The Truth About People

April 18, 2021

Randy Hageman

The word “utopia” was created by Sir Thomas More, as his vision of how the world should be, and it’s taken from the Greek words ou and toupos, which translate as no

.

“Truth is the accurate depiction of

.” (Rev. Elizabeth Moreau)

Jesus: … ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.’ —John 14:6 (NLT)

Jesus: ‘…I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.’ —John 10:10 (ESV)

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. —Genesis 1:1 (ESV)

Right from the start, the Bible asserts that God is the Creator, and everything He creates is

Creation.

The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him. —Psalms 24:1 (NLT)

Because God is the Creator, He alone can give everything its

.

In naturalistic, materialistic evolution, there is no

to existence, and therefore, there is no clear basis for right and wrong.

Around the world and across history, people have consistently demonstrated some sense of awareness of

and

Reveal Answer

.

Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right. —Romans 2:14-15 (NLT)

Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and 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. —Genesis 1:26-27 (ESV)

Out of everything God created, only human beings bear the

of God.

“Dominion” isn’t

– it’s ruling over what God created, the way God would rule over it.

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! —Psalms 8 (ESV)

God has created and ordered this world, and He has entrusted

to His image bearers, to care for and manage for Him.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden”? And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.”’ —Genesis 3:1-3 (ESV)

The serpent’s question seems innocuous enough, but here we already see Satan’s

as deceiver and liar.

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’ —Genesis 2:16-17 (ESV)

But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ —Genesis 3:4-5 (ESV)

Ever since Adam and Eve, Satan has continued to deceive us all that God doesn’t really know or want what is

for us.

I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. —Romans 7:15 (NLT)

The reason utopias will never work is because there is

in all of us.

No amount of

will ever change the human heart.

To deny the reality of sin and our fallen nature is to deny the

!

God also didn’t leave Adam and Eve in the

they found themselves.

And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. —Genesis 3:21 (ESV)

This gift of “skins” is very important because it continues to show us God’s real view of us, that He

us, even when we have sinned.

So the LORD God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.’ —Genesis 3:14-15 (NIV11)

Where the serpent had been “crafty,” now God says he is “

.”

Satan’s end is already written, and the statement “he will crush your head” points to the offspring of humanity – whom we know to be

.

The Apostle Paul knew that his sin wasn’t the end of the story for the person who puts their faith in Jesus Christ and chooses to

him the rest of their days as a disciple of Christ.

Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin. So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. —Romans 7:24-8:1-3 (NLT)

In Christ, we can both acknowledge out struggles with sin but also the forgiveness he won for us on the cross that enables us to

the goodness of God’s original creation.

Next Week: The Truth About Faith