The Nature of Man

Back in the 1980s, I think it was the early 1980s, there was a movie that came out called The Elephant Man. How many of you ever saw that movie? Most of us are familiar with it.

Story of the Elephant Man was a true story based on a man by the name of Joseph Merrick, who lived in England in the 1800s. And he suffered from a deformity that is rather rare of disease that essentially caused him to grow skin that was quite tough and quite thick, fibrous and all, like an elephant. That's how he got the name The Elephant Man. And his head was way out of proportion to the rest of his body, with a very large protruding forehead, misshapen eyes, mouth, and very distorted features. You can find pictures on him readily on the internet. He's usually known as John Merrick, but if you look it up, actually his name was Joseph Merrick. And he lived, I think, only until about age 27. He was abandoned by his family and became kind of a circus freak, toured through England and Europe, and was looked at as a kind of a freakish individual. He died, I think, about age 27, probably from a broken neck in his sleep one night, as he was trying to sleep laying down rather than where he should have been, which was in an upright position, and the weight of his neck possibly, or of his head, broke his neck. And he died. When you saw the movie, it was a rather poignant, very, very sad movie. Probably the best known line from that movie is one that you can still find out on YouTube, on the trailers of the movie, where he was running from some taunters at one point, and he basically turned and screamed at them. He says, I am not an animal. I am a human. I am not an animal. I am a human.

And it's an interesting line, because in this man's case, he was being treated like an animal, but he was human. He looked grotesque when you see the pictures. A very, very sad situation.

But he was human, in that he had a mind, and he had that component that all human beings have that make us human, that not only joined to his brain, but made him think and laugh and hurt as he did. He was a human, but he was treated like an animal.

You know, most of our modern world looks at mankind as an animal. If you drink deep of the scientific evolutionary thought of our world today, you will find very quickly that it doesn't take a whole lot of reading in psychology books or other readings about human behavior, sex, marriage, other factors about the human condition, to pick up the idea that many in the basic scientific establishment approach human behavior as human beings being an animal. Highly developed on the evolutionary plane, but as an animal.

We look at God's Word and we don't find in the Bible that man is an animal. When we look into the Scriptures, we find something that is completely different. The nature of man is completely different than that of the animal world. And all of the Scriptures that point to and talk about the human creation, who we are, what man is, illustrate that man is something far, far, far above the animal realm of existence. And that truth of the Scriptures is one of the foundational aspects of life that we should never take for granted, never forget, and understand as really the starting point to living a successful life.

Understanding the nature of man, and therefore then the reason we were created, God's purpose for placing human life on this earth, is at the heart and core of living a successful life. If you and I do not understand that, and I guess you might say, well, sure, we understand that. I'm talking to the choir today, right? We all believe that. None of you here believe that man is an animal.

You might believe that man acts like an animal at times, and no argument here. Human behavior can be very animalistic when it's especially taken even to the scale of national atrocities and war and other matters of behavior like that, as well as things that do go on even on a one-to-one basis at times. We do act like animals, but that doesn't mean we are animals.

And the key to success in life is to understand that and understand the scriptural teaching and to be able to apply that at every stage of our life every day in the decisions and the choices that we make. And I submit that the fact that we find ourselves mired in sin, struggling with some of the decisions that we've made that have been mistakes, and we have to pay the penalty for it, are because at its ultimate root we have not fully internalized this knowledge and this understanding of who we are as human beings, why we are created, and what God wills for us, so that we don't act like animals, but we act like those who are created in the image of God.

And we act more and strive to act more in the image of our Creator. In Genesis 1 is the starting point for this understanding. Genesis 1, verse 26, when we come in the story of the creation to verse 26, and God says, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. That's the starting point, one of the most significant of all scriptures. Let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him male and female, he created them. In his image, with the distinction of sexually between a man and a woman, male and female, but man created in the image of God is where we begin the story of human life.

Different from all the other creations created at the end of the week, on the sixth day, and then given a day of rest, the Sabbath day, to really round that out. It seems like this is a scripture I always refer to at a funeral that I conduct. I have that, it seems, always in my notes in terms of just trying to explain what happens at death and the purpose of life, a little bit of that.

