6 Truths You Need To Understand About Yourself Before You Can Truly Know Your God

One of the basic problems people have when determining whether or not they need God in their life comes from, what I believe, a faulty view of “self.”  We don’t know the person in the mirror and so we can’t really know God, as a result.

In other words, we don’t understand the basic tenets of where we came from, where we’re going after we die, and what our primary problems and/or needs are.

Do you agree or disagree?

Here are 6 basic truths that I believe that the Bible tells us about ourselves so that some of these questions about who we are can be answered.  These truths help us realize our need for God.

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1. I believe that God’s intention in the creation of man (humanity) was that man should glorify God, enjoy God’s fellowship, live his life in the will of God, and by this accomplish God’s purpose for man in the world (Isaiah 43:7; Colossians 1:16; Revelation 4:11).
2. I believe that the first man (Adam) was directly and immediately created by God, on the literal 6^th day of creation, in God’s image and likeness, apart from any process of evolution (Genesis 1:26; 2:7), and created free of sin with a rational nature, intelligence, volition, self determination, and moral responsibility to God (Genesis 2:7; 15-25; James 3:9).
3. I believe that as a direct and immediate result of Adam’s sin of disobedience to the revealed will and Word of God, man lost his innocence and thereby incurred the penalty of both physical and spiritual death, which is utter separation from God and, therefore, subject to the eternal wrath of God.
4. I believe that as our representative head, the guilt of Adam’s act was imputed to the entire human race (Romans 5:12-14, 18-19), Jesus Christ Himself being the sole exception, and that all men have inherited a totally depraved sin nature and are sinners by nature, choice, practice, and divine declaration (Psalm 14:1-3; Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 3:9-18, 23; 5:10-12).
5. Man became inherently corrupt and guilty before God, totally incapable of choosing or doing that which is acceptable to God, and possesses within himself no means of recovery apart from divine grace (Genesis 1:27, 3:1-19; Romans 3:9-18; 5:12; Ephesians 2:1-3).
6. I believe that man’s depravity extends even to his will.  While man is a free moral agent, choosing as he pleases, his will is in bondage to his sinful nature and subject to Satan’s power by personal disobedience to the will of God (Genesis 3:1-6; Romans 5:12-19; John 8:44; Ephesians 2:2-3).  Therefore, in his total depravity, he always chooses darkness and is both incapable and unwilling to choose Christ (John 3:19-20; 5:40; 6:44, 65; Romans 8:6-8; Ephesians 2:1, 4).  Having no recuperative powers to restore or save himself, man is hopelessly lost apart from divine grace.  Therefore, I believe that man’s salvation is wholly of God’s grace through the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ (Genesis 2:16-17; 3:1-19; John 3:36; Romans 3:23; 6:23; 1 Corinthians 2:14; Ephesians 2:1-3; 1 Timothy 2:13-14; 1 John 1:8).

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QUESTION FOR COMMENT: What do you think about this list?  Do you agree with any of them?  Do you disagree with any of them?  Why or why not.

* Photo Credit:  Espen Faugstad (Creative Commons)