Richard Graves is a "Facebook" friend of mine from Chicagoland. He is finishing a book that he has asked me to read in PDF for him. I will. Here is a part. Very good stuff.
The SIN Nature of MAN
by Richard GravesThe SIN Nature of MAN
Basically, the doctrine states that all humans fall short of God's standard of righteousness no matter how “good” they think they are, that they are born with a “sinful” nature and require something outside of themselves to make them righteous and / or acceptable before God.
Many people have a fundamental problem with accepting the premise that they are “sinful” in nature. Some people will say that they are “good” people and often cite this as the reason that they cannot or will not accept Jesus and / or the Christian faith. This is partly because many people make the fundamental flaw of confusing “Sin” which is breaking God's Laws with “Crime” which is breaking the laws of man.
Sin as defined in the Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, Strong's Number: 266, the word “Hamartia” meaning: offence, sin(-ful).
Sin, wrong doing, usually any act CONTRARY TO THE WILL and law of God I don't believe anyone who is honest with themselves and claims to believe in God (The Father of Jesus) can say that they have not done or or does not do anything that is contrary to the Will and / or Law of God.
It is the epitome of pride for a person to deny what is or should be a very self evident fact. Again, some people mistake “Sin” for “Crime” and by their willful or unintentional lack of making such a distinction, they are unable to see themselves in proper context.
Many “crimes” are “sins”, many “sins” are crimes, yet there are many “crimes” that are not “sins” and many “sins” that are not “crimes”. For example, most people in our Western society at least agree that “murder” is a sin and a crime, yet not helping the poor or widow and the orphan, which is a serious sin, is often not considered a “crime”. In that light, people who don't kill people will believe that because of not doing these big obvious sins / crimes they are at base “good” people. This may be the case when “good” is defined as being an obedient and productive citizen in our society. However, what is good in as in making the standard that is set by God is a different mater entirely.
Jesus made it pretty clear here in Mathew 19.16-17 (KJV) “And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments”
Before we go any further let me clarify that JESUS was good, because HE and the Father are One, therefore Jesus' He has the Righteousness of His Father (John 14.10).
In the reference scripture Jesus is giving Glory to God for “His” goodness, making it plain that it was not of Himself, but because He was and is in relationship with His Father. This outlines the problem, when people, Christians in particular believe that outside of God in Christ that they are good, they are basically are calling Jesus a liar.
Jesus is stressing that through Him, all who accept Him on His terms, can have through Him this same abiding / relationship with the Father that He has and demontsrated, by accepting His righteousness in place of our own.
This by understanding that within ourselves and without God we cannot truly be “Good”. The Strong's Exhaustive Concordance defines the Greek word for “Good” used in the reference scripture as “Kalos” meaning: “Virtuous”.
I believe that this very definition of Good is what lead the people to choose Jesus to be executed in place of the murderer Barrabas. You see, people were not that different at that time then we are now, let me explain how.
Back then, as it is today, religion and politics were bedfellows. Jesus was neither political or religious, therefore the religious (Pharisees) and the political (The Roman Government) didn't have much use for Jesus. Primarily because Jesus threatened both of their worldly systems. However, it wasn't these people alone who killed Jesus, the masses, yes the same people that Jesus healed, feed and ministered to were also a party to His execution.
When the masses had the choice to either have executed a man that was a known murderer or a man who was a known healer of mind, body and spirit, the people chose Jesus to be executed. The view that people had and that many of us today have of being “good” was a factor that was utilized to push these people towards that decision. Jesus showed the Father in all of His actions (John 8.25), yet he was doing this walking around amongst the masses. Being kind and compassionate to those he came across, and this made the people hate him that much more. Why? Because he showed them their shortcomings, not by His words, but by His actions. He showed them that they were NOT truly good, that their good was like a filthy rag when looked at in the pure light that he radiated. Therefore, the people wanted Him gone.
They would rather have the murderer amongst them, because they could always point at the murderer as someone THEY FELT THEY WERE BETTER THAN. They felt good in comparison to Barrabas the murderer. History teaches us this lesson, as the easiest way to get killed, is to show light in this dark world by bringing truth into a dishonest world. When light is shown in dark place people are shown their frailties and shortcomings, this occurs because people will always compare themselves to someone who strives for a higher standard in their actions, and either consciously or subconsciously, people will compare themselves and be reminded that they do not measure up to the standard that is being demonstrated right in front of them.
In a Christian world view, as defined by Christ and not “church doctrine or dogma”, to be truly good, we must strive to meet Christ standard by being in relationship with our Father through Him. By acknowledging that our GOOD cannot be and will never be GOOD ENOUGH.
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