p. 5 | MAN PERVERTED BY SIN by Elder Wm. Covert

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 7, 1892

MAN PERVERTED BY SIN.

By Elder Wm. Covert

BY ELDER WM. COVERT.

MOSES writes of the character of God's works when first they came into being, saying, "God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." Gen. 1:31.

Man was the chief consideration in the creation of this world. In this matter it was man especially who was to glorify his Creator. Man was the masterpiece of creation upon this planet. The earth and all things upon it were prepared for him, that he might be supplied with the means of comfort, convenience, and happiness. When, therefore, God said everything was very good, we know that man was good. Yes, he was very good. The image of the Creator within him was undimmed. He was made upright (Eccl. 7:29), and ordained unto good works (Eph. 2:10).

But man did not retain the primeval goodness that his Creator gave him, nor did he perpetuate his innocence by a continual unquestioned obedience. Soon, by deception, Satan gained access to him, and succeeded in his first interview so fully that man followed his advice, and disregarded the commandments of God. Thus the image of God in the creature was defaced, and with it the goodness and the innocence departed, and for these glorious attributes man received in exchange the attributes of the deceiver. So now we behold manifested very largely in the sinner the character of Satan. As the chief characteristic of Satan is a desire to exalt and advantage self, so in the unconverted this unpleasant feature becomes most marked. The entire progeny of the deceiver is marked with this abnormal development. With many of them this feature is very prominent.

There is a lesson recorded wherein our Saviour sets forth the parentage of different classes of people from a moral or spiritual standpoint. He plainly said to certain wicked men: "I speak that which I have seen with my Father; and ye do that which ye have seen with your father." "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do." John 8:38, 44.

As with the physical nature, so with the spiritual, it bears children in its own likeness. The offspring must, in harmony with the laws of nature, be a repetition of the parent in a marked degree. Thus the wickedness that shows forth in man is traceable to its fatherhood, Satan; and his features are marked in proportion to the amount of selfishness that is discernible in his children. Satan's first proposition to man was that disobedience to God would make the transgressor as God, or like God. Some have gone even further in this direction than the original proposition. They not only oppose God, but declare that they themselves are God. 2 Thess. 2:4. Yea, Satan urged man so far in opposition to God that he murdered the Son of God in his rage and frenzy against the goodness and meekness of the Father as manifested in his Son.

If man has actually been urged so far as this in his hatred against God and his law, is there anything too bad for him to do when he is wholly surrendered to the will of Satan? Would he not destroy the Father himself, and overthrow his throne in the whole universe, had he the power to do so?

The character of Elymas, the sorcerer, as set forth by Paul when he rebuked him for his determined opposition to the truth, will serve to illustrate what a man becomes when he is filled by Satan. The apostle fixed his eyes upon the man, and, addressing him, said: "O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?" Acts 13:10.

The child of Satan perverts the right ways of the Lord, and is himself a perversion of the works of God. He is not at all the kind of man that the Lord created, but is man perverted.

The heart of the perverted man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. So deceived as to his own condition is man that he does not know his own heart. See Jer. 17:9.

Made bare by the Spirit of the Lord, there is seen in it "adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like." Gal. 5:19-21. Dark as this picture is of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, it scarcely equals that drawn by the prophet's pen, where he laments the absence of the good man which God created. He says:—

"The godly man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men; they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net. Their hands are upon that which is evil to do it diligently, the prince asketh, and the judge is ready for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth the mischief of his soul; thus they weave it together. The best of them is as a brier; the most upright is worse than a thorn hedge." Micah 7:2-4, Revised Version.

It would seem that Satan himself would be ashamed to own his own children, so distorted do their moral features appear when shown in the light of God's word. But as he never opens his eyes upon them in the fullness of this light, they do not appear to him what they really are. We desire, however, to bring the lamp of truth to shine in such a manner upon the character of those who will permit themselves to behold these sad features, that they will seek unto Him who alone can correct the perverted man, and cause that his image may be restored again as the Father first created it.