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In these messages on the believers we shall cover the believers’ status, designations, symbols, life, nature, past, present, and future. We shall begin with the believers’ status, and in this message we shall cover the believers’ status before they were saved.
Before the believers were saved, they had a sixfold status. They were sinners, sons of disobedience, children of wrath, children of the Devil, enemies of God, and sons of Gehenna.
Before we were saved we were sinners. In Matthew 9:13 the Lord Jesus says, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” In 1 Timothy 1:15 Paul declares, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
In our status as sinners we all have sinned. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). The word “all” refers to all human beings. First Kings 8:46 says, “There is no man that sinneth not.”
As those who have sinned, we have come short of the glory of God. God’s glory is God Himself expressed. Whenever God is expressed, His glory is seen. Man was made by God in His image that man may express Him for His glory. But man has sinned. Instead of expressing God, man expresses sin and his sinful self and thus is short of God’s glory. We sinners were not only under the requirements of God’s righteousness but also under the demand of God’s glory. We all have broken God’s righteous law, and we all have come short of God’s glory. Therefore, before we were saved we were under God’s condemnation.
As sinners we not only sinned but were constituted of sin. A sinner is one who is constituted of sin. Romans 5:19a says, “Through the disobedience of one man the many were constituted sinners.” As a result of Adam’s disobedience, the many, including us, were not only made sinners but were constituted sinners. An element not created by God was injected into our being and constituted us sinners. We are sinners by constitution, not by accident, for sin has been wrought into us and constituted into our being. Therefore, sin is not merely an outward deed; sin is an inward, subjective element in our constitution. Before we were saved we were typical sinners by nature.
We were sinners not only because we had sinned, but because we were constituted of sin. We were constituted sinners in Adam long before we were born. As a result, when we were born, we were born sinners. We were born with a constitution of sin. From this we see that we do not become sinners after sinning. Rather, we were sinners even before we sinned. All unbelievers, being constituted of sin, are sinners by birth.
As those constituted of sin, we were enslaved under sin. Romans 7:14b says, “I am fleshly, sold under sin.” The phrase “sold under sin” means sold to sin. Sin is the buying master, and we were sold to him to be his slaves.
In John 8:34 the Lord Jesus says, “Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.” A slave is always under bondage. Satan, the Devil, has brought all humankind under the bondage of sin by imparting himself into man as the sinful nature that compels man to sin. Although we were not taught to sin, we were born as those enslaved to sin and could not keep from sinning. Because we have a devilish nature, we are slaves of sin. It is impossible for anyone to free himself from this slavery.
Before we were saved we were not only sinners constituted of sin — we were sin itself. We were born sin, and in our flesh we are nothing but sin (Rom. 8:3). This is the reason that, in order to save us, Christ was made sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21). Sin came from Satan as the rebel against God (Isa. 14:12-15), entered into man (Rom. 5:12), and made man not only a sinner but sin itself under God’s judgment. Hence, when Christ became a man in flesh (John 1:14), He was made sin (not sinful) on our behalf to be judged by God that we might become God’s righteousness in Him.
In John 3:18b the Lord Jesus says, “He who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” This indicates that as sinners, those who were constituted of sin and enslaved to sin and who were even sin itself, we were condemned by God. Actually, we all were condemned in Adam through his sin. We were judged when Adam was judged. This means that we were condemned even before we were born. Our status was that of sinners under God’s condemnation.
As sinners, our destiny was to perish in the lake of fire. John 3:16 indicates that those who do not believe in Christ will perish. Revelation 20:15 says, “If anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.” The lake of fire is prepared for the Devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41). Because unbelievers follow the Devil, they will share the Devil’s judgment (John 16:11) and will become joint partakers of the Devil’s eternal torment. Unbelievers are condemned by the Lord because of their evil deeds, but they will perish because of their unbelief. Not believing in the Lord Jesus is the unique sin that causes people to perish (John 16:9).
Before we were saved we were also sons of disobedience. This is emphatically revealed by Paul in Ephesians 2:2: “You once walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, of the spirit who now is operating in the sons of disobedience.”
Ephesians 2:2 speaks of the spirit who is now operating in the sons of disobedience. “The spirit,” in apposition with “the authority of the air,” refers to the aggregate power, a personal aggregate of all the evil angelic authorities, over which Satan is the ruler. The entire earth is under the domination of this spirit in the air. This evil spirit, this evil atmosphere, influences people to do evil things which, as humans, they would not normally do. The source of this evil is in the spirit, the atmosphere, that dominates them. This spirit is now operating in the sons of disobedience, in those who are disobedient to God.
