Sunday, February 13, 2011

Jesus' Teaching on Man

"It is difficult to understand those who cling to the doctrine of the fundamental goodness of human nature, and do so in a generation which has witnessed two devastating world wars and especially the horrors which occasioned and accompanied the second.  It is even harder to understand those who attribute this belief to Jesus Christ.  For he taught nothing of the kind.   Jesus taught that within the soil of every man's heart there lie buried the ugly seeds of every conceivable sin -'evil thoughts, acts of fornication, of theft, murder, adultery, ruthless greed, and malice; fraud, indecency, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly.' All thirteen are 'evil things', and they come out of the heart of 'the man' or 'the men', every man.  This is Jesus Christ's estimate of fallen human nature."

-From "Christ the Controversialist" (London: Tyndale Press; Downers Grove: IVP, 1970), pp. 139, 141. 

Excerpted from "Authentic Christianity", p. 146, by IVP. Thanks John Stott.

No comments:

Post a Comment