The image of man is more than just the form and shape, it's more than the image that we tend to think of that we have as human beings. The intent and the meaning of scripture shows that God intends that we take on his full image, meaning his nature, the way he is, the way he thinks, the way he lives. It's irrelevant to think about what does God look like. Does he have two arms, a head, two legs, and all? If that's what that means, that's what it means. But that's not what the intent of all of the scriptures show us in terms of the image of God.

The image of God has to do with character. The image of God has to do with, again, the way we think, the way we are, and the righteous decisions and choices that you and I make in our lives as we come up to them every single day. The way we think, the way we talk to people, the way we react to each other, and the decisions and the choices that we make.

This is what God intends. In Isaiah chapter 45.

Isaiah the 45th chapter.

Beginning in verse 11, Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands. You command me. I have made the earth, and created man on it. I, my hands, stretched out the heavens, and all their host I have commanded, as well as sleeping down to create man. I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways. He shall build my city, and let my exiles go free. Not for the price, not for price nor reward, says the Lord of hosts.

And while we're close by, let's just turn over to Jeremiah chapter 18 and look at another illustration God gives here to describe how he works with us. The illustration of the potter and the clay. See what God is, as he is working with us, and shaping us, and molding us into his image. Jeremiah chapter 18, he tells Jeremiah to go down to the potter's house in verse 2, and I'll cause you to hear my words, and something that I want to tell you. So in verse 3, I went to the potter's house, and there he was making something at the wheel. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter.

We've all seen how a potter works with a lump of clay on a wheel that's turning quite rapidly, and he's running his hands up and down to shape that into whatever type of a vessel that he wants it to look like. And he says it's marred. And so he made it again into another vessel. If something happens that the clay doesn't respond or the potter makes a mistake, he just pushes it all back down into one big lump again and starts all over again in the process. That's how a potter works, to make it as it seems good to him.

And so the word of the Lord in verse 5 came to me, saying, O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter? Look, as the clay is in the potter's hands, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. He's speaking here in a prophetic sense through Jeremiah to the house of Israel and Judas specifically, but it also shows us that individually we are works in God's hand as a potter is making something out of a lump of clay, something useful. You know, a potter doesn't make something, spend the time to make that object unless it will ultimately be something that's useful. Usually it's going to hold something. It's going to hold a cup of coffee, a pitcher of water, maybe a vase for flowers. It's going to be quite useful. Think about the potter you have around the house. I have a cup. My favorite coffee cup is a handmade piece of clay down here in Brown County that I picked up years ago and managed to maintain. It's all handmade and you can tell how something like that is. It's quite useful to me every morning when I put my coffee in it. Pottery is useful to God. We all should become something useful in the hands of God as He molds and shapes us in His image with the potential to become His children, partakers of His divine nature. In 2 Peter 1, 2 Peter 1, in verse 4, let's read it in verse 2, it says, As His grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Peter here touches upon, again, the potential that we have as human beings to take on the nature of God. That's what being created in the image of God is all about, taking on His nature.

Is it a good nature? You ever commented upon a baby, toddler, and say, oh, it's such a good-natured child, just laying there in its bassinet or being held and just smiling and cooing until they get to the point where they kind of bring up whatever was last went down? But until then, they're real good-natured. Or they can be otherwise at times. Well, the nature of God. What is that nature? It's a divine nature. That's a whole subject in itself, but that's the nature we take on. That is the potential that we have. That is what we can do. And God formed man out of the flesh, out of material substance, out of clay, if you will. And He breathed into us the breath of life. We read back there in Genesis. And as a result, our nature is physical. We're subject to corruption and to decay. And as we grow older, we know that. We find that out all too soon at times. And the older we get, going into those golden years, we get our aches and pains and make more trips to the doctor and things like that happen. But that's, again, what we know we are subject to. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, hold your place there and put a marker there in Peter. We may come back to that.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 44, Paul here is talking about the natural human body in this resurrection chapter.

And in verse 44, he says, it is sown a natural body that has raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. Before the spiritual body comes and will be given at the resurrection, the body we have is subject to decay. It's natural. Verse 47, he says, the first man was of the earth, made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven. And then in verse 49, as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man. We all have the image of the man of dust. Adam is the first human created. We came from that.

