So, after studying the last few months through the Book of Acts, I determined to take a break from what unequivocally became a study on early Church politic, and a blueprint for the hierarchy and structure of the Church militant. So, I determined to begin anew, with a study on Genesis.

Genesis 1

Creation. We from the creation account, we see some very important characteristics of our God. We see the whole of the Trinity represented in this account. God the Father, as the council of Nicea decreed, created the Heavens and the Earth. “I believe, in One God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.” And He created these things through the Son, and in the Holy Spirit, Whom Scripture says was “hovering over the waters.”

The Father. speaking to the Son, in reference to the creation of man, uses plural pronouns, “Us” and “Our,” thereby signifying the three distinct persons of the Trinity. However, the use of the word “image” is distinctly singular; denoting one undivided nature. Thus, in the declaration, “We (plural) shall make man in Our (plural) image (singular),” we see the very nature of the triune God.

Lastly, and most relevantly to our lives, we find that upon the completion of creation, God blesses all of creation. The Scripture says that “He looked down upon all of His creation and saw that it was good.” See, this bears such relevance to us, because all that God creates is good and nothing is inherently evil. This is so important because there are those who conceive that human beings are created wicked, that their very nature is wicked. There are those who teach that the flesh itself is flawed and that only the spirit matters. And yet, God Himself looked upon us and blessed us, stating that all of creation itself is good. Human nature itself is good. When God knits together a child in it’s mother’s womb, there is nothing wicked or sinful or evil in it. It is through our own free will that we can allow this wickedness into our hearts. And, this wickedness is contrary both to God’s will and to our own nature. The problem is that once we allow this wickedness into our lives, it is only through immense struggle coupled with the grace of God that we are ever able to break free from it’s grip. Our slavery to sin is so strong that often times, it seems to be our very nature. However, our God-given nature is not innately sinful, since God never creates anything wicked. Rather, we often give it such power that it seems that way. An alcoholic is never born an alcoholic, rather, they are born good and at a point allow alcohol to enter into their lives, making them a slave to alcoholism. A vain person is never born vain, however, once they allow the go gratification to enter into their lives, they become slaves to it, and their vanity becomes the means to achieve the gratification that they desire.

This becomes so important to us in our fight to achieve purity, because if we consider that we are fighting against our very nature, then it becomes exponentially more difficult to attain to the purity into which we were created. Again, hearkening to alcoholism, the alcoholic who believes that he was created as an alcoholic will have a much harder time defeating that demon than a man who recognizes that those demons only have the power over him that he allowed them to have. It was through his choices that he became enslaved to that desire, and those same choices coupled with the grace of the Holy Spirit can allow him to break free.

We do ourselves and others a grave disservice when we teach that we are wicked by nature. We do ourselves such a grave disservice, because when we teach that, we teach that it is no longer sinful desire or temptation that we are attempting to overcome, but rather our very nature. When we teach the truth, as revealed in Scripture, that we are born good and then allow these sinful passions quarter in our own lives; then and only then will we be able to seek the grace of the Lord to free us of them, and allow His guidance to guide us to make the right choices in our own lives.

We, my brothers and sisters, must make the conscious decision each day who we shall follow, who we shall look to for guidance, and then follow the guidance that we have received. Jesus, fully God, but also fully human, was tempted in the desert. And His decisions serve as the role model for our lives. We must never test God, neither doubt Him, nor give quarter to the devil in our own lives. No matter what earthly riches and rewards we are offered, we must never place those rewards over that which is most important, which is obedience to our Lord. And we must never allow ourselves the scapegoat of claiming, “well this is who I was born to be,” for to do so is to claim that God created something flawed and to shirk our own responsibility. God created us good, but through our own environment and mentality, we have allowed sin to root itself in our lives; and we must constantly seek His righteousness to be freed from those tethers.

Christ is in our midst.