Ephesians 2:2 also reveals that the sons of disobedience walk according to the ruler of the authority of the air. This ruler refers to Satan, the prince of the aerial authority mentioned in Ephesians 6:12.
Furthermore, the sons of disobedience walk according to the age of this world. “This world” in 2:2 refers to the satanic system composed of many ages. The word “age” here refers to a part, a section, an aspect, of the system of Satan, particularly the present and modern appearance of that system, which is used by him to usurp and occupy people and keep them away from God and His purpose. Before we were saved we, as sons of disobedience, walked according to the age, the modern appearance, the present course of the world, the satanic system.
Referring to the sons of disobedience, Ephesians 2:3 says, “Among whom also we all behaved ourselves once in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” Here we see that, as sons of disobedience, we were also the children of wrath. God was angry with us. Because of our disobedience we were under God’s wrath.
The children of wrath behaved themselves in the lust of their flesh. Thus, three evil things dominate the life of the children of wrath: the age of this world outside them, the ruler of the aerial authority above and within them, and the lust of the flesh in their fallen nature. Before we were saved we, as children of wrath, all behaved ourselves in the lust of our flesh.
As we behaved ourselves in the lust of our flesh, we did the desires of the flesh and of the thoughts. The word “desires” in Ephesians 2:3 refers to our likes. In the past we did certain things simply because we liked to do them. The likes of the flesh refer to evil things, and the likes of the thoughts refer to things that may be somewhat better. Both are a sign of being deadened in the spirit (Eph. 2:1), especially in the conscience. When someone is deadened in his spirit, he does whatever his flesh and his thoughts like to do. This is a picture of the children of wrath, which we were before we were saved.
Even worse than being sinners, sons of disobedience, and children of wrath, as unbelievers we were children of the Devil (1 John 3:10). Being sinners and practicing sin are matters of life and nature. Men, as the fallen descendants of Adam, are born children of the Devil, the evil one (John 8:44), possessing his life, partaking of his nature, and living in sin automatically and habitually. Practicing sin is their life.
The children of the Devil, brought forth by him as the old serpent (Rev. 12:9), are “serpents, brood of vipers” (Matt. 23:33; 3:7). This means that the children of the Devil have a serpentine nature. Because our human nature was fully poisoned by the old serpent, before we were saved we were a brood of vipers. No matter how good or refined a person may seem to be, his sinful nature is serpentine. In the sight of God, all unbelievers are serpents, the offspring of the Devil, full of the poison of the old serpent.
The children of the Devil do the desire of their father the Devil. The Lord Jesus said, “You are of your father the Devil, and it is your will to do the desires of your father” (John 8:44). The Devil, an evil father, has brought forth sinful children, who do his desires. Because we were born of the Devil, we have his evil nature. The sins we commit are the outward expression of this nature. Sin is an act that expresses the devilish nature; it is an issue of the devilish nature within us.
Eventually, the children of the Devil will perish with the Devil in the lake of fire. Revelation 20:10 says that the Devil “was cast into the lake of fire,” and verse 15 says that those not found written in the book of life are likewise cast into the lake of fire. Thus, the destination of the children of the Devil is to perish with the Devil.
Those who are sinners, sons of disobedience, children of wrath, and children of the Devil surely are enemies of God. Being an enemy of God is even more serious than being a sinner. Enmity is the greatest problem between man and God. Before we were saved we were God’s enemies (Rom. 5:10).
Colossians 1:21 says that we once were enemies in our mind by evil works. Our enmity toward God was mainly in our corrupted mind.
According to Colossians 1:21, we were enemies in our mind and by our evil works. We were rebellious against God and thereby were God’s enemies. Because we were sinners we needed redemption. Because we were also enemies to God we needed reconciliation.
Finally, before we were saved we were sons of Gehenna. The Lord Jesus uses the expression “the son of Gehenna” in Matthew 23:15. “Gehenna” is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Ge Hinnom, valley of Hinnom. This was a deep and narrow valley near Jerusalem, the refuse-place of the city where the bodies of criminals and all kinds of filth were cast. It was also called Tophet, or Topheth (2 Kings 23:10; Isa. 30:33; Jer. 19:13). Because of its continual fire, it became the symbol of the place of eternal punishment, the lake of fire.
All sinners, who are sons of disobedience, children of wrath, children of the Devil, and enemies of God, are also sons of Gehenna. Using today’s term, they are sons of hell. For unbelievers to be sons of Gehenna means that they will go to Gehenna, to the lake of fire. Our status before we were saved was that of sinners, sons of disobedience, children of wrath, children of the Devil, enemies of God, and sons of Gehenna.
