“…[E]very imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”  (Genesis 6)

“[Man is] Being filled with all unrighteousness…”  (Romans 1)

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood…”  (Ephesians 6)

“If God be for us, who can be against us…”  (Romans 8)

 

Reader, we all live in the world even though we are not of the world, for God chose to take us out Adam or the world and to put us in Christ. Paul says, “I wrote unto you in an epistle not to keep company with fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with covetous, or with extortiomers, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.”  Paul’s point is not to fellowship with an individual we know are pleasuring in carnal sins. But if we were to avoid all adulters in the world, we would have to leave the world. His point is we cannot avoid dealing with sinners in everyday life.

How can we reconcile the passages above with our everyday experience with sinners who have only evil imaginations and are filled with all unrighteousness? Then how do we reconciles the Bible with life when we find ourselves wrestling with flesh and blood when Scripture tells us we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. Or what are we to think when Scripture tells us no one can be against us if God is for us, but we find persons being against us?  How do we reconcile these?  Is the Bible wrong?  Are the Scriptures out of touch with our times?

The Bible says one (1) thing but we experience another.  What do we do when we are told man is totally depraved, full of evil imaginations and are filled with all unrighteousness, but in our everyday experience we find others to be cordial and civil or at other times we find ourselves wrestling against the flesh and blood of others.What are we to think?

The Scriptures are true and we can reconcile them to our everyday experiences.
*Man IS depraved but can be civil citizens.
*We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, we wrestle with that which influences flesh and blood. The believer trades in that which is unseen.
*God is for us and even though we see and think persons, people or the world may overtake us, we must walk by faith and not sight.  In light of eternity nothing anyone says or does againist you or I will matter.

The Doctrine of Human Depravity:

The doctrine of human depravity states that all of humanity, every single person is effected by the consequences of the fall.  When Adam took of the fruit, all life going forward would be tainted by that fall from God’s Eden. With that said, every aspect of every person is infected with the fall.  Man’s mind, imagination, spirit, soul, body, outlook is poisoned. The spirit of man was murdered at and from the beginning. The human person has no living spirit inside of them. The soul that encases the spirt is there but the spirit itself is dead towards God and all things holy and godly, ‘The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit ….”  Man is “dead in trespasses and sins.”  Man is “being filled with all unrighteousness…”

Though the above be true and is Scriptural, persons we engage every day seem to “be basically good.”  The Scriptures state, “There is none that doeth good, no not one.”  When the rich man approached Christ calling Him Good, Christ responded, “Why calleth thou [M]e good?…”  We must realize, understand, and acknowledge that there are to states of man. There is the natural man or the old man inside of us and then there is the spiritual man inside of us, “The flesh wars against the spirit.” With the Christ-ian we are dual as stated in the last sentence, but with the unsaved or unregenerate man, he is only natural with no living spirit that connect him to God.

The unregenerate, the depraved, the lost, have nothing connecting them to God and lest God initiates and gives new life to that dead spirit it will remain dead and at enmity against God. The Puritans called the lost, “Civil citizens.” They acknowledged the civil citizen pays bills, has morals, lives ethically, these citizens are pleasant, yet they will still die and go to Hell.  Depravity does not speak to the unsaved and their relationship with  the Christ-ian, but to the unsaved and their broken relationship to God.

We might say a person is decent and good as compared with a person that is evil. However God has a different standard, How does the decent and good person compare to Christ. Christ is the Standard and not the person considered to be an evil man. Most persons are “good” if compared to Hitler. But that is not the standard of judgment. When man is compared to Christ, man missed the mark and is found undone amd wanton. This is human depravity.

The confusion enters when someone comments on a person who has perpetrated a heinous crime as being depraved.  The average person will acknowledge John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy and other serial killers are depraved.  Most agree, Hitler was a depraved human being. However, this is a wrong usage of the word. Every human, that has not been saved are depraved as depraved deals with the natural mans spiritual condition and connection to God. The men mentioned above are evil, wicked, reprobated, and depraved.  The average “good person” or civil citizen is not, in our eyes and dealings, evil, wicked or bad, yet they are depraved. I trust this makes sense, if not I have failed to communicate clearly and one should not think they are not “getting it.”

“We wrestle not against flesh and blood...”  But I do wrestle against flesh and blood in everyday life. I wrestle with persons at work, at school, at the grocery store, in my family, with my friends, etc., some may say. Paul is not speaking to persons we deal with in everyday life.  Paul is speaking to authorities, governments, powers, and persons in control of others. These persons in high places are being influence and in some cases, oppressed by the demonic influences.  This does not take away or dismiss their responsibility, remember their spirit is dead, their imaginations are evil continually, and are and have been filled with all unrighteousness.

Scripture states very clearly, (s)atan blinds the minds of unbelievers and unbelievers are taken captive as (s)atan’s wills. With all this influence, human responsibility is not erased, those influenced by outside powers are, will be, and should be held accountable to man and God. This is why Paul exhorts and encourages us to pray for leaders and provoke others to good works.

“If God be for us, who can be against us?”  But there are so many enemies at the gate, there are so many who hate us and are killing our brethren.  How do we align what we experience and see with this promise of God?

When God speaks about things like this we must understand that He is looking at the BIG PICTURE and eternity. We must understand that we walk by faith and not by sight, we must understand that we are spiritual beings dealing with the unseen. Therefore, in the BIG PICTURE and as spiritual beings, no one can harm us. No one can touch our soul or separate us from God and His great love and faithfulness.

If the Christ-ian is to experience and enjoy God and Salvation, must understand that s/he is spiritual and when being engaged by God or engaging God (John 4) s/he must do so, “in the spirit.” while walking in the Spirit, walking by faith, and “reaching forth unto those things which are before [us]” we must look to the BIG PICTURE that God is painting.