And we have that. We definitely know that we bear his physical image, as all human beings do.

But then Paul also here makes allusion to the fact that we will also bear the image of the heavenly man. And he's referring to Christ. We will take on the spiritual dimension of that nature of God Himself there. Down in verse 53, he says, for this corruptible must put on in corruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So again, we're mortal. We're subject to decay.

We are subject to the works of this life and of the flesh. And Paul here very clearly shows that that must all run its course before we are given a spiritual body at the resurrection.

Now back in Acts 2, beginning in verse 27. Acts 2 verse 27.

As he quotes here from one of David's Psalms, he says, For you shall not leave my soul in Hades, nor will you allow your holy one to see corruption.

And this was being referenced and referred, applied to Jesus Christ, in the fact that he did not see corruption in the grave. You have made known to me the ways of life, and you will make me full of joy in your presence. Madam brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to set on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul, his body, was not left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. In the case of Christ, his body did not see corruption. After three days and three nights in the grave, he was resurrected. But David was not so, as he says here. David, his body, was in the grave, and his tomb and his whatever remains may have been at that time, was with them to that time and to that day. And again, that's the nature of the body, the human life, that we have. We do not have eternal life inherent within us. Man's nature does not have that.

We are given that as a gift of God under God's terms and conditions that the Bible very clearly lays out. We do not have life, eternal life, within us. That is a gift of God.

One of the, so much, you have to be very careful at times you will run across the idea, and it comes across very innocently in various, it may be something in New Age type of spirituality.

It might be as innocent as something that you find engraved on a little plaque in a gift shop or even on a coffee mug, some idea that really does speak to the idea many people have that we have within us a spark of the divine. Sometimes you have to be careful with that as you read literature, as you read poetry, as you get into certain ideas even that try to modify human behavior and talk of success and plans and ideas for success because there is an age-long idea that man has a spark of the divine already within him. It's just waiting to be accessed. It's waiting to be brought out.

It's really an idea that goes back, it's as old as something called Gnosticism and Gnostic ideas that speak to the idea that when we are born we already have the divine within us. It's really a counterfeit of the truth of the idea of the spirit in man that we do have from birth the very spirit and non-physical component that does make us human but is not divine, is not by itself eternal, immortal life. We don't have that until God begins to deal with us on his terms and conditions very clearly laid out in many, many scriptures within the Bible. Back in Matthew 19. Matthew 19.

Verse 16. When the rich young ruler came to Christ here in verse 16 of Matthew 19, he asked Christ, good teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?

Again, written under God's inspiration, if he already had eternal life, he wouldn't have asked it and it wouldn't have been inspired to be written this way. And Christ answered, he says, why do you call me good? No one is good but one that is God. But if you want to enter into life, eternal life, keep the commandments. Keep the commandments. This rich young ruler wanted to obtain eternal life. He didn't have it already. No human being has that within him.

That is a gift of God. In 1 Timothy 6.

1 Timothy 6.

In verse 16, he's speaking here of Jesus, who is the king of kings, the Lord of lords. In verse 15, in verse 16, he says, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power.

God alone has immortality. He dwells in what is called an unapproachable light.

That's another one of those phrases you find in the scripture to describe the glory of God, the whatever eternal life will be. An unapproachable light. If we, I guess, were somehow even near that glory, it would be something we couldn't even approach.

Revelation describes Jesus as an image blazing like the sun, but it's an unapproachable light.

But God alone has immortality. Man does not have that. In Romans 6, in verse 23, we're told the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. In Christ Jesus, our Lord. Eternal life is a gift that God wants to give to man, but we do not have it alone. We don't have it by our very nature, by the nature of man. How we get from this present nature of corruptible flesh to the nature or the divine nature of God and to the gift of eternal life is what our calling, our election, our overcoming, and our whole life in the church, in a relationship with God, is all about.

And God has placed that before us and given us that choice. We understand that God placed before Adam and Eve the choice of eternal life through obedience to Him or death through sin. That again is what we are shown back in the account in Genesis where that decision was made to take of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and their subsequent expulsion from the Garden of Eden, which is a large story condensed into a very, very simple illustration there in Genesis 2 and 3 of what took place in that decision. But it all comes down to a choice.

