, death inevitably follows. Romans 8:28 says "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Since all men have sinned, all men will die. Death didn't exist before the fall, and it is one of the most prominent manifestations of the curse of sin.
The popular consensus today is to view man as inherently good, made evil only through the influence of bad surroundings. The Bible contradicts this pointedly in Romans 3:10, where it states "As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one." Indeed, Scripture is rife with mention of the unrighteousness of man, and the depravity that is produced by thereby. The depth of this depravity is highlighted in Jeremiah 17:9, saying "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: Who can know it?" Some translators substitute the word "incurably" in place of "desperately", rendering the statement "The heart is incurably wicked." This is just what God wants man to realize - how terrible is the depth of man's depravity. It is so deeply ingrained and inwrought that t o man it is incurable.
If this was the end of the story, what a sorrowful tale it would be! Man is deplorable, helpless, abject, and without hope because of his inherit sin nature, and there is no escape from sin's inevitable consequences. Thankfully, God loved us enough to rescue us from our condition, providing a miraculous healing for our "incurable" ailment. This is told us in John 3:16, which says "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, that whosoever believeth on him shall not perish but have eternal life." One need only turn on a television, log onto the Internet, or pick up a newspaper to see the terrible repercussions of the Fall. Thank God that He saw fit to rescue man from this condition and eventually restore our perfect fellowship with Him.
