Is the Natural Man Partly Divine? by John Norton Loughborough

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Feb 17, 1914

Is the Natural Man Partly Divine?

By John Norton Loughborough

May He Become a New Creature? — Promises of Help

By J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH

THE Lord's description of man's natural condition is very materially different from some of the scientific theories of the present day. These theories affirm that man has in him an element of divinity, and that all he needs is proper environments, and he will be developed as a divine man, as a result of the evolution of the divine already implanted in him.

How does that theory compare with the experience related by the apostle Paul? "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not." Rom. 7: 18.

It seems that the prophet Jeremiah had also learned the same thing, for he said, "O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." Jer. 10: 23.

Our Saviour, when teaching the necessity of divine aid to do right, said, "Without Me ye can do nothing." John 15: 5. Again, "No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day." John 6: 44.

Until a person turns from the way of sin through divine aid, he is represented as "having no hope, and without God in the world." Eph. 2: 12. How could this be if there were an element of divinity in him?

COMFORT TO THE FORLORN

To those in this forlorn condition, the Lord has given assurance of help: "I, if I be lifted up from the earth [crucified], will draw all men unto Me." John 12: 32. That man needs an element outside himself to lead him to do right, was laid out before Nicodemus, when the Saviour said to him, "Except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God." John 3: 3. As expressed by another, "The religion that comes from God, is the only religion that leads to God."

Our Saviour, in His teachings, was only more fully developing what had been taught in the Old Testament. To those turning from sin to obedience, the Lord had said, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart [mind] out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them." Eze. 36: 26, 27.

THE NEW CREATURE

How like the work of Christ, as portrayed by the apostle Paul when he asserts, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature ["a new creation," R.V.]: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." 2 Cor. 5: 17. How this change is accomplished, the apostle set forth in his epistle to the Romans: "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Rom. 8: 3, 4. Thus we are "created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained ["appointed," margin] that we should walk in them." Eph. 2: 10.

The Saviour, when about to close His earthly mission, said to His disciples that He would send them a Comforter, and, "When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth." John 16: 13. The psalmist foresaw how the Lord would lead His people: "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with Mine eye. Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee." Ps. 32: 8, 9. Here is another precious promise: "The meek will He guide in judgment: and the meek will He teach His way." Ps. 25: 9.

With such encouraging promises of divine guidance, how appropriate to make the prayers of the psalmist our own: "O send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto Thy holy hill." Ps. 43: 3. "Teach me to do Thy will; for Thou art my God: Thy Spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness." Ps. 143: 10. And, "Lead me in the way everlasting." Ps. 139: 24.