Three More Impulses That Are in Us by Nature

You would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. Deuteronomy 1:26

Our sinful impulses affect not only how we relate to God but how we relate to circumstances, God’s truth, and our human condition.

By nature, we resist the truth: Moses said to the people, “Do not be in dread or afraid of them. The LORD your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness…” (1:29-31)

Moses is pleading with the people. But they are afraid. The life-giving Word of God doesn’t go in. It makes no difference. By nature, we are always seeing but never perceiving, always hearing but never understanding (see Mark 4:12).

By nature, we refuse to believe: “In spite of this word you did not believe the LORD your God” (Dt. 1:32). God was beside these people in the pillar of cloud and fire, and yet still they would not trust Him. They refused to believe (see Num. 14:11).

By nature, we are suspicious of God. We hold back. We do not trust Him. None of us is neutral when it comes to faith. By nature, we are antagonistic toward God, unwilling to believe.

By nature, we are under the wrath of God: “The LORD heard your words and was angered, and he swore, ‘Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers’” (Dt. 1:34-35). By nature, we are alienated from God and under His wrath. Heaven is not for us. We have no basis on which to enter the good land He has promised.

This is the human condition. By nature, this is our condition. This is who we are. This is what sin has done to us. This is what we need saving from.

Where have you been giving in to fear? Are you quietly suspicious or antagonistic toward God?