The Religion of the Natural Man is made up of pride, ignorance,
and a guilty conscience: these effectually keep the sinner far
from God. Grace, on the contrary, moves us to draw near to God
by the blood of Jesus. It was the obedience of faith that made
Abel the acceptable worshipper.
The fairest things in the world's sight are the foulest in the
sight of God; to wit, the world's Wisdom and the world's Religion.
To judge by the number of creeds in the world, its Religions
are many; yet there are but two—man's Religion and God's.
The former ever builds on the false righteousness of the flesh;
the latter on the rock Christ.
All the Religion of the Natural Man turns the Bible upside down:
it begins with works, and then leads men to hope for mercy. Whereas
the Bible begins with the pardon of sin, and then enjoins obedience.
Nadab and Abihu went up with Moses into the mount with God, yet
afterwards perished while offering strange fire. Were natural
men that profess Christ to be caught up into heaven, and sent
down to earth again, they would be still but Nadabs and Abihus
at enmity with God. The carnal mind must be crucified; it cannot
be mended or improved.
The man who worships God without the new birth is a mocker of
God, not a worshipper.
It is natural to the corrupt heart of man to deny its weakness
and sinfulness, and to boast of its strength and righteousness.
If Adam in his state of uprightness could not uphold himself,
how shall we, his corrupt seed, by native strength rise up out
of our fall?
There are many stirrings of conscience in the Natural Man which
are not grace, though often mistaken for it. Balaam, Saul, and
many others, had such stirrings-conscience pulling one way and
the heart another. Without grace there is no self-abhorrence,
and therefore no looking to the blood of Christ. Where grace is,
the soul desires deliverance from the power of sin as well as
its punishment.
If you be not converted to God, you have not to be doing good
works, but to learn that you can do none, and that you are to
come empty to receive God's gift of eternal life by faith in
Christ Jesus. Your best prayer for mercy is the true confession
of your sin. Made alive in Christ, you are to bring forth fruit
to God. That fruit will not be apples of Sodom or grapes of Gomorrah:
such are all your good works in your natural state-your fruit
will be from Jesus, the true and living vine.