Back to basics - A simple view of man

Although the brain and intricacies of the mind can be rather overwhelming, a macroscopic or overarching view of man is rather quite simple.


Man is evil. Man is sinful. The utter essence and core of a man is desperately wicked and deceitful above all else.

Jeremiah 17:9 (ESV) "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?"
Romans 3:10-12 (ESV) “As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
Romans 1:29-31 "[mankind] were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless."

Out of the many possible reactions to this statement, regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees, there is one very common reaction I would like to point out:

That is, the reaction of indifference. Whilst this reaction is not a surprise for non-Christians, there is an alarmingly high rate of reactions of indifference from Christians. When told "man is evil and sinful", far too many allow that statement to go through one ear and out the other. That statement does not bother us. That statement holds no weight. You say that statement to a man, who is a professing Christian, and watch his face remain the same. No one shudders, trembles, cares, understands or shows any interest in such statements like these. Our response to such a statement would be to shrug our shoulders and say "and...?". Reader, you may even be thinking, "Of course, I would have a reaction of indifference...what other reaction would anyone else have? Why is this such a big problem?"

This is a critical problem because no one will be able to see their need for a Saviour from sin and the judgement to come if they do not view sin in the same way the bible describes and depicts it. Modern teachers of the bible today refuse either to speak about sin or waters down the severity of it dramatically, and most sitting in the churches today, of course, don't want to feel convicted. They don’t want to be told they are evil and wicked, and therefore enjoy the sin-free preaching.

Isaiah 29:13 (NASB) “Then the Lord said, "Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote”
Jeremiah 50:6 (ESV) “My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray, turning them away on the mountains. From mountain to hill they have gone. They have forgotten their fold.”

When one says that "man is utterly sinful", this should cause trembling to all ears that these words reach. Why? Because sin is blasphemy and waging war against the Almighty. Sin is defying the Creator of the heavens and the earth. Sin is transgression against the law, and ultimately the Law Maker.

1 John 3:4 (KJV) "...Sin is the transgression of the law"

Reader, this is a fearful thing, because the higher the position of the person one commits a crime against, the higher and more severe the punishment. For example:

If you mock and spit in the face of a slave, there will be no punishment.
If you speak against and commit crime in front of a police officer, you will get fined or arrested.
If you speak and commit treason in the very presence of royalty i.e. a king or queen, surely you will be sentenced for life or even be executed for your crime.

Now since there is no debate that there is a more severe punishment for the one who commits wrong against a being of high authority, why do so many Christians find it a problem that God will judge mankind who sins each day. Isn’t He the King of kings (Revelation 19:16)? He has the utmost highest authority and worth. God will judge mankind for their sin against Him, and yet, so many have a problem with it. Why do so many Christians have a problem with the concept of Hell? Do you not know that God is holy and just? Do you not know that Hell is not the realm where Satan rules, but the very realm where God punishes with a perfect and righteous wrath against those who have sinned against Him - devil and man alike?

Isaiah 37:23 (NASB) “Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? And against whom have you raised your voice And haughtily lifted up your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel!”
Matthew 25:41 (ESV) ““Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
Jude 6 (ESV) “And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.”

Why is the punishment eternal? Why is the punishment so severe? Because all of mankind has sinned and committed the highest form of treason against God who is just, holy holy holy and infinitely worthy. These attributes are to such a high degree to a point where the human mind is unable to comprehend it (He is God after all). On the day of judgement, man will have no excuse but will see and understand that the eternal lake of fire is nonetheless the perfect punishment for those who have sinned against the Creator of the heavens and the earth.

Isaiah 5:16 (ESV) “But the LORD of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.”
Isaiah 6:3 (ESV) “And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
Romans 11:33 (NASB) “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!”

In a court of law, you are charged by the crimes you have committed, and no amount of honourable deeds will be able to prevent the judgement pending your crime. And in this case, every man has no alibi for they have broken every law that God has made.

Isaiah 64:4 (KJV) “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags…”

The only remedy for sin reigning in the heart and mind of mankind is God doing a work in the heart of the sinner. If the heart is evil, no amount of physical or external restraint or force can tame the evilness in the heart. Logically, the heart must be cleansed from the inside. God is the only one who can do this work. Man will never choose to run to the God of the bible (many will choose to run to a god of their own imagination), because of the amount of pride, love of self, evil and natural hatred for holiness in the being. Man cannot choose God unless the Almighty chooses him first. If man is truly evil as the bible explains, then man will refuse to run and submit to Him because man, in his sinful condition, hates God.

Ezekiel 36:26 (ESV) “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”
John 15:16 (ESV) “You did not choose me, but I chose you…”
Isaiah 65:12 (ESV) “…when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not listen, but you did what was evil in My eyes and chose what I did not delight in.”

Has this put more weight in your mind about the severity of sin?