And in that first story of our human parents, we have one of the fundamental truths of life, and that is that life basically comes down to a choice to obey or to disobey, which you and I always have in front of us when it comes to our relationship with God.

Deuteronomy chapter 30 illustrates that in what was said before Israel. Deuteronomy chapter 30 and verse 19, where to Israel, as a nation, they were given this choice. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, and therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live. Life is full of choices.

This is no more difficult than what is outlined right here, and it works off of the first choice that Adam and Eve made, and it is our choice to either obey God or not to, to choose life or to choose a way that is a way of death, or at least to death. When we choose to obey God, we start out on a different approach. The scriptures show us that Adam and Eve yielded to temptation, and they disobeyed God. Back there in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 6, the choice was put before Eve. Satan appeared in the form of a serpent and entered into that dialogue that we know the story so well, and there was a choice before the two of them of two trees.

One was a tree of life, the other was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And God said, you know, you can take all you want of the tree of life, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, don't. And that's the one that Satan went for. And as the story accounts, their minds were open. They began to see themselves in a different way.

They acquired a different nature other than that of God's. Now, we can say that had they taken of the tree of life, and we could speculate what course of mankind's history would have been different from that point. And it would be a rather different story. We know that that's not what happened because we read history, we read the scriptures, and we know that they set life and humanity off on a different course. But the whole story of God and his relationship with individuals, with the nation of Israel, ultimately with all of mankind, is no more challenging and difficult to understand than what was put before the first parents, Adam and Eve. And that is to either choose to take the tree of life or to choose to discern and determine for ourselves what is right and wrong from a tree that has both good and evil attached to it. And human life, human experience, human knowledge is full of both good and evil.

You cannot study, read, go through education, go through our life's experiences without really getting too far from that conclusion. And the challenge is to understand the difference between good and evil, to appreciate the good of the world, the good of people, the good of human knowledge, while at the same time we are able to discern where human knowledge deviates from the knowledge of God and does not match up with the knowledge of the tree of life, with the revealed knowledge of the scriptures. The subject I'm going through this morning, quite frankly, is a matter of revealed knowledge that God's Spirit gives to those whom he calls, that he has placed within his church. That explains a very straight line, if you will, to that tree of life. And it's something that is so easily strayed from, misunderstood, misapplied, or just ignored for even those of us in the church. But it's not something we ever want to forget. Because just as Adam and Eve yielded to temptation and disobeyed God, you and I can yield to temptation and disobey God as well. And when we do, sin can enter our life and impact us, even those of us within the church. Sin can enter our lives, just as it entered the world through sin and death. Back in Romans chapter 5, Romans the fifth chapter, and verse 12. Romans 5 and verse 12 says, therefore justice through one man, sin entered the world and death through sin. Now, this puts it all—this rounds out the scripture in Timothy that says that Eve was tempted, so ladies don't feel like, you know, God's placing the whole burden on Eve. It was a mutually arrived at decision that those two made. And it just happened to be that Satan made a beeline for Eve and tempted her, but Adam was just as much a culprit. And verse 12 of Romans doesn't let Adam get off at all in any part of that whole episode. Therefore, just as through one man's sin entered the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned.

For until the law sin was in the world, but sin was not imputed when there was no law.

Verse 14, nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who was a type of him who was to come.

Now, Paul makes some very strong statements here, and these verses here, and verses 12 and 14 especially, are at the heart of it. We already read chapter 6 and verse 23 that the wages of sin is death and the gift of God is eternal life. But Romans 5, 12, and verse 14 speak to a very important concept that it's important that we distinguish in the truth and in the church, and that is, as it says, sin entered the world and death through sin. The wages of sin are death, and this became a part of because of that decision. And again, I referred to the fact that when Adam and Eve took the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they saw that they were naked, which is telling us that they acquired a different nature. Their attitudes were altered at that point because of their sin. Now, is irrelevant whether they put fig leaves on at that point or whatever, they covered their nakedness. They had a whole different approach and view of themselves and of God. They hid from God, remember. And God came looking for them in the cool of the evening, not that He didn't know where they were, but He came looking for them because they were hiding. And they had a different view of God and they had a different view of themselves. That's what's important to draw from that. Now, how did they come to that?

