Human Nature

If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied.
— Job 31:31

He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts.
— Psalm 22:8-9

And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh.
— Genesis 37:18-19

But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.
— Matthew 10:17-19

But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.
— Matthew 21:38-39

The Desperate Wickedness of Human Nature, by J.C. Ryle. The following contains an excerpt from his work, “The Gospel of Matthew.”

Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified. And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified.
— Matthew 27:22-23

Let us learn from the conduct of the Jews described in these verses, the desperate wickedness of human nature.

What had our Lord done, that the Jews should hate Him so? He was no robber, or murderer. He was no blasphemer of their God, or reviler of their prophets. He was one whose life was love. He was one who “went about doing good.” He was innocent of any transgression against either God, or man. And yet the Jews hated Him, and never rested until He was slain!

They hated Jesus, because He told them the truth. They hated Him, because He testified that their works were evil. They hated the light, because it made their own darkness visible. In a word, they hated Jesus, because He was righteous, and they were wicked; because He was holy, and they were unholy; because He testified against sin, and they loved their sins and would not give them up.

Let us observe this. There are few things so little believed and realized, as the corruption of human nature. Men imagine that if they saw a perfect person, they would love and admire him. They forget that when a really perfect man was on earth, in the person of the Son of God, He was hated and murdered! That single fact goes far to prove the truth that unconverted men would kill God, if they could get at Him!

Let us never be surprised at the wickedness that there is in the world. Let us mourn over it, and labor to make it less; but let us never be surprised at its magnitude. There is no wickedness which the heart of man is not capable of conceiving, or the hand of man of doing. As long as we live, let us mistrust our own hearts. Even when renewed by the Spirit, they are still “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Jeremiah 17:9 a, b

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