The church of Jesus Christ, has been called to be the light of the world. We are called to reflect God's character and walk in the way that our Saviour Jesus Christ walked and preach the Gospel without sugar coating it. How can one see their need for a Saviour if they do not know that the wrath of God abides on them? The topic of sin should not be shunned, and the severity should not be watered down in the pulpit. The world and church needs preachers to exclaim to the people, with the love and anguish of God in his heart, pleading for men to run to God for there is a way of escape in Jesus Christ from the judgement to come. A judgement that is worse than what anyone can experience or even imagine.

Matthew 5:14 (ESV) ““You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”
Jude 4 (ESV) “For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

Think about this: imagine you wake up and you take your first breath, and flames of fire fill your mouth. You open your eyes and scream as more fire engulfs your mouth and eyes. You are consumed in fire, yet cannot die, for your soul is eternal. Every second of each passing moment of eternity the fire engulfs you, and as far as the eye can see, there is simply fire stretched out to an unending distance, and you know there is no escape...for all eternity in the lake of fire.

In these few sentences, attempting to describe the eternal destination for many, I am unable to capture the extent and severity of it. Am I trying to scare you? Yes. Do you not know that the fear of the Lord is beginning of wisdom? Fear His wrath and see that wisdom is to run to Jesus Christ to escape and that His amazing love was to die so that you have this opportunity to escape. God has provided a way of escape for wretched sinners! Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand, flee from the wrath to come and serve Him.

Proverbs 9:10 (KJV) “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom…”
Isaiah 55:7 (ESV) “let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”
Matthew 4:17 (ESV) “…Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Many professing Christians would object to the statements I have been making and would say comments "what you are saying is condemning", "you have no love", "although it is true, what you are saying is too harsh", "You can cause someone to harm themselves or take their life by saying they are wrong" etc. What kind of person would I be to see and know that someone has a lethal disease, yet not tell them about the disease and offer the cure? In the same way, the most loving thing to do as a Christian, as a follower of Jesus Christ, is to tell everyone that judgement is coming, and the way of escape is through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. If I do not tell them the fatality of the disease and offer the cure, surely that is not love.

Mark 1:15 (ESV) “…the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
Acts 20:21 (ESV) “testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Galatians 4:16 (NASB) “So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?”

Reader, are you disregarding what is being said here? Are you finding it too uncomfortable? Are you trying to deceive and tell yourself excuses to undermine the truth and weight of this article? Do you not know, that to reconcile the truth of sin and Hell in your heart, although is the most fearful thing, it is also by far the best response you could have? The Saviour is right there, look! Look to Jesus Christ, repent and turn away from your sins, and believe that He has taken your place on the cross. Jesus Christ, 2000 years ago, on the cross, bore the sin of mankind, and the Father poured out HIs wrath in full on His one and only Son who took our place. And the cross, Jesus cried out "it is finished" (John 19:30) as an indication that the debt of sin has been paid in full. Jesus died, was buried and resurrected three days later by the power of the Holy Spirit, to indicate that the debt was truly paid in full and that Jesus Christ is Lord (1 Corinthians 15). Jesus Christ took our place on the cross and took the wrath we deserve! All who truly believe in the work that Jesus Christ has done will not perish but have everlasting life and fellowship with God (John 3:16). There is no other way to escape the judgement, for Jesus is the Way, Truth and Life (John 14:6). For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5). Seek Him whilst He may be found (Isaiah 55:6). Seek Him with all your heart. Do not stop seeking Him. He is the pearl of great price, worthy to give up everything in your life to find. Knock on the door and do not stop, till He answers.

Philippians 2:12 (ESV) “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”
Jeremiah 29:13 (ESV) “You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart”
Philippians 3:8 (ESV) “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ”

Reader, have you disregarded this because you already think you are a Christian? How do you know you are a Christian? Is it because you say you are? I can call myself a bird, but I'm clearly not. In the same way, professing the name of Christianity, therefore, bears no value. Praying and asking Jesus into your heart also bears no value, as praying a prayer is not evidence of salvation. Self-examining yourself in accordance to the Word of God is perhaps the most life-saving thing you can do. For you can be a false convert and not know it. For more information on this subject that revolves around your eternal destiny, I strongly urge you to read my article: ‘Are you a true born-again Christian?’

Why do we not see sin as such a horrid putrid thing as we ought to? The answer to that is once again to our sinful nature. Sin indicates that a righteous and holy God is being sinned against. Since God is perfect, naturally, God will punish sinners. Every single person on earth is a sinner, therefore, everyone is accountable to God for punishment, therefore, no one would escape. Clearly, this is not something a person wishes to come to terms with since they are at the receiving end of wrath. If man was to acknowledge the horrible abomination even the smallest sin is, then man would also have to acknowledge they are wrong. Since pride is deeply rooted within the heart of man, no one wants to admit they have done wrong especially to a higher authority. Therefore. man deceives himself with anything that comes along the way to such a degree where they would believe that sin is either non-existent, doesn’t affect their destiny or is not as severe as compared to reality, however there is no excuse on judgement day.

