What kind of standing has the unregenerate man before the holy God? His only standing is one of condemnation.

Condemnation can be the only answer to the question of unregenerate man’s standing before the holy God, for the unregenerate man hates God and is God’s enemy. To please God is not the desire of the unregenerate man’s heart, for he is not able to do so (Romans 8:8).

Nine times in the opening chapter of Genesis we read the words: God said. One of those nine times, God tells the land to produce vegetation (Genesis 1:11) and another one of those nine times, God gives his creation (mankind and animals) every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it for food (Genesis 1:29).