What Is Human Nature? A Study

Is the Bible silent on human nature? What is our nature? Here is a Bible study on what human nature truly is.

Mankind’s Nature

The Bible clearly says that like David, you and I must also say “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5). That is our nature. We sin because we are human. We had a man once attend our church and he hated the thought of being called a sinner and so left. I tried to show him 1st John 1:8. 10 which says “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” and “If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” The word “confess” simply means you agree with God about your sin. If we say we’re not sinners then we are deceiving ourselves and make God out to be a liar, which of course He cannot do (Num 23:19; Heb 6:18). Our nature is as one “who drinks injustice like water” (Job 15:16) but thankfully, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1st John 1:9).  You don’t have to teach a young child to lie, steal, or cheat; it comes naturally and stays into adulthood.  You do have to train them not to.

All Fall Short

If you have ever read the Book of Romans, you know Paul’s take on human nature. He had no trouble finding scriptural support from the Old Testament on the sinfulness of man and our disposition toward sin. Paul wrote in Romans 3:10-12 “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.” The Greek word for “all” means just what it says; “each and every one.” We too “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23) and this same “all” have earned the wages of death (Rom 6:23a) but God offers “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23b). Jesus reminds us all that “No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18b). Before we had our sins forgiven by repentance and faith, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Isaiah 64:6a). Jeremiah tells us that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it” (17:9)? Only God does (Jer 17:10).

The Fruits of Humanity

The works of the flesh are easy to see on the nightly news, in the paper, and over the Internet and they are not good at all. They are listed in the Book of Galatians in chapter five as “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these” (Gal 5:19-21a) but goes on to say, “I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal 5:21b-22). Of course not every human have all of these characteristics but all of us have at least one or more of these. Paul says that, as a result, those who do these “things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” We are in deep trouble with the human heart we’re born with. We need surgery. We need a heart transplant…a new heart so to speak and that’s what the Bible says in Ezekiel 36:26 “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.” Ezekiel also writes “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh” (Ezk 11:10). A heart of flesh is open to correction and change. A hard heart is barely movable and almost unchangeable. This may be why Jesus spoke some very hard sayings; soft words harden hearts while hard words soften hearts.

A New Creation

God is currently saving people from all over the world. The Spirit of God is revealing Who Jesus Christ is and showing them their need for the Savior. It is the Word of God with the Spirit of God that’s making the children of God for the glory of God. Once a person has repented, which means they’ve turned away from and forsaken their sins, and then put their trust in Christ, they become a new creation as Paul wrote, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2nd Cor 5:17) and then “we have the mind of Christ” (1st Cor 2:16b). We “have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Col 3:10) as we were originally designed, finally being in the image of God (Gen 1:27). It is “just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Rom 6:4).

Conclusion

Every one of us will battle sin after we are saved. We might in fact have our biggest battle with sin at that point. The good news is that God sends His Spirit and His Word to help us overcome sin and become a new person in Christ. Then, you’ll start to have new desires, new aspirations, new goals, and new dispositions. You’ll start to hate with contempt the sin that so easily sneaks up on us. Read all about this great struggle in Romans chapter seven where Paul uses himself as an example of what we’ll all go through. When it sounds like Paul’s just about to give up and says “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death” (Rom 7:24) then he says from where his help will come, “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 7:25) so my brothers and sisters in Christ, “let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Heb 12:1b).

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.