What was their view of God prior to that moment? What was their view of themselves?

Well, it was completely different. Could we say that it was more childlike, trusting, open?

They didn't want to hide from God? How long was it? Was it several hours, several days?

You know, it's interesting. Some theologians over the centuries have speculated how long from the time Adam and Eve were created to what they call the fall, they said.

One theologian says five hours. Another said, I don't know how he comes up with five hours.

Another says it was several days. I don't know. It doesn't tell us. Could have been a very short period of time. Could have been longer than we might think. I just don't know. The fact is, they were different. They acquired a different nature. And that is all that is important.

That is what makes all the difference from that point forward. And this is what Paul is talking about here in chapter five of Romans. Sin entered the world and sin changes our nature, the nature of man. Now, how does that nature change? Because of the choice that is made. Because of the choice.

When you and I sin, our nature can change. We can become guilty. We can become hostile.

We can become defiant. We can seek to justify ourselves. We can become very scared.

And as a result of that, we want to hide. We don't want to go to church. We don't want to see anybody in the church because of guilt, because of fear. Things change in the way we look at ourselves and in the way we look at God. If we don't repent, if we don't acknowledge our sin, repent, and seek to correct whatever behavior, whatever attitude, whatever mood, feeling is there, then our nature will change, just as Adam and Eve's changed. And it is in this understanding that we are at the crux of understanding the nature of man and taking on the image of God, becoming more than an animal, and acting like a God, taking on the divine nature of God as opposed to the other, and how this works. The world has read these chapters in Romans and the experience of Adam and Eve, and come up with the idea of called original sin. How many of you are familiar with the term original sin? Original sin basically is this, that when Adam and Eve sinned, we all sinned. And you're born with that nature of hostility toward God.

I have a book here that just happens to be titled, Original Sin. I bought it a couple of years ago, saw it reviewed in the Wall Street Journal, and bought it. And I didn't start reading it until a few days ago. And it's been fascinating. It's more of a kind of a book length essay on the theological cultural ideas behind this idea of original sin, that you and I are born with the sin of Adam. Which means that if you, according to the theology, and it goes back to the earliest centuries of church experience, basically not the true church, but Augustine, who was the one church father in the fifth century whose ideas began basically influenced the church from that point on. And he had a very conflicted feeling about himself, because of his past life. And he eventually repented, became a bishop of the church, and wrote a great deal about many subjects. But he formulated the idea of original sin.

And basically that became the central doctrine of Catholicism, or of the church, going forward.

That when a child is born, he's already under the penalty of sin from Adam.

Now, this is a very interesting study to go through this, and to see how it all developed over the years. Toward the end of the book, there's a chapter that talks about the Immaculate Conception. How many of you know what the Immaculate Conception refers to?

How many of you think it refers to Jesus Christ?

A couple of you think, huh? Okay. It doesn't refer to Jesus Christ. The Immaculate Conception refers to the Virgin Mary. Okay. I know, I used to think the same thing, too. It's an idea that became Catholic doctrine in the mid-1800s, but it applies to Mary. And the idea is that when she was conceived, she was free of original sin. The idea is, how could the Son of God be placed into the womb of a woman who was tainted at any point in life by the idea of original sin?

So therefore, as it was formulated, Mary, when she was conceived by her parents, was conceived without sin. Okay. That's how far the idea of original sin has had to be carried theologically to work in that sense. But you and I don't believe in original sin. The Bible doesn't really teach original sin. And Romans chapter 5 is not teaching original sin. When we're born, we're just like a blank slate, just like a white piece of paper, ready to be written on. There's nothing there. Now, again, the idea, according to Catholic theology, that a baby, one day old, is already under sin, original sin, from Adam, and under that weight of death. Therefore, that leads to the concept of infant baptism. You've got to get that baby baptized fairly quickly, because according to the theology, if he or she would die before being baptized, their soul would go to hell. And that is still held by very conservative thinkers today, and is at the root and cause of the idea of infant baptism, because they have to be expunged of the guilt of Adam, the original sin. Now, what's the truth? Well, the truth is that we are not born with original sin. As I said, we have kind of a blank slate to write on. But we all know that as time goes along, things get written on that blank slate of our minds, didn't they? And that sweet, innocent little baby eventually throws a fit, beyond even just being hungry after a few hours or a few days, and just reacting normally to the hunger of the flesh. That as we grow and our mind develops, and our consciousness develops, we begin to choose. And at some point, all parents recognize, when a child has moved from just normally and naturally reacting to the stimulus of hunger, or pain, or whatever it might be, to where they've made a choice. And we know that. Everybody who's been a parent knows that. And that's when we say, stop it. Or take whatever other action we feel necessary, and we recognize that you're just throwing a fit. As they acquire a different nature.

