The Dark Side of Self

By: Elihu Carranza

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

The dark side of the self of fallen humanity is a complexity of separations from the God of all creation. Separation from the God of light, meaning, knowledge, truth, wisdom, goodness, righteousness, holiness, love, and life portends separations to darkness, misery, despair, torment, suffering, and, in due course, eternal death for unbelievers from which, as far as we know, there is no escape from the agony, in isolation from all relief. These separations from God can only be known as Hell. That the propitiation of the wrath of God against sin and sinners had to be atoned by the sacrifice of the sinless Son of God as the God-Man dying on the cross in such agony as to call forth Jesus' agonized cry: "my God, my God; why have you forsaken me?" is an indicator of the infinite cost required to expiate the sins of His elect. Our first parents' penalty for their disobedience was clearly known to them: dying, they would die. They lost their immortality and began a descent into the darkness of self, into a pool of sin and death. Since then, fallen humanity suffers from spiritual blindness. This blindness hovers over the sense and self-consciousness of every sinner. Having ears, he does not hear, having eyes he does not see, having a mind he does not comprehend. Indeed, sinful man refuses to hear, see, understand truth about his own condition, his condemnation, his reward, and the eternal misery that will be his destiny. The dark side of self is the spiritual and physical reality of man in sin and death. When by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone man is regenerated, his original lost relationship is restored and one day will be elevated to a future glorification. In sum, what our original parents lost when they fell, God in Christ alone is able to restore.