Stone 4 Part 2

Stone 4.2

          If one must be born again to see the kingdom of God, it should come as no surprise that the reborn see the world differently. Spiritually, sight is a matter of desire rather than optical images. Life is driven by personal desire. All men value is ranked according to desire. Adam looked at the forbidden tree and saw chains. His desire was to be free of restrictions; to live as the master of his own soul. Adam wished to be God. Intellectually, he knew the tree carried a curse and eating was wrong, but he couldn’t see it. Desire blinded him. The consequences of his action and God’s willingness to carry out His word were lost in a fog of desire. In the same way people today know hell exists and still refuse to see it or to accept that God will consign them there.

          The desires of the natural man take many forms. In some way every one of man’s desires springs from self indulgence. The entire world cries out to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life. This is not to say that altruism, empathy, and compassion do not exist outside Christianity. Man is not bereft of goodness. Man’s nature is corrupt, but he still carries the imprint of his former state. The likeness and image of God, though twisted by selfishness, are retained in the worst of us. Flashes of goodness are not the problem with man. The problem is that self enthronement is the root of man’s family tree. When David said he was conceived in sin and shaped by inequity, he was not condemning the act of procreation. He was commenting on the natural state of man. “I was born this way,” is not a valid excuse to act in any manner we choose. From God’s perspective every man is born corrupt. There is none that does good; no not one. The root is evil; the branches are deformed; and the fruit rotten. They grow in cursed soil without light and wander in all directions.