Back in the 1960s, I was thinking about this the other day, when I was going to the feast and listening to Mr. Armstrong speak at the Feast of Tabardacles in those years, this would have been the late 60s, he was chewing over this thought of human nature. What is the origin of human nature?

Because he had, and theologically, he had not fully worked this out in the church at that point in time.

How did we as human beings acquire human nature? He knew that we didn't get it through original sin.

That it came, had to come some other way. How did we get it?

And I remember him chewing it over and thinking it over, and he was talking about the nature of man.

That we are souls, that we are subject to decay. We don't have immortal life within us.

And yet we're not animals either. And yet the subject of human nature.

How is it that we acquire it? Where does it come from?

Where does it come from? When I went to college, Ambassador College, in 1970, the first day of atonement, he spoke that day. And in that sermon, he, I don't know at what point he had kind of worked it out, but he laid it out in that sermon. I remember it very well.

And he explained, I don't know if it was his first time to do it, but at least it was the first time that I heard him do it. He explained very thoroughly, as new understanding and as a complete understanding for the church, how we are able, how it is that we as humans acquire human nature.

And he explained it from Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians chapter 2.

Where he says, So he's saying here to these Ephesians, you were dead in trespasses and sins.

Just like you had said in Romans 6.23, we've all sinned, come short of the glory of God.

We were dead in trespasses and sins in which we once walked according to the course of this world.

In other words, this is the way the world goes. It is a world that is following after the pattern set by Adam and Eve of making a choice of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the subsequent fruits of that tree, which is good and evil. A lot of evil. There's some good, periods of good mixed in there. He says, you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh.

And so here he said, look, this world is under the influence of the prince of the power of the air, Satan. He explained it in terms at that point of Satan broadcasting through the air.

Through invisible, unable to be seen, thoughts, ideas, moods, a wavelength, just as you and I understand, and the analogy helps us to at least understand it, that through this room right now there are all kinds of messages that we can't hear and see unless we had, if we had a radio, we could tune into them. In 1970, nobody had ever heard the name internet, but we could add an internet to that today. If we have a Wi-Fi router, we could latch right in over the air to the internet. And that's been an added dimension of understanding on top of radio waves and transmissions of televisions, images, and sound through the air in an invisible way, that if you pick it up, then you can see it and hear it. And it explained this idea of how we acquire the nature of the prince of the power of the air. It was when we tune into it. He broadcasts in moods and in attitudes.

I was thinking about that, and I pulled off first time in a number of years, I have to say, when I pulled off the incredible human potential. Mr. Armstrong wrote this back in the 19— late 70s, I think, is when he wrote it. And I wanted to read the one chapter that he wrote directly to the subject. It was chapter 11, Human Nature and How a Whole World is Deceived About Its Origin. And he did 99%—you know, it all fits still very, very much there. He says—he goes on and talks through all of this as to how human nature is acquired when we tune into the nature of the Lucifer. And he says here in the next to the last paragraph in this chapter, Lucifer was created by God perfect in all of his ways until iniquity was found in him.

He acquired the nature of rebellion and evil by false reasoning. Adam acquired it from Satan. Adam wasn't created with it, was his point. The Ephesians, here in chapter 2 and verse 1, the Ephesians acquired it, human nature, from Satan, as has all humanity except Jesus Christ.

But now in Christ, through his grace, we can acquire the divine nature of God.