Romans 1:20-21 (ESV) "For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. "

God has given everyone a conscience, yet, walls of deception has been built up around the heart of a man to dull the conscience. Man, constantly builds layer upon layer of sin, and therefore, layer upon layer of self-deception to deceive their own heart to prove that they have done no wrong or that they are a good person. Man will play right into the devil’s hands of deceit and believe that they are their own gods who can control their own life, that they are good enough to escape Hell or enter Heaven or that they haven't done anything bad enough to deserve Hell.. As written in Romans 1:18 (ESV) “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” To illustrate my point, here are five common examples to show how one deceives their own heart layer by layer:

1.       Those that swear publicly and privately and often claim it is not wrong or harmful, because it is simply ‘words’. Most, however, tend to not swear in front of children since they are ‘innocent’ and shouldn’t know such words. Most would say they don’t want to poison their mind, or that young children should not swear. If swearing is ‘simply words’, doesn’t this hypocritical stance tend to prove swearing is ‘wrong’? God has blessed man to have love for our own children which is why we naturally want the best for them. Yet many swearing adults will refuse to let their children swear, because we know deep down it is wrong to let filthy talk come out of our mouths. God created our mouth to praise him, not curse anything and everything according to our own will. This includes slandering and lying. Let me put it this way, would you swear in front of a police officer or a king? Would you swear and curse in front of the King of kings.

Luke 6:45 (NASB) "The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.”
Ephesians 4:29 (ESV) “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths…”
James 3:10-11 (NASB) “From the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water?”

2.       Similarly, many people won’t have a problem with lying. Some of the excuses include: “they are harmless (white lie)”, “there is nothing wrong with it as long as everyone benefits or if it saves someone from being hurt” etc. However, isn’t it normal for a husband or a wife to become angry, hurt or upset if they have found out they been lied to by their own spouse? Many say it’s not wrong, harmful or sinful, yet when it comes to their own self they wouldn’t like being lied to. This is self-centredness and pride. It’s a strong taboo (and illegal) to tell a lie in court or when confronted by a high authority. Would you dare lie in front of the queen knowing the queen knows you are lying? Wouldn’t you fear for your life? How dare would man lie knowing that God knows and sees everything? Don’t you fear the wrath of God? Don’t you fear the one who can kill the body and the soul?

Revelation 21:8 (ESV) “…all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
Matthew 10:28 (NKJV) “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

3.       Babies are considered as completely innocent with no evil dwelling in them, and many Christians hold to this view. However, this is not what the bible teaches. Psalm 51:5 (ESV) “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” This passage is proven by how a child would naturally disobey and lie to parents or be mean to other children. No parent must tell their children to do these things, it comes naturally. However, parents must teach their children to obey, tell the truth and be kind and generous to others. Leave a child without discipline and watch the evil in their heart come out to a disturbing degree when they enter adulthood. Many Christians often use their emotions to trump the Word of God, because there is no love and submission to God’s Word. Christians should hold the bible as the authority of their lives and as a manual to guide their life even if they are uncomfortable with certain Scriptures or truth concepts that the bible teaches. Children need to be taught and shown the Gospel, how to lean on the Word of God and follow Christ (just like anyone else).

Proverbs 22:6 (ESV) “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

4.       Many go to church with different intentions, however one of the reasons is often having the enough religioun to dull their hearts. Some of the most deceived people are those who have just enough religion to dim their moral conscience. Going to church does not mean you are born again. In fact, most people who go to church live the like the devil the rest of the week.

Matthew 15:8 (ESV) “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me”

5.       Other common deceptive excuses to dull the conscience of sinning against God include comparing yourself to others. “I’m not as bad or sinful as this guy or that person”. The flaw in that argument is: in a court of law, other people’s crimes don’t affect your sentence or punishment and it is the same in this case.

Matthew 12:36 (NASB) “"But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.”

These are just a few common examples, however there are countless excuses that one will try conjuring in their heart to deflect the attention away from the fact that they are sinning and are accountable to their Creator. And unless God does a supernatural work in their heart, they will forever be self-deceived and will never truly trust in Jesus Christ for their salvation.

So what needs to be done now? First, if you haven’t truly repented and believed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ then that needs to be done immediately, for your own merits and work will be brought to nothing on judgement day. Second, if the Spirit of God bears witness that you are truly born again, then not let the severity of sin be dulled in your conscience. If every and all sin is transgression against the Almighty, then how can a follower of Jesus Christ be comfortable or indifferent to it? Be humble and contrite before your Maker and pray that your desire to please Him flourish and increase. Hide His Word in your heart that you may not sin against Him. Pray for wisdom and walk in it. See sin as severe as the bible describes it and abstain from it at all costs. Set up guards, barricades and posts. Stay away from temptation and seek and walk in the power of the Holy Spirit to live holy lives before the presence of God. Do not excuse, blame or justify your sinning on someone else.

Psalm 119:11 (ESV) “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”
James 1:5 (ESV) “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”
1 Peter 1:16 (ESV)“…You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

Reader, you have been exposed to the truth of sin. Have you repented yet? God has commanded you to repent. Don’t play games anymore. Don’t play religion. Trust in Jesus Christ and serve and glorify Him with your whole life and forevermore! Repent. Don’t be like the people in the following passage:

John 3:19-20 (ESV) “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.”