And so it very succinctly encapsulates a very important truth. Adam didn't acquire—or didn't—was not born with the nature that he ultimately acquired. He acquired it by choice.

You and I were not born with original sin or human nature. We acquired it by choice.

We acquire then, and he quotes 2 Peter—let's go back to 2 Peter, 2 Peter chapter 1.

2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 4.

By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. So where are we in partaking of this divine nature? We acquire the nature of God one step at a time, one day at a time, one decision at a time, one choice at a time in our lives. As God has given us a spirit, as that spirit has been joined to our human spirit, which is a whole other subject in itself, I need a whole another sermon hour to do that, to explain that fully. But this is where we come to this point of understanding our nature, the nature of man and the potential that we have. This is why he called the book The Incredible Human Potential. I had to admit this is the first time I pulled it off the shelf in quite some time. And I read it, probably read it several times when it first came out. I know I read through it once then and I've referred to it and taught from it at various times through the years. But I will have to admit, in recent years it's gathered dust. You would look at it very closely, probably see there's some dust along the top of this one here, as it's been sitting on my shelf. And so I was glad I pulled it out and read that one chapter because Mr. Armstrong did come to some revealed knowledge that is at the key and at the heart of our ability to be successful Christians. And it all flows from understanding our nature as created by God and the potential that we have as human beings to become fully in the image of God as his sons of glory, as God is intended all mankind to ultimately have. And perhaps a starting point for that discussion is where we are here in Peter to partake be we are to be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. As you and I think about our lives, not just as a pre-passover experience, but as a continual examination of ourselves and where we are and how we're progressing spiritually. Understanding this truth and this fact of being a partaker of the divine nature is key. This is what God intends.

He goes on in the next few verses, I won't go through those, but he does give some concrete illustrations of what that divine nature should be by which we can measure ourselves. But it all comes down to our choices. And after all, you and I want to be successful in our lives. We want to be happy. We want to have a measure of joy in our families. Every day when we get up, when we move, as we go about life, success is big business in our world today. People spend whole lifetimes teaching people how to be happy, how to be successful, how to be productive, how to be effective. You've got seven habits to be effective, you've got seven habits to be dynamic, you've got seven habits or ten habits or twelve points to this. Whatever book you look at, whatever internet sites you might happen across, you know, I saw one the other day, 50 steps to having a dynamic 2011. I don't even have time to read 50 steps to be happy. But I mean, you could tack any number to it, but you know, how to have a profit, that's what everyone, that's what we all want. Whether it's 50 steps, seven habits, seven laws to success, we want a successful life. And that's what God wants for us. And he's outlined it all for us, and he's given us the most important tool of being a human being with the spirit in man, and for those called and converted the Holy Spirit, joined to that spirit to maximize success in life. And so the question comes back to each one of us, why aren't we doing it? Where are we falling short? Why? What can we do to correct it? This is much of a fundamental belief or doctrine of the church as any other one that we might enumerate. It is at the heart, and it is critical for your life and mine. But how we achieve it, whatever method we employ, whatever we find works for us, has to start from these basic realities of the fact that God's spirit is in us and that we are not animals. Joseph Merrick screamed out, I'm not an animal, as people treated him like an animal. Now, he looked like an animal. That's why they called him the elephant man. He looked like an animal. I don't know how accurate the movie's portrayal of his life was. I've not studied into it. I would imagine that he, probably in his short years through his suffering, learned quite a bit about human nature. Maybe he had a bit of understanding and compassion that will serve him in good stead when in time of the resurrection he has a chance to know God with a fully complete normal body. You and I have the challenge to not act like animals as we are created in the image of God and as we're striving to take on the very nature of God ourselves, that we move ourselves away from the nature of the world that is broadcast by the prince of the power of the air. So, in a sense, this is only part one of what could be a multi-part sermon, but it's important for us to focus in on and to understand what we do have, what has been given to us in the church, the truths that we have, doctrinal, fundamental beliefs, however we would want to refer to them, but these are basic truths of the scriptures that define who we are, how we should live, and what God's ultimate purpose is for us. We are humans created in the image of God and we in the church are created with the opportunity, are being created with the opportunity to take on the very nature of God. We can be partakers of that divine nature and the choice is ours.